and now we have fleas

juliefurry

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#1
I've been using frontline plus on the kitten since the day we brought him inside and on the dogs I've been using it for atleast a year.

Anyway today I notice fleas on the kitten:mad: . Well I'm guessing it's a flea it's burrowing through his fur but it's not jumping. Well Elwoods been itching lately so I check him and sure enough I notice a couple of the same bugs on him! So now I have to treat all the carpets and dogs and cats with a shampoo and then reapply the frontline I guess.

How can they get fleas if they have been on frontline for this long? I follow the directions and they don't get baths/go swimming for a couple days before/following the treatment.
 

juliefurry

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#3
not that I can tell it was just Elwood. I bathed everyone though. Elwood has a lighter coat than everyone else so it's easy to spot and the only reason I saw the bug on the kitten was because he has white on his neck/chest and their was flea dirt and then I saw the bug crawling. If he was all grey though I never would have seen it.
 

juliefurry

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#4
Well the flea bath didn't help:(. Mark picked up more frontline plus that we're going to put on everyone tomorrow afternoon to see if that will help. I don't see bugs on anyone but Elwood he was itching a little so I was brushing him and sure enough I saw atleast two little bugs crawling in his fur. I followed the directions on the shampoo perfectly and left it on the longest amount of time suggested.
 

juliefurry

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#6
To tell you the truth I don't know what they are. They don't look like ticks though and their not stuck in the dogs or cats they are just crawling on them. Well now just Elwood it looks like the cat is clean (for now) and so is everyone else.
 

Baxter'smybaby

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#7
you may need to have the vet take a look to properly identify....then fumigate the house and treat all the animals.
 

jess2416

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#8
You know its been awhile since we have seen pics of the girls...:)

Would love to see some :)
 

juliefurry

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#9
you may need to have the vet take a look to properly identify....then fumigate the house and treat all the animals.
Yeah I'm gonna have to get him in but we thought they were fleas. We are sprinkling stuff in the carpet and everything but Mark wanted to bomb the house but we can't with the birds and the fish tanks so we definetely have to find another way.

You know its been awhile since we have seen pics of the girls...

Would love to see some
I need a new camera:( . Ours fell off the refrigerator awhile ago and Mark thought he fixed it but it's not working again. I have pictures on a disposable but haven't taken them in to get developed and then I'd have to hook up the scanner and the store said that our printer won't work with the new window's vista program:confused: . I think they were lying trying to get us to buy a new printer though, ours in only like 3 years old.
 

Tazwell

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#10
You can sprinkle the carpet and furniture with Borax laundry soap, and let it sit, then vacuum. That gets them out of the carpet. Vacuum everything daily or twice or thrice daily, with a flea collar in the vacuum bag. Hopefully that will keep the fleas under control in the house.

Flea comb the dogs like crazy, and dip the comb in Rubbing alcohol after every couple of strokes to kill the fleas on it before they jump away or fall off.

And there's a pill called Capstar that's perfectly safe, and works wonders-- I used it on some flea infested foster cats. It makes all the fleas fall off of them in hours. It doesn't prevent them long term, but it can be used daily for a while. You would have to rid the house of fleas, and make sure they have frontline or Advantage on to keep the fleas from re-infesting.

And don't apply Frontline for at least 48 hours before or after a bath.
 

bubbatd

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#11
I've never really seen a flea " crawl " ....mostly jump . Have you tried Advantix ??? I think it works better than Frontline .
 

malmo

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#12
Milo's white hair and pink skin make it easy to see fleas, too -- and they definitely do crawl once they are on a host animal. They crawl super fast, too! If you can catch one, you're pretty speedy. Good luck getting rid of them -- it IS possible but it's work. UGH. If you have FleaBusters (google them?) in your area, I think they are totally great. The treatment we got 2 years ago (when I moved in only to find that the house was INFESTED) has lasted really well until the past couple of months. We also got the yard treated and if I had it to do all over again, I would sign up for their quarterly yard treatment. It's all eco friendly with no chemicals.

We need to get treated again. Worth every penny for the peace of mind, though it's a bit labor intensive on our part after they leave. We have hardwood floors and we have to sweep up everything ourselves, which takes a while.
 

juliefurry

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#13
Well we were going to go with advantage (advantix can't be used on cats our vet said). Luckily since this afternoon I haven't seen anymore on the animals. The couple vets that I talked to so far have told me that fleas are really bad now this time of year because of all the rain and everything. I think we caught it pretty early though.
 

lakotasong

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#14
If you've been using Frontline all along, you should be fine. If there are fleas outside, it is possible that they came along for the ride into the house and you may see them every so often on the animals. If they attempt to bite anyone, they will die because of the Frontline. So it's not likely that they'll survive very long in your house. Taking precautionary steps isn't a bad idea, though.
 

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