How to Prevent Flea Bites

Video Transcript

"Hello my name is Dr. James Dee. I'm with Hollywood Animal Hospital in Hollywood, Florida. Flea bites on a puppy can be very - extremely irritating, and how to prevent them is obviously get rid of the fleas. That's the only solution. Now using chemicals either on the back of the dog and in the house are the ideals but first we have to know that we have the fleas so let's take a look at our friend here. Using a good light we are going to roll the coat so that we can see the skin. Rolling the coat forward and we're going to look for pepper, little black pepper flecks which really is flea manure, flea poop. Some dogs you'll see will have so much pepper that when you put them in a bathtub the water will virtually turn red because when that pepper dissolves back with water it is hemoglobin. Flea manure or hemoglobin that has been taken from the dog and has been passed through. He is a cute one. Once we find fleas on the pet we have to figure out how do we get them off even beside the chemicals that we use. A flea comb, a very fine toothed metal comb is an ideal. Using it gently through the skin, through the coat to pull off any of the fleas that we may see and then examine for fleas, at that point it can be dropped in alcohol solution or another insecticide to kill the fleas. This has been Dr. James Dee."