My dog has fleas!

Just got back from vacation to a sad thing, my dog has fleas. We never had an issue but apparently the folks who watched our dog did. Now he is a Shih Tzu so he is an indoor dog. I also have a cat who stayed home but now they are sharing our living space.
Going to go out tomorrow and buy some treatments. Wife is freaking out. What is the best way of treating?

I saw the title of your thread and laughed when I found out that it was actually about fleas. I'm a ukulele player and the first thing I thought of when I saw it was tuning the 4 strings to G-C-E-A to which people sing "My dog has fleas!" as the notes are played. Sorry but I have no advice on actual fleas!

Bath with a flea soap, and then use frontline monthly. Best to do both dog and cat.

I have only used the spot treatment that you apply on the back of the neck. It works well so never looked for any other methods.
This is the brand I've used for years http://www.pet.co.nz/product/dog/for-dogs-4/9435
Just changed to a similar brand on recommendation from my vet. Works but so did frontline except this one is cheaper.
The vet also said there was flea treatments that is combined with a worm pill available, if you have problems apply to the neck.

Either your vet or pet shop should be able to advise on something that fits your needs.

mikelz777 said:

I saw the title of your thread and laughed when I found out that it was actually about fleas. I'm a ukulele player and the first thing I thought of when I saw it was tuning the 4 strings to G-C-E-A to which people sing "My dog has fleas!" as the notes are played. Sorry but I have no advice on actual fleas!

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Hah thats what I thought, too!

Break the life cycle of the fleas. I don't recall the exact cycle times but I shared a house with a friend back in my late teens/early 20s who had a cat. It went in heat and a stray scratched through the plastic accordion wings on our window air conditioner to get her. Not only did he impregnate her he also gave her and the house fleas. The fleas were so bad that when you walked through the house you could see them jump out of the carpet in clouds. We had to clean the cat and bomb the house 4 or 5 times every 6 or 8 days to finally kill them all. If you have to bomb the house then you'll need to wash all your clothes and linens and when you bomb don't forget to shut off all the electricity at the circuit box so you don't have an explosion/fire.

Definitely get Frontline. It may be expensive, but you'll waste a lot more money on cheaper stuff that doesn't work. You'll also save yourself a lot of time and aggravation. Trust me, I went through this with two cats. I went as far as shaving them with no luck until I got the Frontline. Also, just to give you a heads up, pets that have fleas usually end up getting worms from ingesting the fleas. Best of luck to you.

mikelz777 said:

I'm a ukulele player and the first thing I thought of when I saw it was tuning the 4 strings to G-C-E-A to which people sing "My dog has fleas!" as the notes are played. Sorry but I have no advice on actual fleas!

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I actually worded it this way on purpose



I have some topical stuff for the dog and cat but what about the carpet and couch?

Brake out your razors, Its time to



your dog.

Forget Frontline. In my experience with this exact situation, it was worthless. Talk to your vet and get scrips for Revolution for both the dog and cat. You should start vacuuming daily, including the upholstery of the furniture. Comb both animals with a flea comb every day. It took about 30-45 days of this regimen (after we started with Revolution) for it to go away for good.

You can get a pill called Capstar that will immediately kill ali the adult fleas. Immediately might be a little exaggeration, but within 30 minutes you will see dead fleas. Only problem is that I don't believe it kills baby fleas. You can do a search and see the flea life cycle. They are susceptible to different poisons at different stages. The main thing is preventing the larvae from reaching adulthood where they make more. Front line and some others help with that thereby ending the flea cycle.
If you have rugs then you must vacuum and dispose of the bag. Best thing for floors might be to buy an insecticide that has Nylar which is a growth hormone inhibitor. Spray on rugs and leave home for a few hours with pets to keep them safe. Then vacuum repeat as necessary.
For pet beds and your own bedding (if cat and dog gets up there) wash in hot soapy water.

If you go the flea comb route, have a cup of water with soapy water (not bubbly) just fill a cup with water and drop some dish soap (like dawn) in cup. Then add you comb pet, drop any fleas that come off into cup and you will watch them die. The soap is necessary, plain water they will just swim and jump out.

If you need to spray your yard use the same Nylar IGR. Good thing it is heading toward winter.
The type of worms animals get from fleas are tape worms. Not all work medicine will kill the tape worms so make sure you get the right stuff from the vet. You will know if they have worms if you see tiny rice looking stuff on their hind hair.

We use front line every month now on our dog and cats and on the stay cat that has adopted our yard as a resting place. To make it less expensive we buy the front line for the largest size dog and then use a 1ml syringe to measure the dose for our small dog and cats. Front line is safe to do this however not all flea medicine that can go on dogs can go on cats. Some will kill cats, be careful. Any leftover front line I save in a glass vial with screw top for next month.

Hope this helps and do some research. You'll get on top of it.

Oh also you could bathe dog and cat with dish soap instead of flea soap. Will kill the fleas just as well. Just won't get the babies. Sometimes it takes awhile but within 2-3 months you should be flea free.

Frontline has stopped working at all on fleas in my area. We switched to Trifexis, an all-in-one heart worm and flea medication that so far is effective, but unfortunately it costs a fortune.

I thought front line stopped working too, but now I wondered if I was just not getting it from a reputable source.
Two years ago it was very bad. But maybe spraying the yard helped with that. Front line is now working again. No fleas since I had that bad year.
BTW... Fleas love cats more than dogs. If your dog brings them in, your cat will get them.

Oh and fleas don't like people that much, so you are safe unless you are really infested. Ugggg don't even want to think of that many fleas.

Another vote for the ukelele first though.

For some reason that made me think of strange brew(the movie) although that wasn't ukelele. Probably a flute do do do da dodadoo

Save your money. Grab your dawn dish soap, give the dog a bath. Only use dawn monthly on a dog because it strips the oils from its skin. Won't hurt the dog at all and kills those fleas.

Then buy a indoor flea spray at your local pet store and spray your house. Works for us anytime we have the random outbreak.

Flea-bomb your house. The house must be evacuated for a couple hours. This will likely have to be done more (over a few months) than once since the bombs do not kill the eggs. Flea shampoo for the dog. And something other than Frontline. I treated my two dogs with Frontline one week prior to moving to SC a few years ago. A few days after my arrival, both dogs had fleas bad. I may as well have sprinkled them with water. Frontline is junk. I have since moved back to WI and have been using K9 Advantix II, which ironically is manufactured by the same folks that make Frontline. Like others have speculated, perhaps it's just the location and how tolerant the local fleas are to various anti-flea chemicals. To check periodically for the presence of fleas, put on light-colored socks and shuffle around your carpeted areas. Fleas are attracted to light colors and will jump onto your socks. And those little buggers can leap great distances, for their size.

mikelz777 said:

I saw the title of your thread and laughed when I found out that it was actually about fleas. I'm a ukulele player and the first thing I thought of when I saw it was tuning the 4 strings to G-C-E-A to which people sing "My dog has fleas!" as the notes are played. Sorry but I have no advice on actual fleas!

Click to expand...

thats ok. When I read it I thought "when a problem comes along, you must dip it". Of course, I am a bit off.