Back Story: Flea Season

Most of what I am about to impart is anecdotal. About the most official pronouncement on this matter I can quote came in an email I received from the Website where I purchase my dog’s flea and tick medication. It arrived yesterday and stated that fall is flea and tick season, because the little buggers like to hide in the fallen leaves that dogs are so fond of playing in. My neighbor expanded on this over the backyard fence when she said that in the cooler weather fleas are looking for a nice warm body such as your dog’s.

Borrowing a phrase from the Occupy Wall Street movement, I can now tell you that that about 99% of the dogs in town have suddenly come down with a case of fleas. The other 1% apparently never goes outside.

As a newbie dog owner, this is my first flea season, and it caught me by surprise. Suddenly one night, the pooch was all itchy and scratchy. So, we rolled her over and examined her underside. She cooperated fully, thinking she was about to be the recipient of a belly rub. We found a couple of live ones (runners as we have come to call them) and a lot of what we thought might be eggs. Panic ensued. We picked off everything we saw and resolved to call the vet in the morning.

“We can give her a pill to boost her flea and tick medication,” the receptionist told me over the phone.

I was planning on stopping by to weigh her anyway. “We’ll be right down.”

After discussing Suki’s situation more thoroughly in person, we opted out of the pill. We had come to the conclusion that the monthly medication just needed more time to work. Maybe there was something else to ease the problem until the meds caught up. So we were off to the store to look for alternatives. What we found were a dozen different kinds of flea shampoos, collars and sprays.

We bought a spray. Unfortunately, the complete directions and warnings were hidden under the label and could only be accessed after purchase. When I got the bottle home and read them, I was pretty sure I did not want to expose my dog to such extreme toxicity. So we flipped the dog over and went back to the intense work of flea hunting.

After another day, it became apparent we were losing the battle. Amy was starting to talk about the spray. I advised against it. “You’ll kill the dog,” I said. She and Suki disappeared downstairs. When the dog came back up, she was all wet and sticky. Amy had spot sprayed the dog. I was livid. One of the positive pieces of advice on the label was not to spot spray, as it would just cause the fleas to move to a different area. Their advice was to spray the entire dog. To me this was not an option, especially in view of the warning that the product is toxic to humans and domestic animals. They even advise washing your hands if you come into contact with it.

The next day, the fleas appeared to have vacated their premises. The day after that, they were back again. It was time to go the shampoo route. Of the dozens of shampoos available at PetSmart, we chose one that promised to kill fleas and their eggs for 30 days. The day after applying it, there was nary a flea to be found on our baby’s belly. A couple days later, we spotted a couple runners. Give it time, I thought.

Real life always manages to intrude on the best laid plans and the instructions on the bottle. I had left the dog at our daughter’s house in Fairborn. She was there to play in the backyard with her cousin dog for a few hours while I tried to get some work done. When I went to pick her up, the two dogs smelled like manure. The odor was so bad, I drove her back to Yellow Springs with the windows open. As soon as I got back, I bathed her with conventional doggie shampoo. In a couple days, we were back where we started, fleawise. Since then, we have gone to a shampoo that is formulated for weekly use. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

Throughout most of the above, we thought we were alone in this problem. I did remember one story from some friends who had been caring for someone else’s dog, when it came down with fleas. But, that was during the summer. I wasn’t hearing anything from other dog owners. I thought it might be that it just wasn’t the kind of thing one talked about. Finally it came up at a meeting of nonprofit CEOs I was attending.

“How’s your dog?” someone asked.

“My dog has fleas,” I said.

It was like the floodgates had opened. Everyone had a story.

“Town fleas are worse than the ones out in the country,” someone said.

“It’s been a problem ever since they weakened the formula for the flea and tick medication, because some dogs were having a reaction to it,” someone else offered.

My God! I thought. I am not alone. I have always been a big proponent of misery loves company. I was beginning to feel better, until I came to the realization that no one had an answer to the problem.