How to Get Rid of Fleas - Magnolia,TX

Bath them with Dawn dishwashing liquid! I promise it kills them on contact. Put them in the tub & soak them down...you will see them all in the water, it's amazing! You can also sprinkle some Seven Dust on the carpet, leave over night & vacuum them up the next day. It is safe for kids & animals. I also sprinkle it in the yard.
Good luck!

I know seven dust works from the store.. but there are things that the vet has advantage and there is also a dip. I have also used a flea shampoo and dawn dish liquid.. now dawn has worked really well for me.. I have 5 dogs..
we also use a spray in the yard and some Over and Out.. it helps keep the fleas and ticks also plus fire ants and other bugs..

I can send you info on what i use.....email ____@____.com and i'll send you some stuff you can look at. =)
J.

J.,

You should first bathe your dog with Ivory soap or Zote (from Mexico). Zote is hard to find, usually you can find it at a Mexican Market Place like the one at Culebra in San Antonio. It is wonderful stuff. It has a Coconut Oil Base and Citronella Oil. It is good for a lot of things. If you grate it and mix with water, it kills fireant mounds. It smells good. It is mild enough to use to wash your hair and fine laundry including baby diapers. And, it works great to bathe your dogs. It leaves them smelling great and flea free.

Then, you will need to treat your yard. The best thing that works is DE (Diatomaceous Earth). It is the fine white powder/sand (tiny Diatoms from the ocean) used in Spa "Sand" filters. You can buy it from a feed store or pool supply for about $13/bag. It can either be mixed with water and sprayed, or you can sprinkle the powder, but wear a mask and make sure not to breathe it in. Don't try to spread it on a windy day. It cuts the protective covering of fleas, ticks, and other crawling bugs and they dehydrate. It is not a poison. It won't hurt your pets. Dairy farmers use it because they cannot use chemicals around their food-producing animals. You DON'T have to buy chemicals or pay high prices for professional pest control. We used this after professional pest control didn't work. You don't have to retreat in 2 weeks like you do with chemical treatments.

For permanent flea iradication, you need to get a systemic flea control pill that you give your pet once a month. However, I have known of dogs developing liver failure from one product (Advantage, I think). My Brother & Sister-in-Law's Golden Retreiver died from this. But, if I had to choose between my kids being eaten up by fleas or my Dog getting sick after 5 or 6 years, I'd still use the product.

This year, because of the drought, the fleas are very prolific. You will have to keep after it to really get rid of the problem.

Giving your Dog Garlic capsuls and Brewer's yeast is a great natural way to lessen the problem. We eat a lot of Garlic, too. It helps to keep mosquitos and fleas from biting us.

Sincerely,

BonnieW

To get rid of fleas and eggs that are on the dogs almost instantly you can get a pill at the vet's office called Capstar. I also use Frontline from the vet's office on my 2 shih tzus to protect them from fleas all year long or I have used it just during the spring and summer months (when fleas are worse).

At PetsMart there is a flea shampoo by a company named Zodiac. It works wonders! When I found a stray at work, the poor thing was black with fleas. I had to shampoo him about 4 times, but EVERY flea came off. I use it on my own dogs now when I bathe them. (About once a week) I use the flea shampoo first, then shampoo again with an oatmeal shampoo to reduce irritation. I haven't had to buy flea drops in over a year. (At 36 dollars a month for 2 dogs, that's a savings of over $430.!!)
In the beginning, also TREAT YOUR YARD if your dogs go outside. The hardware stores have this stuff that fits right on the end of your water hose. Just let it dry before you let the pets or kids outside. Check with your neighbors who have pets to see if they're having problems. If it's really bad between a few homes, an exterminator may give you all a deal on a multiple service. (We had to do that a few years ago when someone on our block was feeding a stray cat that was flea infested.)

Frontline works great. I've never had a flea problem with any of my dogs.

I just went through the same thing. I bought the pill called comfortis from the vet.It is a beef flavored chewable pill given once a month. It too is given with food. All the vet offices I talked to says it much better than the once a month you put on thier neck. But my little spoiled peekapoo refused to eat it so i had to put it down her throat, (yuk I hate doing that!) My other two dogs ate it like a treat! Its expensive but works. Like $15 a pill, (or you can buy a package) but if you buy the pill for a large dog you can break it or cut it into "doses" and give it to all of them Thats what i did, I bought the package for large dogs $70 from my vet in Pasadena,( i called around most asked $80) & gave the weight of my dogs to them & they told me how to cut the pill down to the appropriate size for each dog.
Also Solutions Inc. sells Pest control products & they have a powder called Ortho Flea Stopper. You vacuum your carpet good then sprinkle this into the carpet and sweep in into it with a broom, let it sit in carpet about 7 days. the Vet assistant told me about it, she used it & said it is non harmful to children nor pets but works great. I can tell you the comfortis works great too! They also sell good flea killer for your yard. you can look them up under pest control, but they also sell pool supplies you might can look them up that way too.

Everyone gave you good advise but you must first also get rid of them out of your yard or otherwise all the medicine in the world is not going to get rid of them completely. I have tried all kinds of sprays for the yard that you attach to your hose and have found the ones you get at the vet are the best or of course hire a bug guy to spray your yard. They have to spray it once and then come back I believe in 10 days to do it again. Capstar capsules that you get from the vet kills fleas within 30 minutes but they will come back and that is why you also need to use Frontline or Advantage as well which lasts for 30 days but you have to put it on your dog every month without fail. The soapy water idea was a good one. I have never tried that but will. I have gotten a white hand towel and got it wet, rung it good and then put it on the carpet and you will be amazed at all the fleas that will flock to it. I sprayed the inside of my house with Raid Flea and tick spray and that worked well also. Good Luck to you. Once you get them bad it just takes time and patience to get rid of them.

hope you got rid of your fleas by now but i could not see the is note you made and not tell you about BASIC H2 it is all natural and WORKS !!! bath your dogs and clean your house in it im tell you this stuff is GREAT

www.shaklee.net/healthydesire

good luck

I had good response giving my dog and cat "Brewers Yeast with Garlic". I ordered mine from petmeds.com (1-800-petmeds) but I have seen it at Walmart as well. Just make sure you get the "with Garlic".

The Brewers Yeast helps their coat stay shiny and the garlic works just like you or me eating garlic . . . the bugs don't like the smell/taste that comes from the skin.

A good/regular bath with flea killer shampoo also helps kickstart the process, but as with any insecticide . . . less is better.

Good luck!

salt water. take your dogs for a swim in the ocean or just pour some salt in a tub and let them soak. they will just fall off of them.

One of the things that I have found that works the best for dogs and cats is giving them a daily dose of Brewer's Yeast. You can buy it at Walmart or most natural food stores. You give one pill per 10 lbs. My dog and cat love it and think it is a treat. What it does is make their skin taste bad to fleas. Other years I have tried the the drops on the back or the monthly pill. For some reason this seems to work the best and definitely one of the cheapest. I can get it at my Walmart for less than $3.00 for a nice size bottle of it.

We for the first time in 16 yrs of owning our own dogs had a flea outbreak we went to tractor supply store and bought flea dip and conditioning dog bath give your dogs a bath and then dip them also use seven dust on your back yard they will be GONE also start feeding your dogs more garlic

The best thing is to get the flea medicine from the vet, vacuum and empty outside. You can get a night light and put a bowl of soapy water under it and that has actually worked quite well for me since I really try to avoid the poison. Bathing your dog with Dawn dish soap works on klling fleas too.

I love Advantage the best.I had a bad flea problem years ago and the sales rep told me it would take care of the fleas and all stages because the med falls off the pet into the carpet while also working on the pet. It was great!!! I had already sprayed my house and it didn't work. It is quicker and works better than Frontline I think. I have been a vet tech and groomer for 28 years. I also like the capstar pill because it kills the fleas in an hour or so and works for a couple of days. You can use the Advantage and capstar together. The Advantage can be purchased at Ace Hardware on Jones Rd. or Petco or Petsmart. Some feed stores carry it. The Capstar pill can be purchased from a vet clinic. Good luck.

Hello J.,

Well, the vet told me to take my dog a bath w/Dawn dish liquid....to massage and make sure the soap goes all the way to the skin (especially if u have a fluffy dog....I am sure it will work for any other dog....and as for ur yard, get is sprayed professionally or theres some new stuff that came out, u may find it in the lawn section at home depot or walmart....I guess where ever they have the weed and feed....it's packaged the same way but it kills insects and FLEAS.....I'm sorry I don't know the name of it but u can go look...I just saw it announced on TV...well, hope this helps

I have 4 big dogs and they just recently got fleas really bad! first we used the spray (I think Hartz brand makes it) that you spray directly onto the dog's fur and rub in, which kills fleas on contact. Then we sprayed all the carpets, couches, etc. with the flea killer spray (same brand, they are both sold in the pet section of Wal-mart or Target). You have to keep pets and kids off the carpets until they dry, then you vacuum to get all the dead fleas and eggs. Then the next day, use Frontline on your dogs. The other brands just don't work, trust me I've tried! You can find Frontline through a lot of online retailers for less expensive than most vets offer (one example is http://www.teskepetandgarden.com/browse.cfm/dog-and-puppy...)
Once you start Frontline, the fleas should all be gone within about 2 days. If you have a lot of vegetation in the backyard, you might want to treat your yard as well. You can get pesticide specifically for killing fleas and ticks to spray on your yard. Again, the dogs can't go outside until it's completely dry. We did all of the above and haven't seen one flea since then. Hope this helps!!

We put our dogs on the Sentinel pill along with the topical flea prevention. The Sentinel pill sterilizes the flea so it can't reproduce and the topical actually killed/repelled the fleas. The vet told us that once we got the flea problem under control all we needed was just the Sentinel. We've used it for about 10 years now and we have never had another flea problem. Hope this helps, God bless!

We had dogs in the house with our young children, and we tried every natural remedy possible for fleas because we did not want our children to ingest flea treatments from petting the dogs and then putting their hands in their mouths. In the meantime, we were getting bit. The end result was a flea infestation. We had to have our house fumigated (and then wipe down everything after to get rid of the residue.) We still had fleas that survived in the cracks, so we finally used Frontline on the dogs. The remaining fleas were attracted to the dogs and died from the Frontline. We ended up keeping the dogs in a separate room from our kids and regularly using Frontline.

The best thing we have used for our dogs is the Sentinel pill from the vet. It is expensive, but it has heart worm, other worms and fleas and ticks, so you get alot for your money.

I have two dogs...one is a flea repeller and the other is a flea factory. None of the topical drops seem to work on her. Regular bathing (I second the Dawn dish soap) has been the best and least toxic control.

As for your yard, there are a number of chemical controls but you can also buy something called parasitic nematodes or flea control nematodes...they are a natural predator of the flea larvae. After a few applications they populate the soil and can provide continuous control.

Sevin IS NOT safe to use indoors. The active ingredient, Carbaryl, is used in many pet treatments...but this isn't the same powder that is used in lawn and gardens. You can never get everything up that you sprinkle in a carpet--have you ever ripped up old carpet to see what is trapped underneath?

Carbaryl is a cholinisterase inhibitor. In short, it affects the brain and nervous system. There are several countries which have made the use of this active ingredient illegal.

I do believe that the proper and responsible use of chemicals is usually our best defense, but chemicals should never be used off label unless you really know what you are doing.

Good luck...I fight the flea battle every year with one of my dogs. It is just really icky.

Make sure you VACUUM really good everywhere, keep them off the carpet and do not let them on the couch, if they are inside dogs..

just wanted to comment on the sevin dust- put it in the vacuum canister NOT on the carpet. Vacuum twice a day and the dust in the vacuum kills them. Within a week the fleas will be gone, but may still come in if you don't treat your pet with advantage or something similar to keep the fleas from repopulating the house.

Advantage or one of the similar products- nothing works better. Also, don't bathe them first- when you put it on the base of their neck it spreads on it's own using their natural body oils so if they are just bathed it won't work as well. You can also get it that repells mosquito's.