I woke up yesterday morning to an old familiar itch. I think my humans heard me because when Chris got up, he saw me scratchin’.  Dogs and fleas simply don’t mix.

That’s right, the fleas are starting to come back.

Last time the fleas came, the humans were successful in getting rid of them after dipping us, spraying the house, and then the back yard. This is, of course, in addition to our standard flea tablets we take every month.

I’m really tired of this. I had hoped the freeze from last week would have killed them off. I don’t getting wet, and certainly don’t like getting dipped (that stuff stinks). Hopefully, this next time will be the last for a while.

To learn more and dogs and fleas check out the article,  Dogs and Fleas – Stop the Fleas

A flea bomb may also be helpful in eradicating the fleas from your home.

Miserably yours,

Abigail the Southern Belle

Dogs and fleas simply don’t mix

We have been very fortunate. For years, we have lived in Florida and never had a problem with fleas. We took our Advantage and we never had to worry about the fleas biting us.

About a month ago, we started fostering two 8 week old puppies. They came from a kill shelter in Georgia and their number was up. They were on the schedule to be gassed. Fortunately, an associate of Judy’s Pet Rescue heard about their predicament and drove up to Georgia to save them.

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A few days later, they were at our house.  They were cute, friendly black puppies (part labs) and they were a lot of fun. What we didn’t realize is that they harbored fleas and flea eggs. Not just the normal variety of fleas, but ones that had built up an immunity to the common flea treatments.

Before long, they started getting on Abigail and myself. They laid eggs in the carpets, on us, and in our backyard where we play.  After discovering that Advantage had no effect on these nasty critters, the vet recommended we try Comfortis. They had high hopes that this would stop the problem as Abigail and I are highly allergic flea bites.

The back yard was sprayed and the house was bombed while we got to go to work with the humans.  Unfortunately, all of this work did little to slow down the fleas. They continued to plague the cats and us non-stop.

What stopped the fleas?

So, what stopped the fleas? On the dogs and cats, the humans switched from a spray to a dip. The big advantage of a dip is that its applied with a sponge and does not get rinsed off. Because of that, we were completely soaked in the flea medicine and it dried on us for a few hours. I am very happy to say this got them off of us.

However, since the fleas didn’t like being on us anymore, they decided to jump on the humans. I don’t think this made them very happy. Fortunately, a pest control guy came to the rescue and created a spray that they used on the baseboards of the house. This seems to have removed the fleas from the inside as well.

So, we have temporarily defeated the fleas. You are probably wondering why I say temporarily? Well, here in Florda, it doesn’t get cold enough to stop the fleas, so they will hatch again in a couple of  weeks and we have to do the process all over again.

Wish us luck!

Shadow the Alpha Dog