Bloody mutant unkillable fleas!

[PrincessSlayer]

Getting to the end of my tether with our flea situation and it's not even really that bad, just enduring!

Two little dogs have had fleas on and off since around Christmas time - only ever found one or two on them each and no humans been bitten at any point thank god. They don't see any other dogs so still confused about how they picked them up!

They are treated with the spot-on stuff from the vet religiously and on time, bathed semi-regularly after the treatment has had time to work (always with one or two fleas appearing when combing through wet fur with a nit comb). We keep their hair very short and one dog mostly white so fleas visible a mile off on that one.

I hoover daily with chopped up flea collar in the hoover to kill anything although have never seen a flea on the wooden floor or sofas or bedding. All dog bedding etc. washed regularly at 60 or above to kill any bugs.

I just hate having fleas in my house!! I find the thought of it so disgusting and don't understand how these mutant creatures are immune to the spot-on treatment on the dogs.

My problem is that I know the next step is to treat the whole house. However, one of our family has severe asthma and is incredibly sensitive to anything chemical like that and it can cause days of breathing problems.

I guess what I'm asking is, it the pesticide treatment for the house my only hope or does anyone have some more natural/less harmful to asthma ways of getting rid of the little buggers?

Thanks in advance!

[AliceInSandwichLand]

There are many different treatments available from the vet. I suggest you go in tomorrow and explain the situation and ask what else they would recommend. Which one have you used so far?

[TheVeryHungryScreamerpillar]

You can buy Frontline in a spray which you can rub all over your dog ( just make sure you follow the doseage instructions) which may help get the last couple of fleas.
Don't worry about your home, dog fleas don't want to live on humans and as long as you are treating your dogs regularly it will kill any fleas in the home. Any fleas in a room will hop onto your dog, bite and get a dose of frontline which will kill them off.

[PrincessSlayer]

Sorry, busy couple of days!
Thanks for the advice - I will look into the frontline spray.
I don't have a car so need to organise a lift to the vet, hoping to go next week and just check in!
Oh good, so my curtains and sofas aren't slowly filling up with the Fleapocalypse

[AliceInSandwichLand]

Frontline spray may have the same active ingredient as your spot on anyway; look and see if the spot on has fipronil in it, and if so then it's the same thing. If there is a persistent problem unfortunately you may indeed need to treat the house, as that's where the fleas spend most of their life cycle. Hopefully you will be able to,get to the vet soon and get it sorted.

[Frecklefacedgirls]

Oral treatments for fleas are the way forward! It's thought there could be some resistance building to products like Frontline. There are some new tablet product that work really well that you can get from your vet (Comfortis, Bravecto, Nexguard ). The speed of kill of fleas is much quicker than using a topical treatment and you don't have to worry about anyone handling the dog or coming into contact with any chemicals. It's also not going to wash off/ be affected by swimming etc. There may still be some immature stages of the flea life cycle in your home but as these fleas hatch out over time they will be instantly killed when they hop on your dog.

[PrincessSlayer]

Oral treatments are something I didn't even know existed - will look into them as that might be better given the amount our dogs groom each other!