We might have a little problem on our hands.
This little cutie went to the beach on Saturday and while he absolutely loved it and it knocked him out for the rest of the day and we were even able to let him run off his leash....
we think he may have fleas now.
After the beach we noticed he was a little red down-under near his man parts. I honestly thought he had a bad case of chaffing: it was red, there were little specks of black (which I thought were sand), he was running in salt water for hours... it seemed logical to me. The next day it was significantly less red so I thought it was confirmed.
Then he started itching, a lot. Yes, I know dogs itch but it seemed like significantly more than usual. And all over his legs and belly. He would itch with his foot and go crazy with his little front teeth. His skin was getting red and I kept noticing the little black specks. This is when I knew it was something different.
So thanks to Google, I learned that the little black specks are called Flea Dirt and are basically excrement from the fleas. They say you can scratch some of them off onto white paper and add water to them and they'll turn redish brown because they're actually bits of blood. However, Ollie was not in the mood to have me scratching around near his junk to get some of them off so I can't be certain about that. I made an appointment at the vet and were going in a few hours.
I'm not thinking that getting rid of the fleas on him is going to be very difficult. There are flea shampoos, collars, medicines, etc etc. The thing that I'm really worried about is our apartment. Because cleaning the pup is only half the battle and it wont do any good to wash him if there's more fleas in our apartment.
So I spent the morning doing laundry on his bed cover, the towels he sleeps with, the pillows on the couches, and the blankets on the couches. I then deep vacuumed our whole apartment; every spot on the floors, moved all the furniture to get under & behind them all, used the vacuum adapter to get on and in all the cushions. I plan on repeating this process on Thursday morning and again this weekend. The trusty internet said that the first step to getting them gone is to vacuum. Then to use some type of insecticide.
I'm hoping that we caught the problem early enough that infestation shouldn't be a huge issue for us and we wont have to result to fogging our apartment or anything too crazy. I haven't actually seen any live fleas and J and I don't have any signs of bites. I know it'll all be fine in the end but believe me, this is not how I planned on spending my Tuesday.
Have any of you ever dealt with dogs and fleas?
What did you do/do you have any tips?
UGH! No fun!
ReplyDeleteYour poor little pooch! I hope you get rid of them all! I am NO help at all..!
Hoping it all goes away quickly!
In January, I was convinced Buddy had fleas because he was itching some and I googled it and was certain it was fleas. So, after I had an intense panic attack, I tore apart our apartment, called the vet and got Buddy in for a deep treatment flea bath, and got the exterminator out to bomb the apartment (I also might have chased Buddy around with the vacuum cleaner trying to vacuum his fleas off). It turned out he didn't have fleas, and the vet and the exterminator thought I was insane and paranoid. But I promise I saw the little black stuff too!!
ReplyDeleteThe moral of my story? Take him to the vet first to check it out.
My dogs have not ever had fleas, but the best thing is to get Frontline or a preventative, especially if you do have fleas, because there could be eggs in your carpet and furniture that a vacuum won't get. (I used to be a vet tech)
ReplyDeleteBut like Nikki said, it could be seasonal allergies or a almost anything else. Good luck either way!
Ughhh, I hope our puppy never has fleas! She used to scratch all the time and bite at her feet, but we figured out it was allergies. Hopefully it's something easy to fix like that for you too!
ReplyDelete