Dog Flea Control

[cheeps]

I was wondering if anyone knows of any natural or home remedy ways to get rid of fleas.

I have a close neighbor, a sweet kind elderly woman, with a major cat problem. I'm talking 30-40 cats feral cats roaming around. I'm trying to work with the humane society to get rid of them....meanwhile, they are creating a major flea problem in our yard this summer, hot as it's been. I have a 8 year old rottweiler, Mack, who weighs about 90 lbs. I have frontline for the 89-130something lb dog, but he is still miserable with the fleas. Mack lives inside, just goes out when I feed the critters and to potty. He's spoiled rotten and I can't stand to see him suffering

I've tried switching to the advantix as well, but I think there's just such a crazy amount of fleas due to the cats that it overwhelms the flea medicine. He's miserable and we're miserable watching and listening to him scratch and bite all the time! So, I was wondering if anyone knew something to treat the fleas, either on the dog, in the house, and/or in the yard. I prefer something natural, especially in the yard due to the chickens pecking around.

 

[Joz]

I don't have much luck with Frontline. In my area, Comfortis is recommended as the better flea goop, as our fleas are ... different from other fleas? I've been using Advantage Multi to better effect than Frontline (on the cats), and Revolution, which seems to work pretty well (on the dogs).

Check with your vet about applying it every 3 weeks instead of 30 days?

See if you can get donations or animal rescue benefits to treat all the cats for fleas?

Does DE work on adult fleas? I know there's some effect on flea larvae... is it possible to treat your yard ?

 

[drdoolittle]

I use Revolution on all my dogs. Also, you may want to buy a spray to spray on your yard as well as your carpets (if any) and furniture. You can get really good stuff from your vet. Good luck with it----I really, really hate fleas!!!!!

 

[Crazyland]

Comfortis is what my vet recommends also for our area.
I use DE outside. Nothing is 100%. Just minimalized as much as possible.

 

[Mugen]

Get yourself a bottle of 10-35% Pmethrin, dilute and mix, and apply it around your yard. It will kill every single bug in your yard. Dilute the same chemical all the way down and spray it on your dogs. It keeps flea away.

 

[teach1rusl]

Quote:
Yeah...Adams has the Pymethrin (sp?). You can buy the dip, dilute as instructed, and sponge it onto your big guy. I had to do this while using Frontline Plus last summer, as fleas were SO bad here (thankfully, they're not as bad this year). Although I have some FPlus left over, I've switched to the Revolution as well, suspecting that maybe the fleas had built up a resistance to the FPlus...

Also, do a google search on everything from "feral cat rescue" to "free spay/neuter" for your area. I found a volunteer organization nearby that has clinics once a month to spay/neuter feral cats for FREE (although they accept donations). They even loaned traps. I trapped 15 of my neighbor's barn cats and got them fixed through this organization. For me it was the hundreds of kittens being produced over there that "bugged" me, not the flea issue, as they're a distance away.

I've also heard that spraying either your animal or your yard with diluted dishwashing liquid helps repel fleas. So that's another one you could try...

 

[tonkatuff]

For situations where you are surrounded by infested animals (domestic or wild) you are always going to be fighting an uphill battle. That being said, I've not had ANY product (especially not DE =total waste of time & $) work as well as this...
http://www.bayeradvanced.com/tree-s...h-tree-shrub-insect-control-landscape-formula

I found out the local hunt club was using this on their hounds & terriers about 10 years ago... I've been using it in my yard AND on my dogs ever since... NO FLEAS!

http://www.bayeradvanced.com/tree-s...h-tree-shrub-insect-control-landscape-formula

 

[cheeps]

Thank you all for your kind suggestions!

I'm going to try to seek out the products you mentioned. As for the comfortis, when I worked at the vet a year or two ago, we pulled that stuff for a reason, although I can't remember what that reason was. I just remember it smelling terrible on top of whatever the problem was. And the DE didn't help much with the hound. Plus, with him being so fluffy and black, you can only imagine he was a humerous site covered in the white DE powder!

Is the Pymethrn (sp) natural or chemical? Safe to use around the free-ranging birdies?

 

[Mugen]

Permethrin is used to kill pest in-sects in agriculture, home pest control, forestry, and in public health programs, including head lice control. It was first marketed in 1973. Worldwide, the dominant use of permethrin is on cotton, accounting for about 60 percent (by weight) of the permethrin used. In the U.S., al-most 70 percent of the permethrin used in agriculture is used on corn, wheat, and alfalfa. Over 100 million applications of permethrin are made each year in U.S. homes, and over 18 million applications are made in yards and gardens.

Permethrin acts as neurotoxin, slowing down the nervous system through binding to sodium channels. This action is negatively correlated to temperature, thus generally showing more acute effects on cold-blooded animals (insects, fish, frogs...) over warm-blooded animals (mammals and birds):

Permethrin is extremely toxic to fish and aquatic life in general, so extreme care must be taken when using products containing permethrin near water sources.
Permethrin is also highly toxic to cats and flea and tick repellent formulas intended and labeled for (the more resistant) dogs may contain permethrin and cause feline permethrin toxicosis in cats.

Very high doses will have tangible neurotoxic effects on mammals and birds, including human beings.
Permethrin does not present any notable genotoxicity or immunotoxicity in humans and farm animals.

Permethrin is classified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) a likely human carcinogen, based on reproducible studies in which mice fed permethrin developed liver and lung tumors. Carcinogenic action in nasal mucosal cells for inhalation exposure is suspected due to observed genotoxicity in human tissue samples, and in rat livers the evidence of increased preneoplastic lesions lends concern over oral exposure.


In agriculture, permethrin is mainly used on cotton, wheat, maize, and alfalfa crops, and is also used to kill parasites on chickens and other poultry.

 

[Yvonne37894]

Quote:
need to look up "imidacloprid" before using this product.