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We've Got Fleas :(


Leah82
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I was giving the dogs a brush yesterday morning before taking them to the Big Day Out for dogs and discovered fleas and lots of them :(

Sarah seemed fine and quite happy to share her life with a few (or 20) parasites but Collie has come up in red blotchy skin, we didn't notice the extra scratching he's been doing as he generally enjoys a frequent scratch for no particular reason.

So at this point we abandoned our day's plans to deal with the flea issue. I washed them with flea shampoo, re-applied their flea preventative (which I've been a bit lax with because they don't usually get exposed), we used some surface spray outside and this morning set off a couple of flea bombs in the house before going to work.

I'm pretty sure we've covered all bases to get rid of them but in the mean time Collie is still pretty red and itchy.

Does anyone have any suggests on how we can give him some relief while his skin recovers?

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So did you wash them and re apply flea preventative in the same 24 hours? If yes (as seems from your post) it won't be as effective as it could be. You should always wait 24 hours either side of bathing/swimming for the best protection - as the flea preventative (if it's frontline or advantix/advantage etc) goes into the oils of the skin. They also need to be completely 100% dry, and it's easiest to just wait a whole day to achieve this.

Also - the flea eggs/larvae/population that isn't on the dog is the biggest issue. Flea bombs may help, but you'll need to be on top of the preventative to make sure they don't get a chance to come back. Depends on what product you're using though...eg Advantix is an adulticide only, Frontline Plus claims to kill all life stages as does Revolution and something like Sentinel that does your worming as well is a flea "birth control" as I say, rendering all adults infertile - stopping the life cycle.

For relief you could try Aloveen conditioner, or a Calendula tea rinse (if you do a search, there should be more threads on that topic)

good luck.

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I did wait until they were fully dried before putting on the preventative, I wasn't aware you had to wait any longer than that. I will be keeping a close eye on both of them for awhile I think so will reapply if it's not working.

Thanks for the tip about the shampoo and tea, I won't wash him again this soon but I guess I can apply the rinse to the sensitive areas without getting him wet all over

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blah, I just went home to open a few windows after we flea bombed our home, no evidence of further infestation which is good however a quick check of Sarah showed up a couple of fleas still alive and kicking.

Need to get this sorted before the weekend as we are going camping for a few days which means a few hours in the car with the dogs and sleeping in the same tent for a few nights :p

Any suggestions as to where we can go from here, is it ok to wash them with the flea shampoo again a day or so later?

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Maybe try some Capstar tablets? Will probably be more effective than a shampoo treatment as it's in the blood stream then for 24 hours, rather than on the skin for a few minutes. Up here, 6 tablets costs about $27 (each tab lasting 24 hours per dog) if you're more metro it may be cheaper (we're regional)

Also, don't know if you've ever considered Comfortis as a flea treatment? I don't use it as I need the tick prevention more than flea, but it's a tablet (so can't be washed off) and from all the feedback I've heard, it kicks flea butt. Some people do report a reaction, but you get that with every treatment and it's a matter of supervising etc.

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awesome thanks,

I did some searching for comfortis and found it for $83 for 6 tabs at city farmers. Might give my local pet store a call as well and see if they have it.

Now to figure out how to get my hands on it, bit hard when the OH drops me at work most days as is usually too busy to have lunch at work let alone find time to drive to the pet store when they're open

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I did a ring around, looks like city farmers are the best bet as no-one else seems to stock it. I even called my Vet

will have to go after work tomorrow, luckily they close at 6.

and in better news the 9.1 to 18kg packet covers both our dogs, One is just over 9kgs and the other is about 13kgs which usually means I have to buy two packets

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Slightly OT but I've always wondered ... does anyone know how long a flea bite remains itchy?

I'll let you know how long Collie remains spotty for.

Poor little guy isn't having a fun time of it lately, last night when everyone else was trying to get to sleep he was still scratching up a storm :(

I sprayed some PAWS lavender and jojoba conditioning spray onto his itchy spots hoping it would relieve some of the itching, he eventually got to sleep and stayed curled up until about 7am this morning.

Can't wait till after work so I can get him something to relieve his itchiness as well as some comfortis to knock out any remaining fleas

hopefully he's all better by the weekend because he does love camping, although the weather in Beechworth doesn't look particularly inviting as yet.

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