For the love of god... FLEAS!

[TreacherousPissFlap]

I have had dogs all my adult life and accept that these things are inevitable from time to time. I also accept that it's a costly business to keep them at bay.

Well now we have fleas I believe they may have come from the dog walkers van, but really this is irrelevant.

DDogs wear a Seresto collar (2 are working spaniels and they're amazing for preventing ticks), are not allowed upstairs and do not sleep on the furniture. We have all solid floors downstairs, I have washed all beds and soft furnishings and sprayed with R.I.P from the vet.

I have bathed DDogs (twice) and at the beginning of the week removed the collars and applied Advantage. There are still fleas

Admittedly they are very slow and dopey fleas (you can pick them out of the comb easily and they make no attempt to jump away, but they're still there

Am I missing something? I feel like I'm in an endless battle with no end in sight

[JesusInTheCabbageVan]

I wouldn't bother washing them, it does nothing ime. I think they're immune to flea shampoo now, like nits. Also I found the spot treatments don't work once the fleas have actually set up home.

There are pills you can get from Pets at Home or the vets that just kill fleas as soon as they bite the dog - that worked for us.

Also - I'm itching now, thanks a bunch OP

[potentialdogowner]

We had cat flea infestation once and a thorough house spraying of indorex (on amazon) worked miracles! We also treated the cat with a different spot on brand from usual just in case.

[Indecisivelurcher]

Funnily enough I'm getting twitchy about whether seresto collars are still as effective as they were...

[TreacherousPissFlap]

Don't say that indecisive . I actually found a tick on DDog2 a couple weeks ago, and his collar is only 5 months old. I put it down to him swimming most days.
At the moment I'm combing as many times a day as I can and hoping that they are on their last legs which is why you can pick them up by hand. We are also not being bitten ourselves so I don't think there's thousands

[Indecisivelurcher]

My collars are 5m old too 🙈 and either the cat or dog has definitely bought fleas in because my 3yo has a cluster of bites. Bloody things.

[BadEyeBri]

Go to your vet. Get bravecto tablets for each dog. Job done. No ticks or fleas for 3 months.

[EmmaC78]

Indorex is the only thing I have found works, spray the furniture, carpets etc and it does seem to work.

[Frlrlrubert]

R.I.P did sweet FA for us. Indorex is what you need.

Similarly, they were up to date with spot on and we double treated when we realised we'd got fleas - did nothing. We use nexguard spectra (chewable) now and not had a problem since.

Oh and of your choice, it's horrible.

[wheresmolly]

I second Indorex spray! I was dubious but it did do the trick, along with hoovering thoroughly and washing soft furnishing.

[Lonecatwithkitten]

Using advantage ( or any spot-on) within 48 hours reduces it's effectiveness.
If you have a flea infestation you need a two pronged approached a good effective adulticide - seresto ( still good), advocate ( and look a likes prinovox), advantix, bravecto, simparica, Nexgard, Nexgard spectra . And a larvicide household spray - Indorexx, RIP fleas, acclaim.

[Runmybathforme]

When this happened to us, there was only one solution, get in a professional. He did the whole house, including taking all our clothes out of the wardrobes, kids toys, everything. All done in a short while. Probably cheaper in the long run. The little buggers are everywhere.

[TreacherousPissFlap]

Hmmm, I bought RIP from the vets, I think that's all they stock now.

I'm rather tempted to try Capstar again. I used them once when I rescued a dog that was riddled with fleas and within half an hour they were dropping off in their hundreds.

[Sunnydayshereatlast]

Get a prescription off the vet and but the same online.
Cost me 1/3 in total....
Prescription cost me £8 each and still saved me over 200 quid...

[DogInATent]

If fleas are in the house the most effective treatment is a flea bomb. A few squirts of aerosol flea killer aren't going to get into all the cracks, corners and soft furnishings. Fortefog Midi worked for me when our old cats had fleas (amzn.to/2VM8v5A).

[Paranoidmarvin]

You also need to move everything in your house. Under all the furniture and under cushions etc. Wash everything. Curtains etc. The one place you need to get to is behind your radiators. Those things go back on. And you have fleas again.

I cleaned my entire house everyday for over a week. And I finally finally got rid of them. But I struggled. You miss just one and your toast.

[Bananarama12]

You can't get rid of fleas in a few days. After the rip, you need to hoover every few days and empty in the bin outside. They way it works is the hoovering causes the vibrations that cause the flea larvae to hatch and then the rip kills it. The advantage will do the job on the ones that are on the dog.
You are using all the correct stuff, it just needs to be applied correctly.
It will take at least a few weeks to destroy the life cycle of the fleas, they are buggers.

[Sitdowncupoftea]

I recommend Bravecto is from a vet. Its a flavoured tablet they just eat it. I live rural I don't seem to ever had a flea issue only once with cats. My cat went missing for over a month. When I got him back he was riddled. You need to get flea spray treat house and furnishings and hoover daily just incase. Let the dog once it has Bravecto on it have access to every room its a walking killing machine for fleas then.

[TheTempest]

We had real issues about 6 months ago and tried everything. I did the flea bombs and advocate, nothing, tried the RIP stuff, tried some Bark prescription. then tried Bravecto and Indorex and cleaned like a demon and finally got on top of it.

I feel your pain, I had 5 dogs at the time (sadly lost one since) and I’ve had dogs for 10 plus years and never had an issue this bad. Vet said something about a new strain or something which are more immune to the spot on treatments and They could be lying dormant in the garden!