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Flea Help!
in Pets
I'm needing some advice. My animals have had fleas and i'm struggling to get rid of them. I'm doing them with the generic of frontline monthly, but i'm still finding living fleas on my dogs. I was told at the groomer that the fleas can live on the host, until they bite them..but it's been 2 months now. When are these suckers going to bite them? We are moving to a new house in less than 2 weeks and the last thing i want to do is to take these fleas with us. Any thoughts? Flea bath? If so at home or at the groomer? Also, can fleas live in vehicles..if so what's the best way to get rid of them? I really don't want to spend a ton of money, but we need to get rid of these suckers! TIA
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Re: Flea Help!
I would start with a home bath... you can use dawn dish soap and white vinegar...
use 1 cup dish soap, 1 cup vinegar and a quart of warm water, mix and shampoo dog with this... keep this mixture on the dog for at least 5 min, then rinse very well.
as far as your home, cars and property, get a siphotrol spray and spray all areas... you should be able to find it at a larger pet store chain like petco and petsmart...
when I groom dogs that have fleas with this shampoo mixture, I can see them die and fall off even as soon as rinsing the shampoo off of them...
*I just answered this question on another board (and was too lazy to type everything out again) and the person asking had cats so my answer is slightly geared toward treating cats but there are still some good ideas in here.*
It takes a good 3 months of solid treatment to completely get rid of a flea infestation! I think pet owners have the hardest time understanding this because unfortunately it is not a problem that will just go away on it's own. Many of the 'at home' remedies don't work and you're going to end up spending way more on those so called remedies than you would with a trip to the vets office.
First things first, if the infestation is really bad then bathe your pets in blue dawn dish soap. This is going to kill any fleas that are currently on your pet. Flea collars are useless so don't even bother putting them on your pet. The only good thing they can be used for is if you cut them in half and place them into the bag of your vacuum. Again, not the most practical method so I'd just save the money if I were you.
You need to get a good house spray, one that specifically says it contains an IGR (insect growth regulator) and this is key to treating your house. Any of the topical or oral flea products out there (whether purchased at a vets office or store) will not kill all of the life cycles of the flea so you need something that is going to prevent the larva that is living in your carpets, furniture and bedding from maturing. Flea bombs are pointless because they go into the air then settle around everything. You need a spray that you can control exactly where it goes! Everything (and underneath everything) needs to be sprayed as well! Bedding, furniture, carpet, baseboards - basically anywhere that a flea can fit (which is pretty much every where) needs to be sprayed down. This isn't something either that you need to be gone all day for. You can spray one room at a time and it typically takes about 10 minutes for the product to dry so you don't need to be out of the house all day.
You also need to get a good flea product and the unfortunate thing with cats, is that there aren't a lot of products that are labeled for kitties since they are so sensitive to everything on the market. We have an office kitty that is allergic to frontline (all her hair falls out when it's applied) so obviously, we don't give it to her anymore just to clarify. Frontline is a good product and it is labeled for kitties, yay! Now, you can purchase this in the grocery store or at your vets office and of course you know where I'm going to suggest to purchase it but that's a whole other issue.... The thing with purchasing it at a vets office is that the product is than guaranteed. If you treat the animals for three months straight and are still having a problem Merial (the company that manufactors Frontline) will do one of three things:
1. Refund your money spent on their product
2. Send you more product to continue the treatment
3. Send an exterminator to your home
So there are some benefits from just purchasing it from a vets office plus there is a current promotion where if you buy 3 months worth of product, you get 1 month free!
Topical flea products are to be used once a month and because cats are so sensitive I wouldn't suggest anything more frequent than that. As long as you keep up with the spray and the monthly application you shouldn't have any problems. Just don't bathe the animals too often because it'll remove the product you've applied (wait at least 48 hours) and it can really dry out their skin especially the dish soap because it's made to remove grease (oil on skin).
This is the real kicker though - The problem is going to get worse before it gets better. I know this sucks to hear but its the truth. Just before fleas die they get really excited so often times you'll start seeing more fleas but what is really happening is that they are all dying (yay!!). Another little fun flea fact to help you sleep at night, one female flea can lay upwards of 100 eggs a day! And in most cases the larva have to become adults before you can kill them (that's why we need the IGR spray) which explains why the problem gets worse before it gets better.
OK, I know I have gone on and on but this isn't something that will go away after one treatment so stay on top of it and eventually the problem will be gone, it's just going to take some time. Even if you don't see any more fleas, still continue to treat for 3 months because it may just be that you've killed off all of the adult fleas but there are larva still lurking in your carpets.
You may also need to treat your yard for the little buggers. We typically suggest Seven Dust (which can be purchased at Home Depot or stores similar to that) and it's best to treat your yard before a rain so that way the product and soak into the ground.