Oh Gosh. Help Please.

[MariaM]

Well, I *think* Major has fleas. At least Sarah saw something on him and then we looked and it kind of jumped and disappeared...it was really small, gnatty like and black. What should I do ? Lol is there anything in particular? (Other than get him stuff.)

Now as for "stuff". What kind works? What's available to Canada? Where can I get it? I'm gonna take a guess that the Hartz stuff you get from Wal-Mart isn't all that effective...so...what can I get thats trustworthy, fast?

[Kfamr]

I'd try advantage or frontline.
Of course, you'll need to get some kind of treatment for the house/yard if they're bad.

It's pretty cold there though, right? Fleas don't usually like the cold.

[GoldenRetrLuver]

I'd try Frontline. Works on both of my dogs.

Be sure to wash ALL of his bedding, and like Kay said, you'll need to treat the house/yard if they're pretty bad.

[K9soul]

I haven't seen a flea since I moved to Minnesota from Missouri, though they could probably survive on an animal or in the house. I would be very surprised to see one show up in the middle of winter though especially. If he truly does have fleas, he will have more than one. Where one flea is, there are plenty more. Have him lay on his side and inspect his belly, underarms, behind his ears, etc. carefully. If he has fleas there should be telltale signs, besides little brown bugs (and if you look very closely they are small shiny brown bugs) that skuttle away when you uncover them, he would also have little black grain-like material here and there on his skin, the flea droppings. I'd make certain he actually has them before treating him, it could have been a little gnat or something.

Hopefully he does not have them. Fleas are a huge pain to get rid of from both the dog and the environment. Advantage worked well on the collies, but we also had to spray the yard and flea bomb the house. Even in Missouri though, they did not really show up in the winter... Cats can be one of the worst carriers of fleas, so if you have a lot of stray/feral cats around it's a possibility they are spreading their fleas around. There were a lot of stray and feral cats where I grew up in Missouri. It made the battle to keep fleas down very difficult.

[MariaM]

Well, I don't think they're bad. We only saw one and we just noticed it tonight...and I was with him quite alot this afternoon. Has anyone heard of Revolution? I think thats what we got last time when we first got him...I can't really remember.

We've actually been having warm weather (For us)... it was +1 Celcius today... I don't know the temperature in which fleas can survive though.

Major went to our farm yesterday so I'm thinking he might have got them there. (Again, if he does. We only saw one and we never really got a good look at it...I'll inspect him good in the morning.) They have one cat over there...its an outside cat but...I'm really not sure.

Thanks for the advice!

[Corinna]

I guess its time to renew my experance on flea products. Go to your vet have them apply the treatment. I know its more costly that way but its cheaper than the experance I had.
I had been giving our old cat the same flea treatment (a dot between the shoulder generic from a department store) for years. Well Its not known if the stuff was changed or Winky's systeam did. He started in to convulstions, and I had to take him on a friday night after hours (big$$$$) He had to stay for 3 days they got his convultions under control after 4 hours. Then his temp dropped, after putting him in an incubater for 6 hours he warmed up . They were sure he would have brain and nerological damage. Not sure he would walk or be normal . He was put unconstius to keep him from the convulsing. due to the dedication of my two wonderful lady vets (they kept in a baby front pack to keep an eye on him all week end) He woke up hungry and purring and normal. they were very angry about the whole thing EACH animal must be weighted and given the right amount . thankfully here in NW Montana we don't have fleas but have ticks so we have to check every one every day.
PLEASE take Major in to the vet for a check and let them apply it.

[vinjashira]

We use frontline for snowy as well, we got it from the vets. It's really good, you only need it once every two months and no need to worry about fleas again.