Are you thinking about buying a pet for your children or are you planning a family and the animals will live with you? OK. Pets bear witness to children. Even child psychologists confirm that children living with pets are happier, more confident, more obedient, and do better at school. In addition, children who have been in contact with animals since birth have fewer allergic diseases.
Living with an animal also has its pitfalls
As you can see, there is no doubt that for a small child, daily communication with a four-legged pet enriches and is very pleasant. On the other hand, such coexistence can lead to some pitfalls. Not to mention the risk that the animal may react immediately and harm the child, some questions still remain. Isn’t it possible to get a child’s disease from a dog or cat? Are dog fleas really just dogs? Is it possible to completely eliminate the risk?
Fleas and ticks
A dog or cat can take home unpleasant parasites – internal and external. External ones are, for example, fleas or ticks. In more sensitive children, flea bites can cause an unpleasant allergic reaction, and the flea itself can be a carrier of some serious diseases. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully check the fur of dogs and cats and regularly clean their beds and places where they lie, because even here fleas or their eggs and larvae can occur.
The same is true with ticks – even, in this case, it is necessary to regularly check the coat and remove ticks. Due to the milder winters that have recently come in our country, ticks often appear very early in the spring, and their activity does not stop even in autumn. From ticks, put an antiparasitic collar on the pet or treat the wool with a pipette. For ordinary baths, you can use special antiparasitic shampoos.
Regular deworming of dogs and cats
Crawling babies are especially at risk of infection with internal parasites. Children at this stage of life are curious and like to put everything in their mouths. At the same time, they can come into contact with the eggs of parasites living in the digestive tract of domestic quadrupeds. The most common parasites of this type include roundworms or tapeworms. Although animal parasites cannot develop into the adult stage of the human body, their larvae can cause health problems. Therefore, regular deworming of the animal is important. Attention, deworming should also be carried out for cats. who live exclusively at home! If there is a suspicion of intestinal parasites at a time when the animal still needs to be protected, it is better to take a sample of dog or cat excrement and take it to the veterinarian. Thanks to accurate analysis, he will know what the situation is.
Do not forget to vaccinate dogs and cats
Also make sure that the animal regularly undergoes all the necessary vaccinations to protect it from serious diseases such as leptospirosis, rabies, canine distemper, hepatitis, and parvovirus. Interestingly, dogs can be vaccinated against Lyme disease, which is not yet possible for humans. In cats with asymptomatic Lyme disease, vaccination is important to prevent infection of other ticks that the animal moves through.
Hygiene in the household with animals
According to the increasingly confirmed so-called “hygienic theory”, children growing up in a sterile environment are more at risk of developing allergies. However, if you have an animal friend at home, you will need to get used to a stricter regime when it comes to dusting, mopping floors, and cleaning places where a four-legged friend is most often found. If he has access to a sofa or even a bed, it goes without saying that bedspreads, sheets, and sheets should be changed more often. There are special cleaning products specially designed for cleaning houses with pets.
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