Flea Wars

[Guest ellenanneeddy]

I'm having a terrible time with fleas this year. Frontline is doing nothing, and confortis only worked for a day or two. I'm about to try advantix ( my vet is not believing me about things not working, and I'm past it). My smallest grey Bird is scratching herself raw.

Who has some good ideas about this? And what is adams spray? Which is the safe variety?

Help!

Ellen

[kudzu]

Folks are having poor results with Frontline in our area. Advantage still works well for us. A neighbor is feeding some stray/feral cats. Those cats in turn seem to be sharing their fleas with us. Argh!! One treatment of Advantage on all the pets, feline & canine, seems to have solved the problem. Advantix has the same base ingredient as Advantage plus a tick killing ingredient. Might be worth a try.

[cleptogrey]

check your house/apt. you might be infested! once they are out of the environment, then you should be able to get things under control. talk to your vet about what to use for cleaning up your place. bombing is a drag, but it works. once the fleas are in the sofa, floor boards, carpeting it doesn't a loosing battle unless your go for the weapons of mass destruction.

Edited July 21, 2011 by cleptogrey

[KF_in_Georgia]

Consider giving her Benadryl to help control the itching. Some dogs are allergic to the actual flea bite (the saliva, I think), and thus a flea bite is more than just the annoying sting but actually triggers a histamine reaction. (For me, mosquito bites trigger the problem, with huge welts. Benadryl calms it all down.)

 

Ask your neighbors what they're using, too, and see what might be working in your area. (I assume you're actually seeing the fleas, and not just the scratching.) There's also Capstar, which you could give your dogs to kill what's on them while you're waiting for the newest topical application to take effect. Capstar is available from vets and at PetSmart.

[JJNg]

What do you mean when you say the products are not working? I assume you're continuing to see fleas on your dogs? As cleptogrey mentioned, it sounds like you have an infestation somewhere in your home or property. And until you get the fleas cleared out of the environment, continuing to try different products on the dogs isn't going to get things under control.

 

Most of these products don't keep fleas off the dog and only kill them after they get on. A good way to tell if Comfortis is working is to put the dog in a crate with a white towel for a couple hours. If the Comfortis is working, you'll find dead fleas on the towel. And if you keep seeing live fleas on your dogs, that means they're continuing to pick up more fleas from somewhere.

 

The way the flea life cycle works, the adult fleas you see on the dog are less than 5-10% of the total flea population. The rest of the fleas are immature stages (eggs, larva, pupa) in the environment (in the ground, carpet, dog beds, furniture, etc). While products like Frontline Plus, which kill the eggs and larva as well as adults, can theoretically eliminate a flea infestation if used regularly, this can take several months, and only if there is no outside source reintroducing fleas into the area.

 

Treating the house and yard at the same time, while making sure all dogs and cats are on good flea control products, will help get the problem under control more quickly and effectively, but it will still take some time before you stop seeing fleas. This is because the immature fleas that are still in the pupal stage are protected by the cocoon and are very difficult to kill even with professional pesticides. So the existing pupae in the environment will continue to hatch into adult fleas that get on the dogs (and then be killed by the product you're treating the dogs with) until they are all gone. But if you have neighbors' dogs or wildlife (rabbits, squirrels, deer, etc) that bring fleas on to your property, it will be an ongoing war, so your topic title is quite appropriate.

 

I also second Kathy's recommendation to try Benedryl for the itching. The dogs that go crazy scratching from fleas are allergic to the flea saliva, and sometimes even after all the fleas are gone, they will continue to itch and need medication to stop the allergic reaction. Benedryl can help in mild cases, but the more severe cases often need prescription medication to treat the allergy and secondary skin infections from scratching.

[JoanBelleIsle]

For what it's worth, Comfortis is the only product that has consistently succeeded in getting rid of the fleas on my guys. Doesn't handle other creepy crawlies, but does the job on fleas.

[Guest d0ggiem0mma]

In my experience, if multiple flea products "aren't working" then your house is likely infested. At least 1 of the flea products is probably working but you are still seeing new fleas as they hatch.

 

Go buy some Borax powder to treat your floors. Sprinkle it on the carpet, brush it in good, then vacuum. You can do the same on your furniture. Use a broom to brush it into the cracks in wood floors. Just keep the dogs off the carpet until you vacuum, then it is very safe.

 

Give the dogs benedryl for the itching and talk to your vet about getting a steroid spray like Genesis as a crisis buster. Keep up on your flea product of choice. Just FYI Comfortis needs to be dosed every 3 weeks instead of once a month for it to be most effective.

[JJNg]

Just FYI Comfortis needs to be dosed every 3 weeks instead of once a month for it to be most effective.

Based on feedback from my clients, it seems to be working pretty well for the whole month. So far, I haven't seen any cases where the effect seemed to taper off toward then end of the month like we see with the topical products. While dosing every 3 weeks was becoming a pretty common suggestion for the topicals like Frontline and Advantage, this is the first time I've heard this for Comfortis.

 

Are you making sure the Comfortis is always given with a full meal? I don't know if this is true and I haven't seen any studies to support this (I haven't looked for them, either), but when Comfortis first came out, the rep told us that it works for about 3 weeks if given on an empty stomach, but lasts for 33-34 days if given with a full meal. We use a lot of Comfortis at our clinic, and I've found it to be the most effective product so far against fleas.