So Kali has been scratching on and off for a few weeks. It's been hot and humid and the mosquitos have been terrible and the Palmetto Bugs (outdoor roaches) have been terrible and she's had hot spots here and there that we've cleaned up and taken care of, but we thought it may have progressed into a yeast infection and were getting ready to change her diet (currently / mostly Orijen) back to a more raw diet we used to do with her...
Anyway. I got down to give her belly rubbies this morning and noticed a tiny fruit fly. Weird, usually those are in the kitchen if we see them at all. Oh, there's another one. And another.
@%$^&@#$. Those aren't fruit flies!! We have had dogs for 30 years and never had fleas before. I am baffled.
So. Off to the vet for Comfortis. Now it looks like this should kill all the fleas within a few hours. Google has been unhelpful as to whether there would be benefit in giving her a bath later as well. Should we do this or not worry about it?
Also. Cleaning.
I have vacuumed the house, which is fortunately mostly hardwood flooring. Borax on the rugs and then vacuumed those as well. Understand we'll have to do this daily for some time.
Washing the sheets & bedding since usually Kali sleeps on the bed with us at night. :facepalm:
Should we also have gotten Comfortis for the cat? I mean, Kali and Sprout play together all the time and sleep right next to each other. :facepalm:
Also, I see Comfortis is supposed to be good for a month. Do we need to do another dose next month? The life-cycle of fleas is 6+ weeks, right? So seems like we WOULD need another dose. For both of them.
I'm just not clear on the next steps to take here. Help!
When you vacuum, take the bag out to the trash immediately, don't put it in the trash in your house or leave it in the vacuum. Yes, do the cat as well. Vacuum daily and throw away even if it doesn't look like you need to vacuum. Vacuum your furniture. Yes, you'll need to continue to use comfortis monthly until you are sure you have eradicated all the fleas. You may have picked them up somewhere else. I usually have capstar with me when I go to shows so if I see a flea I can give it to them when we start for home as it kills all fleas on them. I bath up until we leave. Dawn dish detergent will kill fleas but is only good for those on them at the time of the bath. Comfortis really works well.
We have been dealing with fleas recently. My vet suggested treating both dogs and the cat for 3 months. Since we live in Michigan it will be cold by then, and the fleas should be gone. I used Bravecto for the dogs, and Revolution for the cat. The dogs will not need more treatment since Bravecto lasts 3 months. I think next year we are going to do a preventive treatment starting in May and going through the summer.
Oh god hate fleas! Sorry for that! Since you treated your dog I would say treat the cat too....cat and dog fleas are totally different...I would say call a professional to spray your house is not that expensive I live in Los Angeles, California where everything is CRAZY EXPENSIVE hahaha and it only cost me 150 and they spray the house twice for that price....cause i tried borax, be super careful with the vacuum bag, I tried flea traps (the one that you make with dawn and water) raid flea bombs.....like....I tried everything and it didn't help at all...in one week i had flea bites all over my legs it was...horrible. Ohhh yes...another thing you have to get rid of your dogs the bed if you can kinda take it apart do it and wash it with HOT water (actually start to wash everything in hot water) and put the bed on a black bag like the trash ones and leave it where it can catch sun or if its really dirty (you would see the flea poop) just....buy another one :/ I had to buy another one for my boy...hope those fleas go away
If you have a large deep freezer, freezing their bed should kill fleas.
"It doesn't need to be quite freezing, or 32 degrees Fahrenheit, for fleas to freeze. Once the temperatures fall to 37 degrees, it's cold enough to kill mature fleas as well as eggs, larvae and pupae" (Courtesy of Dr Google).
Kali is sad because we won't let her in the bedroom so she's sulking in the kitchen.
Of course, we're in South Carolina right now, so there is no end to flea season. The internets make me feel better about this by saying "the adult flea represents 5% of the total flea population in your home."
Swell.
So we have some spray coming for the areas less easy to clean (like the cat tower). Other than that, sounds like lots of vacuuming for the next several weeks and at least two more rounds of Comfortis to interrupt that life-cycle. Plus I'll put Frontline on Kali tonight.
Still not sure if it's worth bathing her. The internets suggest the freshly-laid eggs don't necessarily drop off immediately, but pretty fast nonetheless. Would a bath get ahead of the situation much? Or is the effort not worth it for a 1% (making up a number) reduction?
Dunkirk is correct. I just came back to add the same thing. As a teacher if there was a case of head lice in our classrooms we would take the hats, wigs, etc., from the House center, put them into garbage bags and take them home and put them into the freezer for a week or two.
Nice. Fortunately all our pet beds are carunda (sp?) beds; so they're easily wiped down with bleach. It's really the rugs I'm most annoyed with right now.
Exterminator coming Friday AM to spray the yard. Just not sure about the long-term efficacy there; lots of feral cats in our neighborhood that will re-contaminate the yard in short order, no doubt.
Question - how long until we can stop treating the animals like lepers and can let them back into the bedroom?
Edit: I have no idea why all my posts have a bunch of leading space at the front. They don't when I'm typing...
If they've had a flea bath, and they're on Comfortis, I'd let them back in the bedroom. The Comfortis is very effective. If you want to be careful, you could wait til you spray the yard (so the dogs aren't bringing new ones in).
You don't have to pay an exterminator to treat your yard. There are products at Lowes and Home Depot that you can attach to the garden hose--I would just spray the grass and bushes, and around the house foundation. Then repeat per label instructions in 1-2 weeks.
Wondercide also makes a good one that's non-toxic to people and pets (cedar oil), but it has to be mail ordered (wondercide.com) -- it has to be resprayed weekly for the first month to get the bugs under control, but it has a nice bonus of working on mosquitoes too.
OK, well it's been about 30 hours since the Comfortis. I can't find any fleas on her. Still, I think she should sleep on the floor for a couple more days just in case there are still some eggs in her fur, don't you?
Vacuuming is ongoing...
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