People often ask how they can tell if their animal has fleas–which surprises me since anyone who pays attention to their animal should be alert to some of the warning signs.

Some signs of a flea infestation include:

• excessive scratching,
• black insects crawling on pet,
• presence of flea dirt on animal and animal bedding, and
• increased chewing and licking.

In this video the animal is severely infested with fleas and is being cleaned by a grooming professional. The reddish brown water is actually flea dirt.

Flea dirt is the poop of fleas and what flea larvae feed on. The amount of fleas are only some of of the entire problem. The home and yard should be treated since the other 95% of flea populations are made up of flea eggs, flea larvae, and flea pupae–only 5% of any infestation are adult fleas.

I’d also get the animal into the vet for an exam to rule out flea bite anemia and for deworming.

The point to all this is to encourage people to not wait to implement flea control to avoid a bigger problem and complications–and the additional expense of professional grooming and veterinary care–not to mention the health risks to pets from flea infestations.