FLEAS: what do you do to protect your pet?

Move to Denver Colorado or Northwestern New Mexico. I had a dog being eaten alive in Tulsa regardless of what was tried. We moved to Denver in the late seventies, and later to New Mexico. Haven't seen a flea outside of a circus in over thirty years.

First off don't live in a place with wall2wall carpets, that makes the problem hopeless. Next would be DDT if you have it leftover from 1969 or have the connections to get it in somehow or other. Next best and totally legal is diatomaceous earth (DE) which can be had on ebay. Next, assuming hardwood floors, is some sort of an ultra-sound device (ebay again). After that is some new thing whose name escapes me which vets have and which goes on a collar or is rubbed in and which works. Do all of that and you shouldn't have problems.

thank you roger for taking my request seriously. staying with you will be a pleasure, I'm certain.

by the way, do you have any DDT?

I want to go spray it around gunga's place...

My aunt had a ddt thing - how to describe: a canister and an apparatus that could make it spray. Probably 1952..

no advice, good luck

There's something we got from Pet Smart that's a LOT less expensive than what is from the vet.

I don't recall the name, I'll look it up in a bit.

Bathing (I know you don't want to hear that) we any shampoo will kill the fleas.
Bomb the house, spread fine ground salt or borax in the carpet, keep him inside, take a fine tooth flea comb, dip it in a bowl of water with just a drop of soap detergent (run the water hard into the bowl to create suds) and brush him all over, leaving the comb in the water so the fleas will drown. The soap suds keep them down.

Diatomaceous earth is effective. It gets into insects' leg joints and grinds them apart. If you're into any sort of anti-entomological sadism, it's unbeatable.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=diatomaceous+earth&_sacat=0

Actually works on bedbugs, much less fleas....

Then again, if you have the connections or know who to bribe at your local airport.....

http://www.alibaba.com/trade/search?SearchText=ddt&IndexArea=Products&fsb=y

You were planning on moving in?

The other thing you want on any outdoor dogs or cats is called Frontline.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=frontline&_sacat=0&_odkw=diatomaceous+earth&_osacat=0

Here we go, Sentry FiproGuard.
$45 for 3 doses.

It worked on the boys.

Program. It's a collar and works.

http://www.ah.ca.novartis.com/companion/dog/program.shtml

I had two cats in BC and a tenant with a cat and a dog. All wore the Program collar and none ever had fleas.

We now have a cat and a dog and I've never seen a flea here.

One time, in BC, I rented a cabin and one sister came with her poodle. When she left, my husband was being bitten alive by fleas. So we got a big can of Raid and sprayed the whole cabin and left for the day, as instructed. When we got back, two buckets of water on the kitchen floor were covered in fleas. Imagine how many more there were that we couldn't see. Gross. And she was only there for the weekend!

Good luck.

I've heard that getting garlic into the pets diet repels the fleas.

Makes sense, since they are disgusting little vampires.

Seriously though I have heard this.

Once you have your infestation going, you have to worry about the eggs that are all around in various stages.
Vacuuming daily helps get them up. Steam clean if you can.
I feel your frustration. My boys are 100% indoors. I have no idea how it happens, but the fleas get in, and all of us are miserable.

There is no one solution. You have to attack consistantly on a daily basis with baths, cleaning both the animals and the house, bombing/drops, combing and destroying the little flea bastards.

This year it was particularly bad I think. It took constant vigilance over weeks to get rid of them all.
BTW, I personally don't believe in flea collars. I've seen rash rings around the animals neck from them, which is torment to them also.

If you can't get stinky into a bath, at least try to rub him down with warm wet towels, washing them immediatly afterwards. I'd make them warm wet vinegar/water towels.

I've been using Advantix (vet recommended) drops, which are good for 30 days per treatment. I pay about $10-12 per dosage ($65-$73) buying it on Petmeds.com or locally when vet matches the price. I never use a flea collar..they can cause more probs than they fix.

It's been my experience that de-smellified garlic or yeast tabs have a limited effect on fleas - especially during a breakout as you're having.

As Chai stated, if the house got 'em, then steam-cleaning or shampooing rug is important to break the chain of the eggs that lay in the carpet. One week later, if they there, you're infested and so is dog ...again.

The official name is K9 Advantix II flea treatment

In Florida the fleas are horrible!

I’ve tried many different medications but the best I found was comfortis, and it now comes in a combo pill, takes care of fleas and heartworms.

It s expensive but works! I remember just after winter and it warmed up the fleas came out like crazy. I gave the dogs their pills outside. You could actually see the fleas falling off the dogs and dieing on the back deck.

mr vw uses that for the dogs, but they hate the taste.

we have to get super creative to get the whole thing down them.

they start swirling their tongue and spitting stuff out until it isn't hidden anymore.

even if we grind it up and mix it in peanut butter...

tomorrow I will do some shopping at other than wally's and see who has what.

thank you all for the suggestions.

even gunka, I think.

maybe not.

DDT is terrible stuff, dude.

might be a good thing we're not neighbors...

(for those unfamiliar with my cast of characters, stinky and bubba are feline menaces)

Is comfortis a prescription item?

Well good luck!

I’ve tried the stuff the sell in Pet Stores and they just didn’t seem to work. It s a shame you have to spend the eextra money to take your dogs into the Vet to buy comfortis but it’s the only way you can get it.