Kimo has fleas

Noticed Kimo had some flea dirt on him a couple of days ago, so I gave him some Frontline even though it was a couple of days short of a month that I gave him Frontline last time.

But now he has a lot of fleas on him.  You usually can't see them crawling on him, but when I comb his fur with the flea comb, some come out.

Frontline is supposed to kill the fleas in a couple of days, so you would think they'd be gone by now.

So I decided to try the garlic remedy.  I gave him only about a quarter clove cut into small chunks.  Even less because I ate one of the chunks and he didn't eat one of the chunks while eating his food.  I guess it doesn't taste so good to him.

Well, we'll see tomorrow.  The poor guy doesn't look so happy when he's scratching all the time.

[5/28/12] Gave him a little more garlic yesterday.  Put the rest of the half-clove in a pill pocket so he would ingest it.  Still had fleas yesterday.

And this morning, some more fleas when I combed his legs.  Looks like some are young since they are small.

Decided to sprinkle some diatomaceous earth on the bedding.  Well more than a sprinkle.  Jojo saw it and started rolling around it and now he's covered with the powder.  Well, that's fine because I see fleas on him too.

[5/30/12] Still had fleas, maybe even more than before, despite my efforts with the garlic and diatomaceous earth.  So Donna went to get the Capstar.  After a little hesitation, he actually ate if out of my hand.  After about a half-hour or so, he got very animated and anxious and wanted to run around.  Probably the fleas were biting him.  So I took him out for a little while.  Then about an hour of so later, he was lying quietly by the front door, like he didn't know what just happened to him.

Seems much better, but he still scratched a few times when he was eating his supper.

[5/31/12] Checked Kimo's fleas today.  Didn't see any (though I didn't look really hard).  But Jojo had a bunch of them.  That's the most fleas on him I've ever seen.  I decided to put on Hartz Ultraguard which hadn't worked for me before.  But WTH, maybe it'll work on him and I wasn't using it anyway.  We'll see.  But I kind of suspect it'll work like how Frontline worked on Kimo.  Not well or at all.  We'll see..

[6/5/12] Despite my best efforts of combing out fleas and sprinkling of diatomaceous earth, the fleas are coming back.  So I called the vet to ask if it was allowable to put K9-Advantix on when I had put on Frontline a week or two ago.  And the lady said you need to wait 30 days.  But they do have a tablet that will kill fleas in like 30 minutes and lasts a month.  The product's name is Comfortis.

So I went with Donna to Kalihi Pet Clinic (nice big reception area) and decided to try out a tablet.  They also carry K9 Advantix, Advantage, a product made by the Frontline people, flea spray, etc. all on a shelf on the side.

The write-up looks good.  Veterinarians rated Comfortis^® (spinosad) as their most trusted brand for flea control. And it's the flea control product they recommend first to their colleagues more than any other brand.

[6/15/12] Kimo's flea situation is better, but Jojo still has fleas.  Went down to Kalihi Pet Center to see if they had flea powder (Melanie uses Sevin).  The guy there recommended K9-Advantix.  Wound up buying Adams flea & tick mist.  But Jojo is terrifed of the spray bottle.  Wound up spraying only one flank.  But could see he had a multitude of fleas coming out of his fur.  Sprayed Kimo's feet and legs too.  Saw Kimo licking his feet. Hope it's not too poisonous to him.  The reviews seem mostly good, though it apparently didn't work in some cases.

[10/1/12] Kimo has fleas again and tapeworm.  The flea powder and flea mist evidently wasn't too successful.  Put on Frontline today to see if it'll work this time.  Kimo also has fleas so I was considering buying some droncit (or the generic version) from Amazon.  But I noticed this product was being sold by Little City Dogs and was cheaper directly from them.  So I ordered from them instead.

They also have another product Flea Control.  The ingredient is Lufenuron which is the same active ingredient as in Program.  Plus Flea Killer Capsules which have the same active ingredient as Capstar.

[10/23/12] The dirty little secrets of fleas

[10/26/12]  Here's the update from the little city dogs.  The day after giving him the pill, his poop became a runny pile.  And he developed diarrhea.  Maybe it was a bad batch of medicine?

Anyway this persisted, took him sample to the vet.  He had the campo bacter again and I got the med for Walgreens.  It was much more expensive than last time, then I noticed the dosage was 4 times what it was last time.  Last time, the dose was a quarter pill.  This time, it was a full pill.

Anyway, I decided to give him half a pill.  The last pill was on Sunday.  His poop was better.  But then yesterday, he had a runny pile again.  I guess I'll get him back on the antibiotic before taking him to the vet.

***

Plus Kimo has fleas again (along with runny poop).  I don't know if the runny poop is related to the fleas, but I'm getting tired of combing through his hair for the fleas.

I went to Kalihi Pet Clinic for another dose of comfortis and saw they were also selling pill pockets for $8.  The comfortis was like $90 for 6, but they sell single doses for $15.  I asked about buying the large pill and cutting it and the lady at the counter asked the vet and he told her no.  But when I looked at the box, the dose for the 21-40 pounds was like 560 mg oand the one for 11-20 was like 270 mg.  So it would make sense to me that you can, though your vet would say no.

But I see at 1-800petmeds.com there might be a problem with comfortis and ivermectin (which Kimo is on).

Dogs receiving extra-label doses of ivermectin to treat non-responsive demodectic mange and other conditions have developed signs of ivermectin toxicity. Ivermectin is an ingredient found in heartworm preventatives such as Heartgard Plus, Heartgard, Iverhart Plus and Ivomec.

More info from the FDA  Well maybe I'll skip his ivomec tonight.