Fleas!

[julesluvscavs]

Crisover, (or anyone else who is around) DH has gone to shops now to get some of those capstar flea tablets for dogs and the cats..

I'm going to order the Fido's Fre-Itch Rinse Concentrate that Aziah highly recommended, so when I get it (not sure how long it will take?), can i go from using Capstar tablets to using the fre itch wash stuff? can you double on up using too many flea products??

and while treating the fleas, then what do you use for actual flea allergy side of to sooth them after they have been bitten to calm it down..do I need another product for that also??

ps.. DH bought some flea bombs too, but we may not let it all of at once, as I have sensitivities to chemicals, and I'm home most of the time...

Edited April 18, 2010 by JulesLuvsCavs

[kiesha09]

The vet did tell us that fleas can be buried under the dirt , and if you disturb it (which we have), thats when it can cause problems too!

I can join this thread, since we suddenly seem to have fleas here too I'm absolutely horrified and disgusted too, yuck. Saw these bugs crawling on her and thought oh, strange bugs, and then I thought oh no....fleas?!?! (can you tell I've been spared having to deal with them before? )

Couldn't work out how/why they'd appeared all of a sudden when she hasn't really been out, certainly hasn't been near any other dogs or cats for a fortnight now and then I read that and wondered about the 60cm deep hole to China she dug just before the fleas appeared

Just spent a fortune on various products to get rid of them, hope it works, and quickly.

This was the exact same thought pattern that I went through

So I frontlined before I went away which got rid of all visible signs of fleas. I've searched and searched on the dogs but can't find a thing. Problem is one dog is still very itchy. He has been known to have allergies and i think he is quite allergic to them. How do you get rid of the itchiness?

I also let off flea bombs while I was gone and came back and found a fair few dead fleas around the place so it obviously worked. Now am washing everything possible. Fun! I purchased some of that Fidos stuff mentioned by Aziah so just waiting for that to arrive.

Now I'm just a bit confused about what products I should use for ongoing flea control. I currently use sentinel spectrum for worms and heartworm but it doesn't kill adult fleas so need to use another product. I was going to use frontline (which appears to have worked this time) as well but with other people giving bad reviews of it thought I should maybe use something else.

The sentinel packet recommends Capstar (not sure how long that lasts though) or should I use comfortis?

Also, how many fleas do you normally see on your dogs when they are infested with them?

[Serket]

The vet did tell us that fleas can be buried under the dirt , and if you disturb it (which we have), thats when it can cause problems too!

I can join this thread, since we suddenly seem to have fleas here too I'm absolutely horrified and disgusted too, yuck. Saw these bugs crawling on her and thought oh, strange bugs, and then I thought oh no....fleas?!?! (can you tell I've been spared having to deal with them before? )

Couldn't work out how/why they'd appeared all of a sudden when she hasn't really been out, certainly hasn't been near any other dogs or cats for a fortnight now and then I read that and wondered about the 60cm deep hole to China she dug just before the fleas appeared :D

Just spent a fortune on various products to get rid of them, hope it works, and quickly.

This was the exact same thought pattern that I went through

So I frontlined before I went away which got rid of all visible signs of fleas. I've searched and searched on the dogs but can't find a thing. Problem is one dog is still very itchy. He has been known to have allergies and i think he is quite allergic to them. How do you get rid of the itchiness?

I also let off flea bombs while I was gone and came back and found a fair few dead fleas around the place so it obviously worked. Now am washing everything possible. Fun! I purchased some of that Fidos stuff mentioned by Aziah so just waiting for that to arrive.

Now I'm just a bit confused about what products I should use for ongoing flea control. I currently use sentinel spectrum for worms and heartworm but it doesn't kill adult fleas so need to use another product. I was going to use frontline (which appears to have worked this time) as well but with other people giving bad reviews of it thought I should maybe use something else.

The sentinel packet recommends Capstar (not sure how long that lasts though) or should I use comfortis?

Also, how many fleas do you normally see on your dogs when they are infested with them?

It's one of those "it'll never happen to my dogs" things isn't it. Like nits with kids at school.

I refuse to use the things like frontline that go onto their skin, it grosses me out and I've heard horror stories about melted plastic, so, Before Fleas (B.F, ) she was on proban (ticks and fleas) and interceptor spectrum monthly chews for worms/heartworm (doesn't do fleas) . I was slack with the proban though over the last month, which obviously was a bad, bad, move.

So, After Fleas: I got Fido's flea wash shampoo (didn't see the concentrate ) and gave her a bath outside (and got myself a possibly broken nose in the process from her zoomies afterwards :D). I'm still waiting for my flea killing arsenal to arrive (why I bought online instead of driving 25 min to petbarn, I don't know, but not going to buy everything twice), but I bought Capster and something called "program" I think (looked at comfortis, but was possibly more expensive? The one I got sounded just the same (and almost as expensive).

Capster = kill all adult fleas

Program = kill eggs/make them infertile

Fido's shampoo for the record I haven't found overly effective, unless it just kills the ones on her but doesn;t stop them getting back on? I found more fleas on her after the first bath than I had before. So she got a 2nd bath yesterday - and she was such a good girl, I think she realised I was trying to help get rid of the itchy nasty bugs (I've been grabbing her every 30 min and checking her coat )

I'll get the concentrate and spray on the carpet etc like someone suggested - can't do flea bombs, can barely stand getting the house sprayed for insects once every 2 years (I have a chemical phobia)

Today I actually found 3 dead ones on her - so something is working (back on proban too since last week).

I checked and proban + fido's + capster + program or comfortis are all safe to use together. No idea about frontline and the like.

Would something like aloveen or another oatmeal shampoo help the itchiness? Gypsy's skin looks quite irritated too, but she's not too annoyed by it

Edited April 19, 2010 by Serket

[kiesha09]

Serket, you sound exactly like me with the checking every thirty minutes. I've become slightly obsessive about it!!! For the moment they appear to be gone, but I sure as hell want to be on top of it should they re-appear.

I actually got a bit slack too with the flea treatments so I'm sure thats exactly why they got them. Its just I've never had an issue before so wasn't worried, but I'm going to be onto it from now on!!!!

Thanks for letting me know what stuff you use. Its a jungle out there knowing what is best.

I had thought of aloveen too since that is what I use anyway as it helps with his allergies but didn't know if there would be something better. Might give it a try.

Thanks for your help

[Serket]

Hearing about the flea infestations everywhere I'm worried about never getting rid of the nasty things now though, they all die quickly.

I was reading the instructions for a flea bomb and it made a point of saying "don't exclude the pet from the home after using the flea bomb, otherwise the dying fleas will attack people instead" - poor pets used as decoys, but at the same time, yuck!

[kiesha09]

I saw that too! Lucky for us we excluded everyone as we went away for 4 days so they couldn't attack anyone while they died When I got home I vacuumed and cleaned again and found lots of dead ones so hopefully they stay dead

Hopefully the little buggers are now gone for good. But it does sound like they're pretty hard to get rid of. My poor boys skin is red raw though and obviously still very itchy. Fingers crossed it gets better for him soon.

[Nic oh lah]

GAH! After our flea drama last week Chase has them again! He's been frontlined TWICE in A MONTH! Frontline is CRAP! I'm getting him some advantix today.

[kiesha09]

Righto - definately changing then.

[mumof3]

Haven't read the whole thread, but here is what I have learnt about fleas.

Get the dog's bed off the ground. Something they have to jump up onto, with air circulating underneath and no more bedding than is necessary. Bedding should be the sort you can machine wash and hang on the line in the sunlight to dry.

Sunlight soap kills fleas. Not their eggs though, but is useful for quickly and chemically free getting rid of the live fleas on a dog. I once got a puppy off someone and it was so overburdened with fleas that it's gums were white. Sunlight soap got rid of the live fleas. Poor little bugger - I took it home early (5 weeks I think) because of the terrible living conditions. Under different circumstances, and perhaps if I were a little older at the time, I would have reported the owner to RSPCA.

So, with Sunlight, massage well into dogs coat and let them run around like that for 15 minutes or so, then wash off really really thoroughly. It is pretty harsh, so you don't want a trace of that left on them.

Proactively treat for fleas when the weather turns warm. Get in first, before their numbers build up.

It's always good to try and go chemical free, but sometimes you just have to get the big guns in for everyones sake. Remember that herbal remedies also contain chemicals and are not necessarily safe and possibly not monitored in the same way other veterinary medicines are.

Flea bombs are the best - but read the directions and use enough flea bombs to do the whole house properly. Under treating with chemicals leads to parasites becoming immune to that chemical.

[Serket]

And we have DEAD fleas at last! Capstar is my new best friend - dead fleas in minutes.

I love having a dog that will eat anything you give her if you pretend it's a treat - smear peanut butter on tablets, ask her to heel/sit/stay/shake hands/etc and give her tablet as a reward She's a clever dog but the stomach always wins - two pretty big tablets whole one after the other (Capstar & Program). Now, :D for the total eradication of the nasty critters in the next few days

[~*Shell*~]

I haven't had a problem with fleas on Zero but Mow (my cat) has them at the moment (for the second time ever!) - they just won't seem to die! We flea bombed the house, top spotted Mow and washed everything 3 weeks ago after I found one on Mow and it looked like we were alright but a week ago i found another one on him so I top spotted him again. Tonight he was biting at his leg and when I got the flea comb out, I found another few on him.

I'm going to give him a flea bath, capstar and top spot him with a different treatment on the weekend, as well as flea bombing the house at the same time. I think I might set off more bombs than it recommends on the packet this weekend - it might be overkill but Mow really suffers when he has fleas. :nahnah:

[julesluvscavs]

We have been having the worse time atm with fleas on both the dogs and cats !!!!!!!! Arghhhhhhhhhhhh

We have bought capstar, washed them in a flea rinse, sprayed a flea spray on our bedding, lounge everywhere !!, washed everything in hot water. Yet to do the flea bombing , just that I am very reactive to chemicals, and I'm around the house heaps. So finding the right time to get it done is very difficult !!

I've not encountered such a horrible time with fleas in many years like now !

It seems to very wides spread atm going by this thread and other stuff I have read around the place!

I feel so bad seeing them scratch all the time, and they biting me too !!!

Hate them so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And to think we have been regularly treating them all with front line spray for months now, and paying heaps for nothing !!! :nahnah:

Edited April 21, 2010 by JulesLuvsCavs

[mantis]

I have never had problems with fleas since I started using Sentinel Spectrum 11 years ago. :nahnah:

[kiesha09]

And we have DEAD fleas at last! Capstar is my new best friend - dead fleas in minutes.

I love having a dog that will eat anything you give her if you pretend it's a treat - smear peanut butter on tablets, ask her to heel/sit/stay/shake hands/etc and give her tablet as a reward She's a clever dog but the stomach always wins - two pretty big tablets whole one after the other (Capstar & Program). Now, for the total eradication of the nasty critters in the next few days

Yay for Serket ;) :happydance2 That is great news!!!

I had never had a problem with fleas either while using sentinel spectrum but admittedly I did get slack with it and 'boom' the flea plague began.

Although we have almost been flea free for just under a week now. Fingers crossed it remains that way. Can anyone give me an approximation of how long it would take before you would start seeing them again on your dog normally?

ETA: Jules Loves Cavs, I hope that they settle down for you soon!

Edited April 22, 2010 by kiesha09

[freundhund]

I knew I shouldn't have read this topic this morning.

I have just found a speck of flea dirt on the Diva, but worse a hot spot starting. So back from the vet after an injection, antibiotic tablets, ointment and shampoo, I have been to Petbarn, couldn't wait for anything to come in the post, now have put Frontline on both of the dogs. The dog beds are in the washing machine, off to the supermarket for the flea bombs.

Being a woman can other women relate to the fact that I feel I now need to reclean my house and that I am a dirty person because my dog has a flea?

[Rysup]

Just a warning - I used Fido's Fre-Itch on one of my Lhasa Apso bitches. She promptly collapsed and stopped breathing. I was able to resuscitate her, but it was soooo very scary. I will not use this product again. She has since been safely treated with Advantage.

Frontline does NOT work here in Sydney, and I have known that for at least 7 years.

[Aziah]

Just a warning - I used Fido's Fre-Itch on one of my Lhasa Apso bitches. She promptly collapsed and stopped breathing. I was able to resuscitate her, but it was soooo very scary. I will not use this product again. She has since been safely treated with Advantage.

Frontline does NOT work here in Sydney, and I have known that for at least 7 years.

Wow sorry to hear about your girl, probably an isolated incident and she reacted badly as an individual... glad she is ok

Have a friend in a heavy tick area who has bathed baby puppies as young as 4 weeks in the solution to protect them and she's never had a problem, I've also used it on dogs of all ages without an issue.

ETA: however I recently treated one of my adult girls with a spot-on and she reacted badly, almost 'burnt' right along the line the liquid travelled so you never can tell.

Edited April 22, 2010 by Aziah

[Rysup]

I had never had a problem with it before this either. But it scared me enough not to use it on small dogs again. I would still use it on a bigger breed though. This little girl is all of 3kgs.

[Aziah]

I had never had a problem with it before this either. But it scared me enough not to use it on small dogs again. I would still use it on a bigger breed though. This little girl is all of 3kgs.

Same thing happened with the girl I have who reacted to the spot-on she hadn't done previously but I won't use it on her again just in case!

[Rysup]

Yes I had friends who's dog reacted very badly to a spot on, so that the skin had to be cut out, and the hole stitched up. This was a show dog too.

I had never had a problem with it before this either. But it scared me enough not to use it on small dogs again. I would still use it on a bigger breed though. This little girl is all of 3kgs.

Same thing happened with the girl I have who reacted to the spot-on she hadn't done previously but I won't use it on her again just in case!