Help! Fleas!

Does anyone else have bad fleas this year? I have four kitties, and now we are absolutely infested for the first time since we've had them---almost three years. Guess I've been living on borrowed time. I had read that flea collars were a big no-no, so avoided them. Have tried Advantage---twice---behind the neck, to no avail. Let off a fogger bomb in the downstairs of my house, but don't know if it was effective. I know you have to pull out all the stops to get to the solution, but I don't want to try anything else that might be harmful and/or ineffective. What are your experiences? Thanks for any input.

No flea collars. And definitely to Hartz flea and tick products - they can be deadly.

You have to let Advantage work. If there are fleas in the environment, then they have to jump on board the animals to be killed. You have to leave it on awhile to get all generations. Make sure you vacuum frequently to get up any eggs that have been laid after bombing. Bombing only usually works on the adults.

Check out the home forums in DG. I think somebody recommended diatomaceous earth on carpets and on pets . . .

Frontline works for me. I have had no flea problems around here this year, which has surprised me. In previous years the dogs, when they've escaped outside the bounds of the property where the deer are, have come home with ticks. Frontline takes care of that.

There is also Sentinel. And there's a new product called Comfortis that is supposed to work, as well.

My vets are recommending Revolution over Frontline, for reasons that now elude me. It's comparable in price. They sell it by single dose, which seems to work for my dog - she gets bothered about once a season, itching like a wild banshee. Took a couple days for it to take effect - although we took her camping at a mosquito infested lake right after treating her for fleas, so maybe she was getting bit up by skeeters along with her fleas.

Advantage does work for me and my three pets. Must be done consistantly. All the other products make my animals sick and they throw-up.

I use Advantage for my cats and Comfortis for my dog. I use them all 12 months of the year. No fleas.

Thanks, everyone! Keep the comments coming! Is there anything I can do to keep them off me?????

I've used diatomaceous earth to wipe them out in the house before, but it is a pain in the rear. You have to sprinkle it over your carpets and brush it down in with a broom. It creates clouds of dust. (you should wear a mask, and keep critters elsewhere until the air clears.) Then be prepared to dust every inch of your house, because everything will be coated with fine white powder. But on the plus side, it seemed to work pretty darn well. Bathing the critters with flea shampoo right around the same time you treat the house is helpful as well. (yes, I bathed all three cats in one day, and lived to tell about it. Barely.) ;)

In the dead of winter, when I don't want to spend money on flea meds, I remind myself that getting rid of those buggers is a real pain, and I get the meds. Maybe I'll print out Pony's post and put it on my refrigerator as inspiration.

Here's a list of your options and when to use/not use them.

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2111&aid=598

I wouldn't recommend BIOSPOT. Across the board, my friends and acquaintances in the animal community have found it a waste of money. Pyrethrins are thought to be safe, but when used in a large enough dose to kill they can cause reactions.

You can't keep them off you unless you use something topical and apply it regularly. You're better off using it consistently for several animal life cycles on the animals (and flea bombing your house for a couple life cycles as recommended) and getting rid of multiple generations.

Fleas can't live long without a food source. If you have a problem in the house and all the pets are treated, I would suggest that you make sure that you don't have a rodent or squirrel issue in the house or under the house. Sometimes people think their flea medication isn't working and it turns out that they have a steady stream of new invaders coming in from pests.

I thought fleas were somewhat like mosquitos and had a 'season' of sorts? Guess I'm just lucky my dog is only bothered occasionally, and have never noticed any problem with the cats (they live almost exclusively outside). Seems a spendy prospect to treat monthly, although perhaps buying by the pack is less expensive.

I also read in an Ann Lovejoy book that freshly grated citrus can be a deterrent - grate and rub into fur, sprinkle on animal's bed and carpets. It's worth a try, the worst that can happen is your animal and house smell fresh.

I do think they have a season outside, but that's just because they can't survive a freeze. It can get expensive to treat, but it's kind of like bedbugs, the expense to treat is worth it relative to the expense of getting them in the house. And if the animals are miserable . . .

IMO it's important to treat for ticks, too. We now have Lyme disease in Western Washington and you don't want to mess with that. Most of the tickborne diseases have pretty nasty consequences, including death.

There are those who buy larger doses and divvy them up among pets, but one has to be careful to make sure that he has the strength of the med as well as the dosage correct.

I was just reading that one of the reasons the Plague got a foot hold in Europe was because of the killing of cats. That caused the rodent population to flourish, which brought a lot of fleas with the disease.

Good info on the citrus, though that must be a nightmare for the cats - as a rule, they hate the smell of citrus . . .

You can order Advantage and Comfortis from Canada for a lot less money. They are the exact same meds, from the exact same companies.

Just ran across the literature on Revolution (selamectin). In addition to fleas, it also prevents/kills ear mites, mange mites, ticks, and heartworm. Sounds a bit lethal to me - glad my dog only needs it occasionally. It did seem to knock out her itching quite quickly - I never did see a flea. Wishing quick relief for all your itchy animals.

It's just important to be sure that you trust your source. There are a lot of impostor meds out there - I'm sure some come from Canada.

I think that Revolution's effectiveness isn't necessarily due to the toxicity/strength of the med, but the method of control and how it acts in the system.

I used Ivermectin successfuly on my Whippet to control demodex (the 'non-contagious' mange) years ago with absolutely no side effects.

I feel that I should mention again that dogs can carry the MDR1 mutation and that might affect one's choice of medication, so it's good to be up to speed on the likelihood that your dog has this and the status:

http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/depts-vcpl/

http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/depts-VCPL/news/ginger.aspx

You are all so knowledgeable---thanks! I was going to say I was told cats hate citrus, but at least it probably isn't toxic. Now if I could just eat an orange and have them go away....the fleas, that is....Judi, do you know of a specific Canadian web site for pet meds? Would it be Pet Meds? I am doing the fogger thing room by room. The instructions say to destroy pet bedding. That would be the entire house! I have so many piles of quilts, afghans, pillows, etc, I wonder if it can all be penetrated by the spray. Well, little by little, I hope to get at it. Maybe the la nina winter will kill some of the nasty critters off. This is far worse than when my son came home with head lice years ago! At least we just had to shampoo and very little else. Oooh! I remember how that itched! I was a mad woman!

I have used petdrugs.com. On of my MD friends recommended it - he also gets his human meds form Canada. Yes, you do have to be careful of your source, but Canada has similar laws and restrictions as we do, and in some cases more strict. There are lots of "imposter" sources in the US, too. I would be wary of third world sources.

ps - If your kid plays baseball, get their own batting helmet. Batting helmets are one of the most common means of transmitting head lice from kid to kid.

Velveteena - I'm sure fleas are killed by hot water and hot dryer. If you can't wash things, just put them in the dryer for awhile. If your dryer gets hot enough, that's supposed to kill bed bugs, as well.

In the meantime, you might try Off with Deet on your feet and ankles - it works for me with no-see-ums and those guys leave a welt that hurts for days.

If you have wood floors and area rugs, I think it would be a good idea to roll up the rugs and take them to be cleaned. This thread is making me itch.

The people who lived in our house before fostered dogs for the local humane society. As a result our yard and house were infested with fleas. I ordered foggers, spray and shampoo from Omaha Vaccine. That was almost 10 years ago, we haven't had a problem since. Wish I could remember what product I used, but the main thing is to treat EVERYTHING... house, yard and dogs/cats. Remember that with a fogger you need to remove you, aminals and plants from the area to be fogged. Washing bedding/quilts should take care of fleas there. Hope this helps you! PS I now live in northern Idaho, but used to live on the Oregon coast... talk about fleas!

Sprinkle borax into your carpets if you have them and brush it in ( like diatomatious earth, but cheaper). Leave it for a few days before you vaccum. It dries up the eggs so the don't hatch.

The Advantage is intended to work by having the flea bite the dog and then the advantage makes the flea unable to reproduce. So it is a 2nd generation thing. It works wonderfully well, but because the animals around here go outside, we have to keep using it for about 6 months a year. With 3 pets its an auto-dose thing, once a month after a bath.

Ya this is a BAD flea year.

That's interesting about fleas at your place. I haven't seen one. However, my place is fenced and the animals have been treated for a few years. I wonder if that just reduces the population in general . . . I would have thought that it would have been a bad flea year because the winter was so warm . . .

I haven't seen a single flea here, either. And with our overgrown back yard and plethora of wildlife, that's a big (and very pleasant) surprise.

I like the borax idea. I remember Ronald Reagan advertising "Twenty mule team Borax" on the TV way back when. I assume it was for doing the laundry, although that was also the brand of the very gritty hand soap in the school bathroom dispensers. At least it smelled OK, not chemically or perfume-y. Must try to find it at Safeway or Fred Meyer.

You can also try diatomaceous earth. That is a mineral product that is not toxic but which is reported to kill fleas...... I would do some google research on it before buying any, just because I remember using it myself a long time ago and there were some points of info I needed to make it work well. Can't recall just what they were but know they are out there!

I've got an itchy dog, assume it must be fleas, so off to the vet for a dose of whatever the latest recommendation is. Funny that I never see any sign of a flea either on her or in the house. She's also prone to UTI infections so I have to watch to be sure I'm treating the right problem. I think I have the UTI problem under control with weight loss and an herb/vinegar mix I've concocted (cross fingers).

May be other skin issues involved also..... hope your dog feels better soon!

Last time I took her to the vet with extreme itching, she was unable to find any fleas either but suggested trying a flea product before going into some sort of allergy testing. I've never had a high-maintenance dog before...

Do you give her a both often? That might do it. I try not to wash my dogs to often as I think it drys there skin. When they do get a bath I use an oatmeal shampoo from the pet store.
Hope you can find out what the problem is! Poor girl.

Deb, I don't remember what breed your dog is, but if you examine him/her and can't see any fleas or bites on the belly, it seems like something other than fleas might be involved. I do not use any flea meds on my dogs unless the critters are evident. I also only use baby shampoo on my Schnauzer as I know they have sensitive skin. She breaks out and itches quite a bit when the garden is in harvest as it is surrounded by grassy fields and there must be something there that kicks up her allergies. Itr has been a lot better since I don't allow her to run in the grasses there.

My last Schnauzer was very allergic to wool and no longer had problems once I got rid of the wool blanket, etc. I never did have to have tests, just did some trial and error to figure things out. Good luck. I know how uncomfortable it is for both you and the dog when there is lots of itching.

Diet might be a factor. That's where I'd look next..... so much of what we get sold to feed our pets is dreck, and in that way they are just like us, what we eat has a huge effect on the health of skin hair and actually any system of the body..... Vets, sadly, most of them, aren't going to go there. not sure why. maybe the same reason hospital food is so horrid. Not their specialty or something.......

*grumble*

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with your vet - when my dog started itching, the first thing my vet suggested was to change her food. Then she was fine - itching gone.

good! and glad it worked, too. :)

Koka (my dog) eats a refrigerated dog food - I think it's called Fresh Select. I'm not at home right now so I can't check. She's part coyote and tolerates this kind of food much better than other commercial dog foods. It's mostly meat with a few vegetables and a bit of brown rice. I also give her about 1/4 cup of Iams dry food every few days because she seems to like the crunch and it's good for her teeth.

Bonehead, I hope your little furry feels better soon!

Borax works very well as it is powdered all over the floor. The drying effect is super for the larvae, adult, and without any toxic effects. I would highly recommend it for about a month and then vacuum up the debris. Be sure to dump all vacuum contents into a distant garbage storage area because the vibration of vacuuming is a stimulant to hatching the eggs. There is a growth hormone also innocuous to you and animals. Revolution is my choice for flea control on your pet and I have seen very little toxicity to the pets.

I ended up taking Frankie to the vet because Revolution is what has worked best for her in the past and requires a prescription. (She was also due for rabies vac.) The first thing the vet's assistant advised was to change her feed (she gave me some to choose from) and to add fish oil to her feed. I'll give that a whirl and see how it goes. I, too, think it is likely not fleas but perhaps an allergy or skin irritation of some sort.

I rarely bathe her, she has very short hair and is a clean dog.

I'll also try the borax vacuum trick, even if we don't have fleas it will likely freshen up the house quite a bit.

Fish oils have a product called Icosopentic Acid and it helps reduce inflammation and that with the other EFAs help lube the skin and make life much more tolerable.

And I'm guessing will give her wonderful smelling breath! (She often has dead-animal breath, so I guess dead-fish can't be much worse...)

If she gets the right EFAs her breath will probably improve, right Steve? :)

No fish oils STINK and her breath will smell like dead herring. Sorry. Breath issues are a cause of tooth, mouth or stomach issues. If the teeth are clean use yogurt (active culture) and change foods to a different protein source. Talk to your vet for other ideas based on current metabolic issues.

oh well I tried. :)