Although there are more than 2,200 kinds of fleas, it only takes one type to cause a lot of misery for you and your pet. Fleas are small wingless insects that live on the blood of humans and animals. This blood-sucking insect has adapted to pierce the skin of its host, appears as reddish-brown color ,sometimes black, and gets around by jumping from one place to another. Their bodies are flattened from side to side and have spines or spikes in the mouth, back and legs to stick firmly on their host, thus preventing it from getting groomed off. They also have claws on their legs adapted for travel in between hair shafts. Fleas store blood about 15 times more than their weight and they need blood two to three times per day. When someone encounters a flea infestation, it can be a bit overwhelming to try and get the situation under control. The best thing to do is deal with the problem before it becomes a pest.
The three different medications used to deal with fleas are topical, oral, and the collar. Topical is any medication that is used by application on the skin like shampoo or a commonly used topical medicaton Frontline.
The biggest difference between the Frontline and the typical flee shampoo is, frontline is a flea preventative and killer that lasts for 30 days while the shampoo only kills on the first day of use and destroys any eggs laid for 4 weeks.
Frontline and most shampoos use S-methoprenes, a juvenile hormone which acts as a growth regulator. When an insect grows, it undergoes a process called molting, where it grows a new exoskeleton under its old one and then sheds to allow the new one to swell to a new size and harden. S-methoprenes prevent the insect from reaching maturity by interfering with the molting process. This in turn destroys infestations, because immature insects cannot reproduce, death typically occurs within 3 to 10 days.
Sentinel is an oral heart worm medication which prevents fleas from reproducing but does not kill them which differs from Nexguard. Sentinel uses lufenuron (the production of chitin in insects). Without chitin, a larval flea will never develop a hard outer shell (exoskeleton). With its inner organs exposed to air, the insect dies from dehydration soon after hatching or molting. Thus preventing and controlling flea populations by breaking the life cycle. The Lufenuron is stored in the animal’s body fat and transferred to adult fleas through the host’s blood when they feed. Adult fleas transfer it to their growing eggs through their blood, and to hatched larvae feeding on her excrement. It does not kill adult fleas.
NexGard contains a brand new ingredient not used in any other flea and tick protection. Afoxolaner, it works by absorbing rapidly into your pet’s bloodstream and causes uncontrolled activity to the flea’s central nervous system, which causes death. Afoxolaner is slowly excreted through your pet’s metabolism, which allows NexGard to continue controlling and preventing flea population for about 30 days.
Last but not least the collar which uses imidacloprid, this chemical works by interfering with the transmission of stimuli in the insect nervous system. Specifically, it causes a blockage of the neuronal pathway, due to this the receptors cannot transmit an impulse between nerves resulting in the insect’s paralysis, and eventually death. The chemical seeps through the skin can resurfaces through out the body but is strongest by the neck.
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