FLEAS!! Please help me and the little doggie monsters

[misera]

Thanks, Misera, the frontline/house cleaning steps seemed to work. Although it has been almost exactly a month, and the fleas are starting to bite again, I can see them on the pup's stomachs. Amazing how resilient/persistent the fleas are, like cockroaches they will probably be around after the apocalypse. I am going to administer a dose of Nitenpryam today - ordered it back when I first posted - and give the puppies the next round of Frontline tomorrow.

ETA: Man, it is hard to give dogs pills, even with the help of hot dogs. I have little tiny fingers, but I feel like they are logs doing it. Thank goodness this is the last time until next month.

ETA again: W/in 30 ms of giving Fred the Nitenpyram he started acting hyper, panting, scratching like mad, generally being really weird - hanging out in the bedroom by himself, going under the bed, ignoring his dinner. I was pretty freaked out, but apparently stuff like this does happen w/Nitenpyram/Capstar (I googled). It subsided w/in an hour (and then he ate his dinner and Patsy's as well , but it was pretty scary while it was happening. He is fine now, and Patsy (little 6 lb midge, Fred weighs about 30) was fine from the start. Just an FYI if you ever use it and experience these side effects.

Haha yes sorry I forgot to tell you about that. My dog would get hyper too but shes a bit more pudgy now (27 pound corgi) and maybe gotten more used to the Nitenpyram. I give her one whenever we come back from traveling that involves a lot of outdoor/other dog play. She's ridiculously sensitive to flea bites. So for the nitenpyram capsules that are chicken flavored, I just open up the capsule and dump the powder in her food and she eats it up The capstar blob that the vet gave her once she ate it like a treat lol.

 

[Jstar]

Did you try the DE? Starts working within 4 hrs...

See my post here

 

[not_ally]

Jstar, I have to order some of the DE. I had a couple of huge bags of it around, gave it people to address immediate issues, never got it back, blah blah. But it is one of those v. useful/standby things, thank you, I will get some more right now.

 

[Dahila]

Guys De is pretty effective but you staying in house and animals will inhale the DE which can cause lung damage. The only way you can do it, powder all house for at least 48 hours and move out with animals, then put a mask on you and vacuum clean like hell all that out. It is silica does not matter what grade it is food grade or pool grade it is not good to inhale.

 

[abc]

Frontline is just not effective against fleas anymore. The fleas seem to be immune to it here. I would switch to Advantage maybe Trifecta.

 

[Jstar]

I've used it for years and have no problems with it. the crystalline form is what causes problems. The key is to get it down into the fibers of carpets etc. I use a mask when applying and when I vacuum, but there is no reason to leave the house for 48 hrs.

I'd much prefer DE over chemical laden pesticides that are known to cause all sorts of immediate toxic poisonings.

================
From Wiki

Inhalation of crystalline silica is harmful to the lungs, causing silicosis. Amorphous silica is considered to have low toxicity, but prolonged inhalation causes changes to the lungs.[22] Diatomaceous earth is mostly amorphous silica, but contains some crystalline silica, especially in the saltwater forms.[23] In a study of workers, those exposed to natural DE for over 5 years had no significant lung changes, while 40% of those exposed to the calcined form had developed pneumoconiosis.[24] Today's common D.E. formulations are safer to use as they are predominantly made up of amorphous silica and contain little or no crystalline silica.[

 

[not_ally]

Thanks, Dahila. Good heads-up/reminder, I know you'd said this before but I had forgotten.

 

[not_ally]

J, I have wood floors, so would probably just sprinkle all around the edges. There would be less dispersed, but I guess more on the sides, and no way to get it down into anything fibrous. This is sounding not so good to me, just from when the dogs chase each each, get dust flying around. I guess i could get a good dusting down everywhere, leave w/the muppets for a while, then come back and give the place a good sweeping + mopping w/them outside.

 

[Jstar]

Yes you could do that. Also if your fur babies go outside, and the ground is dry, you can dust the ground where they roam...kill the pests outside and they wont come inside

 

[TeresaT]

Tomorrow I'm going to the vet to pick up some Comfortis. The topical I got from them two weeks ago didn't work. The DE didn't work and the generic frontline from Walmart didn't work. I'm tired of vacuuming. I'm tired of washing sheets every other day, too. All of the blankets and rugs are going to the laundromat and while I'm out, I'll dump DE on every surface again. I really don't want to bomb the place (even though I said I was going to). I'm going to spray the yard, which I haven't done yet, and the outside of the house and both decks/porches. I have my own sprayer and two containers of Demon WP that I bought online several years ago. I'll make a double-strength batch for outside. That is probably the biggest problem right there. The dogs let themselves out whenever they want, so if I don't treat the yard, it doesn't make sense treating the house and the dogs. THAT piece of genius finally slapped me in the face today.

 

[not_ally]

Teresa, you have my heart-felt sympathy, you know you do. I know you are not supposed to want to eradicate entire species, but fleas, really?

 

[TeresaT]

I was telling a friend at work that I would much rather have ticks than fleas. You find the tick. You remove the tick. You flush the tick down the toilet. You're done. End of story. Fleas? Bane of my existence right now. Yes, we should rid the world of fleas (and roaches and mosquitoes). I do not see how they contribute any good in the world.

 

[not_ally]

I remember stumbing across an old collection of columns some years ago written from the perspective of two friends, a cockroach and a cat. Archie (the cockroach) would write pithy, free verse poems by flinging his body on the typewriter keys of the journalist after the office had closed, they had to be free verse b/c he could not manage caps and other punctuation for obvious reasons They were really good and funny, I had a new perspective about roaches after that. But it did not last See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archy_and_Mehitabel

 

[Obsidian]

Ever seen the movie Joe's apartment?

 

[TeresaT]

Ever seen the movie Joe's apartment?

About 3 minutes of it. Too gross!

 

[snappyllama]

Not_ally, the trick to getting dogs to swallow pills is to wrap them in cheese. Feed a couple of same size cheese bits, acting like it is the best treat session ever... Just keep em coming and slip the pill one in the middle. They'll almost always just hover them down. My niece is a vet tech and swears this works with just about any dog... Treat feeding frenzy.

 

[not_ally]

Snappy, I will remember this, despite my flawed memory, and bless you if it works. I really do hate trying to force pills down their throats, they hate it so much.

 

[tbeck3579]

When I lived in the city with a fenced yard I could spray the house and yard, wash the dogs and their beds; problem solved. Living in the country makes flea control impossible. About 4 or 5 years ago the fleas got so bad I went to the vet. He gave them 1 shot and every flea fell off dead -- it is almost immediate. I haven't had a problem with fleas since that time and I DO NOT use a monthly treatment. I recognize there are health risks for the dogs, but the flip side is the health risks with fleas. I can't believe it == 1 injection == but that stuff works. A friend who runs a Kennel told me about it.

 

[tbeck3579]

Not_ally, the trick to getting dogs to swallow pills is to wrap them in cheese. Feed a couple of same size cheese bits, acting like it is the best treat session ever... Just keep em coming and slip the pill one in the middle. They'll almost always just hover them down. My niece is a vet tech and swears this works with just about any dog... Treat feeding frenzy.

Snappy, that's how I do it. I wish I had the internet way back when so I didn't have to learn that through trial and error. I buy cheap .79 cent packages of hot dogs for treats and cut up a bunch of little pieces. They swallow the little pieces in anticipation for all the other little pieces in my hand. Too funny, they don't even chew.

 

[misera]

Whenever it's a actual solid pill, I just put a glob of peanut butter on a spoon and squish the pill in there (like benedryl). But for the generic nitenpyram it usually comes as a flavored powder in a capsule so you can open the capsule and dump the powder straight onto their food .

Teresa, I highly suggest switching the flea preventative. I went from Frontline Plus completely ineffective where I lived to K9 Advantix II that worked really well. I've only had to deal with one flea infestation in the past 3 years since switching and it was due to traveling to another state and her playing at the dog park when I was there (so k9 may not have been effective there). You might need to just try different ones though don't apply more than once a month still. It might take time to see which works best for your area.

But guys seriously try the neem oil if you can! And definitely treat your lawn for fleas.. most of the general insect stuff you spread on your lawns in the summer take care of fleas too.