Author Topic: Yikes! Fleas  (Read 5892 times)

Offline mamadog

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Yikes! Fleas
« on: July 05, 2005, 05:54:33 am »
I'm losing my mind! While combing my boy Finn I found a flea. No big deal, I'll just give him a flea bath. Turns out it wasn't just one or two, he had them pretty bad. How did I miss that? He had been itching, but I had looked at his skin and didn't see any. My girls had them too. I feel like a bad mom!
All 3 got put in the bathroom while I sprayed the house (especially their couch) and I washed all of the bedding. One by one they got a good flea bath, combed out, and flea drops. Then we all went for a walk because I sprayed again and the fumes were very strong. I wake up this morning to them all scratching again. Literally, their scratching woke me up. My guess is that they got them from the couch we got from a friend who was moving (they had a dog)
What more can I do other than bomb the house, leave for a few days? And the dogs would still have them! How do I get rid of this? It's driving me crazy!!!

Vicki

Offline greek4

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Re: Yikes! Fleas
« Reply #1 on: July 05, 2005, 06:56:59 am »
I had a flea infestion in the end of Feb.  I happened to be going out town so I bombed the house while I was gone.  Before I left I washed the dogs really well and washed them again when I got home.  The big things about getting rid of fleas is to spray your yard also, vacumn a couple times, throwing the bag away both times, vacumn the sofa.  Using carpet fresh also helps to get rid of fleas not sure why. 

I got the fleas from my own yard and woods so I try to spray every couple weeks to get the problem from coming back. But I saw a flea on my foot last week, so I am going to bomb again this weeked.  But I also had two dogs staying with me that might have brought those it.  Fighting bugs of any kind seems to be a never ending battle.
Thanks,

Emily and 1 husband, 1 boy, 1 on the way, and 4 crazy dogs

Offline Daffodil

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Re: Yikes! Fleas
« Reply #2 on: July 05, 2005, 10:19:41 am »
Are you also using Frontline?  We never spray the house or the yard (we live in the country, lots of buggies) and never have a problem if we use Frontline regularly.

Just a thought... :)

Daffodil

Offline greek4

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Re: Yikes! Fleas
« Reply #3 on: July 05, 2005, 10:21:48 am »
Are you also using Frontline?  We never spray the house or the yard (we live in the country, lots of buggies) and never have a problem if we use Frontline regularly.

Just a thought... :)

Daffodil

I don't know how you do it.  I always feel like I'm a dirty person when I see a bug in the house.  I am not a bug freak (except for ticks, I got Lyme disease when I was 12) but I don't like those little creatures.  Does anyone have a tick problem?  I use frontline and the ticks will still get on my dogs' fur but they won't burrow in.  Therefore the tick is getting a free ride into my house so they can plot to get me. :o :o
Thanks,

Emily and 1 husband, 1 boy, 1 on the way, and 4 crazy dogs

Offline jabear

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Re: Yikes! Fleas
« Reply #4 on: July 05, 2005, 10:29:24 am »
Poor Vicki and fur kids. You are not a bad mommy. These things can happen. Every once in a while when at my moms, Bear will get a flea in this head- right at the top where he can't scratch it. Even though he is on his Frontline, we still check every time we are there because it just latches onto him. Good luck in keepinghim flea free. Have you tried giving Finn and the girls garlic to treat from the inside in conjunction with the topical flea med on their fur? Just an idea, but it works well for Bear.
Hugs,
Jaime
  Mom to one handsome black Bear.

Offline Carolyn

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Re: Yikes! Fleas
« Reply #5 on: July 05, 2005, 11:24:55 am »
We had a problem this past winter with fleas, which also lead to a problem with tape worm. Vicious cycle. Ticks are a bigger problem for me with going out on the trails, we also have deer strolling thru the front yard. Along with frontline, I spray my dogs before we go out on trails with Guard-Star, A fly spray concentrate I use on my horses. Mixing directions are the same for horses/dogs. Its a never ending battle.
Carolyn
Carolyn

Offline Kermit

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Re: Yikes! Fleas
« Reply #6 on: July 05, 2005, 08:04:56 pm »
I, too, am feeling the flea pain. My animals are all on Advantage, but apparently my neighbors who have 7 dogs have never heard of flea control. Their fence backs right up to my fence, and just starting today every time my dogs come back from that area they have several fresh new fleas just getting comfortable on their legs. It's already making me crazy and I am afraid it has only just begun. Luckily I have no fleas in the house, so if I can just figure out some way to keep the fleas from crossing the border into my yard, all will be well... hehe fat chance... but I'm sure gonna try!!

Offline mamadog

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Re: Yikes! Fleas
« Reply #7 on: July 05, 2005, 09:14:48 pm »
Thanks everyone! No, I have not used Frontline on them. I got some flea drops that work the same way (though I don't know about the ingrediants being the same)
So far today I have blocked them from going upstairs. I took all of the bedding (ours and theirs) downstairs, along with all of the laundry or anything flea friendly. I vac'ed the rooms and then I used Murphys oil soap and Mr. Clean to wash down all of the walls and floors and furniture. I sprayed all over the room including floors and beds. Then I vac'ed again with a fresh bag.  I did this to every room upstairs and have kept it blocked off. All of the bedding has been washed with hot water and left in the dryer for an hour on hot. Then directly back upstairs. The livingroom still needs to be done this way, but the laundry is in a big pile in here and it wouldn't make sense to clean it if the laundry still has fleas in it. All of the dogs are still scratching, but I haven't found any fleas on them...maybe the old bites still itch? I got them some hydrocortisone spray for their itchies, but I can really only get bellies with it...hard to get through all the hair.  I haven't bathed them again cause I put the flea drops on them and I don't ant to wash it off... though I'm not keen on letting them back into my newly cleaned bed with them scratching still. The couch is getting vac'ed and sprayed down good tonight. I think that's where they came from. They lived on the coast right on the ocean and fleas are a big problem there... I should have thought to treat the couch before I took it inside, but they made no mention of fleas so I didn't think of it.
Is frontline expensive? and can I get it at a pet supply store or do I have to call the vet? Does it work well?
Anyway, I checked them all over by hand and found only one live flea on Finn, none on the girls. My husband vetoed me and is letting them sleep in the room tonight...but since they seem to be flea free I guess it's ok.
It's like the time my son got lice at school....what a mess!!

Vicki

Offline Kermit

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Re: Yikes! Fleas
« Reply #8 on: July 05, 2005, 09:39:37 pm »
Frontline and Advantage are the two big options for best flea control. I use both back and forth but seem to have better luck with Advantage. I bought one dose the other day for a whopping $16.00! Ouch! That lasts a month. If you buy a pack of 6 I think it ends up being cheaper. Of course it costs more for bigger dogs. Last I checked you have to buy it through a veterinarian, but my Petsmart has a vet clinic in there so that's where I got mine. It will kill every flea that's on your dog for several days after you apply it. I think it kinda fades away after that, but they claim that it works for a month.

Offline prfctdobiemissy

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Re: Yikes! Fleas
« Reply #9 on: July 05, 2005, 10:18:00 pm »
Frontline plus is the best! You don't need to use it every month. In fact I only use it about twice a year. You can get it really cheap online, the best price is at petshed.com. You can also get it at petsmart. ALOT more expensive though! But do not use flea shampoo or dips before hand. You could od your dog!

BTW, new here and I love it!