Dealing With Fleas

CLEAR Mobile Dog Grooming Brisbane – Guide to removing fleas in your home and from your pet.

You will probably first notice the effects of fleas when your dog repeatedly scratches and chews. You may actually see small fleas moving quickly through your dog’s coat, on their neck and belly. Your dog’s constant scratching may lead to:

  • Visible patches of hair loss and reddened, irritated skin.
  • Ulcers
  • Skin allergies
  • Transmission of parasites such as tapeworm to your dog.
  • Transmission of all sorts of diseases
  • Death from Anaemia
  • Extreme discomfort to your pet

Fleas can be a real problem once they have infested themselves in to your home. Unfortunately, in order to eradicate them, some persistence and dedication is required. It’s also important to remember that you are not alone; most people have had to deal with fleas on occasion. Cats roam and can bring them to the home and they can be passed between dogs and of course even humans.

Step 1: Clean everything….Vacuum, Vacuum, Vacuum!

This is the step that requires persistence and dedication. It’s important to remember the end goal: a flea free home and happy and content pets. It’s also important to remember that relaxing on this step in any way gives the fleas a chance to reinfest your house and you are back to square one!

  • Place your pets outside or a room easy to clean such as a bathroom.
  • Start identifying the main areas where you pets regularly sleep or lie on. Bedding, couches, rugs etc. These are going to be the areas of worst infestation.
  • Remove all your pet’s toys, bedding, throws, towels, clothing etc and wash them in your washing machine and wash on a very hot cycle. Those that can’t be washed should be placed in a quarantined area which you should treat with a flea spray or discard.
  • Vacuum everywhere and everything. It’s not the fleas you a vacuuming, it’s their eggs. This step is hard work but also the most important. Pay special attention to areas your pets spend time, rugs, corners, dark cool areas, sofa’s (pull off the cushions and clean them and under them) under sofa’s and furniture, under beds. The whole house needs to be thoroughly vacuumed with no spots missed. Remove the vacuum bag, seal it, and dispose of it so the fleas don’t escape back into your home.
  • The better you do with the previous step, the more likely you will permanently solve the problem. So keep with it, be persistent.
  • Repeat vacuuming daily until the problem has gone. Check your progress by making a flea trap: put a tea light in a small bowl of water with a few drops of washing liquid stirred in. Place in the centre of the room and make the room as dark and quiet as possible until candle has ended. This is best done overnight but be careful leaving a naked flame unattended! Fleas will gravitate to the light and get stuck in the water. Repeat in infested rooms.
  • Remember your outside area can harbour fleas as well. Clean places your dog spends time, try to keep them away from this area. Clean them as best you can and consider an outdoor flea treatment.
  • These measures usually solve flea infestations, however if you still have problems there are professional companies who can come to your home. We also recommend researching the internet for many different ideas and suggestions. We recommend you talk with your VET.

Step 2: treat your pets with a flea treatment and an ongoing prevention plan

This ensures that fleas on your pets die and are also repelled while you eradicate them from your home. You must continue the treatment monthly as a proactive ongoing flea prevention plan. Do this for all pets in your home. Treatments may differ, and care needs to be taken if you have a cat in the home as some flea treatments for dogs can be toxic to cats.

Step:3 Bath your pets

Though step 2 should deal with fleas on your pets, a flea shampoo can also be useful to further eradicate fleas and remove dead fleas/larvae from your dogs coat. Do this weekly while you have a flea problem and if possible wash your dog in a place where you can easily remove the fleas and find those that might jump off. Be thorough and start from the neck down. Use CLEAR Mobile Dog Grooming hydrobath services as a fail safe way to wash your dog while ensuring you remove fleas.

Step 4: proactive Flea and pest prevention plan

You may want to consider using a flea control treatment, CLEAR Mobile Dog Grooming can provide you with, and if you wish, administer treatments for your dog. We recommend proactive management of fleas, ticks, heartworm and intestinal worms. These are administered monthly and can be done by us as part of a monthly grooming service (clipping or/and hydro bathing) or we can source the treatments for you at a very competitive rate and even call or email you to remind you when it’s due.