Impossible flea problem. Help!?! (poodle, bite, clean, vet)

[Slithytoves]

My elderly poodle has a HORRIBLE problem with incessant itching caused by fleas. I've bombed the house and the yard as much as is safely possible for months, tried every flea med available, bathed the dog regularly, I hand-pick the fleas off her daily, have been giving her Benadryl, and even put her on an antibiotic and a steroid to try to calm her inflammation. The vet is out of ideas and since I'm more or less unemployed, I'm running out of money for this.

Does anybody have any suggestions for how to, if not stop the fleas, at least soothe her itching? The contortions she goes into to bite and scratch are really hurting her and her skin is raw and vulnerable.

[lucknow]

We were doing everything imaginable, natural and we were flealess for 2 years. Two months ago it all came crashing down with our 3 dogs and two cats becoming quite infested. I'm like your dog. I just can't have fleas around. I would move out a live in a motel if I could not get rid of them. So, we bit the bullet and treated them all with advantage. One week, end of fleas. I don't like subjecting my animals to those toxic solutions but I'm compelled to if they get fleas.

[brokencrayola]

Bathe the dog with a good flea shampoo and then add the Advantage on the nape of its neck afterwards. Get the dog out of the house and bomb it with a good flea bomb. Make sure you read the directions and know if you can get away with just using one or need more. Keep up with the Advantage.

[Orion2]

I just won this battle, it took me about 3 months I think. I 'double' bombed the apartment, which is ugly and vacuumed it very, very well. I didn't use any topical remedies becuase one of the cats, we have 3 and 2 dogs, gets horrible blisters from all the topical medications. I used Capstar when I bombed the apartment and washed everything in sight. I also put the mattresses and box springs up on their sides and turned the furniture over so that as little of it was on the floor as possible. I wanted as much floor space and material as possible exposed.

I didn't want to bathe the dogs again, they both hate it and needless to say the cats weren't going to be happy. Our GSD mix reacts to flea bites so she was going crazy from it.

I had tried other methods. Borax and other non-chemical approaches. I even had bombed the apartment twice but failed. I tried flea powder, flea collars and flea baths for the dogs, all in combination with vacuuming and following directions to the letter.

I've read that doubling up on the bombs can be dangerous so I was exceedingly careful. I shut the breakers, and of course took everyone out and didn't allow them back in until long after the rooms were cleared and I cleaned up. There's a residue on surfaces that needs to be cleaned off. It was a tremendous amout of work but not overly expensive, the Capstar was a little over $100 I think for the 5 of them and the bombs were less than $50 for our 2 bed/bath apartment. If you choose to use bombs however you MUST get them with growth inhibitor - sorry about my spelling I'm tired - or it's useless.

Otherwise you're going to have to be extremely diligent about vacuuming and using borax or another type of crystal that will kill them. Also, you might be fighting something that your dog is continually exposed to or worse, that you bring home. That happened to me once, I gave my cat fleas! We had an epidemic and although the cat never went out he got fleas. We brought them home on our shoes, socks and pants.

[Katie1]

Baking Soda on the dog & ALL over the house after a few hr vacume Repeat every 2 week for at least 3 times To relieve dogs iching try Oatmeal shampoo Since the vets no help try this cheep old fashion remidy good luck

[runswithscissors]

Sorry but all these home treatments like bombing yourself are not working. Have your house PROFESSIONALLY treated not DIY. Also follow the post about vacuuming etc. UNDER mattresses and EVERYWHERE. There's a cycle you have to follow. It's a marathon.

Make sure you're having your yard PROFESSIONALLY treated monthly, too.

Don't go IN THE YARD or on grass.

I don't think the vet is "out of ideas" but maybe can't see your house and actions. Or it's not in your price range.

UC Davis School of Vet Med:

When you say "every med available" is that OTC or from the vet? It doesn't do any good to treat the animal if the house/yard is still infected.

You can use a regular shampoo for a short term killing of them, wash once then rinse then reapply and leave it on for 20 minutes. An old groomer trick is to use Palmolive. But of course bathing your dog excessively isn't good either. Get a medicated mild one. It is NOT possible to "pick fleas off her" and be effective. They lay eggs. They are microscopic. If they are on her or you they are laying eggs and there are fleas on your bedding, couch, etc. So you can be sure she's NOT going to get better if you can see them on her.

ALSO if you are bathing in conjunction with some products you're killing the effectiveness of the product.

There are lots of other threads here too with more things but it takes diligence.

If you MUST, keep her in a sterile environment like a SPOTLESS kitchen. Obviously do NOT reuse bedding that she laid on before. And make sure you use the antibiotics for the ENTIRE prescribed time, not stopping short. But even THAT can be "too much" so don't bombard her with medications or you're lowering her immune system.

Originally Posted by brokencrayola

Bathe the dog with a good flea shampoo and then add the Advantage on the nape of its neck afterwards. Get the dog out of the house and bomb it with a good flea bomb. Make sure you read the directions and know if you can get away with just using one or need more. Keep up with the Advantage.

Sorry but NO. Never mix flea products. They are toxic. I had a client who did that and her Pom had irreversible neurological problems and it was super sad. The dog was in a daze, incontinent, shaking uncontrollably and several other problems 24 hours a day for months. (she may have also used a flea dip, along with the flea preventative, I forget)

Over a few months he got just a tiny bit better but not really. She ended up euthanize him saying "He just wasn't the same dog".

[Orion2]

Good idea, no not mix flea products. Also DO NOT stay in the house/apartment after you use them. We had a patient who did that and good grief the patient was completely, and I mean COMPLETELY psychotic for WEEKS. We weren't sure the patient would ever be ok again. These chemicals KILL things so are toxic, just as the powders and other things we sprinkle around are because they are powders, if you or your pet breathe them in you and they cand develop lung issues.

I really think turning the mattresses and box springs up and the furniture over was what did the trick. I hadn't done that in the past, it was the ONE thing I changed and we finally got rid of the fleas. It took me almost a year. I kept combing the dogs and cats as a 'test' and kept finding fleas and flea dirt. I was SO frustrated. I couldn't afford the new vet prescribed meds, with 5 pets it was out of my price range so I decided to try Capstar before I took out a loan and got something from the vet and called a professional - I'm not joking. And finally it worked, it was a carpet cleaning company tech that suggested it of all people - and he was right, it worked. He also cautioned me to be very, very careful, which of course I was, especially since I have cats and they lick their paws.

We have only had 2 fleas after vet visits and I gave them the remaining Capstar and no fleas since. We had no ill effects as I followed the airing out instructions and gave it extra time.