How can my dog have fleas?

Question

How can my dog have fleas if he's an indoor dog and only takes walks once every day for about 30 minutes? It's so sad, cause he's chewing and scratching himself to the bone. I've used Bitter Apple spray, but it doesn't seem to deter him. Do you think he has fleas, or just dry skin?

Answer 1

I think Narrowing down the causes might help.
My dog kept licking and chewing his paws.
Yes he has a flea collar and we bath him not to often but often enough.

I found he had a skin irritation to our backyard grass..
its been another season now and he isnt as bad with the grass.
But if your already using flea collars and ointments.
It might be worth taking him to a vet to see what else it could be.

Answer 2

It only takes a minute for fleas to jump onto your dog. Look at your dog's skin under his coat. Is there dirt? Take the dirt and place it on a hard white surface and put a drop of water or rubbing alcohol on it. If the dirt starts to separate into a brownish-red liquid, that means it's flea poop. This means your dog would need to be treated for fleas.
Do not buy anti-flea products at the store. That stuff is money-sucking garbage. The products that work are sold at vets. It's pricey, but not nearly as pricey as treating your dog for long-term illnesses from fleas.

Answer 3

To add on to what "Original" said, even though they are different species, sometimes cat fleas will get on dogs, and dog fleas will get on cats. There are even rabbit fleas which exist, but when my bunny had fleas, they weren't rabbit fleas at all, they were cat fleas! Sounds confusing, doesn't it?

Answer 4

fleas can be anywhere outside and all it takes is one female flea to hitchhike on your dog home to start an infestation in your home. get some frontline or advantage to put on your dog topicaly and get a spray or fogger from you vet and treat your home also. fleas have a 4 stage life cycle and can be very hard to rid your house of because they can control when to hatch. get something with an IGR in it, insect growth regulator. this kills adults, eggs and larvae. the pupua stage is the only stage that can't be killed and this is the stage that can control itself to hatch for optimal times.

the other thing is your dog may have allergies, so take him to the vet and have that option looked at also. bitter apple doesn't help much. you can put a collar on him that looks like a lamp shade til you can get him to the vet and this will help him to keep from chewwing himself up. good luck and hope this helps

Answer 5

Why don't you do the right thing and use an approved flea treatment. You can get it from your vet or a pet shop. From what you have written I think it would be a good idea for you to find out how to correctly look after a dog. Dogs also need to be treated for worms.

Answer 6

Fleas can still get to him. We had to treat our cat, even though she was solely an indoor cat and NEVER went outside. They can still get in the house - and also, other animals can bring them into your yard which makes it easy for them to come in. What worked best for us was to have an exterminator spray our entire yard once a month to get rid of them - and keep them away! Never had a problem after that. (You can spray once every three months, too - that will also work.) If you don't want to do that, go to your veterinarian and get Frontline or something similar. It works! (Have you taken him to a vet recently? You might want to do that anyway.)

Answer 7

i know what you mean my dog never had a flea and when i saw one it was sad.. but Its a dogs nature to have fleas wheather theyre are the cleanest dog it dosnt matter. one way to get them is fleas jump on to them from the grass or other dogs ect.. sometime spays can increase the flea family or whatever you wann call it. if your dog has flees the best solution would be to get advatage or somthing that medicine you put on theyre neck.. so yeah Good luck

Answer 8

if he has fleas you would be able to see them. my dog lives in very similar conditions to your dog and he managed to get fleas. we gave him flea baths about every 2 days and they went away after about a week and a half. but you have to keep up on the flea baths or they'll just come right back...

Answer 9

Try buying some flea shampoo and wash him. If it turns out he does not have flea's try some moisturizing shampoo, but it sounds to me like he has fleas. It is actually very easy for them to get them, kinda like humans getting lice.

Answer 10

My dog is chomping on itself as well but does it every winter cuz of low humidity.