Flea Nightmare

[seminolewind]

My dogs have never had fleas. However, one dog has to go for blood tests every few months and now we have fleas. Well, that's an understatement!!! My one dog has such thick hair that I never saw them. When I realized it, she was covered in flea dirt, it took 3 baths to get it all out after shaving her hair down. She was also weak. I guess that was anemia. So we put her on a vitamin and iron. I got this spray, not working well. I tried flea shampoo, not working. I put this spot liquid on her between her shoulders, and the fleas moved to the back half of her and her back legs! When the other dog was sleeping next to me, a flea jumped on me!

So my whole house got treated with Home Defense. I sprayed their doggie area where they sleep. I ordered frontline this time. I'm going to scream. We have one rug in our house.
I've never dealt with this before. I wonder if I could get some advice.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/735027/heeeeeeelp-weve-been-taken-over-by-fleas
I remembered seeing a thread...haven't decided if this is the one I remember yet...going to keep looking.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/563259/how-to-get-rid-of-fleas-naturally/20
see post #21 - I haven't tried this personally

Well I can't seem to find the thread I was remembering...I hope this helps. Back when we had fleas when I was a teenager (from a cat) we did the flea collar, flea shampoo, and vacuuming. But from what it sounds like, fleas have gotten harder to get rid of.

 

[Haunted55]

For the floors and rugs, I use laundry borax, the 20 Mule Team kind, lol. Just sprinkle it on the floors and carpets and leave for a while. A day is best as this will allow your walking to get it into the nap and any cracks on the floors. then just vacuum normally. Enough of the stuff will still be there to do the job. It cuts their bodies up and they dehydrate and die. You can also do this with their bedding. Apply and then vacuum.

 

[res]

Don't waste your money on flea collars, flea shampoos or "grocery store" spot-on treatments (Hartz, Bio-Spot, etc.). Using the generic Frontline is fine, though - look for the active ingredient fipronil.

It can take up to 3 months to eradicate an infestation in your house and yard. Yes, you should treat the yard as well. There are granules and spray that can be found at Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, etc. Generally anything made by Bayer will be effective.

You need to treat every animal in the house. The fleas will happily jump off a treated animal and hop on to an untreated one (or you!).

Borax is a good idea for the floors in the house.

You CAN alternate chemical spot-on treatments every 2 weeks. As in, use Frontline on Day 1, Advantage on day 15... It is okay and won't "overload" the pet. You can talk to your vet about it, but the problem is that there are tricky EPA regulations that vets actually have to follow, and they can get into trouble if they violate them. So most will shy away from recommending to treat every 15 days.... Really the EPA regs say you can't use the SAME product every 15 days, they say nothing about different products... We recently had a training meeting about fleas and ticks, given by a "world authority" college parasite professor who specializes in ticks. Her kids keep ticks as pets, they are that "into" them. Yuck!

 

[Haunted55]

.... Her kids keep ticks as pets, they are that "into" them. Yuck!

Different strokes I guess....I'm with you! Double yuck!!!

 

[Armstrong1]

We had an infestation at one point. It was so bad inside and out. This is what we used and it worked GREAT! Sprayed inside and outside the house. You can spray it on furniture too. You mix it with water in a sprayer. It's called permethrin.
We also got a capstar and gave it once. It will kill all fleas that are currently on the dog and then we gave them trifexis. It's a once a month pill. It controls worms, ticks and fleas. It's a miracle pill.
We haven't had fleas since.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote:
Triple yuck! Ewww!

I guess someone has to love the ticks, eh?

 

[seminolewind]

Gosh, I'm getting such great advice! I got my frontline today. Maybe I should bathe them first, then spot them. I've sprayed everything with Home Defense. I don't know if everyone's familiar with Home Defense, but here in Florida you spray the perimeter inside and out, and anything bugwise that walks over it Dies real quick. The cockroaches here are bigger than a silver dollar, and always surprise you when you're not thinking. Home Defense is a sanity saver. So I hope it works on fleas, I was very generous with it all around the dog nap area.

I've never had a problem ever before.

So I guess there's some maintenance involved?

Armstrong1, that pill sounds worth looking into. I did bring my horse spray home with me today. It's got Permethrin.

 

[dainerra]

with any of the "spot on" treatments, you need to wait at least 24 hours after bathing to put it on. The oils in the coat are what helps it "spread" over the body. Also wait at least 3-4 days after applying before letting them swim or bathing. Frontline also has a spray, so I'm not sure which one you purchased. I think the instructions are probably the same

If the dogs are itching badly, you can bathe them with tea tree oil shampoo. It helps soothe the skin. When we lived in Orlando, our boy got a horrible case of sand fleas. Took forever to get rid of them

 

[dainerra]

the main thing with fleas is to make sure that you don't let your dog get anymore. It takes a few minutes for them to die after getting on the dog, which is unfortunately enough time to lay eggs or be carried into the house and lay their eggs there.