Flea and worm treatment is an important part of preventative health in your pet.

A common misconception with fleas is that your pet only picks them up whilst outside, and if you can't see them, they're not there. This is incorrect as fleas breed most commonly in carpets in the house and if your pet is aggitated by the fleas, they will groom them off before you can see them. If you see one flea, you have a flea problem! One flea can lay up to 50 eggs per day and so this can soon become a big problem. With fleas, prevention is always better than cure and in a warm and humid place like Auckland, fleas are always going to be present in your house. Most flea products should be applied monthly and you should flea bomb your house once a year. Different flea products suit different cats (depending on their coat and sensitivity to fleas or the flea control products), so ask one of our staff members to pick one out for you. Some signs that your pet has fleas are hairloss, redness and scratching at the base of the tail, flea dirt on the back (especially at the tail base) or under the chin in cats. You can tell if it is dirt or flea dirt by rubbing some off onto a white surface and wetting it. If it turns red then it is flea dirt, if it remains black/brown then it is just plain dirt.

Worm control has become easier over the past few years now that a large number of the flea products have worming components in them as well. They don't, however, treat for tapeworm so it is still recommended that your pet has a worming pill every 6 months. If you cannot pill your pet, you can bring them in for one of our staff members to treat. If you have a cat who does not tolerate pilling, there are now alternatives available so let us know if you are struggling to worm your pet. A lot of the wormers these days are palatable which has made worming a lot easier.

Other parasite control: A number of the more modern flea preparations now control some skin and ear mites as well. Please contact us if you are concerned about itching ears or itching skin. In most instances, this needs to be seen by a Veterinarian,