Dear Dr Jim

I live in an old house with a small garden. My dog and cat mostly live outside during the day and come in at night. Although I buy flea collars regularly, I still see fleas every time I give my dog a wash.

Firstly, you are not using the flea collar correctly. You must grind it up and then catch the fleas individually and choke each one with a tiny piece of it. Seriously though, ditch the flea collar unless they are supplementary to the more effective way. Secondly, fleas don’t live on dogs or cats. They actually don’t live on the animal at all. They are an environmental creature that lives almost everywhere else EXCEPT on animals. They do need them to feed on occasionally to reproduce however. This is very important to understand or you will not control them. The most common place for flea troubles is around the rump. Rabbit stick-fast fleas are different and usually around the ears. They come form your pet killing rabbits and are easy to treat. They don’t move much and a few drops of cooking oil kills them within 24 hours. Our usual fleas only get on animals for a short time to take a feed or use the free transport from the couch in the lounge room to visit their relatives on the back porch. After a bit of debauchery and cross mating, they take the last dog home to lay eggs in the couch, carpet or in dry soil. Fertile flea eggs don’t need to hatch for many, many years. The eggs and larvae can lie dormant awaiting another new animal to come along. When dormant larvae detect small vibrations such as footfalls, only some re-start their development into adults. That way, in a Siberian cave that wolves only visit every few years the fleas get to survive by lying dormant for their return. They are so clever at survival that they do not hatch all their eggs at one time. Not all of the dormant ones respond to vibration, only a small percentage each time… just in case a disaster befalls them, leaving the larvae depot empty. Thus, when you see a flea on your pet, you are seeing only one of many thousands in your pet’s environment. Fleas make dogs and cats itchy because their saliva is irritating. Sometimes only around the bite site, but if your dog has developed an allergy to the saliva it can get extremely itchy all over. In our practice here at Forth however, most allergic itchy dogs are not itchy from flea bites, although some are. We see more pollen, grass and dust mite allergies. The sure method is burning down your house and then taking the top half metre of soil form your site with an excavator. The less drastic means takes a bit longer. It is a long fight against these little super-survivors and you must persist for months, possibly years. Avoid fringe medicines or herbal treatments. With flea collars, even the best ones are not very good, but when fresh they may be some help.

Get rid of all animal bedding, washing is not enough. Pet’s furniture and the carpets may need attention or replacement. You can spray the house and carpets, but that is best done by professionals, although you can by do-it-yourself sprays. I prefer the professional. The best house sprays and animal treatments are a mix of long acting flea killer plus a larval inhibitor. Use your vacuum cleaner often and also turn your pets into little flea vacuum cleaners themselves by applying a flea killer plus larval inhibitor to their skin at the label’s recommended intervals. It is usually a small tube of liquid applied to the back of the neck monthly. That way, any fleas you do see when you wash your dog are soon to die, or will reproduce ineffectively then die.

If your pets are also suffering from flea bite allergy you may have to see your vet who can keep them comfortable until the programme starts to have effect.