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This could be considered off topic, and I do apologize, but I am desperate and want to gather as much information as I can. Scouring the 'net, I've come up with a few treatments for our flea infestation of 2-3 years. My husband did not leave down the diatomaceous earth long enough for it to be effective and he'll yell if I use it again. It got ALL OVER EVERYTHING and made breathing difficult. The pet armor plus does not seem to work at all...neither did the frontline for that matter. k-9 advantix didn't work. Flea sprays don't seem to work. I'm looking at the all natural route, I want to get the dog off of pet armor and back on frontline.

 

The thing is, my dog LOVES to go geocaching! She LOVES to be out in the woods, with the sights, sounds, and oh those wonderful smells! Its like she's walking on air! She did actually find a cache, I had been looking for it, and my back was to it the whole time. It was a blue container on the ground right next to a fallen branch...it caught her attention when I turned around, I saw it a second or two after she did! I praised her profusely, but she hasn't found another since then! So when she's having a blast in the woods...how do you keep the fleas from getting on your pet? I'm thinking in my caching bag, I'm going to have to add a flea comb? I have pulled up to about 15 ticks off of her after just one outing. They hadn't attached yet, and I was not going to let them have that chance.

 

I don't want to take my dogs fun away, but she's a cavalier king charles spaniel, who are extremely sensitive to flea bites, and the itching and scratching are driving her and us,mad. I'm trying to treat our infestation, and I'm wondering how you keep it from getting out of control, while still allowing your friend to have fun with you. Once we finally get a handle on this, I do not want this becoming a problem for her again. Again, this is slightly off topic, but I'm desperate and I need some ideas on prevention while out caching.

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No real idea about preventing them getting on her in the first place, we used to use frontline but since we had an infestation in the house and thus it appeared frontline no longer seemed to work, (our dog is 16 and we thought perhaps the spot on treatments weren't working anymore kind of like over use of anitbiotics??!! we don't really know :unsure: ) we moved on to flea collars and haven't had a problem since.

 

As for the house infestation we tried all sorts of treatments and the one that worked for us was flea bombs. Kind of like a candle, if I remember rightly you light them, they sort of flare up like a firework then die back to smoulder, you leave the house for 2 hours, go back open up the windows and leave again and its safe to return in half an hour. You need to make sure you have enough to cover the area of the house, ours is only small so we managed with 2 but it will depend. Both me and the dog suffer from flea allergies, the bombs weren't that cheap but it was so worth it. They claim to kill the eggs as well which seems to be the problem with most other treatments. Apparently warmth and vibration (hoovering particulary) will revive long laid eggs even well after the original culprits are long gone. So the worst spot in our house seemed to be the pc tower sitting on the carpet.

 

And as for ticks - urgh - so glad our dog doesn't seem to attract them even though we regularly cache near deer and sheep - just the idea of them makes me feel queasy - nasty biting swelling spiders - he has only ever had one on his snout, it was incredibly hard to get rid of with a tick remover as he wasn't keen (understatement) on us prodding him there, so we had to use less approved/safe methods, we called it his pet but that still didn't make me able to look at him till we got rid.

Edited by The Real Boudica.
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Just realised you wanted natural remedies, I doubt the bombs are natural, we were beyond caring by then. I never came across a method of killing off the eggs that was, but I do remember a method for catching them which cropped up a lot. Placing a bowl of soapy water under a light, the light and warmth attract them and they drown in the soapy water, apparently.

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It sounds like you may have exhausted the "natural" options. If it were me, I'd probably move on to Professional help at this stage. Pyrethrin is one such product, and there's nothing really natural about it. If you have skin sensitivities, you may want to consider going to a professional grooming salon or your Veterinarian, and have them do it.

 

As far as the house goes, I'd probably be calling in the Professional Exterminators at this stage. I had one apartment in College that was infested by a previous tenant, and those little flea bomb things were no match for the level of infestation present.

 

Good luck!

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I admire natural options but when it comes to a serious infestation I'd be all over the chemical options. My ex got us an apartment absolutely infested with fleas which of course made their home in the two cats. Did combing and bathing and ended up reinfested with fleas time after time. Finally I bought an arsenal of stuff for the cats and the apartment after 2 weeks of lots of treating and vacuuming and throwing away vacuum bags I finally got those little guys under control but the cats were miserable the entire time they had fleas.

 

That being said having spent a lifetime out in the woods with various dogs I'm yet to have one come back with fleas.

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I'm rather surprised that the Frontline didn't work. From what I've read, the fleas should not build up resistance to it. Sometimes, if the Frontline is not being applied regularly (which can happen during winter months) then the fleas can get a little crazy and it takes longer to get them under control. At this point, you need to use something serious to rid your pet of the fleas and anything in your house :( Use something from a veterinarian for your pet. A lot of the over the counter products I have seen either don't work or do scary things to pets (I've seen a couple of pets get what appear to chemical burns :blink: ). From what I remember, the Frontline should work for about 30 days (at least the Frontline Plus does). After 24 hours it should be totally absorbed systemically and the pet can play in the water and have baths. It is dispensed based on a weight range, so it is important for your clinic to have the most recent possible (if it's been awhile, I suggest calling and asking if you can weight the pet, not have an exam, just check the weight).

 

For the house, what we suggest at the clinic I work at is to just wash and vacuum everything the pet has contact with. You can also ask your veterinarian if there are any sprays for sale.

 

I think the flea comb just makes it easier to find the fleas. Trying to comb those little buggers out would suck if there's a lot of them.

 

My clinic recommends Frontline Plus (has stuff for ticks too!).

 

Merial (who makes Frontline) also just came out with a new product for dogs called "Certifect", which is basically Frontline, but it also has two or three other ingredients that are supposed to boost effectiveness with ticks. The rep told me that other tick products (Frontline Plus I'm guessing?) would kill the tick, but the tick wouldn't always detatch and that bothered people. The new ingredients in the Certifect are supposed to make the tick fall off. Certifect is more expensive than Frontline Plus, so take that into consideration if you plan on inquiring about it :)

 

My only closing thoughts are that some people pharmacies are selling pet perscriptions (such as Frontline) but they will need confirmation from your veterinarian. If you try to do PetMeds or some other online pharmacy, they need confirmation from your veterinarian. Lastly, Frontline does not have a generic form. Merial is extremely protective of their recipe and any companies that have made over the counter products similar to Frontline have been taken to court and have had to stop production. If you find one that says it's a generic or whatever, either it's not or they won't be around long so don't count on being able to pick it up as needed.

 

I really hope you get the geofleas under control! Not fun at all! :(

 

(As a vet tech nerd, I apologise for the length and geekery of this post)

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We live in the flea capital of Canada and went with our vet's recommendation of feline Advantage. Not sure if it still available by that name, but it was great. Got so we could treat two cats only, and the others also got the benefit.

I will not use products from the supermarket or pet store. Had some bad reactions. Natural remedies? The only thing that worked for us was a long cold spell in the winter that killed any of the flea blighters living outside.

Ticks....the deer drop those as they wander through the yard...I don't like ticks.

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Just asked the Mrs what her work suggests. She works at Drs Foster and Smith and she said K9 Advantix2 works real good for both tics and fleas. But be warned if you have cats in the house also you can not use this as it is harmful to cats especially if said cat likes to rub up against the dog. We have this problem so we have to use Frontline.

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Borax is a good "natural" remedy. It can usually be found for cheap in the laundry detergent aisle at the grocery store. Borax laid down on the carpet for 24 hours then vacuumed up seems to kill the eggs. I'm not sure what you'd use as a natural remedy to kill the current live ones though, but Borax works like a charm.

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I'm rather surprised that the Frontline didn't work. From what I've read, the fleas should not build up resistance to it.

 

Unfortunately, experience would suggest large pockets of Frontline resistance an many countries. We recommend Stronghold (not sure what the US brand name is, but the active ingredient is selamctin).

I'm just saying what I've read from what I take to be reliable resources. Maybe they are, maybe they're not. I don;t intend it to be gospel. :)

 

Anyways, the first thing I can think of with selamectin as the active ingredient is called "Revolution" in the US :)

Edited by diggingest_dogg616
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I've had hit and miss results with frontline and other similar products, mainly I think because the application has to be done "just right", and if not enough of it makes skin contact, or if it gets washed off or licked off or rubbed off, results don't seem to be as good.

 

I've had much better results lately with a newer pill form flea control called comfortris. One pill a month brought fleas under control very rapidly. Downside to it is the cost, much more expensive than frontline, and that as far as I can see it offers no protection from ticks.

 

For ticks (and incidental flea control)I use ovitrol. I just spray the pup down with a light mist on most of his coat once a week (or if less often, spray him just before going out to to a place where he'll pick up ticks). Its a very rare tick that survives that long enough to dig in, and none have survived long enough to start swelling up.

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Hi,

a few weeks ago we had also a problem with fleas. We get a spot on "milbemax" from the vet. However, I have read a lot and asked in a special forum for our breed. So, don't laugh. Some of the users advised us Skin So Soft from Avon. I find several hints in the web that it should help again fleas and mosquito. We have bought a bottle. It is odorant but we dont know if it helps. Maybe you can make a test for us.

:lol:

Edited by McJenso
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I have had success with Flea Stoppers, I think it's similar to the borax mentioned above.

 

Vacuum your carpet then immediately throw out the bag. Do that several times, then apply the Flea Stoppers all over the carpet (it's a dry powder and it says to use a "carpet rake" to work it into the fiber, but I just used a broom). I can't remember when you can vacuum again, but the directions will tell you how.

 

This should kill all the fleas in your house. For your dog, ask your vet for a Capstar tablet to kill all the fleas on him immediately (it's very safe), then use Frontline or another flea preventative of your choice. A tip: the all-natural ones made of citrus, etc. are not very effective, sorry. There's another product made by Novartis that's basically an injection (given by your vet) that doesn't kill or prevent fleas, but it renders fleas sterile so if you dog gets a couple fleas while in the woods, they won't be able to reproduce and cause an infestation when you get home.

 

I used to work at a vet that dealt only with cats, and since cats are generally more sensitive to chemicals, etc. than dogs, I learned a lot about safe flea control.

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