I think my dog has fleas. What's the best way to get rid of them?

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! There are several medications that can be used in dogs to kill fleas and keep them away. I would recommend you consider a flea preventative like Bravecto or Frontline plus. Also, you could consider a medication such as Capstar to help kill as many fleas as possible quickly. Remember to vacuum all the surfaces that have contact with Rico often. This should help tremendously. Good luck!

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I really like Bravecto and Frontline plus. You can use any of these two as a preventative medicine and to kill fleas. You can also consider using Capstar as well which can help kill a lot of fleas at once. You can use Capstar basically daily to effect so this can be quite effective. Also, remember that it is very important to vacuum all the surfaces that he has contact with daily to every other day. Good luck and have a great day!

Hello there! Just to let you know, the message caps off at 500 characters, so it ends at "I usually don't even". I think I have enough information to answer your question appropriately, I just wanted to let you know in case you said something pertinent after that. I'm sorry to hear about your flea invasion! Those are very frustrating! Fleas have a complicated life cycle that requires multiples angles of treatment to totally get rid of in a household. Coconut oil will only give you a greasy dog, which it sounds like you have already found out. Flea and tick shampoo is a great place to start!. Your next step is putting Boogie on a flea preventive that lasts a month. You can get a brand called Advantage from Petco without a prescription. 90% of the flea eggs are going to be wherever Boogie usually sleeps. When Boogie has the medication in his system and is going about his usual routine in the house, any new fleas that hatch will not be able to feed on him and thus starve. During this month, you need to be very diligent about cleaning all the fabrics in the house to eliminate the flea egg population. If you have carpet, I would recommend vacuuming at least three times per week. I would recommend washing any bedding that Boogie sleeps on at least twice per week with hot water. This, combined with Boogie's flea prevention, should eliminate fleas over a period of weeks. I know this is a lot of information, but tackling fleas is a big issue that requires a lot of work! I hope you find this helpful! Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Poor Leo! Fleas are nasty and can be resistant sadly to holistic remedies as well as most of the topical flea preventatives. I recommend the new oral flea and tick preventatives. I like Nexgard or Simparica which are both monthly or Bravecto which is one pill every 3 months. I also like the Seresto collar which repels the fleas and ticks as well. It also lasts 8 months. The orals listed above will be quicker than the collar. Also be sure to treat all the animals in the house. I hope this helps and I wish Leo a speedy recovery!

Hi and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Sorry to hear about Jaydence. Fleas are particularly bad near the end of summer and throughout the spring/summer depending on the weather. What you should do is EITHER discuss this with your local vet and let them evaluate your pets or treat him with multimodal flea/tick products and see if that doesn't help get the skin calmed down and the fleas under control. The irritated areas are typical for dogs that have a flea allergy and each time Jaydence gets bit by a flea the allergy intensifies. Flea allergy dogs may require antibiotics or topical treatment to calm down the allergy/itching. Multimodal treatment involves using a vet advised topical product (Revolution, Advantix, Vectra, Effitix, etc) along with an oral flea/tick medicine (Comfortis, Bravecto, or Nexgard). You should also treat your indoor environment since the bulk of the flea problem is immature stages in the environment. Your vet can help you with all of these treatments to get Jaydence and all of your pets back to normal and not scratching. Good luck with Jaydence.

Hello and welcome to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Ticks live in the grass and jump on animals/cloths, and then bite and stay attached. Fleas will live in bedding/baseboards and will jump on and bite animals and then jump off. If you get a product such as Frontline, Bravecto, Nexguard, Advantix, Advantage, Revolution, etc. that should deal with fleas. Some will deal with ticks, but some won't. I would check to see if you aren't actually dealing with bed-bugs. Try getting a picture of the creatures that are on Bruno, and are crawling towards him, and we can try to help you determine what they are and what to use. Best of luck with Bruno!

I would recommend a good flea and tick prevention. This will help get rid of the fleas. If he is that severe I would consider taking him to a veterinarian to make sure he does not have a skin infection. They may be able to give him something to help with the itch also. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.