How can u tell if your dog has fleas? Essential Tips

How to Check Your Dog for Fleas

Can You See Fleas on a Dog? Make it a habit to check your dog’s comb or brush during regular grooming sessions. If you suspect a problem, there are several ways to check your dog for fleas.

Visual check: Adult fleas are small and brown and are relatively easy to see with the naked eye. Have your dog lie on her side and check thinly-haired areas like her abdomen or the inside of her hindquarters.

Flea comb: Fine-toothed, metal flea combs are available from your vet or local pet supply store. Run the comb along her back or underbelly making sure to apply enough pressure so the comb comes in contact with her skin. Adult flea feces – commonly called flea dirt – looks like small black pepper specks. Have a small bowl of soapy water handy to drown any adult fleas you may pull up with the comb so they don’t hop back onto your dog.

White towel test: Have your dog stand on a white paper towel or cloth. Brush or rub her coat and check to see if there are black droppings on the towel. Flea dirt will look like tiny grains of sand and will turn red if water is applied.

If you can’t detect any fleas, flea dirt or eggs, but your dog continues to scratch or seems uncomfortable, have your veterinarian check her over. There is a skin test your vet can administer to test for flea allergies. It’s also possible that your dog is suffering from another type of allergy such as a food, atopic or contact allergy which the vet can diagnose during your visit.

How to tell if your dog has fleas

If your dog has fleas, there will be a few telltale signs that your pup is getting bitten. Heres what you should do to check for fleas:

1. Notice if your dog is scratching more often: One of the tell-tale signs that your dog has fleas isnt the flea itself, its your dog. If you notice your dog regularly scratching, biting, or chewing at their skin it could mean hes infected with fleas.

2. Take a close look at your dogs fur: Fleas are dark brown and very tiny, about 0.1 to 0.3 centimeters big, the size of a small crumb, but theyre still able to be seen with the naked eye, says Alison Meindl, DVM, DABVP, assistant professor at the Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital.

You can spot fleas by parting the hair of the dog and looking for them on their skin. If you find something that resembles a flea but youre not sure, a good indicator is that they will jump, not crawl, around.

Flea combs have very tightly spaced teeth, which are designed to pull fleas away from the hair to better identify them. Your best bet for finding fleas on an infested dog is to comb the hair at the base of your dogs tail, Meindl says.

3. Look for flea dirt: You can identify fleas by the presence of “flea dirt,” says Gary Richter, DVM, veterinary health expert with Rover. This “dirt” is actually digested blood, and it looks like a dark, granular material, he says. If you put a little water on the substance, it will turn red. This is another surefire way to identify fleas.

4. Check for bites: You may also want to be on the lookout for flea bites, which look like small red bumps on your dogs skin, says Richter.

How to check your dog for fleas

If your pet’s itching, you should definitely check for fleas. (It’s also a good idea to check your dog for fleas even if she isn’t itching so you can spot infestations early and fight them off before they get out of hand).

Some of the most common places are at the base of the neck and tail and the insides of the hindlimbs.

“You may also be able to see ‘flea dirt’ on your dog’s body,” Dr. Richardson said. “This looks a bit like black dandruff, and is actually digested blood that the fleas have excreted.”

The best way to determine whether the black flakes on your dog’s skin is flea dirt is by brushing the flakes onto a white cloth and adding a drop of water; if it turns reddish brown, that’s confirmation that your pup has fleas.

Another way to check for fleas is to carefully comb through your dog’s coat, checking both the comb and your dog for fleas.

How to tell if your pet has fleas