TYLER, Texas — The uptick in temperature has led to an uptick in pests. Specifically, fleas have been causing pet owners a lot problems.
"I would say roughly 25 percent worse versus summers in the past," Animal Medical Center of Tyler veterinarian Dr. Joy Neely said. "I mean I’ve been a veterinarian in Texas, specifically East Texas for 20-plus years, and this is the worst summer I’ve ever seen."
Neely can’t recall a summer in East Texas when the fleas were this bad. She said she’s seen things in the past month that she had never seen on the job before.
"We normally see the flea allergy, dermatitis, the annoying part of the fleas. But I feel like this is the first summer I’ve personally seen animals dying from the fleas," Neely said.
Neely added that once you’ve got fleas, they’re really tough to get rid of, so it’s definitely worth preventing the problem at the source, rather than trying to fix it. Why are fleas so hard to kill, though?
Innovative Pest Control CEO Tony Santangelo said fleas present a unique challenge due to the structure of life cycle.
"The reason they do is there’s four stages to a flea’s life. There’s the egg, there’s the larva, there’s the pupa and there’s the flea itself," Santangelo said. "The adult flea is the only thing that bites, and that’s on average about 5 percent of that total population. So if you have a bad flea problem, you’re actually only dealing with 5 percent of your problem. The rest of it is in these other stages that are coming."
Santangelo agreed with Neely that the best way to treat your pet’s fleas is by preventing them all together with a prescription from your vet. Otherwise, you could be putting them at risk.
"My best advice to clients, even if you don’t see fleas, is keep them on a flea prevention in Texas, monthly, year round," Neely said. "Because we are one of the parasite states and they’re very harmful, it’s not just a nuisance to the pet, where they also can cause allergies and scratching and itching and redness, but it can cause things like anemia and severe disease."
Neely added that while you can buy flea prevention medicine over the counter, many of those products can be dangerous to pets, specifically cats.