Chris A asked 8 years ago
Over the weekend we had some family over. On Monday, we found 3 fleas on our Westie, just crawling around on her fur but found no flea dirt at all. We immediately took her right to the tub and bathed her with flea/tick shampoo and applied her Advantix since she was due the next day anyway. She has been on Advantix every month since she was a puppy also.
After that we stripped everything and washed it, tossed out our living room rug and vacuumed every room head to toe, turned the furniture upside down and cleaned them throughout, dusted and sprayed a growth inhibitor around the baseboards.
My question is, it is now Wednesday, we’ve been checking her twice a day with a fine tooth flea comb and found no trace of fleas or flea dirt anywhere, and I’ve set those water/soap traps around the house to see if I could catch anything and nothing was caught during an overnight check. She’s not biting or scratching, only her normal scratching in the areas she always scratches in. When she does scratch it I check those areas and see nothing. No fleas or flea dirt.
Do you think we are in the clear or just have to wait it out since the lifecycle is about two weeks?
So, two days and I haven’t seen anything? Do you think these fleas just hitchhiked on someone?
Update: I even wore white knee high socks while cleaning and seen no fleas jumping on them, the bottoms were just dirty after cleaning for almost 12 hours as well.
Update 2: Also, after checking her once we found them in the general area, she didn’t seem to have any red areas or irritated bumps, bites or inflamed areas. I’m probably just worrying too much. But I’d rather be safe than sorry.
Update 3: Thanks for all the advice. We have already decided to continue vacuuming for a few more weeks and setting the test traps to see if anything pops up, and also checking our dog twice a day.
We also tend to get little baseboard spiders randomly that might assist if any happen to crawl around there! Lol!
It’s just weird that if we did have more adults we’d see more on her, not just three, and now nothing. But like I said, we might not see anything IF they happened to lay eggs need to wait.
Update 4: Day 4: Nothing found. Been vacuuming and checking her twice a day. Will continue for another two weeks but I believe we might be okay. I feel as though if we had to of had them before we seen them on her I’m certain we would have noticed a lot more. More than likely picked them up from outside somehow.
It’s just funny that she’s been on the medication for years, every month, no sign of fleas or dirt, then all of sudden we find 3, then nothing after that.
Adam Retzer Staff answered 8 years ago
Chris,
It sounds you were proactive, and you should be in the clear. You’ve taken all the correct steps, even if you did an infestation. But, from what you’ve described, you noticed the fleas right when they arrived and eliminated them.
Fleas don’t usually hitchhike on people, but it’s possible. Most likely the dog picked up the fleas outside. They may have had an opportunity to jump onto the dog between Advantix treatments. Advantix contains and IGR though, and it has a longer residual activity than the aduliticide. So even if the adulticide’s activity had faded, the female fleas would likely still be sterilized from the IGR and wouldn’t be able to lay viable eggs.
It’s possible that the fleas had time to lay eggs before they were killed. So, there may be some developing in the environment. But with the dog treated with Advantix, the environment treated with IGR, and you diligently vacuuming, there’s not much chance for their continued survival.
Using flea traps and walking around the home with socks are the best ways to assess flea populations and determine when infestation is over. Usually it takes around 8 weeks. But it sounds like your problem was ended before it began.
Warm regards,
Adam
Chris A
replied 8 years ago Thank you Adam! We’ve been monitoring the areas that she is always resting in and haven’t noticed anything. The blanket she lays on doesn’t seem to show any flea dirt after laying on it for a few hours. The traps we set are near where she sleeps and don’t seem to catch anything. Note: the only rooms that have carpet is our guest room (door is always shut) and our master which haven’t caught any fleas yet. All other rooms are tile or laminate.
I’m just still paranoid I suppose because of the entire life cycle takes awhile and as of right now I don’t see a trace but I’m worried that they could show up again.
She is also a very white dog with pink skin so noticing black specs or flea dirt is pretty easy and haven’t seen any, even when we saw them on her at first notice.
Any additional advice or words of easement would be greatly appreciated!
Adam RetzerChris,
While it’s true the life cycle takes a while. But it sounds like you’ve got things pretty well under control, even if some immature stages were developing in the environment. I’m not sure what else to say. I think you’ve got it covered.
At what point can I say, “I think we got them all”