Bella, my tan and white boxer mix has NEVER had fleas. Even if I got lax on her frontline treatments she never had a bug. Poe recently joined the household… not by choice…but he’s here none the less. He’s a mini doxie, black and tan. I don’t know if he came with fleas or what but I can’t get rid of them on him and now they’re starting to get on Bells.
It’s time or their flea treatments… do I have them both dipped first or something? Should I try a different medicine? Ho can I get ride of them??
If you don’t have cats too then I used Advantix instead of Frontline Plus-the Advantix is put on in three or four spots on back from neck to tail, and I suspect that might be why it worked better than Frontline (it’s applied in one spot on the back of the neck). Flea treatments and prevention seems to be very regionalized lately. And others on here have suggested Capstar and other internal flea stuff. Consult your vet quickly so you get the maximum effect on the fleas, and don’t hurt the dog which is of course the most important thing.
If you start getting itchy bites on your feet and ankles then you have fleas in the rugs, and they’re hard to get rid of too. You have to treat and retreat at regular intervals until they’re all gone.
Maybe someone who’s better at searching than I am can find a link to the recent thread about this.
I do have cats, but they don’t seem to be itchy and I haven’t found a flea on them.
I’m a groomer and A.) the fleas have been worse this year than I’ve ever seen them before and B.) Frontline has been less effective this year than it has been in the past.
I use Revolution that I get from my vet. They said that it actually gets into their hair and has flea repellant properties even after it sheds off the dog. So if the dog is shedding in your house and yard, the hairs will help ward off fleas.
I have a poodle on 7 acres. I have always used Frontline in the past and he got the WORST infestation I’ve ever experienced this spring. They were in my house. I was starting to get bites when I was sleeping. It was terrible. All I did was switch to Revolution and wash his bed in the living room and blankets from his crate in hot water and within a couple weeks they all were gone. I haven’t had a problem since.
Capstar is a pill you can give that kills everything on the dog within about a half hour.
Honestly dipping the dog/doing flea baths really isn’t THAT effective. That stuff only kills the fleas it touches. When fleas know water is coming, they tend to run into eyes/ears/nose/etc.
Don’t know…my dark dog (black/rust Dobe) doesn’t get fleas…neither does my blue. I use the garlic tabs from Springtime…NO chemicals.
I am having a horrible time with fleas on my 3 cats. They never go outside, but I think my mother’s dog introduced them when she was house sitting a few weeks ago.
After two unsuccessful rounds of Advantage II, our vet suggested we try Advantage Multi, but I’m not overly optimistic on that one either. I’ve spent a small fortune on flea sprays, combs, Advantage, vet visits, and Borax for my rugs and furniture. I’ve even ordered myself a Dyson vacuum in the hopes that a deeper cleaning may help.
One of my poor kitties has lost weight, and another is losing her hair (the vet says she’s likely allergic to fleas). If I could afford it, I’d put them on a 6 week course of Capstar to be sure we’re killing the little buggers, but at $4.60 per day per cat with 3 cats, that would get expensive!
I have 4 dogs and 6 cats. 2 dogs live outside 24/7, 2 dogs live inside- outside. 1 cat inside, 5 cats outside. I apply Frontline every month to all of them. I live on a 30 acre farm- never had a flea problem in 5 years. And my dogs and cats ROAM the area- yes they are fixed 
I would surmise, that the new dog brought fleas into the houes if you have never had a problem with fleas before. That being said, if you have been diligent in keeping your other dogs/ cats on a flea preventative, the new flea problem will be short lived and just take a month or so to run the course of the flea life cycle. Keep applying your preventatives to your animals and start applying the preventatives to the new addition. Also, make sure you are vacuuming all areas the pets go into (wash bedding, dump the vacuum canister) at least 1x every week until the flea problem has been taken care of. By doing that (both applying flea prevention and vaccuming) you are doing double duty to attack the flea life cycle.
The flea life cycle can last anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months (there of 4 stages of the flea and the adult flea is the only one that actually lives on the pet). Your new dog brought in fleas that were currently shedding eggs into the environment, which are now having to go thru the life cycle. But when you have treated pets (as all your dogs/ cats should be) they, themselves act like a vaccum to pick up these adults in the environment. And once the adult jumps on the protected dog/ cat they will die when they come in contact with the treated dog/ cat’s hair and hair coat. So in all essence, you do want the newly hatching fleas to jump on your treated pet (or your pet to shed in the environment) so they will die.
You could also treat the environment with flea powder too…
unfortunately there is no magic cure or instant fix for fleas. even capstar (a great product to kill an infested animal) only kills the adults, for 24hrs, that are on the dog/cat that bite the animal, so it still doesn’t kill the other stages of the flea and you still have to let the flea cycle run its course. You have to make sure the flea product your applying kills multiple stages of the flea life cycle and not just the adult fleas.
If you do wash your dogs/ cats, do not use an oil stripping shampoo ( like dawn dish soap) which may be great for getting the fleas, but you basically just stripped the animals hair coat of any topical flea product you applied to it and washed it down the drain. If you do want to bath your animals, call your vet for a recommendation of a shampoo, I use an oatmeal based one.
Capstar first, then back on topical flea control. Capstar will kill everything in a matter of hours, but only works for about 24 hours.
I’ve also heard people have had good sucess with Comfortis (a monthly oral flea control).
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