fleas

[bluebird]

Give me your best flea removal ideas please!

[RobertaD]

Borax sprinkled in the carpet and on furniture is supposed to kill them. We keep flea collars on the dogs and shampoo with a flea soap. I toss the cut off part of the flea collar in the vacumm bag. If they are in the yard there is a spray you can use to treat the yard.

Roberta

[HAPPY6]

We use Frontline on our dog, it lasts 4 to 5 weeks and he never gets fleas. You can buy it at your vet's office or some pet stores.
Cutter is a very good product for spraying the back yard.....

[bluebird]

We have gotten lazy about using Frontline. Guess we will remember now.

[Haleys grandmom]

I was my dogs in 1/2 human shampoo and 1/2 pine sol. My cousin told me about this and it works. The smaller dogs I use 1/4 pine sol. It kills the fleas you may have to do this a few times a week or two apart but it does work.

[KSJEn6891]

Around the perimeter of the house we use MAXX insect repellent. Inside we eat a lot of Garlicky foods... since our cats don't go outside so they don't use flea collars, and we don't have an indoor flea problem.

[Sammi1961]

We use either Advantix or Frontline on our dog and cats. Both can now be bought online through Amazon which is often cheaper than getting it through the vets.

[Haleys grandmom]

Dawn dish soap works good , leave it on the dog for 15 minutes massaging it in then rise and the fleas do die.

[MKS]

If you use a fogger inside you will need to get one that kills all four life stages of the flea. Even if you do it right (the box does not tell you this,) it could be as much at 21 days b4 the fleas are completely gone. We have had cats for 12 years & only twice had problems with fleas inside. This year was one of those times. We used the fogger & got the medicine for the cats from the vet. It took about a week to see a drastic reduction in the fleas & we haven't seen them since. That was the beginning of the summer.

[WritInTime]

I live on 7 acres in the country. I have 3 cats, 2 dogs and ended up with a litter of 5 kittens that were abandoned. I have a pesticide free solution, but the regime has to be consistent.

For the dogs, I bathe them once a week with a mixture of Dawn dish detergent and lavender shampoo. After the bath, I comb a little mixture of olive oil, Avon Skin So Soft and water through their fur to keep their skin from drying and they smell really good. The Avon Skin So Soft repels, but does not kill fleas.

Then, I use a mixture of 1 tsp pure Lavender Food Grade Essential Oil, 1 tsp Avon Skin So Soft, fill 1/3 of an 8.4oz spray bottle with alcohol and then add warm water and shake. I spray and comb this through their fur daily. I also feed them 1/2 tsp twice daily of minced garlic mixed with dry and a little bit of canned dog food.

I dust the yard where the dogs run with diatomaceous earth DE (FOOD GRADE ONLY! Ordered from Amazon.com NEVER NEVER NEVER SWIMMING POOL STUFF - SWIMMING POOL GRADE IS EXTREMELY TOXIC AND POISONOUS). This kills the fleas on the ground and fleas are repelled with the other treatments and my dogs are not ingesting pesticides or absorbing them through their skin with the spot on types. You can also give your pets DE food grade and rid them of internal parasites naturally. Read up on diatomateous earth. Just do not breathe the dust, it can hurt your lungs because it is a very fine dust and a cutting substance.

Cats are different and VERY sensitive to many things due to their digestive system make up.

I bathe them once a week with Dawn and use the very same treatments with them as with the dogs EXCEPT...I DO NOT use lavender shampoo or essential oil. Lavender oil is toxic to them and so is peppermint oil. I ONLY use Avon Skin So Soft, alcohol and water mix to comb through their fur. I only use Dawn to bathe them and use a bucket where they can be dipped and bathed with their head sticking out.

NEVER give cats garlic. It damages their red blood cells.

I know this is a whole lot of work. It can be at first. That is why it is good to get the whole family involved in helping with this and if not, once you are in the routine and the pets are used to it, it is a snap.

Use whatever methods you feel comfortable with. I used Comfortis for my dogs and Advantage for my cats, but do not like the reviews on the toxins in them. They are pesticides and we are giving our pets pesticides. I just stopped doing it.

To sum all of this up, I took my litter of kittens to the vet and as he combed through all 5 of them with a flea comb, he only found 2 single fleas on ALL 5 kittens and absolutely NO eggs. He even asked me what I was using. The 2 fleas could have jumped on them while I was waiting 15 minutes in the waiting room for the appointment. Even if they had 2 fleas, I can assure you, the fleas were not going to hang out for long. :-)