Oh Geez Fleas!!

[M&M&Em]

Hi all,

 

I'm not on here very often, but I sure could use a little advice about now!! I hadn't seen a flea in um, maybe 8 years, until last fall. Someone brought a flea-ridden puppy in my house for 10 minutes before I saw the fleas and (politely?) asked that she take a hike. Sure enough, 30 days later I had a flea problem, and had to use way more pesticides than I enjoy to get rid of them. I bombed the house, used a series of Frontline, flea baths, then two series of Revolution. I have two BC's and an Aussie.

 

Two weeks ago, we saw our first fleas of this year. I can only assume they're survivers from last fall or came in on a visitor again.

 

I really hate pesticides... and the Aussie really does too! Seriously, like he's being tortured. I put the stuff on him, and he paces, hides, sulks, whines, and generally tries to get out of his own skin. (The BC's think he's crazy). The Aussie is pretty sensitive to the flea bites too, he can't stop itching. But not everywhere like his skin is sensitive to the pesticide, only where there's a bite, which is usually visible.

 

Well, I treated them with Frontline when I saw the first flea. It's been just under 2 weeks. Guess what? Fleas are still crawling on my dogs! The Frontline obviously isn't effective in this case. Frontline tells me it is NOT a bad batch, that the fleas are just jumping onto my dogs when I see them and it takes time to die. I don't believe this to be true - I'm seeing large adult fleas on all three of my dogs, who are the only animals in the house.

 

Anyway, my question is, what type of topical pesticide can I use on my dogs that will have a minimal impact on their health? Their health is suffering right now (at least the Aussie's is) due to the flea bites.

 

Anybody have experience on a fast, successful flea treatment? Opinions on the best topical remedy, i.e. Advantage, K9 Advantix, Revolution, Frontline, etc?

 

Thanks for listening to my dirty little secret. I'm desperate!

 

-Liz

[lrayburn]

Liz,

Check out my post in this forum on Comfortis. I used it for the first time this month. It's oral so you could go ahead and use it now even though you recently used a topical. It kills fleas within 30 minutes (like Capstar) and continues to kill them for a month. I haven't seen a flea on any of the dogs (there are six) since the afternoon I gave them the Comfortis.

 

I am really happy with how Pip Squeak is doing on it. She gets flea dermatitis and did a lot of scratching with the Frontline - I think because it can take so long for Frontline to kill fleas (I think up to 48 hours). It's not cheap but I'm using it for a couple of months to break the cycle then I will consider something less expensive.

 

Good luck!

Lisa

[Sue R]

Liz - I had used Frontline Plus successfully for many years, until this year. We rarely got fleas here (only one other year when they were brought in, as in your case, on visiting dogs). I generally only used Frontline Plus when I was going somewhere with the dogs where I knew fleas could be a problem.

 

However, after this very mild winter last year, we seem to have resident fleas (our neighbors also have three-four outdoor dogs that didn't used to live there, and could also be a source) in our fields. The Frontline Plus was doing nothing to control or eliminate them that I could see. In addition, we did visit relatives who told us (afterwards) that their dogs had Frontline-resistant fleas. So, it seems like it was a double-whammy for our dogs (and Lisa's - see above - as we then visited her and left some little visitors with her dogs).

 

When, after a couple of months of using Frontline Plus more often than recommended, adding garlic to the diets for flea repellent values (I think it was totally useless, and finally discontinued it - the dog that ate it the best and the most, also seemed to have by far the most fleas), using some sprays, washing bedding and cleaning house, etc., I tried Advantix (on the dogs, and Advantage on the cats and house rabbit). BINGO! We had control.

 

Now I know that the dogs pick up some fleas from the fields but, when I find one, it's generally already bitten a dog (and therefore we do have a bit of itching, but nothing at all like before) and showing signs of lethargy (or is dead). I am thinking that rotating flea treatments at some interval (yearly? every few years?) might be something that could work for me in dealing with resistance in fleas here at home.

 

One thing I have noticed is that when the dogs are simply picking up occasional "new" fleas from outside, they seem to all be pretty sizeable, mature fleas. When we were not getting things under control in the house, I was seeing younger, immature fleas, which I am sure were the result of flea eggs hatching in the house.

 

Best wishes! Fleas are a worry for us and a misery for the dogs.

[trailrider]

Years ago a new family moved into the farm across the road. They had cats who spent most of their time in my barns. Fleas for the first time. I didn`t even notice until I was visiting a friend with my 3 dogs, and she pointed out the flea dirt, etc . I had no smarts about fleas. The vet gave me advantage. No luck at all. With advice from some good ol codgers, I got rid of them on my farm. I used a mixture of rotenone powder(0.6 % livestock louse powder) and diatomaceous earth. In/under the dog houses, under the couch cushions, under the baseboards, chairs, beds, all furniture,around the outside dog pens, under the bed, and on the dogs rubbed in to the longest hair. So far, no fleas for the last 18 years. One day I was surprised to see this mixture in powder form as a product in a hardware store. Maybe ol great minds think alike.

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

I use DE and Sevin around the yard (I have to be careful with the ducks to put down things that are less harmful). That's helped some.

 

What finally broke the cycle in the house was using Program. For the curious, I've been cutting the large size in two for all my gang and it's working fine. Fleas aren't a life or death issue so unlike the HW pills I personally have no qualms over the idea of getting the occasionally unevenly distributed product.

 

I also got a shop vac to replace my dying regular vacuum and I've been using it once or twice a day. I have unsealed hardwoods so this makes a big difference too.

 

I did have to resort to Chemicals of Death on the dogs and the floors and dog bedding. I hated to do it and significantly, two weeks later Ben crashed with elevated liver values, so I'm sure the Chemicals of Death didn't help there (I don't think they were to blame though, just lowered his resistance). I used a shampoo on the dogs and a spray on the floors, both with an IGR. The IGR is important.

 

What I did was clean the whole house top to bottom, wash all bedding, put a couple of flea collars in the shop vac bag and vacuum and spray the floors. Then I gave everyone the Program, then thoroughly bathed them, following the directions on the bottle to the letter (you should see that operation!).

 

Following that operation, I vacuumed every day at least, and once a week repeat the bathing of the dogs. I get an outbreak around that time of live fleas from fertile eggs that are left from previous infestations. The floors only need to be sprayed every three weeks or so. I'm hoping I can skip it this time.

 

Eventually every flea egg that is still fertile will hatch here, and then those fleas will be sterilized and/or killed. It's almost over - it takes about two months usually. Remember without being able to kill fleas right on the dog, you will see an outbreak every week or so for a while unfortunately. But, I started out with a really awful problem and now just see a little itchy scratch at the weekly breakout. I can run a comb through Zhi and find a flea on her long before they become a problem on the other dogs.

 

I can't believe Frontline is hiding their heads in the sand over this. Oh wait, yes I can. Just a couple years ago, if I had any fleas at all (like a new dog coming in), I'd apply the Frontline and within a day they were gone - vamoosed. It was like magic - the dogs didn't even itch much after application.