Year Round Safety Tips For Your Pets 

Flea & Tick control
Frontline Plus is a fast-acting, long-lasting flea and tick preventative that will protect your pet all year round.
Not only does Frontline kill fleas that are seen on your pet, it also breaks the flea life cycle by preventing the development of their eggs and larvae. Immature stages such as the eggs, larvae, and pupae may lurk in and around your home. They may thrive in unseen areas such as carpets, bedding and cracks in flooring. Fleas can reproduce indoors year-round. 

Once Frontline is applied to your pet, adult fleas may continue to emerge from the pets environment for weeks or even months. The adult fleas will be killed within hours of infesting your pet, before they can lay eggs. You may see them briefly before they are killed. It may take 3-4 monthly treatments of Frontline to bring the population under control. 

How Frontline Works
Frontline is applied on the back of the pets neck monthly. It quickly spreads all over the body and into the oil glands in the skin. From the oil glands, it is continually replenished onto the skin and haircoat. This makes Frontline long lasting and truly waterproof. Frontline does not repel fleas, it kills them. They become hyperstimulated upon contact and rise to the top of the haircoat in the process of dying. Fleas do not have to bite the pet for Frontline to work. They will die within hours of contact with your treated pet. 

As soon as a tick comes in contact with Frontline, it begins to die. A tick may attach initially, but will be dead within 24-48 hours. Some ticks may transmit Lyme disease to your pet. To kill the ticks that may carry Lyme disease, apply Frontline monthly.

The deer tick often seen in our area carries the bacteria that cause Lyme disease. The tick can retain the infection throughout its life cycle and give it to hosts, such as people and dogs. Usually an infected tick must be attached for 48 hours before transmission occurs. 

Clinical Signs of Lyme Disease
All dogs have different symptoms of Lyme disease and many do not show clinical signs. Most dogs infected with Lyme disease will start limping, their lymph nodes will swell and they will have a fever. Other signs include, loss of appetite, painful joints, and lethargy. Dogs do not show signs for 2-5 months post-infection. Antibiotics help the disease but do not stop it. All dogs are at risk for Lyme disease. Your dog is at increased risk if he or she spends time in wooded areas or low-growing grassland, outdoors during peak tick season, (which is spring & fall) or lives or visits a lyme-epidemic area of the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic or upper Midwest. Although peak tick season is spring & fall, here at Stack Veterinary Hosptial, we see ticks on dogs all through the year.

To protect your dog:
Apply Frontline monthly to your dog. Brush your dog frequently and conduct thorough tick checks. You may also want to consider getting your dog vaccinated yearly for Lyme disease.

Heartworm disease
Heartworms are parasites that live in your dogs circulatory system and heart. The adult heartworms produce offspring called "microfilariae" which circulate in the pets blood. They are found more commonly in dogs than in cats. 

How Heartworm disease is transmitted
A mosquito feeds on the blood of a pet that is already infected and the mosquito ingestes the microfilariae, and then serves as a host while the microfilariae mature for 2 weeks. The mosquito then transfers infective heartworm larvae into a healthy pet when it bites.

The heartworm larvae reaches the dogs heart in 5-6 months, where they arrive as small worms about 2 inches in length. Once they are in the heart, the adult worms grow and reproduce. They may stay in a dogs heart for several years. In a severe infestation, a dogs heart may contain up to 300 worms. 

All dogs are susceptible to heartworm disease. Breed, age, and sex of a dog does not affect the susceptibility to heartworms. Outdoor dogs, and indoor dogs are at risk for as an infected  mosquito can easily come into your home.

Physical Signs of Heartworm disease
There are several signs of heartworm disease. They may include sudden weight loss, difficulty breathing, a soft, persistent cough, easily tired and listlessness or weakness. Most of these signs are most noticeable after exercise. Heartworms clog the heart and/or the main blood vessels reducing the blood supply to and from other organs. Major bodily functions, including breathing, are affected.

Heartworm Prevention
Highly effective preventive medications are available through your Veterinarian. These medications are prescribed for dogs that are not infected with heartworms or that have already been successfully treated for heartworms in the past. Your Veterinarian will test your dog for the prescense of heartworms before prescribing medications. Here at Stack Veterinary Hospital, we test for Heartworm disease, Lyme disease, and two other tick diseases every year. 

Interceptor
Interceptor is a flavored, chewable, tablet that is a monthly heartworm preventative for your dog. Not only does Interceptor prevent heartworm disease, it treats any intestinal parasites your dog may have. Interceptor treats Roundworms, Hookworms and Whipworms. Roundworms and Hookworms are commonly seen and infested of the intestines of dogs, and may be transmitted to people. More than 90% of puppies are born with roundworms or acquire them shortly after birth from their mothers. Dogs of any age can get roundworms from an environment contaminated by feces of infected animals. Serious infections may be fatal to puppies.
Signs of roundworm infection in dogs include: diarrhea, vomiting, loss of appetite, weakness, weight loss, and swollen abdomen. 

Hookworms are potentially lethal, especially to puppies. They attach themselves to the intestinal walls of infected dogs and feed on their host's blood. Dogs may be infected with hookworms by accidentally ingesting larvae in contaminated soil or blades of grass. Hookworm larvae also infect dogs by penetrating directly through their skin.  Some signs of hookworm infection include : dark or bloody diarrhea, weakness, pale gums, weight loss, and even death. 

The same roundworms and hookworms that infect your dog, may infect people as well. People may acquire these worms by coming in contact with objects or areas contaminated by the fecal matter of an infected dog. Some objects or areas include: toys, gardening tools, playgrounds, sandboxes, beaches, crawl spaces under porches and houses, parks and other public spaces frequented by pets. 
Whipworms live in the large intestine and cecum of an infected dog. They can become infected with whipworms by ingesting food or drinking water contaminated with whipworm eggs. Some signs of a dog infested with whipworms include: diarrhea, weight loss, inflammation of the intestinal wall, and hemorrhage into the intestine can occur which may cause anemia. Some dogs do not present with any clinical signs of whipworms. A fecal flotation exam is the only way to determine if your dog has whipworms, or any other intestinal parasite. 

Heartgard
Heartgard is another monthly heartworm prevention, and treatment of intestinal parasites. At Stack Veterinary Hospital, we carry both Interceptor and Heartgard, but prescribe Interceptor more often because of the whipworm problem in our area. 
 
The doctors and staff at Stack Veterinary Hospital care most about your pet and want to always help keep them healthy. We strongly recommend the usage of Interceptor or Heargard monthly, all year round for the prevention of Heartworm disease and treatment of intestinal parasites.