Fleas help !!

karenscollie

m 6 year old collie and 16yr old cat have been scratching alot for the last month,have frontlined them both infact have used the pack as it didnt seem to work which surprised me ....have bathed collie in medicated shampoo etc , about 20 mins ago OH came to me in kitchen and said "whats this?" on a piece of paper was a flea!! He said it was on his leg !! Does that mean i have an infestation in my home ?? Whats the best route from now? do i ring my vet for something for my home? or is there something i can by online? not needed anything like this for over 15 years so dont know what the best stuff is ?
Feel really itchy now ...:mad:
any advise is appreciated
Thanks karen

bedpotato_2

If there are fleas on your pets, there are fleas in your house. Only a very small percentage of fleas will be on the animals at any one time. The rest will be all over your house. Contrary to popular belief fleas do not "live" on animals. They live wherever they happen to be (whether in houses or outdoors) and they just hop on to animals when they're hungry, and then normally hop off again. They will have hitched a ride indoors on one of your pets and will now be hiding and breeding all over the place. You will need to vaccum EVERYWHERE (and I mean EVERYWHERE) preferably EVERY SINGLE DAY (it's a backbreaking job) because they multiply incredibly fast. One flea lays fifty eggs per day. The vacuuming will not eliminate them completely but it will keep on top of things and prevent the population getting out of control. Also, it will repeatedly be getting rid of their droppings, which are a food source for the larvae when they hatch out. (Yes, they eat their own poo before graduating to eating blood. Charming little things, aren't they?)

As well as vaccuuming get the house treated ASAP. Be prepared for things to die down following the treatment, and then a new wave of fleas to hatch out about a month later. Fleas are notoriously hard to get rid of.

Edit: you can also make "flea traps" to monitor your flea population, but I never tried that the times I had problems with fleas.

Frontline is a load of rubbish. Applying pesticide onto your poor dog's skin will do NOTHING at all to eliminate the rest of the flea population multiplying at a rate of knots in your house. Also, because vets prescribe it as standard and it's being used up and down the country, most fleas have become immune to it (as also happens with nit shampoos).

DO NOT bathe your poor animals every day, as this will only dry out their skin, and washing your dog won't do much to stop the fleas anyway, as the chances of a significant number of fleas being on them at the time of the bathing are very small. If you INSIST on bathing your pets, then don't bother with using nasty medicated shampoos, which will only harm their skin and are quite unnecessary. Just drown the fleas by running a full bath and keeping the dog under the water (with its head sticking out, obviously) for at least 10 minutes. Yes, fleas have lungs, and will drown! No nasty chemicals needed. You can use some Fairy liquid if you want but it's not necessary. Do not make the water too hot or your dog will overheat. Likewise do not make it too cold or he will get hypothermia. If he's panting or shivering, it's a sign it's too hot or too cold (although panting can also be a sign of stress).

HTH

karenscollie

bedpotato wrote: »

If there are fleas on your pets, there are fleas in your house. Only a very small percentage of fleas will be on the animals at any one time. The rest will be all over your house. Contrary to popular belief fleas do not "live" on animals. They live wherever they happen to be (whether in houses or outdoors) and they just hop on to animals when they're hungry, and then normally hop off again. They will have hitched a ride indoors on one of your pets and will now be hiding and breeding all over the place. You will need to vaccum EVERYWHERE (and I mean EVERYWHERE) preferably EVERY SINGLE DAY (it's a backbreaking job) because they multiply incredibly fast. One flea lays fifty eggs per day. The vacuuming will not eliminate them completely but it will keep on top of things and prevent the population getting out of control. Also, it will repeatedly be getting rid of their droppings, which are a food source for the larvae when they hatch out. (Yes, they eat their own poo before graduating to eating blood. Charming little things, aren't they?)

As well as vaccuuming get the house treated ASAP. Be prepared for things to die down following the treatment, and then a new wave of fleas to hatch out about a month later. Fleas are notoriously hard to get rid of.

Edit: you can also make "flea traps" to monitor your flea population, but I never tried that the times I had problems with fleas.

Frontline is a load of rubbish. Applying pesticide onto your poor dog's skin will do NOTHING at all to eliminate the rest of the flea population multiplying at a rate of knots in your house. Also, because vets prescribe it as standard and it's being used up and down the country, most fleas have become immune to it (as also happens with nit shampoos).

DO NOT bathe your poor animals every day, as this will only dry out their skin, and washing your dog won't do much to stop the fleas anyway, as the chances of a significant number of fleas being on them at the time of the bathing are very small. If you INSIST on bathing your pets, then don't bother with using nasty medicated shampoos, which will only harm their skin and are quite unnecessary. Just drown the fleas by running a full bath and keeping the dog under the water (with its head sticking out, obviously) for at least 10 minutes. Yes, fleas have lungs, and will drown! No nasty chemicals needed. You can use some Fairy liquid if you want but it's not necessary. Do not make the water too hot or your dog will overheat. Likewise do not make it too cold or he will get hypothermia. If he's panting or shivering, it's a sign it's too hot or too cold (although panting can also be a sign of stress).

HTH

Thanks for taking the time to reply, i only bathed her once she very rarel has a bath/shower, whats the best stuff to use dont want to wast my money on stuff that wont work

bedpotato_2

You're welcome! I am sadly very knowledgeable on this subject as the last two houses I've lived in were infested when I moved in.

When you say "what's the best stuff to use" are you referring to stuff to put on your animals or stuff to spray the house with? I have tried just about EVERYTHING. You can do an Internet search and find loads of webpages where people swear by this or that, but very few of them work. The best thing to do would be to call a pest control expert and get them to come and spray the carpets for you. You will have to vacate the house for a few hours but it should get rid of the problem (if only temporarily)! You can also try diatom powder (also known as diatomaceous earth) which is an organic, non-toxic alternative that can be rubbed into the dog's coat as an alternative to Frontline, but it is very drying and dehydrating. Google it. I only ever saw and caught one flea, and did a test to see if the powder really was killing them by putting it inside an upturned glass with a pinch of diatom inside. It was hopping round madly inside the glass, but in the morning it was dead. It can't have died of hunger in that short time and its lungs are so tiny it must have had enough air, so I conclude the diatom does work. The problem is you can't get it to go EVERYWHERE in your house, so some fleas do survive. It's better to just call in the experts and have them do the chemical spray, but diatom powder is great for rubbing into your mattress and pillow and dusting underneath your sofa cushions etc! It allegedly kills all insects including bed bugs so it's not a bad thing to have it there as a precaution! You can buy some here:

http://www.sprcentre.co.uk/diatomandpoultryshield.htm

suki1964

Before calling out the pest control - go to the vets and buy a tin of Indorex and use that

You have to spray every inch of your house - under the furniture, around skirtings,back of wall units, along the gaps in floorboards- EVERYWHERE - but it works

Also hot wash all your pets and your bedding - not forgetting to spray under beds

Do a search on this board and you will see that the vets on here as well as pet owners recommend either Indorex or Acclaim to be used in conjunction with a flea treatment programme for your pets

morgymoo

I give my dogs garlic and also use a product called Billy no mates from CSJ use a flea comb fleas dont like disturbance you can also buy sprays that you spray on the dog and cats coat. If you frontline your pets there is a different frontline which you can only get from the vets sorry cant remember the name but apparently normal frontline the fleas are used to it!! You will need to treat the house and make sure all pet beds are washed at 60 C. I have 7 dogs and 3 cats and dont get a flea problem dont ever frontline them. Try and make sure they are healthy and the immune system is strong.

ihateyes

My dog got fleas 2 years ago. it got to the point when you sat down, with a minute or so there was a flea on the leg.
I bought spray which was spayed constantly on furniture, i had powder for the floor, and frontline for the dog with medicated shampoo.
i tried various things, then paid out over £150 and that did they job!

If you have throws on the furniture remove them. restrict the dogs access around the house, this enable you to treat rooms, wihtout the dog re infesting them!

Its a sad time for both you and the dog!
but its brilliant when they finally get killed off!

Nettie66

We bought some smoke bombs....and went out for a while...then its hoover hoover hoover hoover hoover...everywhere!

virgin_moneysaver

we had this problem for the 1st time last year when our beloved Springer was failing fast and her back end deteriated, up to that point, with frontline, we'd never had a problem. Anyway when she passed a week later, I treated the whole house on 1 can of Acclaim, it can be bought in Boots, I think it was around £13 at the time and it did the trick. 16 months have passed since she went over rainbow Bridge and we are still clear, even though we've taken on a new rescue dog 6 months ago, again he is on Frontline. I would not hesitate to use Acclaim again

vax2002

Fly spray around the home works quite well .

gettingready

suki1964 wrote: »

hot wash all your pets

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo just pet's bedding.... LOL