My Fleas Have Dog

Posted on Nov 11 in Small Dog Care, Small Dog Groomingby Jeff K.Print

“My dog?” she asked with no small measure of indignation. “Fleas?” she said, a half-octave higher. I nodded. “My dog doesn’t have fleas! My dog CAN’T have fleas.

If her dog did not have fleas, then sure as I am standing here, fleas had her dog. “He NEVER goes outside,” she said. “He can’t have fleas.” All I could think was, if the dog NEVER goes outside, where does the dog go? On the sofa?

What if fleas have your dog? First, don’t take it personally. Fleas were around long before Bayer and Novartis came up with high-tech treatments. Fleas are programmed by nature to survive and reproduce. While the song goes “It only takes a minute dear, to fall in love,” fleas need far less than a minute of exposure to your dog to fall in love. Even a quick walk outside is long enough for fleas to make your dog their gravy train.

Fleas do not target dogs specifically. Adult fleas look for any suitable host by sensing heat, vibration and carbon dioxide. They tend to gravitate to furry life forms, such as my hairy legs, because there they find warm, moist shelter to feed and reproduce. Most likely, a flea or two or twenty on your dog is not a sign of lousy housekeeping. It only means that your dog happened through an outdoor area that supports fleas: moist, sandy soils; damp, cracked pavement; or, planet Earth. Even if your name happens to be “Mr. Clean” and you enjoy dressing in all white, you cannot hold back this force of nature by waving a broom at it. It gets worse.

A single female flea can lay 30 to 50 eggs per day. Left unchecked on your dog, this equates to up to 1000 eggs in one flea’s lifetime. Not all of the eggs may stay attached to your dog. Some may fall off into your carpet and then, look out. The best housekeeper in the world will not able to hold that kind of invasion in check without resorting to chemical warfare.

In general, if your dog is on one of the popular flea prevention medications, chances are fleas will not be a problem. However, there are situations in which your dog may attract and harbor fleas, even if he/she is on flea prevention. For example, if you bathe your dog shortly after applying a topical medication, you may dilute or eliminate the effectiveness of that medication. Your dog’s medication has specific guidelines on when it is safe to wash your dog after treatment.

Some medications are faster acting than others. Some have a shorter period of effectiveness than others. In any case, even if your dog is in on a good flea prevention medication, That medication is not a force field against fleas. “Shields up, Scotty!” Fleas must actually ingest the medication through a blood meal on your dog in order to be wiped out. Between the initial flea invasion and that first free lunch on your dog, fleas are free to roam on and off your dog’s body. It is the “off your dog’s body” part that really hurts. Fleas can jump into your carpet and hold on tenaciously to the carpet’s fibers. They can jump into any grit or gritty soil in your yard, or in cracks in your concrete basement floor or foundation, your driveway and your patio. They can even jump on to you if you are hairy. (That last one comes from personal experience.)

What to do then? Your groomer, meaning us–Kelsey’s Dog House–can wipe out fleas on your dog; and the fleas do not need to eat the soap to die. We use a safe flea shampoo that is organic and non-toxic except to fleas. The shampoo kills fleas in all stages of their reproductive cycle. We will wash away all remains of the fleas, including flea dirt. Your dog comes back to you clean, fresh and ready for follow-up flea prevention.

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