Pet Care
Your dog and.....Lice
By Fiona Warstat Dip.CABT(COAPE)NOCN PGDip.Couns.,Dip.Couns(NEFC)
There are two types of lice that dogs can get – biting (or chewing) and sucking. The sucking louse is Linognathus setosus and the biting is Trichodectes canis, their scientific names. The sucking lice have specific mouth parts developed to be able to sucking blood, whereas the biting lice live on the dead skin cells and can move around the dog more than the sucking lice.
Dogs with longer hair dogs are more affected than those with shorter hair. Lice can be caught by grooming dogs and not cleaning or disinfecting brushes and combs well after each dog that is groomed, therefore passing on nits or adult lice to each dog groomed. Lice lay their eggs in the hair and when they hatch, they stick to the hair so well that getting them off can be very difficult. Sometimes shaving the hair is the only way to remove the lice larvae (nits). The lice remain usually around the neck area and ears, and they can be detected because the infected dog will scratch in the areas of its body the lice are found, as they become itchy. If the lice are very bad, the dog can lose its coat, become unwell generally and look very poorly. Puppies can become very ill and suffer greatly from lice as their immune system is not developed enough to be able to fit off infections of the skin caused by the lice sucking or biting. Lice are also intermediate hosts for tapeworm (Dipylidium caninum), just like the flea. If lice are diagnosed by the vet, then treatment usually means regular bathing in an insecticide, usually a shampoo specially formulated to get rid of certain insects. As the lice breed on the animal, in this case the dog, the carpets and bedding are not usually infected, making lice easier to treat in some ways than fleas!