Fleas and other parasites should always be given the top priority by dog owners. Flea bite allergy in dogs is all too common and causes concern to many dog owners every year, especially in the summer, although all year round if your dog lives indoors with central heating. This is because flea bites often produce allergic reactions in the area bitten by the fleas, which is very often on the back just above the tail. In these cases, the affected area becomes red and bald due to the dog’s continuous scratching of itself.
Heavy flea infestations can cause severe dermatitis in dogs. If the flea bites cause an allergic reaction or even dermatitis in your dog, he/she really ought to be taken to the veterinary doctor, because mostly, the dog will be suffering severe discomfort by now.
The vet will provide you a salve to ease the itching and reduce the inflammation and some powder or a spray to kill the fleas. Prevention, however, is better than cure and medicated collars are available to treat and prevent an infestation of external blood-suckers like ticks and fleas.
Besides fleas, other parasites like ticks and lice plus internal parasites like hookworm, round worm, whip worms etc. can affect the well-being of your dog. For example, if hookworms infect a dog, that dog will usually be anaemic. The signs of anaemia become more prominent according to the severity of infection by the hookworm.
Hookworm larvae will enter directly through the skin and cause severe problems inside the affected dog. Such dogs may reveal lesions on the paws and on the skin due to dermatitis. Frequently, skin rashes result in such cases and the infected animal may also pass runny stools, which are tinged red with blood.
Most dogs and all puppies get round worms, which is why dogs can sometimes be seen rubbing their bottoms along the ground. However, if round worms are present in very large numbers, infected puppies show a pot belly, which is easily noticeable by the dog’s owners themselves. A dose of piperazine salts is given orally for the cure of this condition. However, broad-spectrum anthelmintics like pyrantel pamoate, fenbendazole etc. are also used to treat this very common condition.
There are many drugs on the market to treat fleas and other parasites these days, although medications containing the drug ‘ivermectin’ seem to be preferred by many dog owners to treat fleas and other parasites in dogs. This drug is available for injection or oral use but is now even available for external application too.