Find out how Advantage flea treatment helps to protect cats, dogs and rabbits against fleas.
Fleas can make your pet miserable, causing irritation and potentially more serious issues such as dermatitis and even anaemia. Spot-on flea treatments help protect your pet against fleas and their effects - find out how they work in our guide to spot-on flea treatments.
All about fleas
As a pet owner, it can be easy to blame yourself when your dog, cat or rabbit gets fleas. In fact, there are many ways that your pet can become infested, none of which are your fault! Pets can pick up fleas from other animals when they’re outside, and even indoor pets are at risk as we can bring fleas inside on our clothing.
The tip of the iceberg
Once you’ve spotted fleas, you might not realise that there’s more to the problem than meets the eye. The adult fleas you can see on your dog, cat or rabbit make up only about five per cent of an infestation – the other 95% are eggs, larvae and pupae that are hidden in your home, and these will soon become adult fleas themselves! A single flea can lay up to 50 eggs a day – which means a small flea problem can turn into a big one within a few short weeks. In order to deal with fleas, you need a flea treatment that will kill adult fleas on your pet, and you may also need to tackle the life stages in your home with a veterinary approved environmental flea spray.
Spreading disease
Because they bite and feed on the blood of their hosts, fleas are notorious disease spreaders. Fleas can also cause anaemia if infestations are severe. Some cats are allergic to flea saliva so get severe skin disease from flea bites and it’s even possible for your pet to become infested by tapeworm by swallowing an infected flea during grooming.
Get the jump on fleas
There are a range of different flea treatments available in various different forms such as tablets, sprays and spot-ons.
A spot-on flea treatment such as Advantage works externally, where it is able to kill fleas on contact via active ingredients that don’t get into your pet’s bloodstream. This means fleas don’t have to bite your pet before they die.1
Advantage is prescription-free, so you can buy it in Pets at Home, via an online pharmacy, pharmacy or vet practice. Advantage is also an effective flea treatment for kittens and puppies, provided they’re old enough (eight weeks) and have been weaned.
How effective is Advantage?
Effectiveness is always an important consideration for pet owners using flea treatments. Squeezing a small amount of liquid onto your pet’s coat may not feel like you’re doing all you can to combat these biting pests. Luckily, Advantage packs a lot of punch in its little pipette. Advantage contains an active ingredient that spreads quickly from the point of application, killing fleas within one day and preventing further infestations for up to four weeks in dogs, three to four weeks in cats and one week in rabbits.
Nobody wants their pet to have to endure the discomfort and irritation of fleas. Apply Advantage monthly year-round to help protect your canine chums and feline friends from these unwanted pests.
Find out the easiest way to buy Advantage spot-on treatments here.
1 Mehlhorn et al. Parasitol Res (2001) 87:198-207, information is regarding mode of action and is not intended to imply parasites can be completely stopped from biting