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Protecting Your Pet and the Planet: Finding the Balance with Parasite Control

A person wearing white gloves gently brushes the teeth of a small dog, ensuring proper dental care.

The balance between keeping our pets safe from parasites and protecting the environment is indeed a challenging issue. Parasites like fleas, ticks, and worms can cause serious health issues for pets, but the treatments we use to combat them, especially chemicals like fipronil and imidacloprid, can have harmful effects on wildlife, waterways, and insect populations1,2,3.

The primary concern with these chemicals is their environmental persistence. When applied to our pets, these drugs can end up in watercourses, where they affect aquatic ecosystems, and in the fur or waste of animals, which can then contaminate the habitats of birds and other wildlife. The long-lasting nature of these treatments means that they continue to affect the environment long after the pet has been treated, which raises the risk of unintended consequences4.

Why Do Pets Need Parasite Control?

While we do want to minimise the impact of parasite treatments, we also need to keep in mind that parasites are a serious threat to our pets and occasionally us. Fleas, ticks, and worms can cause all sorts of health problems, from itching and skin infections to more severe issues like anaemia or Lyme disease.

  • Worms: Intestinal worms can cause vomiting, diarrhoea and weight loss, and can cause severe health issues in puppies and kittens, as well as risks to humans. Lungworm, which is becoming widespread in the UK, can cause breathing and bleeding issues, seizures, and even death.
  • Fleas: Fleas aren’t just annoying and itchy – they can cause inflammation, skin damage and can lead to anaemia in severe cases. They can also bite people.
  • Ticks: Ticks can transmit dangerous diseases like Lyme disease, which can lead to joint pain, fever, and in severe cases, kidney or heart failure.

For years, vets have recommended routine, year-round parasite control to protect our pets from these invaders. Flea and tick controls like topical spot-on treatments and collars, are common options. But we’re increasingly realising that these treatments might be causing more harm than we thought to wildlife, waterways, and the environment.

How Does Pet Parasite Treatment Affect the Environment?

How does the active ingredient - like fipronil or imidacloprid - in your pet’s flea treatment end up in a stream or a bird’s nest? Here’s how it happens:

  • Waste Water: After applying flea treatments to our pets, we often wash our hands, and any leftover product can wash into watercourses. Plus, when we bathe or rinse our pets, any residues on their fur and skin can end up in drains, heading straight to rivers or streams.
  • Swimming: If you’ve ever used a topical treatment like a spot-on flea medicine, it can stay on your pet’s skin for weeks. Every time they go for a swim, they can unintentionally release those chemicals into the water. Flea and tick collars will leach chemicals directly into water.
  • Fur: Flea treatments can stick around in your pet’s fur for a long time, so when they shed, birds can pick up contaminated fur and use it in their nests.
  • Urine and Faeces: Many of these medications stay in your pet’s system for months, and when they eliminate waste, the chemicals can leach into the soil and water.

So, what does this mean for wildlife? Insects – which are the target of flea and tick treatments – play a crucial role in our ecosystems, from pollinating plants to being a food source for birds and other animals. When these treatments seep into the environment, they can wipe out insects, which in turn can affect everything from food crops to bird populations. This is especially concerning since insect numbers are already in decline worldwide.

How Can We Reduce Our Impact on the Environment?

We all want to keep our pets healthy, but we also want to do our part in protecting the planet. So, how can we reduce our reliance on chemical treatments without putting our pets at risk? Here are a few ideas:

  1. Switch to Oral Medications: If you can, consider opting for oral medications instead of spot-on treatments or collars. These may be less likely to end up in the environment and are just as effective.
  2. Tailor Treatments to Your Pet’s Needs: Not every pet needs year-round treatment. If your cat is an indoor-only pet, for example, the risk of fleas or ticks is much lower. Talk to your vet about adjusting the frequency of treatments based on your pet's lifestyle.
  3. Seasonal Treatment: Many parasites are more active in the warmer months, so you might be able to skip treatments during colder months (October to April) to reduce your pet’s exposure to chemicals.
  4. Dispose of Waste Properly: Always bag your dog’s poo and dispose of it in the bin, and pick up regularly from the garden too. If you groom your pet outside, make sure to clean up any shed fur – don’t leave it out for wildlife to pick up.
  5. Be Careful with Treatments: If you’re using flea treatments, be sure to handle them carefully. Wearing gloves when administering treatments can help keep chemicals from washing into waste water.
  6. Check Your Pet Regularly: Regular grooming and checking for fleas and ticks can help you spot issues early, so you don’t need to rely on treatments as often. If you find a tick, use a special tick remover to safely remove it.
  7. Reduce bathing frequency: Many of our pets attend the groomers regularly and enjoy a wash before grooming or clipping. Extending the interval between baths, or asking your groomer to use alternative methods e.g dry stripping the coat, can reduce the amount of chemicals entering waste water.

The Bottom Line: A Healthier Pet, A Healthier Planet

We all want our pets to be healthy and happy, but we also need to think about the impact our actions have on the world around us. By making small changes, like choosing alternative treatments and being mindful of how we dispose of waste, we can help keep both our pets and the planet safe.

At the end of the day, it's all about balance. Let’s keep our pets parasite-free while also doing our best to protect the environment. With a little extra care, we can make a big difference

1 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969722066499
 2 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969720370911?dgcid=coauthor
 3 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969725000737
 4 https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/sites/default/files/2020-02/FULL%20AFI%20REPORT%20WEB1_1.pdf

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