Fleas

By Dr. Kirsten Ura-Barton

For information on how to battle fleas, please click here.

This is general info here and hope it will help folks out with their flea problems if they have one or end with one. Will try to keep it simple with a number of key points:

1. Fleas have a life cycle similar to a butterfly. The adult fleas will live in the environment but will hop onto the pet to feed, but the adults only comprise about 5% of the total population in the environment. Adult fleas breed, then 1 female flea can lay up to 50 eggs per day under ideal conditions. Larvae eventually hatch out, then pupate, then emerge as adult fleas themselves, and the cycle continues.

2. Most flea control products target the adult fleas. The best and most effective products out there currently are prescription products you can get from your vet. I am in the US so I am only familiar with US products, other countries may have the same or similar. I recommend either Nexgard, Bravecto, or Simparica for dogs, and Bravecto or Revolution Plus for cats. For dogs both Nexgard and Simparica are given monthly (every 30 days) and Simparica Trio contains both flea/tick prevention as well as heartworm prevention. Bravecto lasts 12 weeks, and is available as an oral medication for dogs and a topical medication for cats. Revolution Plus is a monthly topical spot-on for cats.

3. You can try using over-the-counter products but I have not found them to be as effective as what I listed above. Some of this may be due to resistance developing to the ingredients in products such as Frontline Plus and similar generics. But if you have to use something OTC, I would recommend either Frontline Plus or K9 Advantix for dogs, and Frontline Plus or Advantage for cats. Other OTC options include Capstar, a tablet given by mouth that will kill fleas, but only for 24 hours or so – enough to start getting a handle on things if you need to wait to treat with other products – and Seresto collars for both dogs and cats. Most flea collars, like Hartz and Sargent, are pretty useless, but the Seresto collars provide flea and tick prevention for up to 8 months for most pets and tend to be the most cost effective. However, if you try to cheap out by getting the dirt cheap flea treatments sold at Walmart or your local farm-and-garden store, you very likely may end up paying more in the long run when they end up not helping well enough. It is also not uncommon for counterfeit products to be sold on sites like Amazon so buyer beware!

4. Forget the shampoos, dips, sprays and crappy flea collars mentioned above. You can do a quick bath with flea and tick shampoo to again help get a handle on things but it won’t provide continuous treatment against the hoards of fleas in your home. And some of these products can be toxic, especially to cats. Dawn dish soap is often recommended because it’s gentle and can be used on small kittens and puppies, but will not get rid of fleas completely.

5. Also forget all the coconut oil, the apple cider vinegar, the all-natural essential oils, garlic, and other “holistic” treatments you may have heard of or have been recommended by others. They won’t do jack squat. A lot of the pets I see covered in fleas are there because the owners have already tried all that stuff and it’s obviously not working, or they wouldn’t be in to see me (plus garlic is toxic).

6. ALL PETS IN THE HOME NEED TO BE TREATED. Not just the ones you “think” have fleas, or the ones that spend time outside, or whatever, because the fleas end up everywhere on everybody. Talk to your vet or check out our Exotics page for help treating for fleas on other species besides dogs and cats (rabbits, ferrets, etc.) if you have them.

7. ALL PETS NEED TO BE TREATED FOR AT LEAST 3 TO 4 MONTHS AT A MINIMUM. This is because, again, most products target adult fleas and most are given or applied monthly. Once it wears off after a month, it needs to be re-dosed or re-applied in order to get the new adult fleas that have just hatched out from eggs already laid.

8. DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT USE DOG PRODUCTS ON CATS! This is because many topical spot-ons for dogs contain chemicals that dogs may tolerate but are highly toxic to cats. Same goes for other species – check with your vet first before using a dog or cat product on another animal such as a rabbit, ferret, or guinea pig. If you accidentally apply a dog product to your cat, immediately wash the cat with a dish soap like Dawn that is designed to strip oils off the skin in order to help remove the product, then call your vet.

9. To help reduce the numbers of eggs and larvae, you will need to treat the environment inside your home and you may want to treat the yard as well. I like area sprays such as Knock-Out for carpeting and under furniture, plus a lot of vacuuming and washing of pet bedding and blankets. For super bad infestations, it may be worthwhile calling an exterminator. Also, the heartworm preventatives, Sentinel and Sentinel Spectrum, contains medication that can help prevent fleas by acting as “birth control” for fleas, by interfering with eggs being able to develop and hatch out – but it does not kill adult fleas and does not do anything for ticks.

10. Above all, if you are still having problems, or your pets are still super itchy, PLEASE SEE YOUR VET. Your flea treatments may not be adequate, or they have other reasons why they are itchy, such as allergies.

For more info on flea control for dogs and cats, as well as another link that discusses available flea-and-tick products, please visit:

Veterinary Partner – Flea Control for Dogs and Cats

**The Vet Corner groups encourage members to establish a relationship with their local veterinarian, don’t wait until an emergency.**