Flea help!

[pharmagal]

My friend brought her gorgeous dog around the other day to visit , but sadly I think said dog may have had fleas! 

I've googled how to get rid of them but it's all so confusing.  Does anyone have any tried and true ways to get rid of them?

Especially anything that will be non posionous to the cat who is still a bit miffed about the whole dog experience.

Thanks.

[Minmom3]

You need to bomb the rooms the dog was in.  That means take the cat out entirely, and be prepared to rewash all pots and pans and dishes etc. post bombing.  I've also taken out my houseplants when I bombed.   Otherwise, you will have flea eggs in the carpet that will hatch out in 3 weeks and continue the infestation.  Take the cat and use a flea comb on it, and comb EVERYWHERE.  If no fleas are found, the cat is probably OK.  If fleas are found, get some feline Frontline or Advantage and apply per instructions.  Oh, and you are going to have to bomb again in 3 weeks, when the eggs hatch out.  You can't kill the eggs with anything I've EVER heard of - you have to wait until they hatch to kill them.

[jaybee21nz]

Am going through this now that toxic flatmates are out.
The advice I got was flea bomb every room and leave it shut up overnight.
Vacumn 2x day for a week, then 1x a day for a week, then every 2 days.
Put a flea collar in vacumn bag and empty after each vacumn.
Treat any pets.
Hot wash bedding, soft toys etc...

[Acadianna]

I second the frequent vacuuming -- it seems to help a lot.

[Katana_Geldar]

Treat them regularly. It took months to get the fleas off our cats, we don't board them at the vet anymore because they come back with it.

[pharmagal]

Sorry, I've been out all day for work. 

 Thanks for the replies, I'll get onto it first thing tomorrow.

[ica171]

Borax. My delightful MIL gave us fleas several years ago, and bombing wasn't working. I read online to sprinkle Borax around and leave it for at least three hours and it worked. I did it every day for a week, then every other day for two more. It has jagged edges that pierce the flea's exoskeleton and dehydrate the flea until it dies. I believe it also pierces the eggs.

[snappylt]

I'd like to offer a suggestion that worked for my family in the past.  We had a flea problem for a short while several years ago in our old neighborhood.

We flea-bombed our house.  We even had our yard treated for fleas.  We used flea collars on our dogs and cats.  The fleas would come back after a while.

We ended up using K9 Advantage (and then switched, later, to K9 Advantix on our dogs and the equivalent feline product from the same manufacturer for our cat) to keep new fleas from coming in, flea-bombed the house one last time, and never had a problem after that.  Our pets never had a problem with those products.  I will say that I have read customer reviews on a pet supplies sales website where some customers reported that their pets were allergic to those products, but ours did fine with them - and our flea problem disappeared.

Good luck - fleas are nasty, so I do wish you well.

[magicdomino]

Read the labels on any flea bombs or sprays.  Some formulas have a component that stops flea larva and eggs from developing.  You want that those.  As Minmom3 said, the regular bug bombs need to be repeated in three weeks, but you may be able to get away without the second bombing if you use the flea egg formula. 

Ditto the vacumning with a flea collar in the bag, along with washing everything that can possibly be washed, and treating the cat with Advantage or Revolution.  With topical flea killers, Kitty acts like a mobile flea trap -- they'd rather bite her than you, but they don't survive the experience.  I use the topical flea killers only when fleas appear, but they do much better job than the old sprays and baths.

[oogyda]

I second the bombing.  If you have a crawlspace, put one there, too.

[gingerzing]

We are just finishing dealing with it. 
My dog got them somehow.  My vet says that he sees more flea issues in the winter, oddly.  Added bonus, it appears that our Sadie-dog is allergic to flea bites.  GROOVY.  We also have indoor only cats who the bugs loved too. 

Thankfully we have hardwood floors and could get rid of our large area rug. (It was old and I was thinking of pitching it anyway.)  Bug juice (Advantage brand, I think) for all the critters for about 4 months.
According to our vet (and one of the vets in my office*), a flea's life cycle can last about 2-3 months, but since they can be at various stages we are calling it at 5 months.  And being super viglant with the dog's bug juice from now on.

Since removing carpeting isn't always possible, Remember to seal and remove vacuum bags after a cleaning session.

[trailgrrl]

I second Borax.  It's cheap and natural and it worked when two bombs didn't.   Sweep it into your carpet and let it sit for a while and then vacuum and dispose of the bag immediately.   Wash bedding in Hot water and bathe your pets with regular pet shampoo and treat with advantix.   you can also sprinkle borax on your fabric furniture as well.   My favorite method was to take my dog to the beach every day to swim.  Fleas don't like salt water   however unless you live on the coast or coastal waterway, it may be impractical.

[MOM21SON]

Borax. My delightful MIL gave us fleas several years ago, and bombing wasn't working. I read online to sprinkle Borax around and leave it for at least three hours and it worked. I did it every day for a week, then every other day for two more. It has jagged edges that pierce the flea's exoskeleton and dehydrate the flea until it dies. I believe it also pierces the eggs.

Thank you for the chuckle!

[Minmom3]

Read the labels on any flea bombs or sprays.  Some formulas have a component that stops flea larva and eggs from developing.  You want that those.  As Minmom3 said, the regular bug bombs need to be repeated in three weeks, but you may be able to get away without the second bombing if you use the flea egg formula. 

Ditto the vacumning with a flea collar in the bag, along with washing everything that can possibly be washed, and treating the cat with Advantage or Revolution.  With topical flea killers, Kitty acts like a mobile flea trap -- they'd rather bite her than you, but they don't survive the experience.  I use the topical flea killers only when fleas appear, but they do much better job than the old sprays and baths.

They're also a LOT less toxic.  My cat gets Revolution, but I didn't mention it because it has a heartworm component, and you don't necessarily want to use that unless you KNOW your cat/dog has no heartworm (current test, on monthly preventatives), that's risky.

I'm not sure which is worse - fleas, roaches, or rats.  OP, you have my sympathy in having to deal with this.

[misha412]

I had a flea issue last year with my dog and two cats. initially, all three had baths and then flea preventative applied.

I did not want to flea bomb the house. Adding more chemicals to the household on top of the flea preventative was too much in my opinion. I found a home remedy that worked, but took a few weeks.

Table salt.

Put down salt in the affected areas. Sprinkle it liberally all over the place and let it sit. I let it sit a week in carpeting and vacuumed it up. Reapplied it two more times. The salt dehydrates the larvae and kills them. It also makes adult fleas dehydrated and shortens their life cycle.

Now, no fleas inside or on the animals.

I am monitoring all three as spring warms up since that is when the fleas outside get more active in my area. The dog gets regular baths and flea preventative applied. The cats are mainly indoors so I do not apply preventative unless they have signs of fleas. If the fleas become a problem again, I will use salt again to get rid of them.