# Fleas Fleas and more Fleas



## GSD246 (Jan 17, 2012)

What to do about the fleas? We are renting a connected condo. The house next door use to belong to a crackhead who the police removed from the house a few months back. They had a few cats that they let "free" when they moved. A lady who lives behind me has at least 10 cats that she keeps outside. There are so many cats around me that the dogs have stop barking at them.

I have nothing at all against cats. But I do not believe that it is good for them to stay outside. I also hate it when people feed stray cats or shelter them and allow them to leave whenever without getting them fixed. I honestly wish there were laws against this. 

Now my house is full of fleas. Today, my vacuum broke and the company who sold us the dyson isn't open over the holiday weekend so I have to borrow one. All I seem to be able to do is keep their numbers down. I believe I have managed to rid of my house a few times but they come back in. I've vacuumed, and steamed cleaned everything more than once. Put DE down throughout the house. Treated the dogs with flea prevention even though I hated using it and have never had to use it before as my essential oils use to be good enough. I still spray the dogs with an mix of lemon and lavender oil and switch off between lemon and cedar. I tried making a more potent mix but that made their coats oily, the dogs didn't like it and the fleas didn't appear to be bothered because when we would come back inside I'd find more fleas on them. I put DE on the dogs, on the parts where the fleas were, it dried out their coats but the fleas remained. This is what made me consider using the flea prevention on my dogs as I believe the fleas were probably doing a far greater harm to them.

Now I can't seem to find many on my dogs. Maybe 1 or 2 at the most when coming back from a walk. But I still can't seem to keep them out of the house. I think they are climbing onto the humans for rides whenever we go outside. I'm afraid to take my daughter outside to play as the last time I did she had fleas on her and little bumps all over her body. 

I really want to move but I don't have the money. I've been trying to save but court cost and lawyer fees, unplanned doctor visits, and car problems have left me owing a little more than I currently have. I don't know what to do beyond vacuuming the entire house every few days. Bathing the dogs monthly(they are easy to bath but I worry about the coats). I feel so powerless against these little bugs and I hate it. 

To cut down on my spam I just listed the rest: 

1) The DE is food grade. Picked it up from MPC.
2) The dogs eat garlic and apple cider vinegar and have been since before this started.
3) Been on raw for over a year. Why do some people claim that these problems don't affect raw fed dogs? 
4) Been feeding organic raw pumpkin seeds to treat for warms. Haven't seen any but with the fleas I can't be sure if and when any arrive.
5) Comfortis is what I used on the dogs. It seemed to do less than the other ones and I only wanted it to take care of the fleas with the least amount of damage to the dogs.


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## Daisy (Jan 4, 2009)

Some years back, we had a bad flea problem. It seems they exploded overnight and my daughter looked like she had chickenpox on her legs from the bites. My husband went to a lab and granuales to make a spray and sprayed the yard and house. No over the counter junk. Then, we used Comfortis for the dogs and Advantage for the cats. We were lucky, the fleas went away fast.


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## MadLab (Jan 7, 2013)

Have you heard of or tried Neem oil.

It is really good for fleas.

I rub on the dogs and include in the water when washing them. I also spray all around. When adding to water use some drops of washing up liquid to mix. Dogs hair looks good after a few days and they smell clean. 

You need to be consistent and use it for a few weeks to be sure and every week or 2 weeks after that if the animals keep getting in contact with fleas.

You can spray around your yard every few days.


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## brebrehj (Jan 18, 2013)

We had a bad flea problem a few monthw ago. Our vet gave us and oral medication (cant think of the name), front line and a spray for our house. Took about 3 consecutive months but we're flea free! 

Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## JakodaCD OA (May 14, 2000)

honestly if they are outside in the vacinity where you hang out with the dogs/kids/ yourself, and it's that "bad", they could be jumping on them outside and bringing them in

They "say" Borax works well, but to not use it if you have cats in the house..Supposedly you dust your house/rugs with it, leave it there, Not sure I'd use it, I would worry about dogs licking their feet?? I dunno..

Maybe put it in your vac bag, vac the house, VAC the dogs???


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## Blitzkrieg1 (Jul 31, 2012)

Comfortis kills the fleas well but not sure howlong it remains an active preventative in the dogs system. I have used revolution with good success. Also, the vet should be able to sell you a spray that you can put on the floors, couches, bedding etc. This will prevent the eggs from developing and kill adults. I dont care when it comes to bugs, I use as much chemicals as possible and dont mess around with the natural stuff. Cant stand the things.


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

i had a flea problem with my last GSD and cats. i went the chemical
route. i bombed the house, sprayed the floors and dipped all of
the cats and the dog. i forget how long the wait was but i had
to spray, bomb and dip again.


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## GSD246 (Jan 17, 2012)

I'm going to have to check out that spray on Tuesday. My daughter is only 1 so borax isn't ideal. With the number of cats we have without any real homes I'm betting the flea problem is pretty bad. Sometimes I noticed cats sitting on my window sill or resting on my front porch. I'm assuming they are behaving this way because someone has been rewarding them with food for doing so. 

I do think the DE worked on most bugs. I use to see one or two strange looking bugs once every couple of days. I haven't seen any since the DE went down. Was sad to see that it didn't have any noticeable affect on the fleas. 

Looks like it will be comfortis/ revolution and sprays until we can find a place to stay that isn't a condo/townhouse. Going to talk to the landlord about sealing up all the cracks that I noticed and see if he can get the condo management team to do something about the bugs in the yards. I just don't see how treating the yards will help if the cats keep walking through it. I'm not at all mad at the cats. All they want to do is survive and they are probably just as bugged by the fleas as we are. It is their past owners that I'm upset with. As of right now looks like the only ones thriving out here is the fleas. 

When I finally do get my own house I don't even want carpet. Words can not express the amount of hate I have for these bugs.


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## arycrest (Feb 28, 2006)

This year was the first time I've had a flea problem in many years ... it was really bad and it took a number of months to get it under control. 

I used Comfortis or Panoramis (the Australian version of Trifexis) and CapStar (Slider can't take Comfortis or Panoramis), sprayed the house, had the lawn sprayed, etc. Knock on wood I haven't found a flea for a couple months but I'm not 100% sure the infestation is completely over.

GOOD LUCK!!!


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## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

doggiedad said:


> i had a flea problem with my last GSD and cats. i went the chemical
> route. i bombed the house, sprayed the floors and dipped all of
> the cats and the dog. i forget how long the wait was but i had
> to spray, bomb and dip again.


I have always had to go the route doggiedad traveled. Hard and fast, maybe more than once.

EVERYTHING needs to be looked at and I use the strong stuff too.

Only change I would make is that Dawn dishwashing liquid can be used to wash the dogs and kill the fleas, and that's probably less harsh then regular flea shampoo. ALWAYS START AT THE HEAD/NECK cause the fleas run there when the water starts and the fewer that make it live the better (hard to wash around my dogs eyes).

How to Kill Fleas With Dawn Dishsoap: 11 Steps (with Pictures)

Then the dog get the topical fleas/tick stuff from the vets. I pack the dogs in the car (BTW, you may have fleas in the car too....) and return to the house to flea bomb it! You can get a good price on a bunch of cans at Home Depot/Loews (make sure you close the window, I only made that mistake once).

Sounds like you need to attend to your yard too....

When I do get home, vacuuming constantly is important for the next few weeks and may have to do another round of everything a month later if you didn't hit it hard enough.

More great house and yard tips --> 4 Ways to Get Rid of Fleas - wikiHow


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## Rbeckett (Jun 19, 2013)

Get a huge bag or two of diatomaceous earth and spread it liberally every where that surrounds your house. The diatoms are a very sharp and jagged little critter that is microscopic and will clog a flea and other insects breathing ports along their bodies and they will move along to somewhere they are not having difficulty breathing. It is completely safe and could even be eaten so I generally spread it around heavily during the onset of flea season and keep a layer spread for at least the next 4 weeks to six. It works amazingly well and is safe for even the youngest puppies or bitches who are whelping any time soon. You can get the stuff at any aquarium shop and a lot fo garden stores too. HTH

Wheelchair Bob


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## mebully21 (Nov 18, 2011)

virbac makes a yard spray that kills fleas and ticks. if you cant get the outside taken care of and rid of fleas the fleas will just keep breeding and biting...once the outside is treated then treat the house inside,. if possible walk your dogs out the front door away from the flea yard if possible and also treat the front yard as well.. sentry makes a flea and tick collar that works for 6 months. yes the human grade DE should work, but if the fleas are that bad outside you are going to need strong chemicals to get rid of them as natural stuff wont cut it


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