Topic: Fleas-pesky little things
As you may or may not know, I spend every Friday from 4 – 6 down at Dave’s in Northampton at a table advertising It’s PAWSible! We’ve had a table there for a while where I try to assist people with training issues and questions about different products.
In the last 3 months, there has been a store endcap right behind me featuring several different flea products. In that 2 hour spot of time, there has to be 4 – 6 people coming by saying: “I’ve never had a flea problem before but I have one now”. And, they are having trouble getting rid of the fleas.
Fleas can be very tricky pests. They say when you see one flea there are at least a hundred more! Well it’s worse than that. I called my Vet clinic, Valley Inn for Pets in Hadley and was talking with one of the technicians there. I wanted to get some information to share with you.
So, get this: Every 30 days 25 female fleas can produce 250,000 eggs! Holy you know what! The eggs are laid in the carpet and furniture. Not on the dog or cat. The eggs keep hatching and there you have it, a big problem.
The technician at Valley said that this has been the worst season she’s seen as about 70% of the clients coming in are presenting with fleas. The clients don’t even know their pets have them.
The good news is that fleas season is almost over but your flea infestation can continue on until you get a real handle on it.
About three months ago I started to worry a bit as I’ve never had fleas in my house before even though we have our training center. But I remembered a product called Program that I used to give my cats and dogs many years ago.
Basically it is a once a month pill that is birth control for fleas. Once the fleas bite your pet they cannot lay eggs anymore which stops or, better yet, prevents the cycle.
I found the product on line. You do not need a prescription for it but you can certainly talk to your Veterinarian about it. My vet in Hadley does not carry Program.
Here is a link to the product’s website. I bought mine at www.drugstore.com.
I feel really good about this pro-active approach but I wanted to share it with you so you can look into it for yourself.
I also learned in my research at Valley Inn for Pets that Frontline and Advantix use slightly different chemicals. Neither necessarily works better than the other. I had before this conversation heard differently. But I also learned that if you want to kill a flea problem to use Advantage (not Advantix). Advantage does not work on preventing ticks but has a better flea product in it . I’m not a fan of using these chemicals but I know I don’t want a flea problem. Plus, having a flea problem involves even more chemicals.
What has been your experience with fleas. Many readers live in different parts of the country. Please share about your experiences for us in New England. For example I know fleas are very bad in Florida but I think more people treat for fleas there.
RSS 2.0 
