All dogs pick up fleas, ticks, and chiggers at one time or another, usually during the warm weather months. Even a pampered city pet can pick up a stray flea from a potted plant. Hunting dogs often return home with a collection of chiggers or ticks. Fleas hop from one dog to another with amazing speed and agility. Your pet only needs to greet one flea infested friend in order to acquire the beginning of a flea colony of his own.

External parasites are not a special affliction of dogs. The dog is simply a convenient host for them. We would probably have them too, if our bodies were covered with hair and we ran around without shoes and clothing and sat or slept on the ground. Fleas are the most common, the easiest to detect and to get rid of. Fleas appear as black specks on a fine tooth comb, and a single one can drive a dog crazy.

The worst part of fleas is that they act as hosts to tapeworm larvae, and if your dog swallows one you may end up with a worm problem too. You can trap fleas in a silky smooth coat with a flea comb, but fleas that nestle in the dense undercoat of double coated dogs must be treated with a product that penetrates the skin, and a regular mild treatment is safer than an occasional severe one.

In one day a single flea can bite your pet 400 times, while consuming more than its own bodyweight in blood. Some dogs can contract flea allergy dermatitis, an allergic reaction to the flea