Dog fleas

[whatswrongnow]

Hi our cocker spaniel was scratching last week. I looked at his belly and saw something small and dark running across him. Hubby brought home one spot and put it on him Saturday night. Sunday morning he was still scratching. I went out and got a flea comb and a spray that you put on his coat. I brushed him for a hour till his hair was coming up clean. I did find 2 live ones. This morning he is still scratching. Next thing I can think of is a grooming appointment which charges €30 a hour to treat fleas. Help

Get a flea shampoo and bath him? It might be that he has scratched himself and irritated the skin which is itchy, rather than still having fleas.

Honestly, the best thing I have found to treat the animal is stuff the vet prescribes. I have never had any real success with otc treatments.

Along with vet treatment, Indorex is absolutely the best thing for treating carpets and soft furnishings. You can buy that from Amazon where it is much cheaper than from the vet. For every live flea there are thousands of eggs in the carpet waiting to hatch so well worth doing both.

Plenty of vigorous vacuuming (empty into the bed after every time) also helps.

MissB are you talking about the tablet you give the dog that goes into their blood stream? I was asking in the pet shop and the girl said bring him to the vets. I said would that not run the risk of infecting other in vets waiting room

One tablet is Bravecto and that is one of the things the vet may prescribe - I use it and it's very effective. Others include Advocate which is a spot on treatment so it depends what your vet has found most effective in your local area.

Taking fleas into the waiting room will not infect other dogs that have been given preventative treatments (which many do). My dog takes Bravecto so whilst a flea may jump onto him it will not last very long and die before it can breed. Plus all our carpets get regular treatment with Indorex so eggs etc cannot survive there.

Ah right. I'm going to brush him again later and see if anything is still moving on him. If I see anything I'll give the vet a ring in the morning. The thought of them - fleas is driving me wrong. They remind me of head lice

You need Indorex to treat the environment. 95% of the flea's lifecycle is in the carpet. Only 5% on the pet.

I also recommend a good spot on treatment from your vet. Products bought from pet shops don't work.

This diagram shows it.

I use Stronghold, from the vet. A spot on that's applied monthly and deals with fleas, ticks, ear mites and worms (but not tapeworms). I have been using it on our dogs for years and never have a problem. As pps say, shop bought ones just don't work.

Once you see them on the animal, there's far more you're not seeing and eggs will have been shed into all soft furnishings, carpets, etc. You can hoover like a demon, or smoke the house.

When we had cats I had to smoke the house twice. You can get Fortefog P Mini smokes from Amazon. Treat the pet, then take an afternoon to treat the house with the smokes. Remember to turn off your smoke alarms first, and be very careful if you also have pet fish.

Iv had the same problem with my dog!
Make sure you use a good vet spot on treatment, and you need the treat your house as well as 95% of the fleas live in your furnishings and carpets etc. You can treat your dog all you want, but the problem will never go away unless you start there :)
I got smoke bombs, set one off in each room, and then a few hours later I went through the entire house with acclaim spray (a bit pricey but Iv found it to be one of the best) you have to get into all the corners, under the furniture etc. It takes HOURS but has to be done. Then you need to hoover every single inch of your house 10 times over, and repeat it all in 2 weeks time.
I never realised how common fleas were till owning a dog haha, I spray the house every month now just to be sure! 😂
Good luck! They’re horrible little buggers.