Frustrated with fleas

On my dog. It doesn't seem to matter what I use or do, she always has just one or two and she reacts really badly to them. She gets so itchy and a red red spot/sore from them. I know it's fleas as if I am quick when she starts to bite a spot I find it.

What I've used in the past : Frontline, Revolution and the new one that's a tablet (can't think right now it's got an unusual name) and capstar tablets as well. Nothings seems to keep the fleas off her.

She's a maltese cross and she's my only pet since I lost my cat, other than going for a walk, she's rarely in contact with other animals, where other animals have been, etc.

Last Friday I found a flea on her and she was really itchy so I made her an oatmeal bath soak which is supposed to relieve the itch. So I had her in a full laundry tub with just her head out (she hated it btw) for about 10 minutes which should have killed any fleas. I paid close attention to her head area incase they made their way up there.

After she was dry I applied frontline and now less than a week later, I find fleas on her again.

I am just so frustrated! This stuff is not cheap to begin with and it just doesn't seem to work!

Any suggestions?

Are you washing her bedding and everything she touches at the same time? And getting the house sprayed? Fleas can live inside and out of the house and it can take months to disrupt their life cycle. Might seem expensive and a hassle, but its worth doing it properly.

I always wash the bedding, but not had the house sprayed. I did flea bomb once, but they aren't biting me, so they can't be everywhere surely? And she doesn't have dozens on her, just an odd one. I thought frontline was supposed break the cycle but she's still got live ones on her.

Are you using the spray or the droplet stuff? It's been a while since we've had to use it (we had the yard sprayed by a pest company after the last feral tenants) but I'm pretty sure I remember it's in the instructions that you can't apply it on the day you wash your dog. You have to wait a full 24 or 48 hours after washing otherwise it doesn't soak into their skin properly. Or something like that.

Also, check exactly how much your dog weighs as you may be giving the wrong dose.

It might help to read a bit more about how the product works. If a new flea jumps on, it doesn't die immediately, but after a few hours. This means that at the beginning, you need to make sure you keep treatment up, and clean/spray all the doggy hangout areas, and keep treating over time. If you're regular about it you will notice an improvement over time.

We were having hte same problem. The vet said that the fleas were getting immune to Advantage so we changed to Frontline but I'm finding our dog still has them. I just had her bathed and clipped last week so she's flea free for the moment but no doubt she'll be infested by next week.

With our dog Frontline & the other one from the vet were useless.

We ended up using Exelpet and never had another problem.

Do you wash the collar?, we were told to wash/wipe it clean when we washed the dog

Next time you are at the vets ask them if there is something other than the frontline you can use

Tea tree oil - use it to wash the bedding and then a few drops onto coat and rub in. Or add it to bath.
My Pom x used to get them and react bad too, regular clipping, and using wool wash to bath her in.

We use a tablet comfortis , as our dog became immune to frontline and advantage etc .. It works perfect ..
If you have a bad flea problem they will be everywhere so you would need to bomb house as well , wash everything your dog uses ect

We also have flea issues and have used every single product mentioned with no success. I now bomb the house every three months and wash the dogs every 2 weeks with flee shampoo. At the same time, I wash their beds with eucalyptus wool mix. We're still not flea free, but we are certainly not as infested as we were!

we had this issue...
I baught a spray for the beding/carpet and its got them under control.

Can your dog get under your house - i know Boofhead can get under mine and gets them for under there (a friend is a dog groomer) and i also wash him in a flea shampoo that has teetree - dont let him out side (beyond piddleing/ pooing) and then put on exelpet the next day.

But Boofs also just realised he can catch rabbits so is getting a bath weekly thanks to them lol.

I use Revolution on my dog and it seems to work pretty well. ANd yes you're right - all these things are supposed to stop the flea cycle and make it unnecessary to do anything to the house, their bedding etc.

Just a thought - are they definitely "pet" fleas as opposed to sand fleas? If they're sand fleas it could be why the conventional flea stuff isn't working so well.

How do I tell the difference? I don't have 'sand' perse but lots of garden.

We use comfortis (tablet) for our dog and I've never seen a flea on him while using it BUT I was in our yard about three weeks ago and had a flea on me from the grass so it would be possible that while the treatments you are using are interrupting the flea life cycle, fleas could be jumping on your pup from grass/garden and because she is allergic she has an immediate reaction.
Maybe you need a treatment that deters fleas from jumping on pup to begin with such as flea powder or a rinse. I've used a herbal type flea powder that smelled like lavender before, or you could even make your own if your pup has sensitive skin.

Had another look at the frontline, you can bath for 48hrs after applying it, but you can apply once the dog is dry, so that was ok. Comfortis is the one I've also tried and had similar results.
At $60 or so a pop, I just want to find something that works, properly!