Aroura Posted April 16, 2004 Share Posted April 16, 2004 Monties got fleas. He spends all the time scratching and I feel so bad, I've given him flea baths, but then he's scratching again the next day! Does anyone have any suggestions on a not too expensive way to eliminate fleas? I've looked into fronline and that, but to do my dogs it will be like $80 that I just don't have to spare! Has anyone else been in this situation before? Its very frustrating, none of our dogs has ever had a problem with fleas before, but Monties problem just doesn't seem to go away! :evil: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aonir Posted April 16, 2004 Share Posted April 16, 2004 First thing to know, fleas only go on the dog for feeding! So flea-dips only kill 'some' of the fleas. You'll definately need some flea drops. You could let a groomer flea-dip him while you treat your house for fleas, but you'll have to do this again in a month, when eggs hatch. I suggest using flea drops. In 2 months, the fleas should be completely gone. But you won't notice them within the first day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aroura Posted April 16, 2004 Author Share Posted April 16, 2004 Thanks for that. I've got some of that raid spray with egg stopper, though I think that could just be for the cockroaches, I've sprayed around with that but haven't had a chance to flea bath the dogs since then (I know I should have done them on the same day!). When I bought the spray it was a bit of a toss up between that and a flea bomb, I wasn't sure which would be better - does anyone know how effective flea bombs are? It said it lasts nine months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TDG Posted April 16, 2004 Share Posted April 16, 2004 get some advantage. you don't have to apply the full, suggested dose to each of your dogs. the minimum effecitve dose the manufacturer suggests is 0.1 ml per kg of body weight. the advantage tubes for large dogs contain enough to treat 55 lbs or 25 kg of body weight. in my household, one of these tubes is enough to treat 5 cats and one dog and keep the household flea free. i apply roughly once every 6 weeks. i order online, from a reputable source and pay about $25 for a 4-pack, so including shipping, one year of reliable flea prevention for my 6 animals costs me about $85. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malamum Posted April 16, 2004 Share Posted April 16, 2004 I use Frontline but since that's not what you're after I can't be of much help...sorry. How much is it for a little fella like Montie. For Indy I need to use the extra large and it is $60.00 for 6 pippettes. It should be cheaper the smaller you go. I am curious as to what you do for ticks though. Do you use any type of preventative. I know I am quite paranoid about paralysis ticks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mouseatthebusstop Posted April 16, 2004 Share Posted April 16, 2004 you have to treat everywhere dogs beds your carpets I found frontline cheaper than the amount I was spending treating everywhere- I have now switched to [color=blue]Stronghold[/color] it does worms as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aroura Posted April 17, 2004 Author Share Posted April 17, 2004 Well I emailed a vet and she told me I'd just have to get a thing for big dogs and split some of it up for the little dogs, which would cost me about $62 for 3 months for the 3 of them, which I guess isn't too bad... oh, and then Montie won this competition that I entered him in yesterday which got me a 10% discount so it will only cost me like $55 or something lol. I'll gloat about Monties winning in another post :wink: With frontline, do you still do flea bombs or something? Malamum, I'm happy to say we don't get ticks here, nor do we get heartworm - its too cold for them! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malamum Posted April 19, 2004 Share Posted April 19, 2004 [quote]Malamum, I'm happy to say we don't get ticks here, nor do we get heartworm - its too cold for them! [/quote] Wow, I didn't know that. You learn something new every day :D What about in Summer though? I know Armidale can get chilly in Winter and at night compared to Sydney but I thought it had to be below freezing for it to be considered too cold for mozzies and ticks??? I'm probably way off base here..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aroura Posted April 19, 2004 Author Share Posted April 19, 2004 I don't know exactly how cold too cold is, but I think ticks mainly dwell around coastal areas, and mozzies need a certain amount of life cycle before they spread heart worm or something! I don't know for sure, but the vets here only reccomend frontline for ticks if you are going to the coast, and say that you only have to treat for heartworm if you and your dog are travelling. That is about the one good thing about Armidale :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malamum Posted April 19, 2004 Share Posted April 19, 2004 That's pretty cool - a few less things to have to worry about. My calendar is full of the frontline and heartworm reminder stickers. If I ever decide to move out of Sydney, I'll have to come to Armidale. :wink: Just out of curiosity, how far away from the cost are you. If I remember right is Armidale approximatley the same distance north as Coffs but inland? And what are your ususal temps like - how cold does it get? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aroura Posted April 19, 2004 Author Share Posted April 19, 2004 Armidale would also have a great climate for your dogs in winter! Its, i think, 2-3 hours inland from Coffs. Temperature wise, well I don't watch the weather on the news much, but I'm in a jumper and a heater on and they've been on all day, and my feet are still a little chilly. It gets freezing at night, I often have to break the ice on the dogs water bowel in winter in the mornings, daytimes can also get rather cold, it usually snows once or twice every year or two. lol, hope that helps, sorry I can't be a little more informative! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malamum Posted April 19, 2004 Share Posted April 19, 2004 Thanks Aroura, I'm always curious as to what it it like elsewhere. Though I have always assumed that further north means warmer temps - I was pretty wrong there. :oops: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted April 19, 2004 Share Posted April 19, 2004 If you are washing the dog and they have fleas again the next day they are definately in the environment. When we had cats (and a flea problem) we used to spray the whole yard with a inexpensive product called "Malawash", wash the bedding in the same stuff and then wash the cats and dogs in the stuff. On the same day we would flea bomb the house and garage. I found it needed to be done all in the same day to totally wipe them all out. Now that we only have the dogs (no cats) we haven't had fleas in years. Cats seem to be the biggest carrier of fleas as they move around from yard to yard unlike dogs. Our vet used to highly recommend frontline but now they seem to recommend flea collars.... I suppose they are also cheaper. Good luck with the little pests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imported_Kat Posted April 20, 2004 Share Posted April 20, 2004 If you treat the dogs, thats only half the battle. Fleas can lie dormant in bedding and in skirting boards and crevices for months, until the conditions are good enough again. Frontline is the best job in my opinion. With advantage I have seen too many allergic reactions especially where small animals are concerned. If you can get the hold of a tin called VetKem Acclaim then this is just the business for the house. a tip for you as well: Use methylated spirits on a cloth and go around all the skirting boards and door frames before you use the house spray and leave that room for a good 5/6 hours. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aroura Posted April 20, 2004 Author Share Posted April 20, 2004 Thanks for the tips guys, you know malawash hadn't even crossed my mind! I've used it in the past - but wouldn't use it on the little ones. The idea of using it around the house is a good one - how much do you water it down and do you just spray it around? I'm thinking I might frontline the dogs, flea bomb the house and malawash around the house. There were cats living here before, I think thats why we have problems. Also, I think we have possums or giant 10kg rats in the roof :oops: I hear thumping and running every night! :o Its hard to describe, but we had this massive 40 foot vine growing over one of those wooden vine structers in the yard, apparently it had been planted years ago and never pruned! So it took dad and I three days straight to pull this thing down. It had been harbouring mozzies, dampness, hid the house in the dark, encouraging mold, was probably a perfect environment for flea nests in the damp leaves below, and, as I found out trying to get it down, HOUSED DOZENS OF HUNTSMEN NESTS!!! :o :o :o :o :evilbat: :drinking: Now though, we have a front and back yard over flowing with chopped down vine, and nowhere to put it! I am trying to organise a friend to come over here and take it away, he said he would, he has a mulcher and apparently needs the mulch, but that was over two weeks ago - meanwhile the dogs are battling a jungle of vine in the back yard. I'm sure that once this is gone, as well as all the privet (another jungle in the corner of the yard, I'm going to ring the council about that one), then fleas will be much easier to control! Its just a matter of breaking the cycle, then life will be so much easier for me and the dogs!!! Kat, what exactly does the metho do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted April 22, 2004 Share Posted April 22, 2004 Hi Aroura, I think the Malawash container has a recommended mix rate for spraying kennels etc (I just gave my mother my tin of Malawash for her cat) - we just mixed it a bit stronger. I would probably respray the area a few times just to catch the ones that hatch later. We have a 10 litre garden spray which we used to spray the whole yard and then used a small hand spray (cheap one) just around the bedding area on a regular/daily basis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aroura Posted April 22, 2004 Author Share Posted April 22, 2004 [quote name='DivineOblivion19']There was a warning that came with flea collars that something they were using in them was causing developmental problems in children! If kids touch them and put their hands in their mouths.[/quote] So thats what went wrong with me! :o Well I'm buying the frontline today! :D As for the outside areas, I think I've already mentioned our garden is a jungle, so I'm a bit worried about that aspect. Plus the rats/possums in the roof, I'm don't know what I'm gonna do to treat the whole area! Should I get rid of what evers in the roof? How do I go about that? Plus the jungle of Privet in the yard, its so frustrating!!! I've spent so many solid days trying to fix the yard, I'm falling behind in my uni work just because the yard it such a mess! If there are still fleas in the environment, will Montie continue to scratch? I wish I had a step by step video of our garden and you might see what I'm talking about, I can spray/bomb/whatever inside, and I can malawash what I can outside, but there are so many overgrown dark corners - I thought it was cool when I moved in, with no thought to how bad it could be. Maybe I should ring the landlord? If he paid to get it fixed I'd keep it trimmed etc - apparently the whole garden was fixed before the last guy moved in, but the fat lazy slob of a guy who lived here didn't go out the back for the whole 4 years he lived here! Everything planted here is fast growing, its such a high maintenence garden - I don't know why you'd plant so many high maintenence plants in a rental place :o Ok, I'm getting annoyed and frustrated now, think I'd better go take a breath! :drinking: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
courtnek Posted April 23, 2004 Share Posted April 23, 2004 just fyi..here at least, ticks are not coastal. They survive quite nicely in forested and shaded areas...and they can spread lyme disease... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aroura Posted April 23, 2004 Author Share Posted April 23, 2004 Eww, doesn't sound pleasant!!! I probably shouldn't assume that EVERYWHERE in Australia that ticks are coastal, thats just what I've heard and I know we don't get them here, but I guess other inland places may not be the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malamum Posted April 23, 2004 Share Posted April 23, 2004 Courtnek, we don't get Lyme disease down under. When I was talking about ticks I was thinking of paralysis ticks (which I don't think you guys have) and they are nasty litttle suckers - can kill your dog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aroura Posted April 23, 2004 Author Share Posted April 23, 2004 What is Lyme disease? When I was doing work experience in Culburra Beach a cat came in with a paralysis tick, pretty nasty stuff, it had spread as far as the cat dragging its back legs but thankfully we stopped it. Dad always tells a story about this tough dog he used to live near, apparently it could survive anything and had built up an immunity to paralysis ticks! :o Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.