We have a new 11 week old puppy (a poo-chi) he has fleas and we’ve given him 2 baths already in less than a week and have put the flea collar on him but he still has fleas. I’m really worried the fleas will get on my 10 month old baby and because she crawls around on the carpet…What’s the easiest quickest and best way to get rid of the fleas without harming the puppy but ensuring that the baby is safe on the carpet?
Dont use pesticides around the baby, good gawd people, what are you thinking??? Frontline and the likes are neurotoxins….the dog is on the floor, the baby is on the floor, babys put EVERYTHING in their mouths..why not just pour Frontline down the babys throat? thats effectively what you are asking this mom to do!
First off, you can bathe your dog in lemon dawn, it will kill the fleas on the dog.
Then use foodgrade DE, its is just fossilized algae, it works on a flea like broken glass might work on us. It cuts the fleas and kills them by dehydration, but is completely harmless to our pets and to us, most importantly to the baby. You can sprinkle it around the carpet and leave it, make sure it is under the furniture and along the baseboards. It makes it completely impossible for fleas to be able to live in your carpet. You can put it on furniture as well, under couch cushions and such so they arent living in your furniture. You can put it on the pet (once pet is totally and completely dry)and keep fleas off the dog. You can then sprinkle it in the dogs food, for 30 days and you have safely and effectively de-wormed your dog. To kill the fleas, will take a while, since it kills them by dehydration…..its not like BAM, they are all dead. I just dont want you to get it and use it and think its not working becuz its not an immediate thing you can watch happen in 10 seconds or less….
The immediate gratification that comes with frontline and other harmful neurotoxins also come with a price, you, your pet and your baby should be unwilling to pay.
Becuz DE is dusty, I would treat the room with any fans off and with the baby out of the room. You just cant be too careful with precious little ones. Dust can be irritating and you dont want to irriate the babys lungs. Once you get it on the carpet, if you can work it into the carpet, or just keep the baby up off the floor for a few days to let it get worked in, thats what I would do. BUT even any danger of dusty lung irritant from DE is much safer than the neurotoxic poisons youd be facing with frontline.
Heres a link to the DEhttp://www.dirtworks.net/Diatomaceous-Ea…
Here is a link to info on the dangers flea products can pose to you and your family.http://www.nrdc.org/health/effects/pets/…
Feel free to email me if you have questions, hope this helps,
EDIT: good call on the garlic gatergurl, I feed garlic to my kids too about once a week. I forgot to mention that for the fleas.
Flea collars and flea shampoos do NOT work.
Get your pup some proper flea treatment from a vets, i.e. Frontline, Advantage, Revolution or Advocate. At 11 weeks old he’s old enough for any of these so long as he weighs over 4 lbs – and if he doesn’t, you can use Frontline spray, which is safe for pups from 2 days of age.
Do not use pet store flea products because they do not work; stores aren’t licensed to sell the drugs that are both safe and effective as flea control. I meet people all the time whose animals have both fleas and flea collars on them, sadly.
Get a housespray from the vets. Common sense will tell you not to roll the baby around in a treated room until it’s dry and aired.
Chalice
EDIT: Anora; fipronil is neurotoxic to BUGS, not humans and other mammals. As for garlic killing fleas; one of the biggest myths out there. And garlic shouldn’t be fed to dogs and cats.
There are a variety of products that cater to flea and tick removal in puppies, and should be available at your local Petsmart or Target. One products I have had success with is a gel capsule that you run from the base of the neck to the base of the tail. The gel spreads throughout the dog’s coat over the next couple days, and soon the fleas are gone. As for the carpet, I would recommend using a flea/tick spray and vaccumming right after.
Not sure about safety with the baby and carpet, but to get rid of fleas on the dog, wash it with Dawn dishwashing liquid. Soap the dog up and put it somewhere for 10 minutes, leaving the soap on there, then rinse. Then put on a good flea collar. That’s the best killer for fleas. You’ll have to treat your house at the same time though, because once you put him back on the carpet, he’ll pick up more. I treated my carpets with a fogger, but I didn’t have little kids. We left and didn’t have to worry about a child on the floor.
my dad has sand fleas where he lives in the country. He washes his dog with dawn dish detergent, then sprays ski so soft (avon) on her it keeps the fleas away. Also when you feed your puppy mix alittle garlic powder and a dash of brewers yeast in the wet dog food, mix well with alittle dry dog food. The garlic and yeast keeps fleas and pests off your dog. As for your furniture I always use alittle flea spray in my carpet cleaner with just alittle water and clean carpet with it. You can also spray furniture and when dried put furniture covering on it. Make sure you take cushions off and spray under and behind them also. and spary entire carpeting and I have a mop that I use just for the bare floors with alittle flea shapmoo in it to kill any fleas on the bare floor. After all this deep cleaning make sure you spray your yard too. I let my dog outside and when she comes in I put her immediately in tub bathe her with flea shampoo and dry her really good then spray her with skin so soft..
Borax soap works for getting rid of fleas in the carpet. I lived with my cousin once (4 years ago). Her dog had fleas. It was so bad that you could walk in the house and see them cover your legs. Since they were getting on me and my cat, I had to get rid of them. I put Borax and salt on the carpet and left it there for a week or so before I vacuumed it up. It got rid of the fleas, plus, it was cheaper than calling a professional in to do it.
I use Frontline on my dog and cat now. We don’t have any problems with fleas.
I use Frontline, you can either gets drops or a spray, i prefer the spray. use this on the pup then you need to treat all soft furnishings with a spray to kill remaining fleas that may be on the carpet, sofas……
Purchase a dose of Frontline Plus (it typically costs $15-18 a month for that size puppy) Apply the Frontline every 30 days during the summer months. This is going to be a bad summer for fleas and ticks so start the prevention ASAP. Remove the flea collar! Flea collars can be toxic to little puppies and even at that, they only keep fleas of the neck and head of a dog!!
For the carpet…..check and Lowes or your local vet for a product to get rid of fleas if they are on your carpet. Most likely if you get them off your puppy they won’t be in your house!
Along with the Frontline purchase a Capstar (about $5) to get rid of the fleas on your pup quickly.
Capstar kills all fleas on a dog in 30 minutes BUT DOES NOT prevent fleas from getting back on the dog.
So purchase Capstar and Frontline for the first dose, then next month Frontline should be able to work without the Capstar!
Don’t use any kind of soap not intended for use on animals (i.e. Dawn) this is very harsh on their skin and will not get rid of the fleas!
Be careful with the Brewers yeast my dog got a yeast infection from it and he has lost weight and lot of his fur. The dawn will NOT hurt your puppy and it DOES kill the fleas. The fleas are so bad this year I have to use it on my indoor puppy almost every day because she gets the fleas from the big dogs and she is just fine. A vet told us to use this because you are NOT supposed to use any chemicals on a puppy under 3 months of age. The Borax works great on carpets, I have used it for years.