Dear Flea and Tick Companies HELP

I literally cannot deal with this any longer.

The dogs have had fleas for almost a year now. Ok before anyone starts thinking I have tortured my dogs and not tried to do anything about it no they have not been covered in fleas for the past 12 months. Yes I have been doing everything possible to treat them for the fleas and in the beginning ticks as well. We have had months when for the most part the dogs had many a flea or two on them if you looked hard enough. I thought we had finally tackled the issues and were done with it. Then there were months when I thought they were gone for good like the middle of December into January. But the cold didn’t last for long enough stretches here in Miami this winter so they never died off completely.

I follow the direction on the Flea and Tick Medication, I vacuum the floors, I bath the dogs in salty water to kill the fleas between applications. Nothing helps. I was able to get rid of the ticks that was unbelievably nasty but the fleas are killing me. Every single time I think I have gotten rid of the fleas I walk back into the house and they jump on me. And it doesn’t take long for the dogs to be covered again.

They are now in almost every room of the house. I vacuum and it makes the fleas angry they literally are hoping all over after I vacuum. I have looked at all the products you make for the floor and house but they take two weeks to work. Ok I could live with just two more weeks of torture but I can’t live with the poison on the floors where the dogs would be breathing it in since they are so close to the floor. Other products only work if it gets onto the flea itself great how many buckets do I need to make sure I get every flea and most of those don’t kill eggs. Great so now I have dead fleas but if I turn on the vacuum it hatches the eggs and now I have fleas again.

I can literally see them crawling on Davinia and Indiana. The poor dogs are itchy and so uncomfortable. They can’t sleep at night which is keeping me awake. They cry in their crate to be let out because they can’t scratch and roll around to ease the itchiness.

Indiana wants to be under the covers but can’t stay still because she needs to scratch. Davinia has taken to not sleeping in the bedroom so she can sleep on the tiles which keep her cooler but then she starts barking because she can hear other dogs or the feral cats or whatever. Davinia’s barking wakes me which wakes Indiana and the entire cycle starts all over. I think I slept for an hour at a time last night. This has to stop, I can’t function during the day when I don’t get sleep. I have a bowl of soapy water with a lamp pointed at it to catch the fleas. It works and it can’t make the dogs sick in the process but we have a long way to go before they are all gone.

Since August the dogs have had a Capstar and a dose of Frontline Plus. At first they were just getting a Capstar when I had to take them to the vet to board so I didn’t get to see what a miracle pill it is. But I bought a box and used it and could see the fleas dying and falling of of the girls all around them. The next day I put the Frontline on them and I thought things would be fine and they were for a few days. Then I had to leave for 2 days.

I took the dogs to the kennel and gave them another Capstar before we left because they had a flea or two still on them. I vacuumed the house, washed the sheets on my bed, sprayed the carpet with something that is supposed to soften the shell of the flea and the egg and left. When I got home the dogs were not home yet but the house had fleas again and when I picked the dogs up they were flea free. So of course it didn’t take long for the fleas to find their way onto the dogs even though it had barely been 2 weeks since they had an application of Frontline and only three days out from a Capstar which had killed all the fleas (not the eggs).

I can’t spend another Spring and Summer going through this again. Honestly I can’t have another night like I had last night. I also can’t spend $100 a month on trying to keep the dogs flea free and honestly giving the dogs Frontline twice a month didn’t really help anyway. I was told to try every two weeks because last summer Flea and Tick Preventatives were just not working well enough here in Miami and that it would be safe to use it twice in one month.

Flea and Tick Companies Please Help. Please tell me what I am doing wrong or could do differently to take care of the problem and be done with it. I would be happy to let you come out to my house to evaluate the situation so you can come up with a plan to help me. Just let me know when you will be here.

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Comments

  1. The only flea solution that has ever worked for us is a combination of spot medication like frontline plus (kills adult fleas that jump on your pets) and a product called Program which interrupts the flea reproductive cycle and gets rid of all the fleas in the environment over about three months. Most of them will be gone after a month. The key is that all the pets in the home have to have it or some fleas (the ones that feed on the untreated pet) will still be reproducing.

  2. WE live in Flea country where we never get a complete die-off either and Sentinel has been our go to for years. We occasionally find A flea, but we've never had an infestation since before the Sentinel. Unfortunately, if it is at the point where they are swarming the vaccuum, I agree that a complete fog of the whole house by a professional company is prebably in order. Good luck! Fleas SUCK!

  3. Sorry to be spamming your comments, but i just looked up Sentinel and it has the same active ingredient as Program, combined with some heartworm preventive. So I guess you could choose based on what other meds your dogs already get.

    Hope this helps some.

  4. I would suggest a spot on other than Frontline. I have been hearing lots of problems with Frontline at the moment (perhaps fleas have developed immunity?).

    Secondly, do you have any other hairy pets in the house? e.g. cats? If so, you need to treat them as well (I'm sure you know this).

    As a final resort. perhaps you can board your pets for two weeks if you douse your carpets etc with the stuff.

  5. I am so sorry for you. In CA we don't have quite the problem you have but we have lots of animals running through our yard. When Opie came to us he had a flea problem. Here's what we did.
    1. Took him to the groomers for a good bath.
    2. While he was gone we cleaned the house and sprayed with a supposed animal safe flea poison on the rugs.
    3. Washed his bedding and cleaned his crate
    4. Washed our bedding and dusted and mopped ( h ard wood floors not many rugs at all)
    5. Took the car for a wash and shampoo ( figured there were fleas in the carpet of the car too)
    6. We use Revolution ( you can only buy it from the vet) It's a spot treatment.
    7. Did not let the dog out in the yard for a solid day. We walked him about 4 times that day
    Result
    No fleas

    Revolution also has a heartworm component.
    We have not had a problem sense.

    However, when it was bad for us we considered a professional exterminator for the house and yard.

    In CA the go to for that is
    Flea Busters.

    I hate chemicals too, but fleas are bad for your pets AND you.

    I hope this helps. I really feel your pain.
    The name of the stuff again is

    Revolution and my vet recommended it as did the rescue foundation.

    On day 28 it seems to lose it's effectiveness, but I can live with that.

    Hope this helps.

    Opie's Mom

  6. I'm not a flea and tick company, but I did find that switching Kendall to Sentinal has solved our flea problem.

  7. Simone @ Doberman's by the Sea says

    You may not have a choice at this point and have your house treated by a professional. You have to wash everything-carpets, couch, bedding etc. I found the capstar and Frontline to work fine. I would put them on it monthly to prevent another outbreak once this one is controlled. And give them a bath with a flea and tick killer shampoo or take them to a groomer who will do it for you. I hate chemicals on my animals, but sometimes it is thelesser of two evils. They love the humidity in the south:( Good luck!

  8. Sometimes living in the northeast with snow has it's perks- a short flea season. Laura recommended what I was going to- topical with Program to stop the cycle. Something else you may want to look at is . I've never used them, but years ago when I was a groomer in WA state had clients who did and raved about it. Maybe someone has used them and can comment on them some more and their product.

  9. Roxy Ann LaRue says

    The fleas here in the NW have been awful too. They have not died off here either, and we have had cold weather. I had not heard of Capstar or Sentinel before but will look into now. I hate poor Roxy scratching all the time, the cats too. I do hope Indiana and Divinia and your house find the cure…pass it on if you do.
    Roxy

  10. Here is the information about Program for dogs, if you're interested in giving it a try:

  11. Honestly, I find that after the first month or so of Program, you really don't need any sort of spot on treatment like frontline. That by itself seems to be enough.

  12. Once you clean them up, maybe you could try this product –

    http://www.fleatreats.com

    Rugby uses it and LOVES it! He dances for them each morning. Only down side is you have to feed twice a day. :/

  13. Part of the flea speech I used to give working at the vet hospital included- For every one flea you see on your dog there are 1000 more in various forms (eggs, larvae, pupae, adult fleas- what the Program/Sentinel keeps from developing) in your house. If your dogs live in your whole house, the whole house needs to be treated not just the few areas you are seeing them.

    A spray with an IGR (Insect Growth Regulator) can work well and I recommended them over for foggers (I prefer more natural stuff and have used Mule's Team Borax like the Flea Busters powder with success). Foggers sound nice and are convenient, but they don't actually make a fog that covers everything. They are a pressurized spray so it only covers what it lands on when it comes down meaning places that are under furniture aren't getting covered. It also doesn't go around corners so while it says it can cover so many sq feet, it needs to be able to reach those areas.

    I feel for you. There's been years, the fleas have been horrendous here, but luckily the last few years haven't been bad for my crew. I think one of the big reasons is we don't have a lot of pets that run around the neighborhood especially cats. Good luck! Has Davinia tried the Sentinel in a nice Pill Pocket or chunk of Natural Balance?

  14. Oh my! I feel so sorry for you and your dogs. That sounds awful! It sounds to me like you need your yard and house treated by a professional, and then use the Frontline or Comfortis or whatever monthly. Good luck!

  15. Two Little Cavaliers says

    Wow thank you all so much. I forgot to mention we can't d much for outside since I walk the dogs around the block. They don't get to play in the yard because even when I walk them with a leash there they try to eat the feral cat poop.

    I think I might have overstated the problem. It isn't in the whole house. I really just didn't get any sleep last night at all and had plans for lunch which I couldn't cancel. The fleas are in my bedroom and the bathroom mat.

    I just purchased a product to spray on my carpet (they actually said to get a powder to put in the vacuum cleaner but I couldn't find it so I broke down and got the carpet spray. I will tell you all what it is and how it worked after I have given it some time to work. I gave the girls a capstar to kill the adult fleas on them, I plan on taking the girls into the pool tomorrow so the chlorine will kill off anything else lurking and help get rid of the flea dirt before a nose to tail bath.

  16. Two Little Cavaliers says

    I did have the girls on Revolution when we were in Hong Kong because they played in the sand and were getting something that was biting them from it. They didn't have fleas. Maybe one or two but nothing major. The problem is that it is nearly impossible to find here as the vets in the area don't seem to like it.

    Davinia will not take the Sentinel. No matter what I try she spits it out at me but maybe program would be different.

  17. Yoda_the_Dog says

    Frontline stopped working for me this fall and the Vet recommended Vectra 3D. I didn't quite make it the first month before mom spotted a couple but she just put it on a couple of days early and it worked fine. She had dogs in a sandy area a long time ago before they have the spot treatments. She used a combination of one of those electronic collar things and garlic. She thinks the garlic pills worked the best. To get rid of the infestation she called a professional exterminator for the house and yard. The exterminator had a guarantee and had to come back three times before they were gone for good. Mom and dad used an over the counter bomb when they first got me and I came with fleas and the cats got them too and one dose of that worked. We know the poison stuff is scary put the fleas are so bad we just had to get rid of them.

  18. I haven't found a good spot on for the dog, but to keep the fleas off your feet or floor, Raid has a flea spray can that you hold upside down. I don't know if it actually kills the fleas or just keeps them away, but when they start biting my feet or I find them jumping on the carpet, I do a quick spray and we don't have to worry about them for a couple of weeks. As for the dog, we have a flea comb and use it every couple of days and bath her weekly to try to keep as many off of her as we can. As you said, she gets walked around the block, and while we treat our yard, we can't make everyone treat.

  19. Love My Cavaliers says

    WOW! You poor things. Over here they live in the lawn too and there's not much you can do about that when walking the dogs I agree. Plus everytime they come in contact with another dog, even at the kennel, they can catch them again. I too agree with some others you might need to get a professional pest controller in for a good douse and then get your carpets professionally cleaned as well. Carpets are the biggest problem since fleas love to live and breed in there. We pulled up all our carpets last year and retiled the house but it's hot here so cool tiles under foot are good for us and certainly help with having dogs. We're thinking of you and hope you get the itchy's under control so you can sleep at night. Pesky little critters away!

  20. I think I may have suggested this last year when you were first having the problem, and you may have had some reason for not going with–but if not, if Frontline isn't working, try Advantix or Revolution.

    Also, did you flea bomb the house while you were gone and had the dogs out of the house? I'm not a big fan of it, and, seriously, follow instructions carefully, but you've got an extreme case.

    Or, as someone else suggested, have the house professionally cleaned. I had to do that when my ex-tenant left, a few years ago, and it wasn't as expensive as I expected and they did a fantastic job.

  21. E.J. Stevens says

    Have you tried the natural remedies? I use diatomacheaous earth (pet/food quality NOT the pool supply stuff) on carpeting and furniture and use a clove/peppermint spray on drapes. Also, I give my corgi a daily brewer's yeast chewable supplement. This combination works extremely well and is safe for my pup. 🙂

    Best of luck!
    xx,
    E.J.
    From the Shadows
    Spirit Guide Series
    PNR4Wolves

  22. Hi Felissa! I am so sorry to hear about the flea issues you are having! I do not work for a flea and tick company but I do work for a vet and I have been reading some of the others suggestions which are great! One thing I am wondering is where you buy your Frontline from? From a vet, online, pet store? The reason I ask is that we have seen similar issues with clients and have dealt with Frontline who will stand behind their product and in most cases reimburse or pay for additional treatment if needed. The thing is that the product has to have purchased from a licensed vet. Otherwise Frontline has no idea where the product came from and if it has been tampered with, stored, etc.
    Also I noticed that some people mentioned Sentinel which is a great product but it does not kill all stages of the flea. It basically acts as a birth control so the flea can still live on a pet just not reproduce.
    Hop some of this helps and Davinia and Indiana find relief soon.

  23. Two Little Cavaliers says

    Dawn – Davinia is only allowed to have Natural Balance Rolls in very special circumstances because once she has some she doesn't want to eat anything else. I wouldn't care except one of the very first ingredients is sugar.

  24. Whskr & Dash Kitten says

    I know that TinyTimmy.org is working for more natural flea and tick remedies http://tinytimmy.org/ Timmy and his mum are taking the natural flea remedy business very seriously and while he is a c.a.t. his mum posts valuable information about flea and tick treatments.

  25. Have you tried Comfortis. I had trouble getting rid of fleas on my cocker and I had tried multiple other treatments with no luck but this really did the trick. Then I suggest bombing your house with an insect growth regulator for fleas.

  26. Hi Felissa,

    I feel your pain. 20 Years ago, I brought Agatha and Christie back from the vet for their spaying surgery covered in fleas. We used flea bombs and insecticides only available by prescription from a vet (not the one that gave us the fleas). It was made by Zodiac and had 3 step treatment.

    What I did learn was that it's virtually impossible to kill flea eggs. We had to rebomb and retreat the house every month until all signs of fleas were gone. I don't usually use toxic products but nothing natural worked.

    The other thing we learned was that the height of flea season is when the season cools down. In Philadelphia, that was October. In Florida, if you let up your guard in December/January, you may be allowing the fleas a new foothold.

    Finally, we combed both dogs with a flea comb removing the fleas by hand and dropping them into soapy water so they couldn't jump out. It took us at least 6 months to get rid of them.

    Good luck. This is a terrible problem to face.

  27. Do you Need Home Health Care/Nursing Care Services or Living with Chronic Condition?”

  28. When it’s not flea and tick season, it’s easy to forget how miserable these nasty little insects can be. Protecting your pet from fleas and ticks can be the is extremely important to the health and well-being of your pets and family.

  29. We live in a highly wooded area and spring has sprung and so has the fleas and ticks! Its essential to keep fleas under check and Lyme’s disease can prove fatal for our pets, apple cider vinegar or lime sprays are natural treatment mode can be used.

  30. Hopefully, you found the flea and tick help that you needed. Your desperation is understandable.

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