Absolutely. I'm glad you asked. The most important thing we do is, especially when dogs are puppies—at eight, 10, 12 weeks of age—we get them on a preventative to avoid getting roundworms, hookworms, whipworms, tape rooms, giardia, coccidia, fleas, and ticks. We can prevent all of those things by making sure that they're negative to start with and then putting them on medications to prevent them from getting those diseases.

If your dog has fleas, they can carry them in the house, and the fleas might bite you as well. Once a tick comes in on a dog, it can crawl on people as well. There have been perhaps a few instances of people getting heartworms from mosquitoes—from a dog that has it biting a person. Those are the most common things I think you would see.

It depends on which parasite you're talking about. Suppose it's fleas, for sure. Any of the animals, including people, can get fleas on them. Ticks can spread from cats to dogs to people. Heartworms are generally transmitted from dog to dog, and it's always through a mosquito. So one dog can't give another dog heartworms unless, of course, it went through a mosquito first. Ringworm can be transmitted from one to the next. Mites (like ear mites) can go from one pet to the next. So it's vital that we figure this out right away, so we don't spread it throughout the family.