Welcome to Alvin Animal Clinic

This is the most protective stage of the flea life cycle , which is why they can choose to remain in it until the conditions are right. There is no over the counter pesticide, no prescription strength pesticide that you can purchase that will kill the flea while in the pupation stage. Most of the time the pupae is hanging out in your carpet, once the weather is warm and a host is available, the pupae will open up and the adult flea will hop out looking for its first meal. Shortly after feeding for the first time, they will lay hundreds of eggs and the cycle starts all over again.

Ticks are another pesky parasite that you should be aware of. There are varying species of ticks, but all have some time spent in four different life stages. Adult ticks will lay eggs on the ground which the larvae hatch from during the spring. The larvae then look for a host, feed, fall off onto the bround and molt into a nymph. The nymph then emerges, looks for a host, feeds enough for a full meal, falls off of onto the ground then molts into an adult. Then, the adult ticks emerge, looking for yet another host to feed off of for a good, full meal so they can mate, fall off and lay more eggs. The entire life cycle of the tick can take about a year to process depending on when or if it finds adequate hosts to complete every step. They generally do not carry out their life cycle indoors as fleas do and most people only see problems with ticks when they take their animals to wooded or tall grassy areas. Ticks do seem to be coming out a lot this year and some of our clients are experiencing problems with them for the first time.

Now that you know the full life cycle of the flea and tick, you may wonder how to prevent them from using your pets as part of their food chain. We can help you with that with the use of several safe products. For dogs, we offer Advantix II, a topical solution, and Comfortis, an oral tablet. Advantix II is the only topical solution we currently offer. It prevents, repels and controls fleas, ticks and mosquitoes. Comfortis is a monthly oral tablet that attacks the adult fleas. It is the only prevention we carry that has a 100% effectiveness rate within four hours of giving the pill. For cats we offer, Advantage Multi, which is also a heartworm prevention, ear mite prevention and intestinal parasite prevention. It is applied topically, once a month. We also carry, for cats, Assurity. Assurity protects your cats from all life stages of the flea, except the pupae stage. Advantage Multi and Assurity are both labeled at a 96-98% effectiveness rate against fleas for your cat. For ticks, for dogs only, we recommend either Advantix II or a Preven-Tic collar. Both of the products are designed to keep ticks from burrowing into your pets skin and hanging on to get a complete meal. You may still find ticks on your animal while using these products but they will not be able to keep themselves attached.

If you should have any questions about which flea and tick product will be best for your pet, please give us a call or send us an e-mail. We will be more then happy to help you. We hope you and your family has a great summer!