Grooming External Parasites

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Grooming Task 3: D2 There are lots of ill health problems that groomers can encounter when grooming animals. For example: • External parasites • Causes of poor quality coat and hair loss • Lumps • Overgrown teeth and nails. External parasites – Fleas: What are fleas? Fleas are the most common external parasite for the domestic cat and dog. Adult fleas can live 7-14 days and they will split their time between living on the body of your pet to feed and returning to your carpet to lay eggs. Female fleas lay hundreds of eggs everyday, they hatch and fall into the carpet and burry themselves into the carpet. When the fleas in the carpet feel warmth and vibrations they jump on the host which is a cat or dog and start the cycle again. Life cycle of fleas: Diagram of fleas: [pic] Treatment and prevention: There are four main methods of treating a flea infestation they are: • Killing the adult fleas on the animal • Killing newly arriving adults on the animal this can take 3-4 months to kill all the fleas • Prevent any other infestation of a home by using a insect growth regulator to slow down the hatching of flea eggs and prevent larvae from hatching into adults. • Clear the home and the animal from adult, eggs, larvae and pupae fleas. The first three bullet point can be achieved by treating the animal regularly with a substance which contains two active ingredients and functions, e.g. frontline plus one ingredient kill the adult fleas and the other prevents the eggs and larvae to develop. You can vacuum your carpets especially where your animal lies frequently, and vacuum the furniture that is used by your animal. This will get rid of all the eggs, larvae and pupae. Another way to prevent fleas is to regularly
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