Fleabag!

My dogs have never had fleas. I used to put these chemicals on them to prevent fleas. However I stopped using this last year because Pinky had a bad reaction. She was doing all of these odd movements. I don’t just mean trying to get the medicine off of her, because they both did that, but she was doing these jerky motions. It scared me and I bathed her to try and get the meds off. Chi-Chi seemed unaffected.

Someone told me to give the dogs garlic pills. It is a natural flea inhibitor. Guess they don’t like the smell of garlic, kind of like vampires, huh? Pinky LOVED the taste of the pills. Now the pills are very big pills. They crumble easily, so when I tried to cut them in half, they powdered. She ate them without the aid of peanut butter, which is indeed rare. Normally I have to hide the pills in cheese or peanut butter to get them to eat the pill, so I was happy she ate them like a treat.

Chi-Chi, on the other hand, did not like the smell at all. Even doused in peanut butter, she would only eat part of the pill. I’d find the other half, and sometimes all of it, under the couch with the peanut butter licked off. I thought about crumbling it in her food, but then I figured that she wouldn’t eat her food, and as much as she needs to slim down, I didn’t want that.

When Pinky had her bladder problem, I stopped all the supplements I was giving them for fear that the supplements were causing her stones. This was in May-June. So I got out of the habit of giving them their all-natural flea repellant. Do you see where this is going?

I notice Pinky was scratching a lot. I pulled her fur to see if I could spot a flea and I didn’t see any. Still, I decided that I’d better give them a bath. They both went into the sink for a bath, but all I had was regular doggy shampoo. I didn’t have flea shampoo. Why would I have that? They never had fleas!

I kept them both off the bed for a few days, which was a feat in and of itself. Pinky was easy because she cannot jump onto the bed. Do you know how many times a night I had to deflect Chi-Chi as she attempted to hurdle herself up there? 4-5 times every night. She was a persistent doggy!

I’m petting Pinky a few nights later and I feel something hard on her back. I literally had to pull it off of her. It looked like dirt. I kept petting her and I kept finding more and more of it. I sat her on a piece of paper and started brushing her and this dirt was coming off. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew it wasn’t good. I examined her again and then I saw it. A FLEA. It was too quick for me to get it off of her. I figured that the dirt I pulled off was from the flea and it turns out that is a telltale sign that your dog has fleas.

I gave AR a list of things to buy: flea shampoo, flea spray for the room and flea dip. I remember years ago they had flea dip that you would put on your dog and it would get the fleas off. I also started the garlic pills again and settled on only giving Chi-Chi half a pill since that was all she would eat anyway. I checked Chi-Chi, but she did not have the dirt on her. I didn’t see any fleas either.

The pet supply store recommended a flea & tick liquid that you put between their shoulder blades. It was a different brand than I had used in the past, so that was purchased along with the room spray. They refused to carry flea dip as it has been known to cause blindness in some dogs. They also advised not to use the medicine and the flea shampoo, just one or the other or the dogs will get over-medicated.

No bad reactions from either dog, I am pleased to say. Within three days, the flea dirt is now gone from Pinky. Chi-Chi still is dirt free. Poor Pinky felt so rejected though because I refused to pick her up and tote her around the way I normally did, plus she wasn’t allowed on the bed even though she let me know every morning and evening that she wanted to come up. I had to tell her to Go TO YOUR BED and she was not pleased.

Lesson learned. Don’t stop flea treatments during flea season!