Parasites

Fleas and ticks, oh how we hate them. They cling to our pets and make their lives miserable.  Heaven help us if they move in the house, then we get bit or you have them living in the carpet or attacking indoor pets.  However, their initial infestation is easily thwarted, we have whole isles inside entire stores dedicated to exactly this purpose.  So many different brands, Frontline, BioSpot, so many different methods, powder, collars, drops, and sprays.  All in a convenient package with nice neat directions in correct English with proper grammar. For big dogs, small dogs, old dogs, young dogs, red dog, blue dog, go dog go! (hee hee)

Here we don’t have near that selection, I wish we did though.  None of the adult dogs in the villages are treated for pests so that means from the time you get your little 8 week old puppy you engaged in a war against staggering odds.  Every single dog, a walking parasite factory, is more than willing to allow the bloodsucking terrorists access to their canine brethren.  When I first saw Dora she and her siblings were living in a shallow depression in the ground near Benson’s house.  They were about 3 days old and already had fleas on them.  One of the best things you can do to stop a flea infestation is to not let them get established in the environment…fail. Past that the best thing would have been to treat the mother who would have been introducing the fleas to the puppies….double fail. 

When they got older and began tottering around my house I started treating them individually for fleas & ticks. No one in Nkhotakota sells flea & tick treatment though, the next best thing? Sevin dust.  For those of you who do any gardening you’ll recognize it as the stuff you put on plants to kill bugs, it’s pretty toxic. Yes, I put it on the puppies.  A little light dusting and no more bugs.  It wasn’t a regular thing, I’d only use it if they got really really bad to the point where the dogs may have started causing damage from all the scratching. Once I finally got to Lilongwe I was able to buy some medicated shampoo and a flea & tick collar.  Also, my best friend on the planet Megan (dogventuring.blogspot.com, ya’ll should check it out) has sent me stuff for Dora and Squiggles over the past year and a half and that helps a lot. 

Right now the ticks aren’t so bad, they need more moisture for the eggs to survive so they kick up in a few months here when the rains come around.  When that does happen it is my least favorite time of year.  Last time, I had been gone for a few weeks and the ticks got Dora bad.  I reached down to pet her and it felt like I was running my hand over a pile of grapes there were so many bloated ticks on her, urgh. I treated her for them and they all fell off over night and crawled in the house under the door and died on the floor.  I must have swept 50 of them out, gross gross gross gross. This year I plan on stocking up and never running out.  I refuse to go through that again. Once is enough. 

The ticks here are also sneakier than in the States, by sneakier I guess I just mean smaller.  We have ticks that are a normal tick size but then there are ticks that once bloated are only about as big as the head of a pin.  Those ones I didn’t notice for a long time, I was brushing Dora and saw some tiny little specks that had been brushed off walking on the ground.  Because they’re smaller it’s easier to think you’re dog doesn’t have ticks when they could have a full blown infestation going on. 

Another thing that comes out a bit more while it’s moister is the bot fly.  They lay eggs where it’s moist and when something brushes against them they eggs attach, hatch and burrow under the skin and live there with a small opening to breathe through. Dora picked these up last year too.  What really gives them away is the dog constantly licking or biting at spots on their body. When you look at them it just looks like a swollen wound that never closed.  I spent quite a while looking for all those things and squeezing them out.  They aged at different rates, making me think she got into multiple batches of eggs for it took several days before they were all big enough to get out. Gross gross gross gross gross.    

If you live in America and regularly treat your dog, odds are you will never face any kind of full blown infection like I have with my dog. Cherish that fact.

Along with external parasites are internal parasites.  You know what I mean, round worm, whip worm, heart worm, flat worm and on and on. Does Dora have worms? Probably.  I have some diatomaceous earth but I mostly use that for the cat.  I know he has worms, bad, he eats all kinds of live things and gets worms.  Dora will have to be de-wormed by a vet before we leave Malawi so don’t worry about that, I’m not bringing any African killer worm back to the States. Just, again, be thankful you live in a developed country where these things aren’t such a big deal and it’s easier to treat.

I think that is probably the biggest thing really keeping me from treating her 100% like an American dog.  I know other PCVs who have let their pets sleep in their beds and had massive flea problems, I don’t want that so Dora sleeps on her little blankie.  Stupid bugs.