Canine flea control: too much choice?

Abstract

Ectoparasite control forms an important part of any routine canine health programme but is also an integral part of the management of pruritic skin disease in the dog. As such it is important that veterinary surgeons are aware of the life cycle of the flea and the mode of action of the numerous flea control products that are currently available. The suitability of a product may be different depending on the health status of the dog and concurrent therapy. This article considers the most important groups of flea control products.

The Beneficial Effect of Two Nutraceuticals in Flea Allergy Dermatitis Itch Control: A Comparative Study

“…On day 0 the dogs that fulfilled inclusion/exclusion criteria were evaluated by the examining veterinarian with a modified Canine Atopic Dermatitis Lesion Index (mCADLI) [18]. This modified score focused on neck, dorsum, ventral region and tights [9,19]. Visual Analogic Scale for pruritus (pVAS) [20] was performed by both the owner (opVAS) and the veterinarian (vpVAS).…”

“…Many antiparasitic treatments are registered to kill fleas and they exist in different forms as collars, spot-on, tablets, sprays, etc. Insect growth regulators and/or insect development inhibitors are generally added to control flea infestation in the environment [6,7,8,9]. Itch induced by flea allergy induces discomfort and stress to allergic or infested dogs.…”

“…The affected animals can have skin lesions of different severity as papules, crusts, excoriations, self-induced alopecia and secondary skin infections. As for the other pruritic skin diseases the diagnosis is based on identification and/or exclusion of fleas based on effective flea control[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. Subjects included in this prospective study had a previous diagnosis of flea allergy dermatitis based on these criteria.…”