My best friend has fleas, help!

[DaveLikesGuns]

My 16 pound Miniature Pinscher has got flees. What product do you use to keep your dogs flee free? Any natural remedies?

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[Ramjet12]

I used advantage on my cat. According to my vet that's the only that works. Worked for my cat. The big issue is your carpet is probably infested too. There's a a couple of ways to deal with it. Fleabusters has a service where they inject diatomaceous earth under the carpet. Guaranteed flea free for years. It dries them out. Doesn't use chemicals. The other way to deal with it is flea spray around the edges. You have to use the good stuff the vet sells. It's got pyrethrin in it. It breaks down quickly so your pet won't get sick but kills fleas. The fleas like to live under tack strips around the edges. My Vet was telling me that people replace the carpet but not the tack strips and they have fleas come back.

HTH.

 

[Alexx1401]

My 16 pound Miniature Pinscher has got flees. What product do you use to keep your dogs flee free? Any natural remedies?

Over many years we tried I think everything. Only one works for us.
Seresto Flea Tick Bayer Collar
At first I was hesitant as they were (from Vet) quite expensive. Tried every kind of drops. They all worked for a short time. During the bad season though they would never last until the next dose. On the male dog he acted like he had been beaten when I put some of them on him. He did not like them. Tried the "natural" stuff and it stunk to high heaven and did nothing for us. finally tried the collar. Within months there was no fleas on dogs and never found one in the house again. They are supposed to last a few months but we use them till we see one more flea. Often now it's close to like 9 months or so. Buy them from Amazon now. They have no smell that I can detect and Dogs seem to not care. I have read of some having some kind of reaction to them. So like everything there will be some allergic to them. So far everyone who has tried them after we told them has been amazed. No fleas on pets or in home.
BTW I LOVE MinPins, that is a big one at 16#s

 

[Stomper]

I have found that for small dogs (like chihuahuas in particular) that if you completely submerge them in a large tub of water for 5-10 minutes that fleas cease to be a further problem. It also fixes that INCESSANT yapping, too!

 

[Alexx1401]

I have found that for small dogs (like chihuahuas in particular) that if you completely submerge them in a large tub of water for 5-10 minutes that fleas cease to be a further problem. It also fixes that INCESSANT yapping, too!

LOL, many years ago I taught ours to do the wolf howl. Then one day both of us pull up in the car and both dogs are in the window doing it. Wife looked at me and said "you did that didn't you".

 

[Stomper]

LOL... Did she then submerge you in a tub of water?

 

[Joe13]

Look up natural oils for fleas. Add it to some shampoo and just don't make the oil to strong.

I use eucalyptus, lavender, cinnamon.


We used to sprinkle dry granulated garlic on the floors and dry eucalyptus branches under furniture and couch cushions.


Works great but if the dog/house/yard is too infested then i would go nuclear with advantage or something similar.

 

[Alexx1401]

LOL... Did she then submerge you in a tub of water?

The look on her face said she was thinking about it.

 

[Sgt Nambu]

Ditto on Seresto! My vet recommended it and it works very well! Not cheap, though!

LOL!!! A friend calls little dogs, "kick dogs!"

 

[Joe13]

LOL!!! A friend calls little dogs, "kick dogs!"

I did also into my late 20's, after having med/large dogs all my life. Didn't see the use for small dogs.

Then my wife HAD to have one after finding one on the side of the road... took almost a week for the owner to get back to us - he was out of town and had friends house sitting and was overjoyed we had kept the little bugger out of the pound. Plenty of time for my wife to solidify the thought that we needed one.


So while looking in CL for a snake I saw an ad for Lhasa Apsos, unpapered for half what they go for and gave in to at least go look at one. Yea, we came home with one. I wanted the biggest one and she picked the 2nd biggest.

That little bugger bonded with me and not my wife so I started taking him with me to work and that was the end of that. He travels great, he is old now but used to be an excellent alarm dog.

13 years and going. Almost blind, mostly deaf but still gets around great and is a good companion.

 

[rick benjamin]

Look up natural oils for fleas. Add it to some shampoo and just don't make the oil to strong.
I use eucalyptus, lavender, cinnamon.
We used to sprinkle dry granulated garlic on the floors and dry eucalyptus branches under furniture and couch cushions.
Works great but if the dog/house/yard is too infested then i would go nuclear with advantage or something similar.

Been using Scotts Lawn insect control around the house. Link
If the boys get to scratching, I add Frontline for 3 months.
Indoor, outdoor one - two - punch.

 

[P7M13]

1. First get them off your dog by bathing:
   Wash them in dish soap. (vet staff told me to do this, I said "WHAT ?!" - and NFS, it works!) Breaks the surface tension of water better than any other soap, drowns the fleas on the dog. Then final rinse with hot water (as hot as your dog can stand), kills what fleas remain (or gets them to release, sending them down the drain).
2. Vacuum the house frequently, every other day, at least. I can't stand carpet so all my floors are hardwood or fir.
3. If your infestation is so bad in the house, where you walk across a room and >20 fleas (especially juveniles) jump on you, the only way I know to stop that in it's tracks is flea bomb. Struggled with it for weeks - tried eucalyptus oil, tea tree oil, peppermint oil, diatomaceous earth, and borax, and it still sucked. Bombed it and we were GTG. Personally, I hate introducing poisons in my house. Yes, supposedly pyrethrins are natural, but they are also toxic to humans in sufficient quantities.
4. I refuse to use insecticide or other yard chemicals in my yards. I noticed decades ago, putting stuff like that on my yard noticeably lessened visits by bees.
   
5. My dogs have been interacting with a ton of other dogs this year, and consequently NONE of the topical oils (Advantage, Frontline, etc) work for shizzle. My guess, they picked up resistant fleas elsewhere.
6. For over a year, I've been using Bravecto, administered quarterly, and it is a systemic that kills the fleas when they bite your pet. I haven't had a flea problem since using that.

Good luck - this is something where you have to be diligent and persistent until you find what works for you.

 

[Stomper]

FYI- it JUST occurred to me that fire kills fleas, too!



Here kitty kitty kitty!!!















OK.... I'm kidding.

 

[Member 5605]

Whatever drops are around the neck.

Clean, vacuum after drops.

The drips interrult the breeding cycle. You will be flea free soon enough.

We haven't treated our cats (indoor) for almost three or four years. Once the fleas are gone, no new pets are introduced it's hard to get more. Unless a human brings them into our house.

 

[jbett98]

When giving a dog a flea bath, you should rub soap all around their neck first.
Otherwise the fleas will try and crawl upwards away from the water and into the dogs ears.

 

[Bon Sauvage]

I prefer to use a magnifying glass and an icepick. As a bonus it is also effective against crabs.

 

[Sgt Nambu]

I prefer to use a magnifying glass and an icepick. As a bonus it is also effective against crabs.

U S Marine style!!!

 

[Stomper]

U S Marine style!!!

Marines are so bad-arsed.... they cut off their wieners and then shag you rotten with it!

 

[Ura-Ki]

Yea the flees have been especially bad this year. Normally I don't use chemicals, but this year we had no choice. We did the three part treatment, Trifexen internally, advantage drops, and sprayed the yard and areas the dogs have access to! Took about two months to get ahead of the dann bugger, but the fur kids are happy and itch free

 

[DaveLikesGuns]

Thanks for all the help! I made a big list. we will try the natural oils and serious carpet cleaning first and if it doesn't work I'll get some advantage drops and last resort will be drowning, I meant Seresto collar. My wife would probably be more willing to kill the dog before she goes to the collar.... shes pretty into the natural stuff. We put diatomaceous earth down on the carpet 3 summers ago because the apartment had flees when we moved in and it fixed the problem quickly. I guess we will do that again now. Just bought a gun a few weeks ago and the deal was that I also had to buy us a nice vacuum which is good, it'll help with this effort a lot, the vacuum, not the .22.