Mosquito bites aren’t just a problem for humans. They can put our pets at risk. Heavy rainfall in the spring, combined with warming summer temperatures, mean more mosquitoes are breeding in Southern California.
And your pet’s thick fur won’t protect them from the blood suckers, which can cause discomfort and disease. Here’s what you can do to protect them. Mosquito bites are just as painful and itchy for pets as they are for people, and local mosquitoes can carry heartworms, which can kill dogs and cats.
Local veterinarians are noticing the effect of more mosquitoes in Southern California. “We’ve also seen an increase in irritation from mosquito bites and hypersensitivities,” said veterinarian David Clark , director of the Pet Health Center at Western University of Health Sciences. Clark said products containing permethrin act as a mosquito repellant and kill fleas and ticks when used as directed on dogs.
But too much of it can be toxic to canines, and it can’t be used at all on cats. His best advice is to keep mosquitoes out of your home and yard by dumping standing water where they breed and putting up well-fitting screens on all windows and doors. Heartworms are parasitic roundworms spread by mosquitoes.
They enter an animal’s bloodstream through mosquito bites, and can grow from microscopic larvae up to footlong adult worms that live in the heart and large blood vessels in the chest. They commonly infect dogs, but they can also infect cats, ferrets, wolv.
