Flea Treatments
 

I'd like to know what y'all are using to treat fleas. I know it's been a bad year for them because of the past mild winter but this is insane! We were doing okay until our son brought his dog, who was untreated, for a visit from south Georgia.

Since then--it's been awful. We have used Advantix, Advantage, and Frontline and even used them twice monthly at the vet's advice. We've had the house and yard treated several times. No luck.

Has anyone used that new pill? Or anything that worked?

We use comfortis, the pill, and love, love, love it! We've been using it for about 3 or 4 years, and have not had a flea since. At one point we were having to do a rotation every two weeks of the topical treatments, switching them out constantly, and we still had fleas. We did a single dose of capstar, which kills all fleas within thirty minutes and lasts for only 24 hours, then we started the comfortis. We haven't had a flea since.

We've thought of switching to trifexis, which is a comfortis/heartworm combined pill. But for right now, we give both separately, and it seems to work. (We also don't give comfortis the same day as heartgard. I'm just old school on that. )

Comfortis is the only thing that has consistently worked for me. My dog has been on it for 5 years, and we haven't had a flea problem since. Prior, I had mixed success with Advantix, Revolution, etc.

I am Team Comfortis, too. Great stuff.

Yep! Comfortis as well here. We had a bad situation where were starting to get fleas, ran the dog to the vet to get new meds and dipped (while the house was being treated) and the vet only gave us TICK medicine. We didn't find this out until a month later when the cycle started over again and we couldn't figure out why. I was the crazy crying lady in the vet's office asking "WHY, WHY, WHY!?!?"

They put us on Comfortis (I made them give it to me free the first go-round because they screwed up) and we haven't looked back!

Dog and both cats are on Revolution, which takes care of fleas,ticks, and heartworm, and it works well for them, although, I feel now like I should check out comfortis.

Team Comfortis. I have a mini schnauzer who has skin issues to begin with. The fleas only make it worse. We've tried everything and comfortis is quick, non-messy, and works. I found a place online that ships from the UK (I had no idea) and it's 6 pills for $59.00

When it comes to treating fleas, you have to do a three step attack.

1. Treat the dog. I have been using Frontline and it works well for me. I know about the new pill, but I have not used it yet. I would like to switch to it when I run out of Frontline.

2. Treat your living spaces, especially rooms with rugs and carpets. Like the commercial says, fleas really do love to live in your carpet. I have been using a product called Flea Stoppers. Basically its powdered boric acid. You sprinkle it into your carpets like carpet powder, sweep it in, and leave it there for a few days.

3. Treat your yard. There are a few products by Scotts and other companies that you can buy from Home Depot or Lowes. They are in the pesticide aisle.


I highly recommend doing all three at the same time.

I speak from personal experience.....:o

This...all this!! I would just add to start by treating the dog with a flea bath and then the pill/drops. Drop the dog at the vet/groomer and have the house/yard treated while he/she is gone. I used professional services for 2 and 3, but I'm sure the at-home stuff is fine too.

I will add that you MUST wash all dog beds & blankets at the same time you are doing everything else... and I really mean at the SAME time, not the next day. Treatment usually takes at least 2x to kill all adult fleas, then 2 weeks alter to catch fleas that were still in the eggs during the first treatment.

Sprinkle boric acid powder into carpets and let it sit for a while before vacuuming. It is cheap, sold in the stores in the laundry section. Non-toxic.

I use Trifexis, the HW + flea protection monthly pill. Works pretty well for us and I have one or two new dogs in my home from shelters every month!

NO!! You cannot wash the dog within 24 hours before OR after you use the topical treatments, like Revolution or Frontline. The topicals work by spreading across the dog's body with the natural oil in the dog's skin. If you wash the dog, you remove those natural oils and the liquid will not spread evenly and cover completely.

My bad...no need to shout...we use the pill, but I could have sworn that when I used the drops my vet told me to guard them right after the bath.

/sklunks back off into a corner...

Sorry, Shirley, I can really get overly excited when it comes to dogs :o No sklunking needed on your part!

this! Seven makes a yard treatment that works quickly and well. and when you treat your carpet, make sure to treat your vaccum as well. put moth balls in the bag (if you use a bagged model) and if yours is bagless, be very careful when empting out the canister- and wash the canister to make sure you kill any eggs stuck in there! also treat/wash anywhere the animal lays- pillows, blankets, couches, etc.

I use Revolution on my cats. It also gets rid of ear mites, which my kittens had from living in a shelter before we adopted them. They are indoor cats, however, so no flea recurrence.

I will have to say, NEVER EVER EVER use that Hartz stuff that they sell at Wal-Mart and Target. Yes, it is cheap, but it basically does one of two things: does nothing for the problem, or kills your pet. There is so much information online about people talking about their pets dying due to the Hartz brand. It is not worth it to be cheap! Take the animal to the vet- don't try to save 20-30 bucks on necessary medication.

A friend of mine suggested washing with Prell shampoo. The girl at Petsmart suggested Sentry since it's cheaper than Frontline. Anyone?

This is my first indoor pet besides fish and birds. I FREAKED when I saw flea droppings the first time a couple weeks ago. I started cutting his hair (he was due for a shave down anyways) and found more and more. I called in sick to work and while he was at Petsmart getting flea treatment I used some powder on the carpet in my room, washed and bleached everything I could think of, and used Sentry spray on everything else. So far so good. Then I found a tiny bit of droppings and just ONE flea. Got that sucker out. Thankfully my dog is white and you can see right through to his skin so I know I got all the live fleas out. Hopefully no eggs. My issue is that I have to do all this without my dad finding out. He's not happy about indoor animals to begin with and if he hears the word fleas he'll freak out (he's old, Italian... set in his ways).

Anyone have tips? I'm going to put the Sentry drops on him tomorrow morning. He's a lap dog so it's going to be really hard not to touch him. I figure he won't be touched for about 12 or so hours. Please help a newbie!

Please, please use the Frontline Plus if you want to use a topical! It kills flea eggs & larvae, which the Sentry does not. It is more expensive. It is worth it!

Personally, I would take the dog to the vet, get a dose of Capstar to kill all adult fleas & then use Comfortis or Trifexis orally to control any future fleas. I am not crazy about the oily spot left by topicals.

Where is CG???? She should be all over this thread!

I put the tube of Sentry on between his shoulder blades before I read this. I'll take note for next time.

How long does it take for this to get into his system and I can touch him again?

ETA: I'm reading all kinds of bad things about Sentry online. Should I be alarmed?