All of the dog care information I have located, demonstrates that fleas survive off your pet’s blood. The gestation period of a flea progresses extremely rapidly from stage one (egg) to stage four (full-grown flea), and that means they are capable of multiplying with staggering acceleration.

An adult flea bears hundreds of eggs per day. Every egg will thus become an adult flea, which lay hundreds additional eggs of its own. One flea becomes a large-scale issue very quickly!

HOW TO DETERMINE IF YOUR CANINE HAS FLEAS

The symptoms of a flea problem are distinct.

A canine with a flea problem will scratch virtually continually, frequently at locations that fleas look to prefer: the ears, the bottom of the tail, the belly, and the stifle (the webbing of fleshy skin between the thigh and the abdomen).

It’s actually the spittle of the flea that causes the irritation, not the bite itself, and some dogs have a genuine allergy to this saliva (as opposed to a standard irritation). Dogs with allergies suffer much more significant negative reactions to a flea infestation, and usually develop “hot spots”.

These hot spots are areas of sore, red, shedding, bleeding, and damaged skin, formed by the flea spittle and your dog’s own reaction to it. Bare spots will occasionally occur also, from repeated scratching and continuing irritation.

If you think your pet has fleas, you can confirm your misgivings by taking a closer look at his skin: you probably will not be able to see the fleas themselves, but you ought to be able to detect what looks like coffee grounds (a thin sprinkling of pulverized black grains) on his skin. This is flea dirt (feces).

If you brush him with a flea comb (which is like a fine-tooth comb), try wiping it on a napkin: if red spots appear on the napkin, you can feel certain that your canine has fleas (on a white background like a napkin, flea poop appears red: since fleas exist on blood, their feces is colored appropriately).