[bordercollie]

My dog is my best friend. Today is his second birthday!
Anyway, the trouble all started with my cat. She loves sleeping outside. My dog of 10 years passed away and we missed hearing the clicking of doggy feet on the floors so we got a new puppy. He started scratchings within days of getting him.
theyre on and off, we went ~8 months from fall of 2009 until maybe mid june of this year, 2010, and then they came back and they came back full throttle, to say the least.

Theres no life cycle with this batch of fleas. There used to be a point where the adults would lay eggs, then die, and then before they hatched we would bathe the cat with an effective flea medication and then thats how we went almost a year flea free. But now there are adults and babies on my dog. He scratches himself, bites constantly, and if he is left home alone and bites he will rip the hair out of his paws. I feel terrible for him and it breaks my heart and i feel like the worst pet owner ever. I want to get rid of them immediately so he can live freely and happily and be the healthiest he can be. Minus the fleas he's a very carefree dog.

The problem i'm having is finding something safe for us to use on him. I used the hartz flea collars but they had a really bad effect on my old dog, their products gave him seizures and i never even clued in until he passed away how sick they made him.

With my current dog, i tried using the small spot applicator bottles from pet stores, and i did not like the side effects in any way. He was not himself; he would whine, yelp, try to hide, curl up under the table, and it was like he was being burned. He also had really watery discolored poop for a day after. I don't want to give my dog a product like this.
I looked into both frontline and k9 advantix and was not surprised to see it had very negative results on some dogs. It may have had positive results but i cant look past the deaths and illnesses and harm, so im not buying them

i guess what im asking for might be a miracle..im at my wits end. What can i give him that wont harm him, or my family members? I need these fleas gone, theyre emotionally draining me, im embarrassed to have people over in my house, for fear they see the fleas or bring them home to their own pets.

please help! anyone who has had them knows how hard fleas are to deal with.

[Marc]

I've read that tea is a good natural flea killer. You have to brew it, then soak him in it.

I've also heard that some herbal human shampoos work well too, but some natural remedies are can be very dangerous, such as diatomacious earth.

I do know that there are various yard sprays and house sprays available. Perhaps a good way to approach this is to treat your dog as sparingly as possible, but go ahead and go nuts on your carpets and lawn.

[hannin]

Did you know that a flea could jump 100 times its own height? Did you also know that just one female flea will produce 20,000 eggs in a period of only three months?' Lastly, did you know that it can take anywhere from three to six weeks for flea eggs to hatch? Now that's definitely some eye opening, yet frightening flea trivia!

The pests in question are tiny, brown, wingless insects that survive on the blood of your pet. Unfortunately once they have found that food source they are very difficult to get rid of. Any of you who have been faced with the regrettable task of dealing with fleas truly know how trying it can be, and how incredibly quickly the problem can spread to other pets and to your home.

[CorkyMax]

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