Seven dogs sleep in my room at night. The blind and deaf albino Great Dane, Gudiya, who was dumped in a gutter sleeps on the bed. The blind Labrador, Karan, abandoned in a market sleeps on his mat. Arjun who is half wolf and was abandoned because he howls instead of barking has his mat. Jairam who had a collar put on him when he was born and was abandoned when the collar ate into his adult neck and filled his body with pus, goes in and out. Devi and Bahadur who were brought in hairless with pneumonia and broken legs sleep under the bed. Bahadur is a mix between an Alsatian and a Lhasa Apso. Shankar was abandoned because he has no upper palate so all the food he ate came out through his nose as he sneezed. He curls up in a corner.

 

Bahadur’s hair has grown out a deep thick brown. He spent the whole of last week going round and round on his bottom trying to reach the base of his tail. I thought he was suffering from the trauma of beatings, broken legs and abandonment. He turned out to have fleas and when I parted his hair I saw cuts where he had scratched himself and little black eggs.

 

This morning I saw a large grey-black oval shaped pea sized creature climbing the wall. This is the mother tick who will give 4000 babies high in a crevice on the ceiling and then they will crawl down again and into dogs.

 

So know I know the season of fleas and ticks has officially arrived. Every dog in my shelter (we have 450+) has been given a flea bath and it will bring them relief for a few days. We have called in a fumigator next week to deal with the ticks.

 

Every animal is affected by fleas and they turn every animal crazy with irritation – the same as lice in your head make you insane. Fleas are small, black insects about 2mm in length. They live in the bedding and coats of dogs and cats and feed on their blood. The first sign is the scratching at the base of the tail. Close examination of your dog will reveal these small, black insects moving rapidly through your dogs’ coat. If there are few fleas present, only flea dirt may be evident which will appear as small, black specks. This is actually flea faeces, which is passed through the insect after sucking blood from your dog.

 

Some dogs may tolerate fleas well, with only very slight scratching. Others can show a severe allergic reaction to both flea bites and flea saliva. This can result in intense scratching and chewing of neck, ears, thighs and base of the tail. Your dog may also spin around quickly to chew itself when the flea bites. In extreme cases, your dog’s skin may start to scale and discolour. Hair loss and secondary bacterial infections may also occur.

 

Adult fleas lay their eggs on the dog within a few daysl. These eggs will drop off onto carpets and bedding. From here, the eggs will hatch to produce larvae that feed on organic matter found in the environment. The larvae dislike light and tend to live deep in the carpets and in soil. The adult flea is attracted by body heat, vibrations such as a dog walking by or by exhaled breath (carbon dioxide).Once this host is found, the life cycle will start over again.

 

To control fleas, you must treat all your animals on the same day. There are many treatments for your dog on the market,I use Bayticol Pour-On. It is meant for cows (has a picture of a cow on it) and is made by Bayer. You take it out with a syringe and put two drops on the base of the back of the neck and middle of the body on the spine and on the base of the tail. It is effective for 15 days

 

Ticks are small, light grey, rounded insects which feed on blood . They can be found anywhere on the dog’s body so look between the toes and inside the ear flap as well as the armpits. Peak activity is between the months of March to June and from August to November. Most of their life cycle is spent outside in grass but they can also survive in cracks and crevices in the walls and floors of kennels. The male has legs, the female does not. Detick your dog twice a day because they can cause allergies, anemia and tick fever which causes death. When a tick is removed from your dog’s body, it is important that its mouthparts do not remain embedded in your dogs skin or this may result in irritation, infection and abscess. 

 

There are insecticides viz., Ridd liquid and shampoos (Notix Scrub Liquid) available in the market that will kill ticks and if you use these regularly, they can help prevent infestation. (Notix forte powder) I hate recommending insecticides because then you have to wash your hands when you touch the animal. But all my “gentle solutions” of boiling orange peel and putting the mush on the dog for hours and then bathing it have failed in the face of numbers : I have 24 at home and hundreds in the shelter. 

 

To remove an attached tick, use tweezers You need to remove the tick without squeezing its body. 1. Grab the tick by the head or mouth parts right where they enter the skin. Do not grasp the tick by the body. Pull firmly and steadily directly outward. Do not twist the tick as your are pulling. Do not do stupid things like applying petroleum jelly, a hot match, or alcohol. These irritants may cause the tick to deposit more disease-carrying saliva in the wound. NOT squash the tick with your fingers.. Kill it by stamping on it or put it in a jar of spirit or kerosenet. Ticks are NOT killed by flushing them and it is cruel to burn them as they can’t help being ticks ( Please God , don’t make me a tick in my next life as punishment for all the ticks I have killed) . Wash your hands thoroughly.

 

You can get a tick/flea collar but they hardly work. I am waiting for Dr Batra to bring out a homeopathic remedy or ointment. In fact I am waiting for a homeopathic company to bring out a veterinary section for diseases that allopathy surrenders to: distemper, parvo, for instance.

 

This is what my hospital’s medical director, Dr Baruah says:

 

Treatment of flea and tick infestation

 

•Deltamethrine/Cypermethrin/Permethrin-75 ppm - application on the body & in the premises 
•Ivermectine @ 200 ug/Kg - s/c or oral administration 
•Spot on Fipronil/ Imidacloprid/ combination of Fipronil & Imidocloprid 
•Fipronil spray 
•Nitenpyram (oral)/ Selamectine 
•Lefeneuron - orally - treatment of next generation of fleas 
•Tick/Flea collar - cleaning of collar with brush 

 

Common tips for control of fleas and ticks

 

•These are present on the body of the host as well as in the premises. Ectoparasiticidal formulations must be used simultaneously at both places for effective control. For treatment of the infestations in young pups and cats, the premises should be treated more frequently to cut down the infestation. 
•After every outdoor activity the body should be combed thoroughly at least for 5-7 minutes before entering into the premises to dislodge loosely attached ticks and fleas. 
•The body coat should be examined daily. 
•Soaps and shampoos containing insecticides should not be used indiscriminately as the insects become immune to them. 
•Eucalyptus oil in the pocha is good and perhaps one drop in the shampoo when you bathe the dog> Safe for the kids and the environment. Borax is great for fleas. It is not toxic and you can sprinkle it on your carpet. Let it sit for a few days and then vacuum or dust it up. You can sprinkle it around the garden. Vacuum and pay special attention to corners, cracks in the floor, under furniture and dark areas. Vacuuming will not only eliminate fleas from your floor, but it will also get rid of any eggs, larvae and pupae making a home in your flooring. If you don’t have a vacuum, I would recommend very hot water. It is important to use a once-a-month preventative like Advantage or Frontline, which will both kill what’s on your pet, along with preventing future infestation. 

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