How to tell if your dog has fleas

Are you worried that your dog has fleas? Are you looking for some signs? Here are a few things to look out for, if you’re worried that your dog has fleas.

Now that spring and summer are basically upon us it’s time to get back out in the world. And for some of us that means hiking and trips to the beach. Basically, it means getting outside with our dogs. But, that also means that our poor dogs might end up with fleas.

So how do you tell if your dog has fleas? What are some of the things you should be looking out for?

5 ways to tell if your dog has fleas

Restlessness and agitation

No matter what your dog normally acts like, you may notice some behavioral changes if your dog is dealing with fleas. Even the most gentle dog may find themselves dealing with unexpected agitation and even being restless. Your normally happy dog may find themselves depressed and acting in ways that you’re not used to seeing. While fleas may not be the only thing that can cause this, we highly recommend checking your dog over when you see them acting out of character.

Excessive biting and itching

When fleas bite our dogs skin, it causes them to each. And that is definitely a sign of a problem when you see your dog biting and scratching at themselves more than normal. The itchiness can even keep them up at night, which might lead to using products like flea baths to help them.

Hot spots

As the Chewy Blog points out, “Some dogs are so sensitive to flea saliva that when a flea bites them, their skin becomes severely red, raw and inflamed.” And where these red and raw inflamed areas pop up, these are typically hot spots. These spots on our dogs skin are itchy and if they start biting at these spots, it can lead to oozing which will require expert help to handle the infection.

Hair loss

Because of how itchy their skin gets, often our dogs will find themselves licking at the hair, and this can lead to hair loss. This hair loss actually goes hand-in-hand with hotspots. The excessive grooming that our dogs do to try to combat the fleas leads to the hair falling out.

Dark spots in your dog’s bed

If you think that your dog has fleas, we definitely recommend checking their bedding area and wherever they sleep in the house. You might find dark red spots in their bed. In fact, “those spots could be pieces of flea dirt that fell off your dog’s fur and onto the bedding. They may even turn red when moisture or the dog’s warm body rubs against them.”