Thanks for writing! Sounds like quite a problem you’ve got. I am blessed with 2 cats who naturally tend not to get many fleas. My dog, on the other hand, gets them as bad as any other dog I suppose. For me, I can use that frontline/topspot between the shoulders drop stuff with pretty good success. If I treat just the dog, the cats and the house benefit from it.

The one thing I’ve noticed is that sometimes it works on the first try (it takes a couple of days) but sometimes if the fleas are really bad, I have to treat him again a week or 2 later. I wouldn’t do that every month, but it might be worth it to try it once to see if it gets the situation under control. I have never found anything to work as well as the frontline/top spot.

A few things to keep in mind:
- I’ve found that the outdoors/neighbors are as much of a factor as anything else. If you’ve got neighbors with lots of flea-infested animals, your problem will be worse. Not sure what the solution is in that case, but it’s handy to be aware of.
- Don’t give your dog a bath within a few days before or after treating him with the flea medication. It requires the oil to spread around and won’t work if the dog has recently been bathed.
- Since fleas tend to diminish during winter, try clearing up the problem (in the house and on the animals) when nature is on your side. Treat for 2 months in a row to make sure you’ve killed off fleas during the whole life cycle. Maybe if you can nip it in the bud during winter, it will be easier to deal with it next spring and summer.
- My animals fleas diminish when they eat healthy food. I feed them the top quality brands of non-factory farmed food. You probably do too. If you can afford it, I would try some of that raw pet food. I haven’t tried it but I’ve heard amazing things. And I know that when I eat all raw myself, the mosquitoes leave me alone even when those around me are getting eaten alive. You could at least try mixing some in with his regular food.

I hope something in here is helpful!

Love the ideas found here…I’m looking for a flea solution! We get them every year! (Three dogs, three cats…it’s bound to happen.) One of our dogs is allergic to fleas, so even one bit and she begins to lose hair. Poor thing…she looks like she’s going through chemo right now! We’ve done all of the awful caustic, poisonous stuff…unfortunately, it isn’t working. We’ve “bombed” the house, dipped the animals, put the stuff between their shoulder blades…it works for a few days but that’s it. Poor Roxie is going to end up completely bald if we don’t find a solution! Any ideas?

I have partially solved this problem by putting some small flat rocks in the water so that he can only push the bowl so far – the rocks act as a buffer. They need to be wide enough that they keep the bowls from touching and flat enough that the water still covers them.

Cheers!