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Have any flea advice?


Katy
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We got a new puppy last night that we are affectionately calling Flea Bag.  I dosed her with K9 Advantix II already (she's old and big enough), and she was given a bath before she came to our house so I don't want to give her another one too soon.  She's currently snuggled on the sofa nearby and I can see the fleas on her and it's bugging me.

 

Do you think I should just let the flea medicine do its job?  Use a flea comb?  I could put some essential oils on her collar too if you think that might help (I've got a lot of the ones that supposively repel fleas - lavender, peppermint, cedar, lemongrass, though I've never used them in this context before because generally our pets don't have fleas).

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Hmm . . . you just applied it last night?  I don't think it's surprising you're still seeing live fleas.

 

If you have a flea comb, I'd get busy with that.  It certainly won't hurt, and it'll speed up the process.  Put puppy on an old white sheet or towel to help you see the fleas, and have an old container filled with soapy water or alcohol so you can drown them as you pull them off.

 

Depending on the puppy's age and weight, you might want to consider getting a Capstar pill from your vet.  I *think* ideally the pup should be eight weeks old and weigh at least two pounds to take Capstar, although it can be given to puppies as young as four weeks old.  But the younger the pup the more risk there is of adverse side effects.

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Thanks everyone.  I'd never even heard of Capstar before.  I gave her the advantix this morning, it's supposed to kill 90% of fleas in 12 hours. I saw a few already dead on her and decided to just dig out an old flea comb instead of driving a couple of hours to the closest place I could get Capstar today (our vet is on vacation and it didn't seem worthy of an emergency visit).

 

I think I pulled out a few hundred fleas & killed them in Dawn & hot water. We have hardwood and tile floors in most of the house and mostly leather upholstery so I'm not super worried about the eggs, but I will mix up a concoction of borax and lemongrass oil to sprinkle into the rugs and vacuum off everything tomorrow.  I usually launder all linens on the sterilize cycle (I have terrible allergies), so that should kill the eggs in the kid's sheets too, right? 

 

We used a commercial product to spray the backyard last year that was just lemongrass oil to kill chiggers and mosquitos and it worked.  It said it killed fleas too, but we didn't have them.  The other pets are on flea stuff continuously so I'm not worried about them.

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Diatomaceous earth works great and safe for the most part. Some complain of breathing issues but this is from excessive use generally. It is a fine silica and is abrasive in away that affects mites, fleas and such. It's cheap too. Some people eat it that is how safe it is. I haven't had a need for that. :)

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I've never had issues with sheets shrinking, but I did ruin a set of expensive Egyptian cotton ones one when I used the sanitize cycle and felted cat fur to the sheets!  The sheets had been folded up in a box, the cat had found it in a storage room and made a nest unbeknown to me, and when I found them I washed them the same way I always do.  Big mistake.  Big huge mistake.  I tried to use a razor to shave off all the felted fur, but it didn't work.  They're garden sheets now, used only when there's an unseasonal frost.

 

I've heard people recommend diatomaceous earth, but I never know where to buy it.  Borax is available in any laundry aisle and does the same thing, though in a slightly more toxic way so I wouldn't put it on a pet.  Where can I buy diatomaceous earth?

 

 

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I've never had issues with sheets shrinking, but I did ruin a set of expensive Egyptian cotton ones one when I used the sanitize cycle and felted cat fur to the sheets! The sheets had been folded up in a box, the cat had found it in a storage room and made a nest unbeknown to me, and when I found them I washed them the same way I always do. Big mistake. Big huge mistake. I tried to use a razor to shave off all the felted fur, but it didn't work. They're garden sheets now, used only when there's an unseasonal frost.

 

I've heard people recommend diatomaceous earth, but I never know where to buy it. Borax is available in any laundry aisle and does the same thing, though in a slightly more toxic way so I wouldn't put it on a pet. Where can I buy diatomaceous earth?

I buy it in bulk from amazon. I couldn't find it locally.

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Katy, I've heard of people using salt in the house to combat fleas, that is, in addition to using a flea comb on the animal. 

 

You have your hands full right now, but once you've conquered the fleas, please tell me more about that commercial lemongrass product you used in the yard.

 

 

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Katy, I've heard of people using salt in the house to combat fleas, that is, in addition to using a flea comb on the animal. 

 

You have your hands full right now, but once you've conquered the fleas, please tell me more about that commercial lemongrass product you used in the yard.

 

It was Cutter Natural Ready to Spray Concentrate in a bottle that has a hose attachment included.  The active ingredient is lemongrass oil.  We bought some last year after I got the worst case of chiggers I've ever seen just standing barefoot in our yard chatting with a neighbor.  We found it at Walmart in the garden bug killer section.  I was ready to go all chemical on the yard because I was itching so bad but DH convinced me the bad stuff might kill our ultra-sensitive yorkie and we should at least try the lemongrass stuff first. I reluctantly agreed then dropped my jaw when I watched him spraying the yard with it.  There were CLOUDS of bugs swarming away from the spray, and for the next three days there were hundreds of birds in the yard eating dead bugs.  It worked amazingly well.  The only thing is the mosquitoes came back as soon as it rained. I bought lemongrass oil and tried to mix my own after doing the math but it didn't work as well when it was homemade.  IDK if they had it at a higher concentration than listed on the bottle or if the secondary wintergreen oil (that was listed as not an active ingredient) helped it work too. I didn't have wintergreen oil on hand.

 

Anyway, lemongrass oil is an insecticide, it may have mild estrogenic properties (but not as much as lavender), and six hours later you can let kids and pets wander through the yard safely.

 

IDK if it worked as well this time though; I haven't seen any more LIVE ticks in the yard, but it rained less than 24 hours after we sprayed it so I don't think it had as much time to work.

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It was Cutter Natural Ready to Spray Concentrate in a bottle that has a hose attachment included.  The active ingredient is lemongrass oil.  We bought some last year after I got the worst case of chiggers I've ever seen just standing barefoot in our yard chatting with a neighbor.  We found it at Walmart in the garden bug killer section.  I was ready to go all chemical on the yard because I was itching so bad but DH convinced me the bad stuff might kill our ultra-sensitive yorkie and we should at least try the lemongrass stuff first. I reluctantly agreed then dropped my jaw when I watched him spraying the yard with it.  There were CLOUDS of bugs swarming away from the spray, and for the next three days there were hundreds of birds in the yard eating dead bugs.  It worked amazingly well.  The only thing is the mosquitoes came back as soon as it rained. I bought lemongrass oil and tried to mix my own after doing the math but it didn't work as well when it was homemade.  IDK if they had it at a higher concentration than listed on the bottle or if the secondary wintergreen oil (that was listed as not an active ingredient) helped it work too. I didn't have wintergreen oil on hand.

 

Anyway, lemongrass oil is an insecticide, it may have mild estrogenic properties (but not as much as lavender), and six hours later you can let kids and pets wander through the yard safely.

 

IDK if it worked as well this time though; I haven't seen any more LIVE ticks in the yard, but it rained less than 24 hours after we sprayed it so I don't think it had as much time to work.

 

Thank you!

 

Let us know how your flea battle goes. 

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It was Cutter Natural Ready to Spray Concentrate in a bottle that has a hose attachment included.  The active ingredient is lemongrass oil.  We bought some last year after I got the worst case of chiggers I've ever seen just standing barefoot in our yard chatting with a neighbor.  We found it at Walmart in the garden bug killer section.  I was ready to go all chemical on the yard because I was itching so bad but DH convinced me the bad stuff might kill our ultra-sensitive yorkie and we should at least try the lemongrass stuff first. I reluctantly agreed then dropped my jaw when I watched him spraying the yard with it.  There were CLOUDS of bugs swarming away from the spray, and for the next three days there were hundreds of birds in the yard eating dead bugs.  It worked amazingly well.  The only thing is the mosquitoes came back as soon as it rained. I bought lemongrass oil and tried to mix my own after doing the math but it didn't work as well when it was homemade.  IDK if they had it at a higher concentration than listed on the bottle or if the secondary wintergreen oil (that was listed as not an active ingredient) helped it work too. I didn't have wintergreen oil on hand.

 

Anyway, lemongrass oil is an insecticide, it may have mild estrogenic properties (but not as much as lavender), and six hours later you can let kids and pets wander through the yard safely.

 

IDK if it worked as well this time though; I haven't seen any more LIVE ticks in the yard, but it rained less than 24 hours after we sprayed it so I don't think it had as much time to work.

 

Thank you, I need to try this. I'm overly sensitive to chemicals, my dog is allergic to everything. I'm going to try this. 

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I can't seem to find DE locally; since some of the online stores that offer it have a disclaimer that they can't ship it to certain states (mine included) I'm wondering if it's for some reason banned here.  Amazon doesn't have a state restriction on the food grade stuff; I'll probably try ordering it from there.

 

I've been flea combing her a couple times a day and now we're getting to the point that I'm finding way less and 90% of the ones I find are dead already. 

 

She still needs a bath to get the eggs off, especially around her ears, but I'm trying to give her a break - she has raw spots behind her ears from scratching them so much.

 

I'd forgotten how much this breed of puppy bites everything. It's a constant war to redirect her and her little razor teeth, and I have to be careful with my typical tether training because she's chewing on every tether, including the metal ones!  So we're doing more crate training, and she howls, and the kids call me mean. Sorry if some of this makes no sense; I got up at two AM because she would not tolerate any more crate and was waking up everyone in the house.

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