I'm in an apartment now since my husband died 2 years ago but all the years we were together we lived in a house with a nice fenced in back yard - I was religeous about treating the lawn due to the fact that neighbors had dogs and Houston is a perfect breeding ground for fleas. Never in all those years did we ever have a flea problem - because I treated the yard surrounding my home.
But - Now that I moved I have to. I found out fast that the complex has fleas.
A GREAT way to kill them safely is bath your pet with DAWN DISH SOAP and rinse rinse rinse. The dawn will cut thru the 'shell' that fleas protect themselves with which is why they can live in water ....but you still need to protect them with a preventative.
I use Frontline and also have tried Advantage and found they work pretty well. There is also a pill called CAPSTAR that kills them right away but you still need full time protection - it sucks to have to use anything but it's better than having a flea problem which ....knock on wood - I've really never experienced. I saw a few last summer and caught it quick - never had them in my home and during all the bad months - saw maybe 2 fleas in the bath.
IF you have them in your home - you need to treat everything and if you have an ongoing problem ....talk to your vet and they can give you advise of how to prevent being infested. You have to stay on top of it or your yorkie will be miserable and so will you.
Oh - you'll need to vacuum your whole home including furniture and places you may not normally vacuum -then throw out the bag - they can hatch long after you've seen them...also wash all bedding etc ....They're nasty nasty little bloodsuckers!
There's good sites on the net too - that's the first place I went to when I saw that first flea -
sorry this is so long but like everyone - I HATE them and it's so easy for a small flea problem to turn into a big one. |