How do you handle a dog with significant flea allergies?

Issue by lynnsi: How do you take care of a pet with serious flea allergy symptoms?
My puppy has a serious reaction to flea bites, resulting in enormous hair loss and sores from excessivegrooming. We have seemingly experimented with every little thing to aid get rid of the fleas different Frontline items, dips, shampoos, flea bombs, shaving her, having her to a specialty groomer, and even some medication she took orally. Practically nothing is operating. I Just want assist discovering new techniques to get rid of the fleas, and since chemical compounds had no influence I am leaning to a much more normal strategy.

Very best answer:

Answer by T.J.
All-natural strategy is definitley not going to operate for you.

The problem is your home and property are infested. You want to target on the entire house and garden. Not just the pet. A number of treatment options are constantly require for infestations. Frontline Furthermore as soon as a month is fantastic for killing any flea the bites your pet. It will prevent infestions but not treatment a total blown infestion. You require to hold utilizing Frontline but also phase up your attempts in your house and yard.

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6 Comments

  1. Sammy Gabbie GO VEGAN!

    The problem is you aren’t treating your house and yard as well. You need to treat your house, yard, vehcle, and whatever else the dog has access to. Takes weeks or sometimes months to de flea your living environment.

  2. Treat and limit her environment, rather than the dog itself.
    A big can of diatomaceous earth will keep your house flea-free, and having the yard surrounding it treated with diazinon or Merit will get rid of the fleas that are brought in.
    Walk her on a sidewalk, only near highly treated lawns, and never near natural growth indigenous plants – if you can get to a golf course, you can be sure NOTHING is alive there…

    Wash her when you return with Dawn dish detergent – that will kill fleas in a few minutes. NEVER use a dip of any kind – they do more harm than good.

    Make sure she is on as high a dose as is safe of omega-3 fish oil. It not only serves as a powerful anti-nflammatory, but also strengthens cell walls. That can help immensely. So can extra anti-oxidants – vitamins C,D,E.

    If she is allergic to one thing, it is probable she is allergic to others. Ask for a referral to a veterinary dermatologist – what you have been doing so far is very old school, and you need the newer, better methods- which will have a lot to do with tracking pollen counts, mold blooms, checking her for food sensitivities, and paying attention to her GI tract health.

    This isn’t just about fleas – her immune response is out of whack, and you need a specialist.
    They will change her- and your – life.

  3. CanineTruth

    If the hard core stuff doesn’t help, nothing “natural” will. Period. End of.

    Forget bombs – they can miss spots and once the vapor is gone, it’s gone. Try a powder. It’s more work (have to brush it into the carpets and vacuum multiple times) but they tend to work better. It also tends to stay in the carpet longer. Going to have to treat the yard and car, as well. Toss out and replace any bedding/toys.

    And don’t bother shaving the dog – that gets rid of the hair, not the fleas themselves. Try a different prevention med as well (Frontline has been having issues lately – rumor is fleas are becoming used to it). I use Advantix.

    Can take months to get rid of fleas. It’s a bad year for them (or should i say a good one for the fleas, bad for us and our dogs). I’ve had a ton of dogs come in infested. Keep coming in, too, because the owners use poor prevention and don’t bother treating the home/yard.

  4. Maybe I can help.

    First of all, it can take 3 months to get rid of a flea infestation. You have to stay with it, and enlist your veterinary staff as your cheerleaders.

    I am a vet tech, have dogs and cats, and have never seen one little flea on any of them.

    Ask your vet for Comfortis and Frontline. On your flea allergic dog, alternate products, starting with Comfortis, every 2 weeks. Today give comfortis; in two weeks apply Frontline, etc.

    On every other dog in your house, use Frontline every 30 days. On your cats, use Revolution every 30 days.

    The Comfortis will kill the fleas fast; the Frontline will kill within 24 hours AND WILL NOT ALLOW EGGS TO HATCH. The Revolution will kill the fleas within 24 hours

    The main problem is already in your carpet, between hardwood floor boards, everywhere your pets have been. That would be the eggs, larvae, and pupae from the fleas. You see, the eggs laid are not sticky, so they roll off the pet and into your floors, beds, couches, etc. You can’t see them without magnification, but they are there. The fleas you kill with Frontline cannot produce any more of the eggs, larvae, or pupae, so that part will be stopped from the first application.

    The eggs turn into larvae, and then into pupae, which can lie dormant for months before they emerge into adult fleas and jump back on your pets. So to take care of that, you’d probably need to contact a professional to spray your house. They need to know to come back and do it again, though, to take care of fleas as they emerge into those adults. Remember: NOTHING will kill the pupae.

    As for your yard, use a systemic fire ant killer like Over n Out twice a year, broadcasting it all over where your pets go. If you live on acerage and allow your pets to roam, it will be much more difficult to control their environment.

    If you are going to do your own spraying, use Knockout Spray. It will work. Remember you have to repeat the process in 3 weeks to catch those adults emerging from the pupae, which nothing will kill.

    Vacuum over and over again. Cut up a flea collar and put the pieces into your bag to kill any adults that emerge in there. Wash and/or throw out throw rugs, bedding, where your pets have been.

    Your flea allergic dog may need antibiotics, plus allergy medications to help her get over the horrible itching. If she indeed does have scabs, I’m pretty sure she’d need the antibiotics, perhaps for a whole month to heal up that skin.

    The shampoos, etc, can actually cause more problems with the skin by lifting up the layers and allowing bacteria to invade. Make sure not to scrub with your fingernails, etc.

    If you follow this, I know you’ll get rid of the fleas, depending on how long it takes them all to hatch out of your environment and die. Remember: they can lie dormant for weeks and weeks. The environment of your home indoors is just perfect for them in winter.

    Frontline has an 800 number on the package to call for assistance with flea control. They are professional and very good at what they do. Ask your vet about coupons for Frontline. We currently have ont for 2 free with a 6-pack. You probably couldn’t beat that anywhere else.

    One more point about the shampoos, etc. Frontline works by moving over the skin and into the oil glands, where it “lives.” If you are continually stripping the oils away by shampoos, then your Frontline may not get where it needs to be and may not work as well. I wouldn’t bathe after using frontline for 24 hours, and would not apply frontline to a freshly bathed dog, either.

    I know it can be expensive and very time-consuming, with lots of work for you, to get rid of the fleas. Stay in there, though, and they’ll be gone, never to come back again.

    vet tech

  5. Give A Dog A Home

    Fleas can and do become resistant to the chemicals in flea-poison. This is probably why they are not working anymore. You can add other ways of getting rid of fleas to the mix. One example is flea-traps. There are several types of flea trap.
    You will need to take your dog to the Vet and warn them what you’re bringing in with her. Maybe a home visit will be better.

    Also you will have flea eggs all over your furniture and in your carpets and curtains and in the floor-boards and your bedding and clothing. You’re going to have to boil-wash as much as you can to get rid of the nasty things. Maybe even change the carpets if it’s as bad as it sounds. At the very least you’ll have to use a powerful carpet cleaner (the electrical type).

    You can also get electric flea combs. These are basically the same as the ones humans use for nits. They break the flea’s legs and zap them and the eggs to death. You want to break the flea’s legs and kill their eggs. The eggs are your bigggest problem.
    Go back to your Vet as I’m assuming you’ve already been and tell them the fleas are now resistent to the meds/poisons.

    Clean EVERYTHING. Change your dog’s bedding and even his bed if it’s one of those fabric ones.
    You may have to keep your dog confined to one area of the house as you try to get rid of the fleas. Preferably an area with hard flooring and little to no soft furnishings.

    Fleas also manage to not drown when you bathe a dog because air gets trapped in the fur. It helps to run a bath slowly with the dog standing in the bath and raise the water level so the fleas hop up the body. You have to rub each bit of fur as it gets wet as the water rises.
    This method will only get rid of SOME fleas as you cannot immerse your dog’s head and a lot of the fleas will simply get through their ordeal alive anyway.

    When you use flea-poison – alternate the types of flea-poison on a rota so they don’t get resistant to the same type so easily. Get the timing right. Don’t use them too often or too little. Too often – they get resistant. Too little – you miss out on killing them and more eggs are laid.

    I’m really sorry but this has turned into a big job as it’s obviously been going on for quite a while. You really will have to clean *everything*.

    Go to your Pet Stores and check the ones online for ways to clean eggs out of your home and for things like flea traps and other alternative methods of getting rid of fleas. The more methods you use the better your chance is of finally getting rid of them. At the minute you’re only using one method and you need to use more.

    I hope this helps and good luck!!
    …..
    Additional: Shawn has given VERY good advice. Use those methods (as well as the additional alternatives I mentioned) and those poison brands the way Shawn said. It does take a long time to get rid of fleas. You can be looking at a few months from the first sign of them, but it will probably take you longer than three months now they’ve dug themselves in so deeply to your home and garden. If you live on a two-story house you need to make upstairs out of bounds to the dog until this problem is over. Use a child safety gate to block the way.
    Other posters have also given you valuable info. Use every method you can and keep at it. Even if you haven’t seen any signs of fleas for a couple of weeks DO NOT STOP – the larvae will just be lying dormant ready to hatch as soon as you drop your guard.
    Keep at it and good luck.
    Make sure you take away any other things your dog may be allergic to (if he/she has other allergies like food allergies you should address this at the same time). Give him/her food suppliments to keep her immune system up. It’s not all about medication. Ask your Vet about that.
    Remember – you are treating a *situation*, not just treating fleas or your dog. It’s a lot of things to cover.
    Anything you can get rid of that has fleas living in them should be got rid of and maybe burnt. You’ll have to be harsh on yourself now by choosing what to get rid of.
    A steam, cleaner will help burn eggs to death so use one of those too. Do your deep-cleaning of your home regularly, not just once, using every method every time. You will likely need several traps. Every flea you kill is one less flea to lay eggs.
    Do this right and you will kill off everything except maybe the pupae. And pounce on those as they hatch (this means before you can tell they’ve hatched) and eventually you will have killed them all.

  6. I guess you better tell your veterinarian about this and ask for the better remedy or most likely treatment best for it. Shaving won’t do but I guess it will just leave out your dog on a miserable state. After you had your doctor’s opinion then you better clean the whole house to ensure that all thicks and flea is completely bee n eliminated and avoid it’s recurrence.

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