Parasite Prevention and Control
As a pet owner, it’s important to know which parasites can affect your pet and what action you can take to control them. At Veterinary Wellness Center of Boerum Hill, we help pet owners improve the quality of life of their pets by helping them prevent parasitic infections.
Parasites That Can Affect Your Pet
Depending on your pet’s lifestyle, they may be vulnerable to a multitude of parasites including:
- Fleas attach themselves to pets and live by sucking their blood. They can travel very easily from one pet to another and can be found hiding in carpets and upholstery of flea-infested homes.
- Ticks attach themselves to pets and lodge on the skin while sucking blood from your pet. Ticks can transmit diseases like Lyme disease.
- Mosquitoes live off pets just like they live off humans. Mosquitoes can transmit heartworm infection to pets.
Prevention and Control
There are many ways we can help prevent your pet from being affected by parasites. This includes:
- Preventative medications. We provide many different options for flea, tick and heartworm prevention, and we recommend keeping pets protected year-round.
- Prevent ticks through yard maintenance. Maintaining your yard makes conditions less ideal for ticks, who like to live in leaf piles and on long pieces of grass.
- Prevent fleas by controlling contact with other animals. Fleas jump from animal to animal. Controlling who your pet interacts with can help prevent the spread of fleas.
Recognize the Symptoms
Pets who are affected by fleas, ticks, and heartworm may exhibit the following behaviors: constant scratching of one area, shaking their head or licking or rubbing their paws. Monitor your pet for these symptoms, and if they exhibit them, get your pet treated immediately.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about parasite prevention, or what to do if your pet gets affected, call us at (347) 463-9426.
