Please reassure me that I can get rid of fleas from my dog/house

[Riro]

.... as my efforts so far have not been successful.

Speak to me slowly. Tell me everything I have to do. What definitely works?

I am guessing Frontline is not working on my dog.

We've been trying to get rid of the fleas for the past month. They're a big deal because they are also biting DD2 and she is scratching them until they bleed and they are taking a long time to heal.

I keep vacuuming all the areas where the dog goes. She gets bathed in flea shampoo each time we see fleas on her, I am not only washing her bedding on 60 degrees all the time but my DD's also. And I have put down some awful toxic smelling powder that you vacuum up half an hour later.

Where are the damn things managing to live?

Frontline doesn't work anymore and most over the counter products available from pet shops don't either.

You need something like Advocate from your vet and then Indorex.

Just follow the instructions carefully for both products and you'll be flea free in no time.

If you bath her everytime you see a flea any spot product will struggle to last. Frontline only survives about three washes, some of the newer ones last a few more washes.

Have you been to your vet? They are well qualified to give you advice on products and methods that work.

You need to abandon pet shop and over the counter products and get a proper environmental treatment such as Indorex, Permaguard or RIP Fleas, and a separate treatment for your dog.

Don't forget to treat areas like the car or relatives homes if the dog visits. Keep heating turned up high, and hoover frequently to encourage the eggs to hatch.

Then use a proper prescription treatment regularly to prevent them coming back!

I had to tackle this recently.

dogs were already frontlined, I put flea collars on them and gave them the pills.

For the house, obsessive hoovering (twice a day for a week), sprayed everywhere with indorex focusing on the soft furnishings and skirtings (used 2 large cans to cover 2 bed house and our car) and as I suspected our leather sofa was the infestation hot spot I covered the fabric inside with a mix of salt and bicarb and left for couple of days before hoovering off. dog beds and kids soft toys I used a steam cleaner on then sprayed dogs beds with a homemade cedar oil mix, recipe found on dog website.

dd (2) was covered in bites and pharmacy gave me antihistamine for her which stopped itching but made her v very sleepy. she was recovering from illness so was easy decision to give it to her I wouldn't have been so sure if she had been well.

It may have been overkill but it worked.

my next step was going to be pest control, our local council charges about £60 per infestation so as many visits needed to clear.

I wish you luck x

also was told 3 weeks is the magic redo time as larvae isn't killed by the chemicals, so they will hatch but aren't mature enough to lay more until 3 weeks old

Thanks everyone. We've to the vet and operation 'good riddance fleas' is under way.

Re-posted with original username.

Okay - we treated the dog with the tablet from the vet, and hoovered and sprayed the house with the spray we bought from the vet. Then we went away for a week. We've been back 2 days and DD2 has been bitten, yesterday and today. Does that mean we've failed to spray everything adequately? She's been bitten on the stomach, not legs as previously. Does that hint at her being bitten in any particular environment? Sofa? In bed? I just can't have her covered in bites like this. The warmer weather means she's going to have her legs on show soon and the old bites are still very visible and she's quite self conscious about them. Is there anyway I can make DD2 an unattractive host?

When is it best to respray? 3 weeks after the first spray? Do we then need to spray every 3 weeks? Or at what point will we have halted the life cycle? We will continue to give the dog the vet prescribed tablets.

From the Virbac website:

^I used Indorex a few days ago and there are still fleas jumping around!
The relevant stages of the flea lifecycle need to be explained:^

*Old, crusty pupae (>4 dd old) are unaffected by any insecticide. These pupae can survive in the house for over 12 months... but, they do hatch out in response to vibration, especially in warm humid weather.

*These newly hatched fleas will be killed within 24 hours by the permethrin for up to 2 months after application. The process can be speeded up by aggressive vacuum cleaning for 7 consecutive days, encouraging the pupae to hatch and these can be physically removed by the vacuum cleaner.

*Pay special attention to areas where dogs/cats lie/sleep. Spray bag of vacuum with Indorex.

It could be that she's been bitten by one that had recently hatched but not yet been killed by the permethrin. While you were away the house won't have been vacuumed so any pupae that were of an age to survive the treatment are likely to have been disturbed when you came back. They should all die off within 24 hours of hatching though.

I think we reapplied the Indorex after 2-3 weeks, but can't remember exactly how long we left it. Although in theory - because it's supposed to remain active in the environment for a year, you shouldn't need to.

Oops, bold and italic fail. Hope you can still read it ok.

I used these when the cats brought some friends home from the cattery after everything else had failed. They had free run of the house so I did every room plus the hall and landing and stripped the beds before setting them off in bedrooms, we went out for a couple of hours and I opened all the windows when we got back and vacuumed everything - cost best part of £80 but worth it to get rid of the buggers.

Thanks everyone. I'm feeling less hysterical now. I found a very good description of the flea life cycle online which made it clearer to me. We'll start hoovering again tomorrow and each day after. DD will be away for 3 days so it's a good week to do it. She got another bite whilst watching TV.