Aaaaaarrrrrggghhhhh!!!

So, Miles has fleas.

We have given him multiple flea baths and washed all his bedding. Somehow, in that thick pomeranian coat of his, some fleas keep surviving the baths. Anyone have any suggestions for eliminating ALL the fleas on a double-coated breed? My roomies and I have discussed shaving Miles, but he has one of those insulating coats, and we don't want it to grow back funny. I mean, if we MUST shave it to get all the fleas, we will. The roommate that owns Miles is going to buy some Advantix when she gets her next paycheck.

Suggestions to help a poor itchy dog until then?

Capstar would kill all of the fleas on him, we used that and a topical the first time we had a flea outbreak here. I believe it works within 30 minutes or so if giving it to them.

I'd Capstar, then treat with something long lasting as well as treating the environment

Capstar + advantix.

Tip: the only difference between the Advantix packages for dogs 1-10 pounds and 11-20 pounds is the quantity of medication in the little bottles.... The 11-20 lb bottle has twice as much medication as the 1-10 pound bottle. So what I do for Luna is I buy the larger box - which is only like $5 more - and only use half at a time.

Also when the flea outbreaks are really bad, I'll reapply it every two weeks. The instructions say you can apply it every 7 days (but I just can't stomach putting that much pesticides on my dog), but 14 days seems to do the trick around here.

I agree with k9advantix + Capstar

in a pinch, I have used dishsoap and that stuff does WONDERS on fleas. I mean, it's bad for the coat (dries it out..) but hey, the fleas are dead.

Just let it bubble and sit, really rub it in.. rinse & repeat! Worked for us

I used dawn dishsoap on the persians when they caught a nasty case of the little buggers. Lord, it was a mess trying to bathe two of them at once, then rinse it out of all that hair, but it solved the problem.

We've had a few month long issue. I was bathing with dish soap and tee tree oil.. Vacuuming the carpets every few days, washing the bedding..

Things would seem controlled and then I'd find adult fleas on my kids again. With longer fur, you have to suds dishsoap like mad. If you miss a spot, fleas crawl there and wait out the bath. I've found live ones post bath.

I got capstar. Sadly both my kids threw up a few hours after taking it.. but they haven't had fleas in a few weeks. I still keep vacuuming the house, hoping it's finally under control.

Sadly something like 5% of a flea issue is found on your dog.. An an adult flea can drop 80 or so eggs a day which can hibernate for months if needed in carpets, furniture, even cracks in the floor. So when I think our issue is solved, it's back again..

Yup, the adult fleas are just the tip of the iceberg. Most of them are going to be in your environment, and they will keep hatching out and hatching out even when you've treated your dog.

Remember that you need to wait at least 48 hours before and after bathing when applying a topical. It spreads through the oil on the skin, so if you wash that oil off by bathing and then immediately apply a product, it's not going to translocate as effectively and you won't have as good protection over the whole dog.

Maf, have you tried Comfortis?

We were battling fleas for a long time because after we moved Advantage stopped working, and Frontline didn't work. So I asked my vet if they had something else and tthey told me about it. You might be able to get one pill to try, my vet sells it like that too.

Fleas are the devil lol.

Sadly I'm Canadian.. and I can't get flea products without a vet visit.. and I don't have a vet I'm willing to pay $60 to just to let me have $100 or so bucks of flea products.. In an emergency sure.. But near every vet visit has been a condescending experience where everything under the sun is criticized as I won't do excess vaccs and won't feed the food pushed.. Heck, Smudge likely has a tick bourne disease.. and I've called four vets and none were willing to test for tick diseases.. 'we don't have them here'.. that's nice.. I took a trip to the states.. I have had 7 years of frustrating vet experiences.. So sadly for fleas.. I'm cranky to have to go to the vet to try a different med..

Just gave Miles another bath while my roommate thoroughly vacuumed the floor. So hopefully he will feel better now. Thanks for all the suggestions guys!

I forgot to mention.... If you use topical flea treatments (frontline, advantix), don't bathe him 2 days before or 2 days after applying the treatment. Otherwise it will not work.

So we've treated Miles with Bio Spot (which is SH*T), given him umpteen flea baths, thrown flea powder all over the apt, let it sit, and vacuumed it up, and washed everything.

WHY WON'T THEY DIE????

(my mom told me Costco has Frontline for $30 so we are going to get that I guess)

Most of the flea stuff you buy at pet stores is a waste of money. My uncle is an exterminator, and he refuses to take customers that have flea problems, they're just so hard to get rid of.

IME, keeping Frontline or Advantix on the dogs will often kill all the fleas (yes BioSpot is sh*t, as is pretty much everything you can buy "over the counter"... stick to frontline or advantix or anything else the vet sells). I've heard that they die within 24 hours if they have no food source, so IME limiting their food source is the important thing. So keep treatment on the pets. If the fleas are biting me I'll use bug spray on myself too. Another thing you can do is get a flea collar, cut it into pieces and vaccuum it up. Then vaccuum your carpets every day or so, and the fleas you vaccuum up will be killed by the flea collar (it's the ONLY good use for flea collars!).

Good luck!

Thanks for the advice. The fleas are not jumping on us at all, they are just jumping on the poor little pom. :/ They do also like the white cloth couch. We have even put flea stuff on that couch and they still survive. *cries*

Have you tried a flea trap?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63kWWe1XB7k