Hi, my name is Andi and i have a 5 year old cocker spaniel called Harvey. I also have 3 cats, a budgie, 4 guinea pigs, 3 chickens, fish and a hamster!! Harvey has a problem with Fleas and they are driving him and me mad...i use frontline on him regularly but its got to the stage where it only works for 2 weeks then the fleas reappear!! i cant de-flea him every 2 weeks as i cant afford it for one thing and it cant be good for him for another. I de-flea the cats also. I have tried using some tea tree oil mixed with water and spray him with that once a week but that doesnt seem to do anything so i was wondering if anyone had any advice for me..please...before i take him to the vets and see what they suggest!
Thanks in advance
Andi :???:

[wishbone]

The environment might have the fleas that jump over him after you treated him.

Fleas are pretty hard to get rid of, especially once they get in the house. We did have a bad year with fleas and ticks not too long ago. We treated the yard with Seven dust which took care of the fleas coming in from the outdoors. It would be difficult with all of your other small animals to do an inside chemical treatment. You don't want to harm them in the process, so to begin with, I would make sure to get rid of all the cloth surfaces fleas could potentially be hiding in. Those things in combination with a good flea dip could possibly help. It's difficult. Good luck!

[lil mutt]

check the link below. It gives idea on how to chose the best flea treatment for your pets. Aside from that... fleas and ticks can be found anywhere, so make sure that you also clean your house so that no fleas or ticks will be left to breed in your home.


bowow review: Choosing the best flea treatment

And after all else fails, I have one more last resort for you. It is a last resort, because it is very labor intensive, and potentially expensive, and would require some vacation time:

Get packed for a trip, and load up the car (have a destination and intinerary planned out). Bathe the dog, with flea shampoo. Take the clean/de-fleaed dog directly out to the car. Do not allow him to go out in the yard, or roll on the carpet. Take him directly to the car. Get everyone else in the car. Set flea bombs off in the house, and make a hasty retreat. Leave town, preferably the state (California, for example, is infested with sand fleas-- you can run, but they will still be there when you get back). Hire a service to clean up the house while you are gone, so you will have the best chance at being flea-free when you get home.

If you take your dog out to the beach, or any other recreation area that is prone to pick up fleas, bathe him before you take him into the house. Do not allow the fleas entry in the house.

Personal experience: When we lived in California several years ago, our poor cat (we didn't have a dog yet) was so infested with fleas, he was anemic-- inspite of our best efforts to keep the fleas down. Right before we moved/left the state, we bathed the cat and loaded him directly onto the truck. It was one of the last things we did before we made our final exit. And our cat remained flea-free from that moment, until the day he died. We never found another flea on him again. But moving isn't always practical for everyone...

welcome to join here.nice to meet u.

Oh so hard. I have fought many wars with fleas.lol. as for medicine I did a comparison and for me advantix came out on top. There are also shampoos. the best shampoo I found is one that keeps working for 30 days.

Originally Posted by Andi 03

Hi, my name is Andi and i have a 5 year old cocker spaniel called Harvey. I also have 3 cats, a budgie, 4 guinea pigs, 3 chickens, fish and a hamster!! Harvey has a problem with Fleas and they are driving him and me mad...i use frontline on him regularly but its got to the stage where it only works for 2 weeks then the fleas reappear!! i cant de-flea him every 2 weeks as i cant afford it for one thing and it cant be good for him for another. I de-flea the cats also. I have tried using some tea tree oil mixed with water and spray him with that once a week but that doesnt seem to do anything so i was wondering if anyone had any advice for me..please...before i take him to the vets and see what they suggest!
Thanks in advance
Andi :???:

You should look at external causes as the fleas maybe a cause of something outside, especially if the fleas keep on returning.

have you treated the house, carpets dogs and cats beds as well as the animals.
you need to do this because this is were the fleas live they only go on the dog to feed. and their lavae is in the carpets etc.

It's useless if you just treat/de-flea the dog. You have to check also the environment, as you have other pet such cats, check if they also have flea.