Fleas? Health

What do you do when your dog scratches himself to get rid of fleas? Give him a bath? Lemon juice? Apple cider? Thanks

My 9 dogs all get de-flead on the first Sunday of each Month, with either FrontLine / Advantage / Fipnil / Effipro / Fiprospot.

6 JRT'S - 1 GSD - 1 Springer/Cocker & a Heinz 57 puppy

1st of every month except for December and February is Frontline Day!

Thanks

I personally don’t use chemical flea treatment as a matter of coarse ‘only if required’ and touch wood’ never had a flea problem, sorry but cant justify pumping chemicals into my dogs for no good reason.

Bathing him will help get rid of the fleas and a flea comb, as with most natural flea products Cider Vinegar is just a preventive, depending how bad it is you may have to use a chemical based product and good household spray.

Nothing. I groom daily, and haven't seen a flea since I lost Mia Lurcher in 2008, (I'm touching wood here!). I think they have a definite preference for the blood of certain dogs though, as when I used to have a pack of Cavaliers, there was just one bitch that they were attracted to. I did have two cats in those days, and it is hard to keep cats flea-free without using chemicals.

I wouldn't dream if putting chemicals on my dogs every month just in case they might get fleas.

Can't remember the last time I de - fleas my dog

I use Advocate once a month on Pippa, this cover various other parasites including heart and lung worm.

We live in a wooded area full of fleas. Our dogs even get them in winter oftentimes. I find that Sentry Fiproguard MAX is the best thing for mine. If I don't use it, they get a horrid case of itchy fleas and nobody has time for that. If you aren't 100% sure it's fleas making the dog itch, I'd have a vet check him out. Many dogs have allergies that are itchy.

PS - Brewers yeast and garlic helps ward off fleas once they have them, but in my case, do almost nothing to prevent infestation. Same goes with Diatomateous Earth. Good once they have them, but not the best preventative. I use it on the old dog and it keeps the fleas down, but occasionally I may see a few and then I have to break out the baths and etc. Cider vinegar has no effect here.

Worming treatments are not preventative (they only kill worms in the body at the time) Same with flea treatments, they wont stop your dog getting fleas they have to be on the dog for them to be killed off. Its also worth noting that advocate doesn’t kill ticks or cover tapeworm.

@gzhpcu
We have a small mix Terrier in The Rescue Home at the moment, that came to us riddled with fleas, you could actually see the fleas crawling all over him, (6 years old & never ever been de-flead in his life) the poor dog at to be shaved so the vet could treat the open sores on his body (dog scratching non stop caused open weeping sores) he's well on the mend now & a much happier dog, unfortunately his owners didn't treat their dog as in their own words "they didn't want drugs in or on their dog" so for the whole of his life this little dogs as not had any injections (boosters) worming or flea treatments.
Some owners like to treat their dogs with home remedies & their dogs never get fleas or ticks, but personally I wouldn't like to chance it.

That isn't true about fleas. The 30 day treatments are often extremely effective at preventing fleas. They are the only thing that truly works for me. My dogs get LOADED with fleas without these. I don't know where you live, but clearly there isn't a flea population if you're able to make these statements. I don't know what I'd do if the flea drops didn't exist. My dogs, Nigredo in particular since he goes deeper into woods etc would really suffer, as would I.

I have my dogs fecal exams done twice a year usually, and I never worm them as their fecals have been negative. Intestinal worm preventatives or treatments aren't necessary in my case. Heartworm medications are given when I can remember to buy them. They've always been heartworm negative. Its all about what's best for your individual dog.

I'm aware of what it does and doesn't cover, she has Drontal Plus XL every three months as well.
After her daily runs over the local fields, I thoroughly check her for ticks and other foreign bodies, especially foxtail grass seed, having had a previous dog that suffered from one of these in her ear, and just last year a friends dog had to go under the knife to remove one from his dogs paw. Nasty things if not spotted early.

I do try to avoid areas of high density of avoidable problems, but at the minute the damn things are everywhere.

They will be effective in ‘controlling the fleas once your dog has them but I can’t see how they will ‘prevent’ your dog getting them.

That is down to irresponsible ownership, as stated in previous post if any of my dogs had fleas then yes id use a chemical treatment, I just don’t believe in pumping them with unnecessary chemicals, I wouldn't treat myself for head lice if I didn't have them, so why should I treat the dogs For fleas they don’t have.

In that case, you merely don't understand how these products work. They keep fleas off of Nigredo entirely. If I am even two weeks late with a dosage, I see a few fleas. These products serve not only as killers of fleas and ticks already on dogs, but are powerful repellants. Take a look at packaging. Most say "Kills fleas and ticks etc AND prevents reinfestation for up to 6 weeks" etc. etc.

Now, not all products work in all regions and fleas have built resistances to some of the medications depending on where one lives. Advantix/Advantage for example, which contains Permethrin, doesn't work AT ALL on fleas in my experience, but Sentry MAX which uses Fipronil works well.

Do you regularly give worming tablets to your dogs?

I use Frontline Plus on Tikva as I did with Little One and Pereg. Not for fleas but for ticks, although of course it is also for fleas.

The same with Drontal Plus for worms, although as Tikva is now over a year [my baby is 15 months old today!] she now only needs Drontal every six months. Why Drontal? Because it is also effective against tapeworm.

We do not have heartworm or lungworm here but unfortunately we do have Parkworm, which has recently arrived in this area from the centre of the Country, and that requires a shot every three months for life. The amount goes by weight so Michal weighs her before giving her the shot.

She also has to have a yearly rabies shot, which is mandatory, and which she has four weeks after her yearly booster shot.

Unfortunately too many people do not bother with anything and being a dumping place for unwanted dogs from town, it is too risky not to give all possible prevention.

Pumping my puppy with chemicals? What about the very strong barbiturates that my beloved angel Pereg had to take three times a day? Was that pumping her with chemicals?

She was only saying that she isn't a fan of using preventative chemicals. It may be absolutely unnecessary where she lives and that's okay with me. In lieu of good ownership, we don't always need to follow these trends to the T.

Q.Is there a product that can repel fleas?
A.No, There is no product that will repel fleas. It is normal to continue to see fleas on your pet after treatment as new fleas hatch out and jump on from the environment.

Q.Why am I still seeing flea droppings in my pet’s coat after treatment?
A.If you still see fleas or flea droppings on your cat or dog after treating them, it would be natural to think that the flea treatment isn’t working. Like many things in life, it’s not as simple as that! Modern flea treatments, such as FRONTLINE, don't work by stopping fleas from jumping on your pet- they are effective at killing newly arriving fleas within 24 hours.

.http://uk.frontline.com/Pages/Faq.aspx