fleas  

I'm sorry I shouldn't laugh but I can't resist you know me well enough not to take offence, but I just had this picture of all these fleas marching out of the door with their suitcases disgusted that their residence has been infected by garlic! I think the garlic would frighten anyone off, including vampires, fleas won't stand a chance, if you hear little coughing noises you know it's working! Sorry again my friend but I can't stop laughing. I hope it does work on a serious note, our cat wouldn't touch her food fussy little madam if it's been tampered with!

I had the same problem a few months ago so I went to PetSmart & asked them what I could do to get rid of these fleas. This is what they told me to do.

Wash everything the animals sleep on
Vacuum the rugs, then immediately throw out the vacuum bag(even if it is not yet full)
Give all dogs & cats a flea bath
When their fur is completely dry squeeze on a tube of Advantage flea med. starting from the neck to where their tail begins. You can get this at any animal Vet

I did all of this & I have not seen one flea since. Trust me it works.

Fleas...the bane of pet owners everywhere!

Some people swear by garlic and brewer's yeast, but I've never seen good results with either or both.

Have you actually seen the fleas? Many times pet owners mistake scratching as a sign of fleas instead of a sign of allergies.

If you have seen the fleas, then I'd suggest doing this: Stop spraying and bathing. Go to your vet, or local pet supply website, and buy some Advantage or Advantix if you're in an area with ticks. Give your dog a nice bath in a gentle shampoo. No flea shampoo! Then, give your dog 48 hours after the bath and check its skin. Make sure it's not dry, as in dry skin. (Of course you want the skin to be dry, but you don't want dry skin...LOL!) If you see no signs of flaky, dry skin, apply the product and wait.

The spot on treatments usually don't work because of a dry skin condition on the animal. They rely solely on the skin oils to protect the dog and do their job and if there are no oils, they can't work. One of the downsides of the product.

If you dog does have dry skin, you'll have to play around with a few things to find out why. In the meantime, any flea product you use, shampoo or spray, will work to dry out the dog's skin. Most sprays have a high alcohol content and you know what that does to skin!

Good luck!

Laura, I've never heard of the garlic thing... before you try it, you should ask a vet to make sure it won't harm your dog to feed her garlic.

We had a flea problem in the town I used to live, and I heard great things about boric acid, which is relatively cheap and you can get from any hardware store or probably even from WalMart. It worked like a CHARM -- no more fleas! It took almost a week but after that the fleas were gone from my house. Use it on the floors and sprinkle it outside in the grass, working it in with a rake. BUT CAUTION: boric acid (which is a powder) can be harmful to pets and children, so you need to follow directions very carefully and keep pets and kids away from the area while it sits in your carpet, and vacuum it twice before you let them back in.

Fleas spread like crazy in the back yard grass, which is why you need to treat the outside as you do the inside. The boric acid dries up the fleas and dries up their eggs, which is why it works fairly quickly and for so long. While you're treating your house and yard, have someone give your pets a flea bath and wash her bedding in hot water. I think one treatment like this can keep fleas away for about a year -- for me, it was over a year before we saw even one more flea.

BUT LOOK IT UP AND USE CAUTION BEFORE YOU TRY ANYTHING; don't trust me or anyone before you check around for yourself, especially with vets.

Also, your dog may have dry skin which causes itching besides the fleas. I think there are good treatments for itching, including natural ones like vegetable oil and special shampoos, but I'm not sure about this one so you can google it! :)

Good luck, Laura

I have been using this for our dog for about 2 month now. No more fleas. I give her one of these every day. Our dog is an Australian Shepard to give you an idea of her size.
No-Flea Dog Biscuits

Ingredients:

* 2 cups of unbleached flour (I used whole wheat)
* 1/2 cup of wheat germ
* 1/2 cup of brewers yeast (This is nutritional yeast that you can get at the health food store. It is also good for getting rid of fleas.)
* 2 cloves of garlic, minced
* 3 tbs. of vegetable oil
* 1 cup of chicken stock

Directions:

* Preheat the oven to 400F and oil two or three baking sheets.
* Combine first 4 ingredients in a large mixing bowl .
* Add garlic, oil and stock, slowly stirring it into the flour mixture and beating well, until the dough is well-mixed.
* Shape dough into a ball. On lightly floured surface, roll out dough 1/4" thick.
* Using a 2" biscuit cutter or knife, cut the dough, transferring the biscuits to prepared baking sheets.
* Bake 20-25 minutes or until well-browned.
* Turn off heat and allow biscuits to dry in oven for several hours.
* Store in refrigerator or freeze. Makes about 26 biscuits.

If your dog has gone out side she/he might be bringing the fleas into the house so Borax, 20-Mule Team Boraz. Sprinkle that on your carpets, work it in with a stiff broom, let it sit overnight and then vacuum it all up, using a new vaccum bag each time--THEN THROW AWAY THE BAG WAY OUTSIDE THE HOUSE. Do this with each room in your house where there is any flea activity at all. Repeat every week, until there's no sign of flea activity in your house. You WILL go through quite a few vacuum cleaner bags, but this process is much safer on your family and kitties than bug bombs and other stronger pesticides.
To check to see if there are fleas in the house put a night light in a lower outlet then place a pie pan with some water and dich washing liquid in it. The light will attract the fleas and they will drown in the water. This is a way to check to see if you have fleas in the house.

I've not heard of this garlic trick. But another thing is even
though the dog has had flea baths their bedding and furniture etc
in the house needs a total cleaning as well as the fleas will jump
all over for the warmth. Even onto humans. So try cleaning everything the dog comes in contact with then a flea collar also helps. For the dog not you. Hee hee. J/K
HAPPY POSTINGS FROM GRANDPA BOB !!~

Do not put garlic in your dog's food. That WAS conidered a way to repel fleas but it has recently been discovered that garlic is bad for dogs and can cause health problems. I use Sergeant brand flea stuff for my cat and dog. You can but it at the pet store or at Sobeys and it works just as well or better than the vet stuff and is MUCH MUCH more affordable. An added bonus is that the dog stuff repels mosquitos as well, and that is the first dog mosquito repellant i have ever seen.

Hi Laura. She's probably bitten so many times that the bites are what's bothering her. Get frontline plus. It kills the flea eggs before they hatch and the adult fleas as well. First give her an oatmeal bath, you can find that at Petsmart which will help ease her itching, get some Chlortabs (equate brand of chlortromatron - spelling) at Walmart and give her a pill every four hours or later when/if she starts itching again. It does wonders for dogs for I've had to do that with my cocker spaniel when she was alive. It doesn't make them or humans sleepy at all but man it does wonder the trick very well. After the bath and she's dried, put on the frontline between the shoulder blades and give her a pill of Chlortabs and you should see a BIG difference. Another thing, the cheapest place I've found to buy Frontline Plus is through this web site countrysidepet.com where it's much cheaper than the places I've searched. I have 5 dogs and 9 cats so knowing that, I have to find the cheapest price. lol

Good luck to you and your precious doggy gal!

no i have never tried that before. but you know once the dog get's fleas you have to de-flea the whole house. they live in the carpet on the beds every place your dog goes. and the dog is never going to get rid of them until you have them gone from the home

take some fresh garlic and add it to cooking oil( you have to cut or press the garlic) and add the mixture to their food. the garlic will get rid of the fleas and the oil will help keep her skin healthy. also if there arent any fleas add a raw egg to her food once a week. my mom does this with her dogs and they never have fleas and they are outside all the time.