This week, Facebook told me it has been five years since I found Darwin running loose in the candy aisle at CVS. Five years!
In the years since, many things have changed: I’ve graduated from school, my husband and I have gone from engaged to married and we have adopted three more dogs, two of whom are deaf. The deaf dogs in particular have been a catalyst to many more changes, both personally and professionally. One of the biggest is that I now spend my days writing and advocating for deaf dogs, and not just the ones that lay at my feet, prodding me every few hours to step away from my desk, their noses nuzzling me out of my search engine and into the sunshine for fun and games- or at least poop duty.
But back to Darwin, my gift with pharmacy purchase…
This post is sponsored by Virbac® Sentinel® Spectrum® and the BlogPaws® Pet Influencer Network™. I am being compensated to help create awareness about protection against common parasites found in dogs but I only share information I feel is relevant to my readers. YOU CAN FIND MORE INFORMATION ABOUT SENTINEL SPECTRUM HERE. Virbac is not responsible for the content of this article.
I had stopped at CVS on my way home and found him running through the store with no collar, leash or person attached. So I bought a leash and fashioned it into a makeshift collar to get him home, where we spent weeks getting to know each other, walking, sitting at Starbucks, taking naps and watching Golden Girls. I was still in school, studying to be a veterinary technician, and he was the best study partner.
In addition to a tail wagging with boundless love, this sweet, young pup brought with him a flea infestation that took us more than a month to contain- the gift that keeps on giving indeed! I was in my final semesters of veterinary technician school and those fleas became an incredibly important experiential learning opportunity for me.
I learned first-hand about the nastiness of fleas, the diseases they spread and the extreme frustration that comes when trying to rid your home of thousands of hardy parasitic squatters that just don’t want to leave. I learned a lot about the life cycle of fleas, how various preventative products work and how fond those nasty little buggers are of couches, carpets, floors and beds.
The biggest takeaway for me was the importance of year-round flea prevention. We have been using SENTINEL® SPECTRUM® for the past few months because it not only helps control fleas but also helps prevent 5 other common parasites, including heartworms, hookworms, roundworms, whipworms and tapeworms.
Did you know that fleas transmit tapeworms?
If you’ve never seen tapeworms, they too are gross. More often than not, it is pet parents who identify them first, not a veterinarian or veterinary technician. Those little pieces of rice that crawl around your dog’s feces or bedding are hard to miss!
Though there are other ways to acquire tapeworms, ingesting an adult flea is one of the most common ways. When your dog is chewing and biting fleas, he is likely to swallow a few. Adult fleas frequently carry tapeworm larvae and, when your dog swallows that flea, the tapeworm larvae settle and develop in your dog’s small intestines. Every time your dog poops, you’ll be picking up piece of poop covered in nasty little bugs that almost resemble maggots. The good thing is that by using SENTINEL® SPECTRUM® you not only help prevent fleas but also prevent the tapeworms that fleas can transmit to your dog.
The process of eliminating fleas from your home or yard can be arduous, complicated and expensive. Consistently using a monthly preventative such as SENTINEL® SPECTRUM® not only helps prevent flea infestations, tapeworms and 4 other common parasites in one monthly application.
In a recent post, I shared a survey about fleas and other parasites. Here are a few key findings:
- 80% of respondents staid that heartworm protection was either a High or Very High priority to them as pet parents.
- 84% of respondents said that flea protection was either a High or Very High priority for them as a pet parent.
- 79% of respondents said that they provide their dog flea prevention all year long whereas 20% said that they only provide flea prevention during the spring and summer months.
- 70% of respondents said that a dog can contract tapeworms from ingesting just one infested flea.
- 90% of respondents said that tapeworm segments can be found near a dog’s anus, in feces and/or where he lives and sleeps
When looking at the health issues associated with fleas and the cost of treating tapeworms or other parasite infections, a conversation with your veterinarian and a few bucks of prevention is an investment that will keep your deaf dog happy and healthy- and that alone is worth my bottom dollar!
Ask YOUR veterinarian if SENTINEL® SPECTRUM® is right for your dog!
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Virbac® SENTINEL® SPECTRUM®. The opinions and text are all mine.
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