PVAH

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Flea Control


Fleas are an unpleasant pest to have to deal with. Getting rid of them can be tricky, unless you proceed with the following steps. We recommend applying Vectra 3D to all animals in the household for a minimum of 4 months. An environmental spray such as Knockout, which kills the eggs, larvae, and adult life cycle stages is recommended. Vacuuming should be done regularly, as the vibrations can cause the fleas to hatch from the pupa stage which is impossible to kill with current products. When you are doing your environmental treatments, please remember that fleas migrate to where it is dark, so cleaning/spraying efforts should be focused in dark areas such as underneath furniture. We do not recommend flea bombs as the product only penetrates the tops of surfaces. If you follow these steps/rules, your pet(s) and house should be flea free in 3-4 months.    




FYI From the Veterinary Information Network:

Q: Why is buying product from the Internet or from the pet supply store some kind of a big deal?

A: With the flea product revolution of 1995, the market for flea products changed from being primarily pet supply store / over-the-counter outlets to primarily directly through veterinarians. The pharmaceutical companies like this arrangement as they feel that their products are now being marketed by trained personnel who can explain best how the product should be used or not used. The veterinarians also like this arrangement as they have more input regarding what their patients are using. The pet supply stores do not like this arrangement at all as they have lost their market-share. In an effort to gain it back, they have resorted to a number of black market techniques (paying large sums of money to veterinarians to order product for them, going to other countries to buy product and smuggling it back to the U.S. for re-sale, even counterfeiting product). We caution anyone who buys flea products from a black market source. Product purchased through pet supply stores or from an online source that is not a veterinary hospital is not guaranteed by the manufacturer.