we have fleas

[gradyupmybutt]

I feel your pain. I've Frontlined, Advantaged, bombed washed & the buggers are still here. I think I have super fleas.

[smkie]

I have never put frontline or any other flea treatment on my dogs...other people say it is safe, but i just don't see how it could be long term. Soap and water kills fleas, especially if you let it sit on them for a few seconds, then i get a couple boxes of borax. You can find muleteam borax in the laundry section of the grocery store and i work it into the carpet, under beds, sweep it into the cracks of the floor boards. THis kills the larvae when they hatch. IN 30 years of running my own house i have never ever had fleas. Might find one that has hopped on from outside but that is the end of it. I bath my dogs at least one a week with my shampoo and creme rinse. THey have glorious coats, no odor, no flaking or itchy skin. THey are nice to pet, smell good, and people like having them around. Borax is cheap too, plus u wont have roaches, or ants a nice bonus. It is safe for us. I read about it in a Dog fancy magazine. A vet had posted the article because his daughter is allergic to pesticides, so am i, they give me migraines.

[makka619]

I have just discovered fleas too. I have been doing some reasearch. I found a good site with a lot of info on combating fleas around the home and yard and animals.
http://www.catsofaustralia.com/fleasgetridof.htm
http://www.howtogetridofstuff.com/pe...t-rid-of-fleas

I am going to start using advange each month for the cats and dogs.

Tomorrow, I am going to empty the entire house. Wash all the clothes, bedding in hot, soapy water.

I will probably throw out the dog / cat rugs and dog toys. I might keep a couple of favourites and wash them thoughroughly. I will buy some new ones after a few weeks of treatment.

Will rent a steam cleaner for upholstery and do the couches.

Will lay borax on the carpet, and broom it in, leaving it there for a few hours. Then vacuum. Going to get right into corners, dark crevices, under furniture, under beds and skirting boards with the vacuum nozzle. Think I might use the steam clean when I vacuum.. with vinigar mixed in. I plan to steam clean every week for a month. And regular vacuum every day.

For tiled floors, I plan to mix a soloution of hot water, borax and vinigar. Then get on my hands and knees and scrub every inch of the flooring.

Then I am going to spray the house with an incesticide. I still have to look into this one a bit more, and see what is available and best to use. The site says to make sure it contains IGR.

I plan to do the entire yard with the insecticide.

I think the oudoor dog chairs/trampoline beds etc will need to be thouroughly washed with hot soapy water. And sprayed too.

I have filled a bowl with water and soapy detergent. Hung a portable light not far above it, shining directly at it and left it in one of the rooms. Apparently the fleas are attracted to the light and will jump in the water bowl, but won't be able to get out. It will give me an idea if there are fleas in the house anyway. But I suspect they are if they are on the animals.

I have been a bit itchy lately and noticed some little bumps on my legs. I had no idea what it was I thought it was an allergic reaction to some plants while i was gardeing. When I realised my dog had fleas I started reading on the net on how to get rid of them I found out fleas will feed on humans too. So now I suspect that's where I have been getting those bites from. But I'm not sure. eek.

[wehkah]

My expierence with fleas....

Since I've got hunting dogs and they LOVE to chase the rabbits in the yard I've had to give my share of flea baths. The first time Tweeder got fleas, after his first rabbit, I was like "what the heck is that on your head??" Quickly I found out that it was a flea! Where there's one theres MANY! So I had to do the research. Things I found out:

1. Fleas HATE water! They can not swim and they sink. (tested this out in a glass once) So when you give them a bath and wet them down they always come to the surface unless they are latched.

2. I've always used the over the counter shampoo and it works great. The only thing that could be a problem is the fact that they have to stay lathered for up to 5min before washing off. My guys are pretty good with it though. No jumping out of the tub. Depending on how bad the fleas are may ditermine if you have to give more than one bath treatment.

3. Make sure you WASH all bedding where they've been and also vacuum! I've read that somewhere they some fleas can live a few weeks after a feeding, not sure how true that is though...

4. Alergic reactions to flea bites can occur upto 6mo after the initial bite. Even if the dog has been treated and has no signs of fleas. This is what happened to Tweeder. He started to loose his hair for no reason! We treated him holistically with garlic pills and it cleared him right up.


Rule of thumb in our house is that if they get a rabbit it's straight to the tub regardless if there is a flea on ya or not! Better to be safe than sorry. Other than that I do not treat my dogs with anything else.

[PoodleMommy]

Years ago we had a problem with fleas...we took all the animals to the groomer for a flea dip and bombed the house while they were gone.

About a year ago we had a problem again and gave all the animals frontline and cleaned all the bedding and toys, and that worked just as well.

I also want to post something I wrote to someone in a PM about a different topic... Paige dont let people tell you that you are a bad pet owner... some people on here like to pretend they are perfect and I am sure they are not and have made mistakes or had a problem with their animal as well... fleas can cause other problems (like worms)... so try and deal with it quickly (like it sounds like you are doing)... use the helpful advice you have gotten and ignore the comments that do not help you.

Good Luck... I had 5 animals in the house last time I dealt with this and it is a HUGE PAIN... I dont know if you have any animals besides dogs but if you do, dont forget about them.

Elissa

[darkchild16]

Walker got fleas when i took him to AL and so did Whisper and they were both on Advantage. Another time still on Advantage we took them Scirrocco and WAlker to an art show and they got fleas. **** happens. The best we have found that works so far is the Adams products. We have to be very careful not to have any fleas in the house because 1) Im allergic and 2) Patches is severly allergic.

We changed them to Frontline and have not had an issue since.

[PoodleMommy]

Originally Posted by darkchild16

**** happens.

well this is kinda what I was trying to say... but Breeze got to it with far less words.

[darkchild16]

LOL What can i say im a woman of few words and most of them bad . ^^^^

[Saje]

I don't treat mine regularly either. Steve won't touch them if they are covered in pesticides and I don't really like having it in the house. They have got fleas twice and I treat them as needed. It's easy for me to get rid of them. Once we used frontline from the vet (it's not OTC here) and this last time we used Zodiac. I didn't think that would work but it did. I guess they weren't that bad.

diatomaceous earth works well to kill fleas too. Get the kind that is edible for humans (health food store) and sprinkle it on their bedding. Mine have carpets in their crates and that's the only place we have carpet. You can put it in their coats too but it can be hard on the lungs so I don't use it much like that.

[darkchild16]

Saje its not OTC here really. you have to buy it at the front of whatever store you get it from adn only very few stores mostly chains have a licence for it.