DOG FLEAS - merged

bulchy

You've done so much yourself, maybe you could ring your local council and see about getting the house fumigated. One of my neighbours has did this a few times, not sure about cost, but it would be worth giving them a ring to see if they can help.
Sue

golly99

I would suggest reading this thread:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=455741

and this:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=509100

I quote "please be aware that asking for or posting specific vet/medical/treatment advice will be against the rules and therefore removed"

This ain't the place to come for advice!

dogwoof

if you do not have any actual positive advice on the thread please do not post pointless negative comments.

i was actually asking for advice on buying/using various flea treatment, and there is a 'pets and pet care' section in this forum, i am getting advice elsewhere as well. obviously..... i am in conversation with my vet.

so please do not preach to me i have more important things to contend with!

Kimberley

dogwoof wrote: »

if you do not have any actual positive advice on the thread please do not post pointless negative comments.

i was actually asking for advice on buying/using various flea treatment, and there is a 'pets and pet care' section in this forum, i am getting advice elsewhere as well. obviously..... i am in conversation with my vet.

so please do not preach to me i have more important things to contend with!

Why are you having a go at her? You have to learn on this forum is that if you post threads you will get people posting on it whether you like what they say or not.

Your obviously new here so you have a lot to learn :rolleyes:

eviljim6

hey doogwoof,
I totally get the frustration, I have four cats who at one time or another have had fleas, including a 9 week old kitten which came with the monsters which is pretty serious.
I know you ask about a dog but fleas is fleas so I hope I can help.
First of all you are in the right time of year to be treating. As it gets colder, fleas breed less so now is the time to buy your home/dog spray (frontline).
Ensure you wash any bedding and spray that too.
I also use a Bob Martin powder on the carpets cos that gets into your hoover bag where flea eggs might be so kills them. Remember to empty your hoover bag also cos the little !!!!!!s can survive in there!
There are various cat/dog pills you can buy that make the fleas jump off so combine them with the powder and frontline and you should be cool just keep the frontline and powder/hoovering up once a month/spesh in summer.
Try internet vets for cheaper remedies although the most effective frontline I got was from the vet.

Sorry for the long post, just have had a lot of bloomin' flea experience!

Hintza

Ach, whits a few fleas amongst friends?

Just use your powder and hoover frequently and try not to scratch too much.


They will go eventually. Wait till you get a few ticks in your oxter!

Petethevet

Hmmm, being new here, didn't realise you weren't meant to recommend anything. Especially in a professional(ish) capacity.

The problem with most flea treatments from vets is that they are Prescription Only, and legally you should see the vet for a consultation before getting most of the decent products.
If you want to really hit the fleas effectively, you HAVE to treat the house as well as the dog - 90% of the flea life cycle occurs in the carpets and not on the dog.
So:
1)Buy some Frontline, apply it as per instructions. Frontline is available over the counter; Frontline Combo is a slighlty more powerful version that needs a prescription. Frontline has a residual action that lasts for 2 months on dogs, but if he's really heavily infested it may not kill all of them (in my experience).

2) Hoover your entire house every day for a week (what fun!). Make sure you move sofas etc out the way, and do down the back of the sofas too - the flea larvae and pupae love warm dark spots. The reason you're doing it for a week is that the pupae are resistant to most treatment, but the vibrations caused by regular hoovering should encourage the pupae to hatch out and then get killed when you treat the house (Hopefully you'll suck a few up too!)

3)After a week of hoovering, use a can of spray to treat the whole house, as per instructions. Probably best to get it from a vet; a couple of products off the top of my head are the Acclaim spray or the RIP flea spray. Both around £15. This treatment be effective for a year. Bob Martins, as mentioned above, is a reasonable product but doesn't have soem of the extra bits in that help prevent an missed eggs/larvae etc to develop into adult fleas.

4)Wash any dog beds at at least 60 degreees - lower than that and you won't kill the eggs etc.

If you do that you should hopefully get the problem under control. Keeping up to date with a regular treatment applied to the dog (e.g. Frontline) should stop the build-up of eggs again, but does cost more.

Your vet should really give you most of this info, especially if he/she is flogging you the products you are using.

Good luck!

eviljim6

Petethevet wrote: »

Hmmm, being new here, didn't realise you weren't meant to recommend anything. Especially in a professional(ish) capacity.

The problem with most flea treatments from vets is that they are Prescription Only, and legally you should see the vet for a consultation before getting most of the decent products.
If you want to really hit the fleas effectively, you HAVE to treat the house as well as the dog - 90% of the flea life cycle occurs in the carpets and not on the dog.
So:
1)Buy some Frontline, apply it as per instructions. Frontline is available over the counter; Frontline Combo is a slighlty more powerful version that needs a prescription. Frontline has a residual action that lasts for 2 months on dogs, but if he's really heavily infested it may not kill all of them (in my experience).

2) Hoover your entire house every day for a week (what fun!). Make sure you move sofas etc out the way, and do down the back of the sofas too - the flea larvae and pupae love warm dark spots. The reason you're doing it for a week is that the pupae are resistant to most treatment, but the vibrations caused by regular hoovering should encourage the pupae to hatch out and then get killed when you treat the house (Hopefully you'll suck a few up too!)

3)After a week of hoovering, use a can of spray to treat the whole house, as per instructions. Probably best to get it from a vet; a couple of products off the top of my head are the Acclaim spray or the RIP flea spray. Both around £15. This treatment be effective for a year. Bob Martins, as mentioned above, is a reasonable product but doesn't have soem of the extra bits in that help prevent an missed eggs/larvae etc to develop into adult fleas.

4)Wash any dog beds at at least 60 degreees - lower than that and you won't kill the eggs etc.

If you do that you should hopefully get the problem under control. Keeping up to date with a regular treatment applied to the dog (e.g. Frontline) should stop the build-up of eggs again, but does cost more.

Your vet should really give you most of this info, especially if he/she is flogging you the products you are using.

Good luck!

HEY! That's what I said (in a nutshell!!!)
Only joshing Petethevet. I hope you are a vet cos we need one on this forum!
(cue 100 million pm's about individual pet problems:rotfl: )

eamon

The posters are correct You must let the frontline do its job i.e. don't wash the dog. The same applies to flea powders etc. Apply liberally and leave to work, when you think its done its job (5-7 days) hoover it up and start again. It can take over 2 weeks to really kill an infestation. Check out the net for the flea life cycle etc, there is no magic bullet only perseverance!

dogwoof

thanks for all the advice to everyone who replied with advice......its so nice to receive support and advice from you all! :j

we will deeeestroy the fleas!....or thats what im hoping!

weve been using RIP spray since last saturday and hoovering (we both work full time) yet now we've run out.

the thing is i hate breathing in the chemicals! should we buy a gas mask???
i dont want us to damage ourselves. but i think the spray is the only thing that is going 2 work?

i only found out yesterday that the Frontline we gave the dog on saturday may not have worked as we gave him a bath the day before, no-one @ vet mentioned this would stop it from working. So i had to give him another dose (after checking with the vet) yesterday is this maybe why we've still got them?

but still we've been using RIP since staruday and we still have them.

the pain in the backside thing is we can only do the hoovering when we come in at night, the little blighters are sitting having a gr8 time, festering away in our house while we are out at work!!!!

we dont know whether to buy sum more from the vets??

the vets said they have a groomer onsite who would clip him which may make it harder for the fleas on him to survive (as they could get into the skin better - our dog is a black poodle - fur like wool - tricky!)

For example the other night i sprayed the upstairs hall, and then in the morning, there were still ones jumping on me! its grossssssssss! arghhhh!!!!!!!

i hate rats but even i would rather have an infestation of rats, at least you can see them!

i may have 2 call in a professional guy who said he could fumigate the house for £55+VAT.

what dy think? at the moment we are not sure what 2 do next?

thanx