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So my dog has fleas. I hate fleas. I mean loathe them. They are an affront to the very essence of my being. And to the very hair of my legs. I love my dog however, so nuking him, drowning him, shooting him into space, etc, are not options. We have flea medicine, but that's not working. We gave him a flea bath, but that didn't work. I fogged the house with bug bombs and that didn't work.
Right now we're using Advantage but its not working. At first when it was just a couple fleas I figured it was ok, they would just die off. But they haven't been dying off and their have been more and more. So I'm thinking Advantage isn't working.
I heard Advantix is good, but I called around to a few vets and can't find it here. I'd like to just get one month to see if it works before investing in 4 or 6 months. One vet recommended Comforbus or something that sounded like that (he had an accent so I'm not really sure). He said it was a pill so it worked really well. But, he would only sell it to me if I my dog was a patient there, which he's not. I hear Frontline is good, but that it takes a few months to start being effective, and I want these buggers gone now.
Any suggestions? The dog is a Australian Shepherd mix (we don't know with what. We found him on the street about a year ago), so long hair, about 60-65 pounds.
Posts: 2827 | Registered: Jul 2005
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We use Frontline on all three of our dogs and it has been very effective for us (as well as tick control too). Fleas are tough because of their lifecycle. You can kill them but around 28 days later the eggs hatch and they come back
Posts: 1918 | Registered: Mar 2005
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You might try shaving him in addition to whatever drugs you use to combat the fleas. Also, set out trays of soapy water with incandescent bulbs suspended above them. The fleas will be attracted to the bulb's heat, leap at it, fall into water, and drown. If you use plain water, though, they'll often manage to get out.
[Edit - I'm not sure that the shaving would help, but it seems like it would. The trays of soapy water, though, are effective. We had a dog who brought fleas into the house when I was a teenager, and it was astonishing how many fleas the trays killed.]
Posts: 1087 | Registered: Jul 1999
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We had a minor flea breakout and the vet in the office gave us a pill that would kill any fleas alive on the dog (wouldn't kill eggs though) and then we did new Advantix and then flea baths. This was when we brought home evil puppy who was too little to use the regular flea meds and he gave the fleas to the other dog. We did then learn that kitty Advantix can be used on puppies. So, we did that and then we washed everything they had contact with twice, vacuumed everything, cleaned everything else and then did daily vacuuming for a few weeks until like 40 days after our last flea (to get any eggs that survived and became adults).
ETA- flip the order of flea bath and new advantix- new advantix came after the bath (otherwise it would be useless).
Posts: 2223 | Registered: Mar 2008
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We got something from the pet store. It is a spray that is clove and peppermint oil. It seemed to do the trick in our house and you can use it on most anything. It does smell like a bunch of hippies live in our house though.
Posts: 204 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I did a lot of research a few years ago when one of the dogs brought fleas in and infested the cats and the whole house. The bug bombs are pretty much useless, judging by the reviews I found. What has worked well for us is keeping up the monthly treatment on the animals plus lots of vacuuming. Put a flea collar in the vacuum bag to kill any that you pick up, otherwise apparently they can just hop right back out again after you turn it off. I also picked up carpet spray that was supposed to kill fleas and disrupt their life cycle, but I was leery of using it when I was pregnant, so I never tried it. Just vacuuming and treating the animals turned out to be effective enough, anyhow. Oh, and we just use the Hartz flea treatment, and it does a perfectly fine job of killing the fleas. It does seem to take a couple of days to soak in and not be oily, though, so I'm considering changing over to Advantage.
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If you can put down cyprus mulch outside, it also has an anti-flea property to it that should help keep the dog from getting reinfested.
Posts: 2283 | Registered: Dec 2003
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Revolution works for our indoor/outdoor cat, but I have no idea if it works as well for dogs. It's also a heartworm (and other parasites) preventative, and it's pricey for the cat so I can't imagine how much it would cost for a larger animal.
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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