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The top names in pet flea control are Frontline, Advantage, Revolution and Bio-Spot. These on-the-spot type treatments for dog and cat flea problems all provide one month of complete protection.

Bad news to the flea, Advantage flea works due its active ingredient imidacloprid, which works on the nervous system of the flea causing paralysis and subsequent death. Within 12 hours of application, 98-100 percent of fleas are dead.

Brands such as Frontline flea and Advantage flea killers have nearly immediate results and long lasting protection. If you have this treatment available, your animal shouldn’t suffer from flea discomfort. You just need to pick a good flea medicine for your pet’s current situation.

Mites, or ticks as they are often called, are external parasites living off the blood of mammals, reptiles and birds. The American dog tick is arguably the best known of the five in North America.

The scary part is that ticks are only one step behind mosquitoes in transmitting diseases to people. Ticks can spread diseases like Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, equine encephalitis, and ehrlichiosis to humans. They also spread diseases amongst livestock, as well as our beloved pets.

Another common kind of mites are the wood ticks that live in the Rocky Mountains. Some common weapons to combat them are tick collars and anti-flea/tick shampoos. Warm weather means an increase in the tick population and the need to monitor your dog for these parasites. When a tick is found it should be completely removed. Please use extreme caution when removing a tick because if part of the tick is left in the animal the chance of infection increases.

As opposed to tick-borne diseases, heartworm is mosquito-borne; the heartworm larvae are deposited by the mosquito in the new host. The parasites enter multiple steps before reaching maturity When heart worms mature into adults, they make their way to feed off the blood in the heart. This can cause symptoms including coughing, difficulty breathing, and ultimately heart failure.

Effective disease treatments are available for your pet, but only if it is caught early enough. One treatment available for dogs that also takes care of hookworms and ascarid infections is Interceptor.

Kennel cough is yet another a common ailment for dogs. This is a form of bronchitis which can hit dogs hard, and readily spreads from one animal to another when many canines are held together in the same facility. However, the infection can be treated with proper use of antibiotics, and it can even be prevented with vaccinating for canine adenovirus, distemper, parainfluenza, and bordetella.

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