# Fleas!!



## OldGnarlHead (Feb 17, 2016)

Okay so, we had the tick incident, and now we've had a run in with fleas. There were only a few at first, but now we're combing more and more every day. The wondercide spray doesn't seem to have much of an effect, but we're going to use the wondercide shampoo tonight to see if that works. If that fails, we found the Veterinary Formula flea and tick shampoo which me might try. We also, have 2 tubes left of broad spectrum topical flea repellent, I don't really wanna use harsh chemicals on her, but Cricket seems to unhappy even now, I feel so bad for her. 

What do you think we should use?


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## naturalfeddogs (Jan 6, 2011)

As far as bathing goes, you can use any shampoo, it doesn't have to be a "flea shampoo ". All that is is chemicals, and it won't repel at all. Any shampoo will kill fleas. In fact, they drown so easy just water kills them as well. 

If if wondercide doesn't seem to work, you can fill a spray bottle with half water and half apple cider vinegar. I agree it's going to be a tough year for fleas. For us, we had NO winter. I was able to drive my jeep with the top off most of the time.


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## OldGnarlHead (Feb 17, 2016)

We had a winter but we've had insane rain for months. If the dog run was ours I'd buy a nematode lawn treatment in a heartbeat... 

She's been biting her fur off she's so itchy... She's been miserable.. We've been bathing her every other day and this time we saw fleas actually dead in the bath. The wondercide shampoo is supposed to kill the adults but not the larvae so it's going to be difficult. We've been flea combing her pretty much every chance we get. I couldn't imagine what this would be like with a longer coated dog. Thank god for shar-pei beagle mixes and their short fur. Good to know on the ACV spray. So glad she's raw fed or this would probably be loads worse..


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## naturalfeddogs (Jan 6, 2011)

Keep in mind over bathing will dry their skin out and cause itching as well.


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## OldGnarlHead (Feb 17, 2016)

Yeah, that is true... I might rub her down in with a little coconut oil tonight... The Wondercide shampoo made her stop itching immediately, and seems to kill fleas pretty well, so I'm happy about that. We kinda have a wrench in our plan that we're going to be dog sitting our friend's dog for about a month and we don't want to give him fleas so if we cant get it under control in a few days we've just decided to put some of the topical flea treatment on her for the last time.. She's been so itchy she's been chewing her fur off and there's just tons of bites on her.. I have like three on me now too. We put a half cup of ACV in her bath to hopefully keep them off of her. We've been running all of our blankets through the dryer every day to kill anything on them. We have a rug we need to Wondercide... ugh fleas suck


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## naturalfeddogs (Jan 6, 2011)

Fleas do suck. We are battling them more this year than ever. 

Adding the ACV to her bath water is a good idea too. Glad to hear the wondercide soap seemed to work. I haven't ever used it, because I heard it can be difficult to lather up on longer coated dogs, so... I stick with the spray and Cowboy Magic shampoo, or Fair Advantage from Chris Christianson.


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## OldGnarlHead (Feb 17, 2016)

The soap lathers suuuper well for us, better than her anti itch liquid shampoo. We found a bunch of dead fleas in the bath, so that's good. I think we're managing to kill all the adults and we're starting to battle the hatching ones. We managed to let the suds sit for 10 minutes today and the fleas were coming to the top of the suds and dying. I got some coconut oil onto her really bad spots to see if it'll help the redness and inflammation. She's been ripping her nipples to shreds... She goes bonkers for coconut oil and we've been managing to keep her from licking it off so I think we're in the clear for now. Going to run the blankets through the dryer again. Will update on the progress..


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## 3RingCircus (May 24, 2010)

For inside the house, I found that sprinkling borax on the carpet and leaving it for two to three hours or more (the longer the better) and then vacuuming it up helped a lot. Only problem is the animals can't be in the room during and immediately after using it. The room has to be closed off. I also discovered at the same time that emptying out the vacuum cleaner into a plastic bag and then throwing it out of the house into a closed container helped tremendously. I used to keep it in the house and throw it out at the end of a week. I was re-infesting my house with fleas. That year we had the worst flea infestation. They'd be hopping on my ankles. And I'm allergic to flea bites. After a couple of weeks of vacuuming and throwing the out the trash in tied up bags, the flea population reduced to nearly zero in my house. The borax helped as well. I used it in the main dog loved areas and did the rooms separately, one day after another.


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## OldGnarlHead (Feb 17, 2016)

We thankfully have gotten rid of the fleas, she hasn't had a bite on her in a while and neither have we (I'm allergic to them too, its awful). The trick for us was to run all the blankets from the bed and the house through the dryer every day to kill all the fleas/larvae/eggs. It really, really helped. We also started giving her brewers yeast paste that seemed to really help as well. Her tummy has never looked so good (long history of skin issues)!


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## Nancy (Dec 29, 2018)

> it doesn't have to be a "flea shampoo "


That's true. Any chemicals are harmful to fleas. Herbal shampoo and essential oil shampoos are nice options to consider too. It is also said here that you may try coal-tar and laundry soap. You should also wash all the surfaces with vinegar and steam all the blankets and pillows.


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