3 weeks after Frontline/still covered in fleas

[nanrector]

I'm really concerned about my little Shitzu. We moved to the country 4 months ago and she became infested with fleas. (Never a problem in 8 years). I purchased Frontline and applied it. The scratching seemed to subside for a week or so but its now 3 weeks and she's covered and scratching herself raw. I applied the 2nd dose even though its not quite the 1 month mark. Is there anything else I can do or any other products? Everyone swears by Frontline and I'm not sure why he has not worked for her.

Thanks!
Nancy



www.royrivers.com

[GretaJack]

Did you treat your house as well? If your dog lives in the house, she brought fleas inside and the house must be treated to killed the adult and the larvae that currently exist.

Was your dog bathed within two days before or two days after the application? If so will reduce its effectiveness.

The way frontline works is that it doesn't technically prevent fleas from landing on your dog. What it does is prevents a flea from maturing to lay its eggs. With Frontline in your dogs system, a flea will bite your dog and die, instead of bite you dog, feed to maturity and reproduction, leaving flea dirt (larvae) on your dog.

Don't give up. I had a horrible flea problem this year and I never had to deal with fleas before either. I swore that the Frontline didn't work, after the second application, I did realize it was. You girl is about ready for another treatment. Every 21-28 days, and if you are heavily infested I would apply at 21 days. Good luck and don't give up.

[Meisti]

If the infestation is that bad, simply applying frontline won't help much. You need to do a complete treatment of basically everything. First, keep using the frontline and perhaps get some instant relief for you puppy by applying a spray and a shampoo. However, make sure that you can use the two products in combination. Products such as Frontline generally disrupt the lifecycle of the flea but often do not kill adult flees immediately because they need time to enter the dogs system. A spray or shampoo will lead to immediate results and then frontline will aid in keeping you dog flea-free.

Next, purchase a product to spray in your yard - to kill all the fleas there and stop them from reproducing.

Then wash the bedding on which your puppy sleeps or rests - wash it as hot as you dare.

Purchase "bombs" to fumigate your house - every room.

I have been through the very same problems and anytime I tried to skimp and only treated the house, only the dog, or only the yard, I failed to get rid of the fleas. You will need to be very thorough to gain the upperhand.

[Blistering Wind]

First, Frontline isn't an "immediate" fix. It does interrupt the life cycle as Meisti said.

It takes 30-60 days to really see results on a bad infestation with NO other treatments.

The BEST thing to do is bomb your house, spray your yard, and go ahead and spray your dog with the body spray as well to get immediate results now. Frontline is more of a TIME item. I swear by it and love it to death. If you administer it BEFORE fleas are on your dog, it works. Once fleas are there and you add it, it takes a while before seeing results


Good Luck.

[erdog3]

What do you wash your dog with? This is important to the effectiveness of any external spot on flea control.

[nanrector]

Appreciate all the quick response and detailed info. I did apply Frontline correctly and did not bathe within 3 days as it says. However the vet told me that Frontline would eventually kill the fleas in my home and I didnt need to do anything else so I didn't.

I just use Hartz 2 in 1 flea shampoo when I bath her. I did it 3 days ago before applying the Frontline again.
Guess I need to compile a list of stuff to buy so I can get rid of these things.

There are so many over the counter products I hardly know what to get. How can I be sure its ok to use a product with Frontline?

I take it I need some inside "bombs", some flea spray and some yard treatment. Plus washing her bedding. Though she's all over our furniture too. Not sure how to treat that.

Thanks a bunch!
Nancy

[erdog3]

Bomb the house, wash her bedding and spray any thing she sleeps in..kennel etc.
Don't use any other products on her though. You can't mix them up with the Frontline.

[Meisti]

Nancy - to check whether two products can be used with each other, you could quickly google the active ingredients and see if there are any warnings. Generally speaking, you don't run too much of a risk and I wouldn't worry too much about it since your dog is more than four months old and healthy. The only problem people (i.e., their dogs) usually encounter is when using certain flee/tick collars that contain Amitraz as the active pesticide simultaneously with other treatments.

If you are concerned about furniture, you could steamclean whatever area your dog frequents. However, using the fumigation bombs should take care of most of it - at least to the degree where the flea problem becomes managable.

[erdog3]

You can't mix the two products...not on the dog anyway. You can use them on other stuff.

[nanrector]

I'll try and locate some "bombs" today and get started. Never bought those before. I washed her bedding but she mostly sleeps on the couch and floor. She's still scratching like crazy after the 2nd Frontline treatment yesterday but hopefully it will start to subside with the other things.

Thanks everyone. This is a great board. You've been very helpful.

Nancy


www.royrivers.com