OK, pet owners, share your flea-fighting experiences, please! One day this week, my Perfect Child[sup]TM[/sup] was home sick from school. She was crashed on the couch watching TV when a flea jumped on her.
I use the flea stuff that you put on the dog’s back once a month - off-the-shelf rather than the prescription kind - but I’d slacked off with it during the winter. Apparently that was not a smart thing to do. I also happened to have some leftover vacuum-up flea killer that you sprinkle on the carpets and let sit for a while, but I didn’t have enough to do all the areas where the dog goes.
Any particular approaches or products that you’ve found to be most effective? Bear in mind I live in Florida - home of the 2-pound palmetto bugs! I don’t know if our fleas are any worse than anywhere else, but I do know our milder winters don’t kill them off as well as in colder climes. Anyway, indoor, outdoor, and on-critter treatments - what works for you, what doesn’t?
Two dogs here. I find the best thing to kill fleas on the dogs, is the stuff that you put on their backs, you start it at the shoulders and go all the way down the back.
For the house, I buy this Hartz flea killer spray. It works really well. The only drawback is that you have to leave the house for a few hours after you spray it.
Is the spray one of those bomb things or do you spray directly on carpet and furniture? I can vacate the house for a few hours on Sunday afternoon when the kid is working. I’d like to stop this before it gets out of control.
It’s called Hartz Control flea and tick killer. It’s a spray that you spray on your carpets and furniture. It also kills a bunch of other nastys like ants and silverfish.
We dropped the big one when we had fleas years ago. My husband is allergic to them. His legs were bleeding and raw from all the scratching. The bomb was great!
FairyChatMom you need to bomb the little critters. If you haven’t used the flea stuff on the dog for two or three months, you may need to bomb em more than once.
That said, I must ask the following:
What on EARTH possessed you to believe that you could skip even ONE monthly flea treatment, being as you live in the BUG AND CRITTER CAPITOL OF THE WORLD?
I also like the bomb (I’m tempted to say “think the bomb is da bomb” but that would be really, realy annoying so I won’t). I have a two-story house, front room, middle room, back room on each floor, and use three bombs: front and back on first floor, front only (by my bedroom) on the second. I do this only when things get out of hand – the rest of the time I just treat the cat. (A collar up till now – I just got the drops for the first time, but thought I’d wait till spring to have the delightful treat of putting them on him.)
I used to be a vet tech, so here’s my quasi-informed 2 cents.
Use the prescription flea stuff (FrontLine, Advantage) rather than the over-the-counter. It honestly works better. Plus, I’ve heard of animals having rather nasty reactions to some of the OTC drops.
As for your house, buy a cheap flea collar, cut it up and put in in your vacuum bag. When you are done, TAKE THE BAG OUT TO THE TRASH IMMEDIATELY!!!
Also, if your pet(s) sleep on any beds, wash those linens in hot water and dry on the highest heat safe for the fabric.
Another low-tech trick I’ve heard of: when you go to bed, put a pan (like a 9" x 13") of soapy water on the floor of the “affected” room. Shine a desk-type lamp (with a fairly focused beam) on the pan and TURN OFF ALL OTHER LIGHTS. The fleas, supposedly, will be attracted to the light and jump to their death. (I guess it needs to be soapy so they get coated and can’t climb out.)
Bombs and sprays leave gross, chemically smells in your house. You also have to take all living, breathing things out of your house (usually). That would be a problem for me. Where DO you put a small fish tank when you’re not at home?
Good luck!! (And don’t ever forget your flea treatment again!!)
If you don’t already, you might also want to medicate your dog(s) for worms? Cat fleas harbour worm parasites, so I’m guessing it might be similar? As Avarie537 mentioned, a soapy solution (try washing up liquid) is quite an effective flea killer: when you groom your pets’ coat, soak and wash the combs in the detergent solution.
Yes!! The pet(s) should be watched carefully for signs of tapeworms. Those are the only ones you can see and they look like wriggly grains of rice (either in the feces or stuck to the pet’s butt).
You can also use Dawn dish soap as a doggie shampoo. But only do so occasionally!!! Wet 'em down, soap 'em up, and let 'em sit for about five minutes. YOU MUST FOLLOW WITH A GENTLE SHAMPOO AND A CONDITIONER unless you want your dog’s skin to dry out.
However, a regular bath should help. There’s just something about the Dawn dish soap that really gets the little buggers.
Indeed! However, again with cats, at advanced stages, a cat can vomit up quite large segments of worm - think inches here rather than grain-sized pieces - which is gross. Especially when said segments are still capable of movement.
If the reason you’re using the over-the-counter flea products is price, I can recommend an online source for the prescription products that’s way cheaper than buying it through your vet. I order my Advantage through fleadrops.com and they’re 30% cheaper than the price my vet charges for the exact same stuff! (My vet charges $16.41 for a single dose and a 6 pack is $52.69. I bought a year’s supply for $69.95, saving $35.00 over buying through my vet.) And there’s no charge for shipping, either.
A simple way to find out if you have a serious infestation, or just a few pesky buggers, is to place a pie pan full of water on the floor at night, and put a light directly over it. The fleas will jump toward the light, and then fall into the pan and drown.
Back before my other dog ran off, we used the OTC stuff on both of them and had virtually no flea problems, which is why I didn’t bother with the vet stuff. I’m kicking myself now for not keeping up with it - who knew the little buggers were so hardy! I don’t bathe her myself - she’s a long-haired critter and I don’t need the hair in the drain or the soggy spots in the carpet from where she’d lie down. I take her to a groomer every month or so.
As for worms - she gets checked every year when I take her to the vet - and I’ll be making an appointment soon. It’s about that time of year. Since no one has commented on the carpet powder, I’m assuming either no one has used it or no one is impressed with it.
