Allergic to fleas - Page 1

I would like to know from people who have have succesful experience in dealing with fleas. My GSD is allergic to fleas with the well known consequences. Shampoo and other hair and skin products have not produced any significant effect. I wonder if there are pills that may work. Thank you in advance.

Have you tried the frontline plus spray? Works good to my dogs.

I attack the fleas themselves FIRST, using Frontline and Sentinal. The Sentinal, although a heartworm/intestinal parasite preventative, also renders the flea eggs that may have been born on the dog sterile, thus they cannot reproduce, once reaching maturity. The Frontline combats the fleas(and ticks) as advertised, so it is a double wammy against the fleas. Using these two products is pricy(about $180 flr a six month supply for one dog), but I have no fleas. Once you are treating the fleas themselves, you can work on the alergic reaction that your dog is having to the fleas. This may include a large cone around the neck, to prevent the dog from bitting and further irritating the affected area. Stephen

You will never get rid of fleas unless you break their life cycle and they are practically bionic. You need to treat the environment as well as the dog. If you are treating your dog and still see fleas, odds are they have set up houskeeping inside your house. Since they prefer to feed on fur bearing animals, you might not be getting bitten, so may not realize they are there. However, if the family has little red bites on their ankles that itch like crazy, they are most likely flea bites. If you go on vacation for a week or so and take along all the animals,, when y ou arrive home you would probably find some hungry fleas just waiting to take a bite of anything warm blooded. You can treat your dog for the rest of its life for fleas, but if you don't treat the environment, they will always come back to haunt you. If it's an inside dog, dip or spray the dog or use one of the topicals that are applied as a stripe down the dog's back. The Frontline products are very good. Flea shampoos are the least effective of all flea products followed by powders; don't waste your money on them. Personally I don't like "pills" for fleas as they are a form of insecticide that I don't want inside my dog's body. Even if you decide to go with a pill, you will still have to treat the environment. After you treat the dog, remove it from the house and set off flea bombs on the same day. Use the type that kill all stages of the flea, not just the larva and adults fleas. Otherwise you will have to repeat it all in 2 to 3 weeks to kill the fleas that have hatched from the the eggs that were not killed. Vacuum the rugs and furniture and burn the vacuum cleaner bags. If there are other animals in the household they too must be treated at the same time. An alternative to flea bombs is having a professional extermintor treat the entire house the day the dog is treated. Cats often carry fleas and don't always scratch, so they need to be treated too. If it's a kennel dog, then you will need to treat the dog and the kennel on the same day. Dog houses and runs can be treated with fleas dip diluted as you would if applying to the dog and then spraying it on all the surfaces allowing it to dry before returning the dog. I know it's a pain to do all this, but if you have fleas established inside your house or kennel, there are no short cuts. If you live in a cold climate, all outside fleas will disappear with the first killing frost. Fleas can live for several years without taking a blood meal, so you need to kill them - show no mercy. You have double trouble since your dog is allergic to the bites. For dogs like this all it takes is one bite to set the dog off, they don't necessarily need to be polluted to scratch day in, day out. Good luck.

Hi all, 180.00 dollars for 6 months is way to much. Stephen try this place its out of the country but have ordered from them for years and never had a problem. Heres the link. http://www.petshed.com/ 6 months of Frontline is 52.95. I use Advantage 6 months is 47.95 and have never had flea problems.

I used Bio-Spot on both of my GSD's, never had a flea on either of them although we live in a flea area. It's cheap and effective. It can be purchased in individual tubes or by the gallon from a feed store. In the gallon jug it's called Spot-On and is used for livestock. You would need only a very small amount for a GSD and would need to calculate that amount. I used it when I had all my Malamutes and never saw one flea in 30 years of use. The formula for the dosage is probably somewhere on the interent. I don't remember for certain, but I think it was somewhere around 1 cc for an 90 lb dog. Don't take my word for that though, look it up to be sure. Frontline is very effective, but also very expensive and I've found Bio-Spot/Spot On is just as good for a lot less money. Keep in mind that fleas eventually develope an immunity to a specific insecticide, so what worked this year and for years past may not work next year.

Just a suggestion, you may want to treat your vehicle too. My friend lives in the country and it is rather warm here most of the year. She had fleas in her car and it drove me crazy. Better to not take the chance of your dog picking them up there. Most people don't even think of that. I use Frontline Plus and purchase it by catalog once a year for all of my dogs. I have my yard sprayed monthly and occasionally my home if the cat has been in and out. We can have severe flea problems here in the area. I have had no troubles at all with this method. I don't waste money on shampoos, powders, or flea spray, or collars anymore. I too want to use the Sentinal but need to see the vet first. Great iseas guys. Fleas can be a real pain.

I still like the Permectrin II I use it by mixing it in a sprayer (like weed sprayer) and then apply to grounds, house, bedding, dog houses, and the dogs, cover eyes to prevent irritation. an 8oz bottle cost between 8.00 and 10.00 and the dilution is 1.5 oz. per gallon of water and that's close to label instructions. This stuff has a 30 day residual effect and kills the following little monsters. flies, fleas, lice, mites, ticks, cockroaches, mosquitos, and spiders. So for approx 20.00 per 6 month supply and I have no troubles, Think I'll stick with it for the cost you guys are talking about. I have 12 dogs. 5 runs for seperation when needed, and 2 more dog houses in the big turn out, so 7 houses, plus a stall for puppies. have a 5 bedroom house well over 2500, sf. and my cost is approx. 20.00 for 6 months of this stuff. No bad reactions from dogs, cats, guinea pig, or ferret. I use a light mist on the sprayer for carpets and couches and bedrooms then launder all bedding after spray has dried, then spray mattresses as well just in case, spray under the beds, and on closet floors. No Bombs ! I exit the house until everything is dry but then open up windows in 10 minutes and vaccum and all is good. I do this once a month. I could never afford 100. + per dog every 6 months.

There are probably a number of products that work well. It's a lot easier to prevent fleas than it is to get rid of them once they are establihed in the environment. The bottom line is you must treat everything, not just the dog. Treating the car is another good suggestion. I never thought of that, but it makes sense. Wherever the animals go, so goeth the fleas LOL.

I should add that when you use a vacuum cleaner to remove fleas, larvae, or eggs from the floor that you should place a couple of mothballs inside each bag used. This will kill any fleas or other insects that become trapped inside the bag. If you don't do this, they can simply crawl until they reach the outside again. I know this one too well, as the area where I lived had a massive flea infestation, say twelve (12) years ago where several public buildings were shut down for days while the fleas were eradicated. Bob-O