WHERE
DO THEY COME FROM?
There
is no other way for a pet to get tapeworms except from fleas. Many
people who had thought their pet could not possibly have fleas find out about
the infestation this way. The tapeworm segment breaks open releasing its eggs.
A larval flea consumes the egg along with the flea dirt that it normally eats.
As the larval flea matures, so does the baby tapeworm. When a grooming dog or
cat licks the flea and swallows it, the dead flea is digested in the dog’s
stomach releasing the baby tapeworm. The tapeworm is passed to its new home in
the dog or cat’s small intestine where it attaches and lives its life. This
parasite does not harm the pet in any way as there are plenty of nutrients passing
by to serve both the host and its tapeworm (tapeworms require very little nutrients.)
Still, high performance dogs, who need every Calorie working for them, may show
a decrease in performance because of a tapeworm infection.
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