Help with fleas?
Both of my dogs and my cat have fleas so badly at the moment. It is the end of summer so hopefully they won’t be around for much longer, but in the mean time, they are driving my animals nuts! We’ve tried every single over the counter flea product from washes to lines and topspots to collars to tablets and we can’t get rid of them for more than a day. It’s gotten to the point where every second day i’m taking to the animals with a flea comb and tweezers. Even with this, the fleas are back within a day. And i’m not talking about a couple of fleas, i’m talking about 30-50 fleas. I feel so bad that my pets have these and it’s flaring up an eczema type rash on my malamute. What can i do? Any home remedies to get rid of fleas and help stop the itch on the animals? thanks!
We’ve tried Frontline, Advantage, Advocate, Capstar, Exelpet, basically everything you can buy. All of them worked for around 2 weeks then haven’t worked at all since.
The fleas are in the grass….we’ve tried killing them off and they just come back in the grass to. WE HAVE TRIED ALL!! COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS. PLEASE RECOMMEND NATURAL PRODUCTS.
August 3rd, 2011 at 1:36 pm
Have you tried Frontline or Advantage? I don’t know if they’re available where you are, or under the same brand name; but those are the most consistently effective flea treatments I know of. You’ll also want to treat your home with an area spray that includes an IGR (insect growth regulator); then sprinkle the rug and any place with small nooks and crannies with ground diatomaceous earth.
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August 6th, 2011 at 2:36 am
Read the long answer I wrote for the person a few spaces above you asking a similar flea question. Are you bathing your dogs right before (or after) you put on Advantage or Frontline? Because if you are, that will make the produce ineffective.
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August 8th, 2011 at 8:36 pm
Try “Revolution”, it’s another type of drops on back, that’s effective for more parasites than just fleas here in Canada.
Gd. luck.
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August 11th, 2011 at 3:36 pm
Okkies constantly using every flea treatment known to man doesn’t actually make it any better. You are actually making it worse as the poor dogs skin is completely dried out and the biting fleas will be hurting your dog even more.
What you need to do is stop everything. Find the sourse of the fleas. It may be theneighbours animals, it may be under the house where the dog lays in dry dirt (which fleas love), it may be the long grass out the back, it may be the dog park where you take your dog. After you found the source treat it. Close off dirt area, cut the grass, let the nieghbours know of the flea problem of their animals, don’t go to the dog park ect.
Then you need to start a flea treatment and stick with it and do not give up and try something new. Most home remidies i have heard do not work and I have heard some strange ones (as I work as a vet nurse). Although flea do drown and putting your dog in water completely for a long time may help although malamutes have very think fur and will probably have air pockets within the coat so this will probably not work unless you go to the beach and stay in the water with ya dog for ages.
Now on with the man made treatments. Firstly I would use the proper doses of Capstar for your dog for 2 days. It only works for 24 hours at a time and is not dangerous for your dog. On the same day you give your dog a capstar go wash all dog bedding and toys and hang out in the sunlight. Wash and vacumm all floor inside and sweep up garden and do a genral clean up outside. You can buy a outdoor spray for fleas at a hardware if you have any really infested spots.
On the second day yuo give your dog capstar also give your dog a treatment of frontline plus. The right dosage. Make sure you weigh your dog as many give wrong doseage and wonder why it doesnt work. Frontline is also the only top spot that has 2 active ingredients to kill 2 different stages of flea life. Ruining the flea cycle. By the way make sure you dog has not been washed for at least 4 days (ussually 2 days but sounds like your dogs skin super dry).
Now just wait and keep washing bedding, toys, vaccuming and keeping outside clean. Now religiously every 4 weeks to the day put the top spot (frontline plus prefferebley) properly. Make sure to get to the skin not the fur. A little hard on a malamute by other wise don’t bother to put it on as it won’t work. Ans make sure to run it all the way from the shoulder blades to the base of the tail. Many just pop it on between the blades which is wrong on big dogs.
Keep it up and do not wash your malamute more than every 4 weeks. I would do it every 8 weeks just before you put the frontline on. Remember it must be at least 2 days before you put frintline on as after a wash there are no oils in the skin and the frontline just evaporates. Use a good conditioning shapoo for your dogs dry and itchy skin.
Hope that helps, the key is persistance and do NOT keep using heaps of products. By the way flea combs are good and can be used as much as pobbible.
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August 14th, 2011 at 2:36 pm
well its because the fleas are in stuff like there bedding and in other things think carpets and other things u need to wash it all or get some flea spray for ur funi and at the same time do it to ur pets good luck with the fleas
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August 17th, 2011 at 4:36 pm
If you haven’t had luck with Frontline etc you’re not going to fare better with natural products, believe me! Fleas are not troubled by ‘natural’ products.
Have you treated your house at all? This is absolutely essential, especially in this extreme a case. Get a decent housespray like Staykil, Acclaim, Indorex or Skoosh and BLITZ the place. Everywhere – including soft furnishings curtains.
You can also get stuff for spraying outside though I’ve never had to use it. It is absolutely essential to treat your house however. You will probably need to spray, vacuum the next day then repeat the process two weeks later to get any eggs that will have hatched.
There are two things that are important to do with spot-ons like Frontline/Advocate:
1) Get the stuff completely on the animal’s skin, not their fur.
2) Do NOT bath the animals before applying it – you need to wait 48 hours after bathing before you can apply spot-ons.
Chalice
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August 20th, 2011 at 3:36 pm
DO NOT USE FRONTLINE OR ADVANTIX!!!
Please visit http://search.onlynaturalpet.com/search.aspx?searchterms=flea-tick-control for natural SAFE & effective products & http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/KnowledgeBase/knowledgebasedetail.aspx?articleid=53&Keywords= for more information.
Please, be very weary of vets & commercial products!
And remember: the best parasitic repellent is a HEALTHY animal, something yours will most certainly not be should you opt for the chemically laden & immune surpressing spot-on treatments, collars etc. !!!
Good Luck
vet nurse, feel free to email
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