# Having the worst luck with flea prevention



## AussieGSD (May 4, 2015)

I've got a half GSD and half aussie shep, and is 10 months old. I cannot get these fleas under control. We live in a climate that they don't go dormant, so its a year round battle. I have probably tried every prescription grade flea treatment available to no avail. Each time never fail the treatment will work temporarily for approximately 2 weeks then its a full fight again. We do have another dog in the house, a Bichon Frise, who does not seem to get the amount of flea action the GSD gets. It's like the Shep's blood is prime real estate or something. 

Does anyone have any ideas? Anyone experience this with their GSD? His vet says its where we live, and that there is not a lot we can do because fleas are becoming immune to treatment?


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## Myah's Mom (Mar 25, 2013)

Sounds like you need to treat the house and yard. I have battled an infestation to 100% success. Here is how I did it:

1) Treat the dog (I use Simple Guard 3 for flea and ticks, monthly topical)

2) Treat the house (I used Ultracide that is the Hiroshima of insect killers and sprayed it all around the baseboards, under the furniture, under the cushions of the furniture, etc, and then used food grade diatomaceous earth and spread it all over the carpets and baseboards. Left the DE on for 5 days then vacuumed). You can go with just the DE, but I moved into a tick infested place and had to pull out the big guns for what was lurking under the carpet. Ultracide (yes, that brand name, you can get it from Amazon) is the ONLY way to go. Don't waste time and money on stuff you buy in the store.

3) Treat the yard. Buy liquid nematodes and hook the bottle up to your garden hose. Spray those little helpful buggers all over your yard and they will gobble the fleas and ticks up.

4) Avoid other flea/tick areas (dog parks, wooded trails, doggie daycares, known patches of grass that are problematic, etc) as much as practical. If I know we're going to such an area, I give Myah a spray down with natural herbal flea/tick spray (the one with the cloves, citronella, etc).

100% success. Thank God.

(and by the way, the DE will kill ants, spiders, silverfish, etc...great stuff. Do NOT get pool grade DE. It has high silica content that is toxic to human lungs and also won't work. It's the marine diatoms and all their little spikes that work by getting into the insect's exoskeleton and slicing them up to bits).


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## AussieGSD (May 4, 2015)

I should have mentioned we live in an apartment, and the upstairs neighbor has cats. I suspect she is not treating her critters. Could the source be coming from them? The complex is also a dog friendly place, so probably at least 70% of resident have a dog. I think that is probably not helping. They also laid bark mulch out which is a haven for fleas. 

I want to say we tried simple guard 2 weeks ago, and he's got fleas again. I am pretty sure it was simple guard but not 100% on that. I'd have to call the vet to verify.

I don't mind treating the yard attached to my apartment with nematods if you think that will do any good knowing there's hundreds of dogs here? 






Myah's Mom said:


> Sounds like you need to treat the house and yard. I have battled an infestation to 100% success. Here is how I did it:
> 
> 1) Treat the dog (I use Simple Guard 3 for flea and ticks, monthly topical)
> 
> ...


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## AussieGSD (May 4, 2015)

Oh yeah, and I was told by the feed store not to use DE on my carpets if Ive got an bagless vacuum because it ruins them? Anyone know if this is true?


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## Myah's Mom (Mar 25, 2013)

oh my. yes, you have an infestation.

Go to Amazon. Buy food grade DE with a puffer to spread it. Get the Ultracide (no other brand!). Treat everywhere in the house. Everywhere. You literally have to turn your house upside down, but it's WELL worth it.

You'll be glad you did.


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## Myah's Mom (Mar 25, 2013)

AussieGSD said:


> Oh yeah, and I was told by the feed store not to use DE on my carpets if Ive got an bagless vacuum because it ruins them? Anyone know if this is true?


I don't know about that. But if it were me, I would get another vacuum? lol. Most GSD owners have more than one :crazy:.

I have a Miele (which I adore), but it has a bag. My son has a Rainbow here that is bagless (uses water - ugh). Neither is affected by the DE.

Maybe it would be the filter that is affected? Could be. In that case, it's worth buying a few more filters for your bagless vacuum and replace once you've vacuumed up the DE.


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

I'm in the deep south of the U.S. where fleas are voracious. I'm an "all of the above" kind of consumer for these sorts of parasites -- use natural stuff along with a vet-prescribed strength of conventional product, and you'll win the battle. I'm not sure one or the other alone is nearly as good in these tough climates. You may have to keep up the fight on multiple fronts: in the yard, on the dog, etc.

Here's what's working in Louisiana:

I haven't seen a flea (or tick!) in my yard since I started using Wondercide's Eco-Treat yard spray (recently renamed "Yard + Garden") -- I try to spray monthly. It also cuts down the mosquito visits for a few days. It doesn't last -- it just knocks down the population when you spray, so repeat sprays may be needed to get it under control, then it's monthly maintenance (every week at first...). It's cedar oil -- non-toxic, and smells wonderful. I also use their trigger-bottle of dog-spray to repel mosquitoes when we are out at dusk, and I wash my dogs with their Repel bar soap (which is one of my favorite products that they make).

We also keep our dogs on Advantage Multi for HW prevention, and the flea component of that product (so far) has worked well when we go out and about to parks full of fleas. 

One vet told me he thinks Comfortis is the most effective flea protection on the market right now. I haven't used it, but the friends I know who use Trifexis (which includes Comfortis) are flea free. It has some anecdotal reports of dogs having very bad reactions though -- for dogs that tolerate the product, it's working well against fleas.

There's a newer product called Vectra 3D (available from vets) that has been working very well for some of my friends. These newer products likely have less resistance. Vectra3D also takes care of ticks, so it's especially good. NexGuard and Activyl are also newer products. One shelter I pull from uses Activyl, and I haven't seen fleas on any of the dogs we are pulling from them -- so I would have to say it's working, as shelters down here that use nothing inevitably have a population of flea-infested dogs.

I would not personally bother with any product with fipronil as an active ingredient though -- it seems to have stopped working in my area (I've heard anecdotal reports from shelter vets that they've seen the same thing). Frontline and all the generic equivalents (Pet Armor, etc.) are thus off the table for me.  In fact, there was one older dog in rescue that was in a foster home out in the country who was on Pet Armor monthly. She still had fleas. They gave her a Comfortis pill one day, and a ton of fleas came off her. So...I'm done with fipronil products. It may still work well in other regions, but my local bug population is tough. 

Capstar also works in a pinch. It kills the fleas that are on the dog the day you give the pill, with no lasting effect. If the fleas are bad though, Capstar and a bath with Repel will give some quick relief. I try keep to keep a Capstar with me when we pull dogs from shelters that use nothing, as we can pill the dog, and then go do paperwork while we wait for it to start working. I think it maybe just went off patent, as I've been seeing some generic equivalents with the same active ingredient popping up.


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## NancyJ (Jun 15, 2003)

Cat fleas are the worst. My cat brought home some and we treated her with Revolution and him with Bravecto after many other more natural attempts, then progressing to Advantage, Comfortis, etc. The Bravecto did the number and now we are back in control with our garlic [it has been over months which is how long a Bravecto dose is good for.

You may want to talk to the apartment management about this, documenting everything you have done. The DE may help keep them coming in from above.


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## AussieGSD (May 4, 2015)

Oh I know. Summer just arrived, and I got a quick lesson in why they are called German Shedders. When he first started losing his undercoat I was kind of worried. I mean it is a LOT of hair lol

At least his falls out. The Bichon Frise takes hours of combing, and primping...




Myah's Mom said:


> I don't know about that. But if it were me, I would get another vacuum? lol. Most GSD owners have more than one :crazy:.
> 
> I have a Miele (which I adore), but it has a bag. My son has a Rainbow here that is bagless (uses water - ugh). Neither is affected by the DE.
> 
> Maybe it would be the filter that is affected? Could be. In that case, it's worth buying a few more filters for your bagless vacuum and replace once you've vacuumed up the DE.


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## AussieGSD (May 4, 2015)

I was doing NextGuard (that's the beef chew, right?), and it never worked properly for either of my dogs so I gave up on it. My smaller one hated it, and the GSD would see me struggling to get the little one to eat it, and then he'd be all like uh if he's not eating it there has to be something wrong with it, so I aint going to either LOL. It was just a HUGE struggle, and didn't work for them anyway. 

So then we went to Comfortis, and it seemed to work, but I think that's the one he grew out of if I remember right. His vet doesn't have it for his weight. I think it's this one, but not 100% sure. Is this the one that usually requires a heart worm check? I am going to double check on this as I have heard from several people this one is the winner. 

Sounds like treating the yard is a good step to so I'm going to get that in the works. 







Magwart said:


> I'm in the deep south of the U.S. where fleas are voracious. I'm an "all of the above" kind of consumer for these sorts of parasites -- use natural stuff along with a vet-prescribed strength of conventional product, and you'll win the battle. I'm not sure one or the other alone is nearly as good in these tough climates. You may have to keep up the fight on multiple fronts: in the yard, on the dog, etc.
> 
> Here's what's working in Louisiana:
> 
> ...


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## AussieGSD (May 4, 2015)

Sounds like I need to mix DE in some paint, and repaint the ceiling 





jocoyn said:


> Cat fleas are the worst. My cat brought home some and we treated her with Revolution and him with Bravecto after many other more natural attempts, then progressing to Advantage, Comfortis, etc. The Bravecto did the number and now we are back in control with our garlic [it has been over months which is how long a Bravecto dose is good for.
> 
> You may want to talk to the apartment management about this, documenting everything you have done. The DE may help keep them coming in from above.


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