Before you snuggle in for a long winter’s nap with your pet, ensure you’re not cozying up to parasites, too! Fleas, ticks, mosquitoes, and intestinal parasites don’t take a holiday—making year-round parasite prevention essential to protect your pet—and you—from parasitic infestation and disease.

Give parasites the cold shoulder this and every season with a year-round prevention plan from Caldwell Animal Hospital. 

Parasites don’t have an off-season

When the weather outside is frightful, parasites are no doubt equally uncomfortable. But, winter is no time to press pause on your pet’s monthly flea, tick, and heartworm preventives. 

The same weather that draws you indoors can do the same for pests—fleas, ticks, and mosquitoes can hide out in your home until warmer weather returns. Fluctuating temperatures, mild winters, and climate change have altered parasite migration patterns, and declaring a safe season against these pests is impossible. Each species can reemerge on warm winter days and potentially bite or infect your pet.

Year-round preventive administration ensures there are no gaps in your pet’s coverage.

Fleas are happy to live in your home

Fleas are hardy and opportunistic pests who don’t need an invitation to come inside for the winter—they simply hitch a ride on your pet. With a horizontal jump up to 150 times their length, fleas can easily make the leap—literally—from outdoor nuisance to indoor nightmare. 

When fleas prey on an unprotected pet, they immediately bite, feed, and begin to reproduce. The flea eggs fall from your pet’s fur onto carpets, furniture, and pet bedding, where they safely mature and then jump back on your pet—or you—to feed. 

Once adult fleas are visible, the infestation is well underway. Because most flea treatments kill only adult fleas, treatment must be consistent and thorough to eliminate fleas at all life stages as they mature. Environmental control must be implemented to remove flea eggs, larvae, and dirt from the home. 

A single mosquito can transmit heartworm disease to your pet

Although less common than in summer months, heartworm disease can be transmitted during the winter. Unseasonably mild winter days are as attractive to mosquitoes as they are to you and your pet, drawing us all out of hibernation and into the great outdoors.

When an unprotected pet is bitten by an infective mosquito, the heartworm larvae (i.e., microfilariae) that enter their bloodstream can mature and migrate without interruption. Heartworm prevention is designed to treat this early stage, and is not effective against late juvenile stages and adult worms, so by the time you restart your pet’s prevention in the spring, the infection is well established. 

Monthly heartworm prevention—or a six-month injectable such as ProHeart 6—is crucial to your pet’s health and safety. Without effectively and consistently clearing the circulating microfilariae, heartworm disease takes hold. By the time the pet tests positive or shows clinical signs, heartworm treatment for dogs and supportive care for cats and ferrets are the only options.

Ticks are tough on pets

The tick is the arachnid equivalent of an armored truck, roving over the landscape, impenetrable to most defenses, including the natural elements. Unlike fleas, ticks don’t live on their host, and instead wait in tall grasses for their next meal to pass by. Many tick species can withstand a frost, and will reappear on warm days in search of a meal. Once the tick attaches, they can transmit dangerous diseases to pets and people including:

  • Lyme disease
  • Rocky Mountain spotted fever
  • Tick paralysis
  • Anaplasmosis
  • Ehrlichiosis
  • Babesiosis

Most tick preventives effectively kill ticks after they bite, but before disease transmission can occur. Ticks on unprotected pets can gorge themselves on a blood meal, easily infecting your pet, before they fall off and return to the environment, which could be your home.  

Skipping your pet’s heartworm prevention leaves them vulnerable to intestinal parasites

Many oral and topical heartworm preventives include a broad-spectrum dewormer to treat several intestinal parasites, including roundworms and hookworms. Infected pets or wildlife shed microscopic parasite eggs through their stool or the soil, where the eggs can survive the elements. Dogs and cats can become infected by ingesting contaminated feces or soil, and may transmit these parasitic infections to humans. 

Effective year-round parasite prevention for pets

Inconsistent prevention leaves your pet vulnerable to discomfort and disease. Strengthen their defenses with convenient and comprehensive year-round protection:

  • Use only veterinarian-recommended products — Over-the-counter products can be ineffective or dangerous. Our prescription preventives are safe for your pet, but powerful against parasites. 
  • Give preventives on schedule — Use a reminder app, auto-ship program, or a calendar, so you can give your pet’s medication when due.
  • Check your pet for visible parasites — Examine your pet routinely for fleas, flea dirt, and ticks, especially after visiting wooded areas or pet-friendly places (e.g., dog parks, pet stores, boarding, or grooming facilities).
  • Maintain your yard and home — Clear away brush, keep grass mowed, and remove pet waste promptly. Indoors, regularly vacuum carpets and wash pet bedding. 
  • Schedule your pet’s annual screening tests — Yearly testing for heartworm and tick-borne diseases, as well as an intestinal parasite exam (i.e., fecal test) can ensure your pet’s preventive is effective, or confirm their good health before starting on preventives.

The most effective parasite preventives are convenient and easy to give—that’s why Caldwell Animal Hospital carries multiple products to suit every pet and owner. Call us to discuss our recommendations for your pet.