How Does Mosquito Bites Affects Your Pets?

Dengue cases has been increasing in Singapore! They may have a fur coat that protects them from mosquitoes but areas where some skin are exposed such as their nose, ears, and paws can still be bitten! While most of you already know how to protect yourselves from mosquito bites, are you familiar with the effects it does to your precious pets and how to protect them from it? In this article, we'll discuss the effects of mosquito bites on your pets and provide some tips for keeping them safe!

Here's everything you need to know about mosquito bites in pets: 

Heartworm disease is a serious condition that can cause significant lung damage, heart failure, organ damage, and death in dogs and other pets. . It is caused by a parasitic worm, Dirofilaria immitis, which may be passed via a mosquito bite. When a mosquito bites an infected dog, the blood drawn may contain heartworm larvae. The mosquito then bites a second dog, and the resulting offspring are transmitted to their hosts. The heartworm may develop into an infection up to a foot in length within the host's body.

Symptoms of heartworm disease include coughing, vomiting, difficulty in breathing, lethargy, fainting, and exercise intolerance. Heartworm disease has many of the same symptoms as other pet illnesses, which is why it's critical to get your pet's blood checked on a regular basis to ensure you're not dealing with this potentially fatal illness. Make sure your pets are up to date on preventative heartworm medication.

Your pet could have an allergic reaction to mosquito bites. Mosquito bites can result in the formation of redness, swelling, discomfort and itching enough to encourage your pet to scratch excessively or chewing of their skin. Be careful as it might also progress to a skin infection in severe situations. Mosquitoes can cause a variety of allergic reactions, from mild to severe.

Mild reactions include bumps, obsessive licking, swelling, and whining. Moderate reactions include chewing of feet, fever, lethargy, loss of appetite, swelling of their face, and rashes on face and paws. A severe reaction, now characterized as anaphylactic shock, include difficulty in breathing, cold limbs, seizures, paleness in gums, diarrhea, vomiting, elevated heart rate, and excessive drooling.

Contact your veterinarian if the signs get worse from mild to severe, and take your dog to the nearest animal hospital or emergency clinic as soon as possible. In some situations, insect allergy symptoms can swiftly progress from moderate to deadly in just a matter of minutes.

Mosquito bite hypersensitivity, also known as mosquito allergy dermatitis, is an allergic reaction to mosquito saliva in pets. When a mosquito bites, it injects saliva into the skin to prevent blood clotting. For pets with hypersensitivity, the immune system overreacts to the proteins in mosquito saliva, triggering an allergic response.

Pets with mosquito bite hypersensitivity may exhibit various symptoms, including intense itching and scratching, redness and swelling around the bite sites, formation of small bumps or welts, hair loss or hot spots due to excessive scratching, & skin infections from constant licking and scratching.

Although these are rare and mostly common on horses, West Nile Virus (WNV), Eastern Equine Encephalitis virus, Venezuelan Equine Encephalomyelitis virus, Tularemia, and Dengue Fever can all be transmitted to your pets ,whether a cat or a dog, by mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are a top concern these days, when people think about mosquitoes, they generally think about West Nile Virus (WNV). There have been some dogs who has been contracting West Nile Virus through mosquito bites.

• Remove any stagnant water around your house and outside your garden. Mosquitoes thrive in stagnant water and hatch their offspring there.
• Remember to change all water from your vases/bowls frequently.
• Cover all the windows and doors with mosquito screens to prevent mosquitoes entering indoors.
• When mosquitoes are most active, stay inside and keep your pets with you between sunrise and sunset.
• Avoid going in areas such as lakes and swamps which can be infested with mosquitoes.
• Do not wear flower scent perfumes as it attracts mosquitoes.
• To protect your pets, put them on a heartworm prevention program. Consult your vet about this.

Mosquitoes could be lurking here and there especially outdoors! So make sure to protect your pets from these pesky mosquitoes and don't skip their necessary veterinarian checkups so any problems could be detected as early as possible. Always make sure to be contact your veterinarian asap as soon as you spot something wrong about your precious pets no matter how small they are!

Share this with your fellow pet owners and you can also leave a comment down below about your experiences with mosquito bites in your pets & maybe how you prevented them, we would also love to read them!

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