How to: Get rid of Fleas

What actually are fleas?
Fleas are parasites that survive by sucking blood from animals or humans. Fleas find a host by looking for body heat, movements and breathing. Once a flea finds a new host they then latch on and suck blood. Fleas can reproduce at a huge rate, a few fleas can quickly turn into a lot. Fleas lay eggs in dogs fur, and then they will hatch into a larvae. The larvae will find a place to crawl into and cocoon, this if often a dog bed or even a sofa or your bed. After a few weeks they will become adult fleas and look for new hosts to jump to and the cycle begins again.

What do they look like?
Fleas are normally brown or black in color, they are also extremely small measuring at 1-3mm. Fleas have hard bodies, no wings and large back legs. This particular body type allows them to move in fur or feathers very easily.

How do I know if i have a flea infestation?
Looking at your pet is one of the best ways to see if you have fleas, you will need to look at if your scratching or biting at its fur.You can also investigate your pets fur, it is a lot easier on pets with light colored fur. It is thought for every flea you do see there could be at least 100 younger fleas that you do not see.
Another way to know if you have fleas is flea dirt. Flea dirt is a residue they leave behind which looks a lot like pepper. They leave it on your pets, their bedding, you, carpet and anywhere your pets are able to go!
On dogs you can particularly look for hair missing on the base of their tale and the backs of their legs.

How to get rid of Fleas?
Firstly, groom your pets with a fine tooth comb, which will remove some that you find (not all). If you do find something you believe might be a flea you can test this by putting it on something white like a piece of paper. Then adding a few drops of water, if it turns red/brown it is likely that your pet has fleas.

Pets
If your pet does have fleas it is important to treat them, and your home too! fleas can survive for months even without a host. To treat your pets you can use a flea treatment, you can get specialist advice from your vet regarding what treatment may work best for your pet. Or you can use over the counter treatments like Frontline, Advantage Spot-on, Bravecto and many others. It is best to treat them quickly, as fleas can also give your cats or dogs tapeworm and other diseases. It is also important to note to worm your pets as well. Make sure when choosing your flea treatment you choose it specifically for each pet. Some dog flea treatments include permethrin, which is fine for dogs but toxic to cats.

Home
Now your pets are sorted is it important to treat your home, this can be done by cleaning your bedding regularly and hoovering your home including furniture (make sure to regularly empty your hoover too). It is important to keep on top of this as eggs may have been left behind.