Is there anything to get rid of fleas?

Yes! Fleas are a difficult year-round problem in Texas, but modern flea control products make it much easier to keep them under control. Because fleas spend only 5% of their time on the dog or cat, three areas need to be included in a flea control program:

· the yard

· the house

· the pets

All three MUST be treated repeatedly, at the same time, to get rid of a flea problem.

For the yard, we recommend any good commercial lawn treatment available at the home improvement warehouse stores, or use a pest control firm. Keep bushes and trees pruned back, as flea larvae can't survive in sunlight. The yard should be treated every 2-6 weeks, following label directions, until the flea problem is eradicated.

The best treatment for your house is fogging. Fogging requires you and your pets to be out of the house for a short period of time. For convenience and safety, you can bring your pets to Windmill Animal Hospital for a de-flea treatment, and to day board while the house and yard are off limits. A good use of flea collars is to cut them up and put them in the vacuum cleaner bag-- the vibrations from the vacuum cleaner cause fleas to hatch out of their cocoons in your carpeting; they are then easily vacuumed up, along with flea eggs and larvae, and killed.

The noxious pesticide flea collars, shampoos and dips we USED to use are no longer needed for effective flea control on our pets. Not only are these pesticide-based treatments toxic and unpleasant, but many are largely ineffectual due to fleas getting resistant to many chemicals. Most over-the-counter flea products are DANGEROUS and not safe for use in cats. These products are controlled "poisons," and cause far too many adverse reactions and needless deaths in our pets.

Fortunately, we now have very safe and effective flea control products. To de-flea your pet, we would first give it a Capstar tablet by mouth, which will safely kill all the fleas on it in 30 minutes, and keep killing fleas for 24 hours. Next, we would bathe your pet, to remove the flea dirt, any flea eggs, and help soothe the pet's skin in case of flea bite dermatitis or flea allergy dermatitis. Next, once the pet is thoroughly dry, we apply Frontline Topspot to the skin over the pet's shoulder blades. Frontline provides very effective flea control for at least one month per application. We dispense Frontline packaged in 6-month supplies for dog and cat flea control. Incidentally, Frontline is by far the safest and most effective product available for control of ticks on dogs.