Best flea products for dogs?

Hey guys, I have a problem with fleas with my two dogs.

My girls get sentinel regularly for worm control. It also helps with fleas by inhibiting reproduction. I've never ever had a problem with fleas with the dogs OR two barn cats until last fall when the dogs (but not the cats) both got fleas. The only variable that changed was the neighbour's dog, Daisy who started coming to visit every day.

We gave our dogs their sentinel which would kill the flea eggs, then a flea bath to kill the adults, and we washed every fabric item they came in contact with. Nothing at all on the cats, who hate Daisy and don't ever interact with her. The dogs would be flea-free until the next time Daisy came to play, then they'd come back in the house with fleas again. Now it may be presumptuous, but the dogs never had fleas before Daisy, the cats never had them, there were no other animals around who could have passed them on, so they might have been coming from Daisy, right?

It was a vicious cycle, every time they'd see her they came back with fleas. Another flea bath, round of laundry and we'd be flea-free again until they played wit Daisy. We started trying a one-time pill that would kill all adult fleas within hours too. But they kept coming back.

Winter came and then when we got rid of the fleas the last time, they didn't come back. Too cold I guess. But the last few days I've noticed my dogs scratching. I combed through their fur but found nothing. Today I found a flea on my arm after petting them, so I guess we're back in the ring.

Unfortunately, eliminating Daisy is not an option. My neighbours aren't the best pet owners I'm afraid, but we've been through calling the SPCA on them before and got nowhere. They tied their dog to a short leash and it yelped for 24 hours straight. Daisy is a nice dog who loves to play with mine. She herself isn't the problem, her fleas are. Or might be, I guess.

So my question is, what is the best way for me to deal with this? Do flea collars deter fleas from jumping onto my dogs? Is there a medication that won't allow fleas to live on my dogs at all? I don't want to have to feed them a pill every day they go outside, plus the sentinel. I'm pretty frustrated.

Personally I hate those chemical flea treatments. I believe they are the cause of the increased cancers in our pets. Have you researched diatomaceous earth? Supposed to be an effective safe treatment for fleas. It isn't very expensive so you could also rub it into Daisy's coat to rid her of the fleas she is leaving with her friends. It's worth checking in to.

I'm not a fan of chemicals either, never knew there was another option. I will research diatomaceous earth, I haven't to this point. Thanks for the tip!

I don't like chemicals either, so use them sparingly (we only treat for fleas if we see them). I like Revolution. I haven't seen any fleas yet this season. I've been adding a few tsps of apple cider vinegar with the mother to my dogs food every few days and I think it has made a difference.

Be careful using DE, its harmful to the lungs so I would be worried about working it into my dogs coat in case he inhaled it.

You do have to be careful about not breathing it in. I wear a mask. It is fed to livestock as a natural wormer though so I'm sure they do inhale a bit of it. If you are putting it in a dogs coat I'm sure it should be used sparingly. You wouldn't want a huge cloud of dust flying off them all the time. Wouldn't hurt to get a veterinarians opinion. Keep in mind that they do push the chemical products!

From what I'm reading, DE kills fleas by dehydrating them essentially, is that correct? And if it is, does it not dry out the dogs' skin too? One of my dogs has very dry skin and I would certainly not want to add to her problems.

It does have drying properties. I have used it in the horse's stalls instead of Stable boy. I'm sure it's possible it could make a dry coat worse but I'm not really sure. More research might help with the answer.

For years I have used the Sentinal on my dogs, and for the first 2 years, we didn't have a flea. BUT the next years we were not that lucky. Found out Daisy is allergic to flea bites, and had to go on steroids. So that year we ended up using a series of products to get the fleas cleared up.

What I have used over the last few years has been the Sentinal, and supermarket flea collars. Works like a charm!! They are inexpensive.. so you could even sneak one on your Neighbours Daisy. They worked on my cats as well.

This year I was considering using Revolution on my dogs, as I use it on my new cat. Its much more economical, and this year times are real tough for us.

I think I'm going to pick up a flea collar for each of them. That plus their sentinel and a shot of capstar if they get really bad should help. I don't want to do anything to dry out Sheeka's skin, it's bad enough as it is. I would love to put a collar on neighbour's Daisy, but I don't want to get into anything with them... I'll just have to watch them really close for the time being.

Nothing is going to prevent a flea from getting on the dog, but there are lots of products that will kill fleas within an hour of feeding off them. I am extremely hesitant with putting flea collars on an animal, I have had very bad experiences with them on barn cats causing huge open sores and what not, the ones from the vet may be better, but I would never buy a flea collar from the grocery store.

I have Revolution drops for my dogs/cats. I took in a stray with an abscessed foot once who was *covered* in fleas, and of course within the time it took for me to treat that cat, the whole house was crawling. I gave every animal a bath, then applied the drops, literally within a few hours I was finding dead fleas all over the place. My pit has very sensitive dry skin as well, and she has never had a problem with the drops. I don't like putting chemicals on he animals either, but this stuff really works, so I do them once at the beginning of summer, once at the beginning of fall, and once at the end of fall and have never had a flea problem.

Thanks Fiere, that's a few votes for revolution. I haven't seen a flea since I bathed the two of them, so I guess I got it for now. I was hoping there would be some sort of force-field medication that would keep fleas from even trying to get on them, hahaha.