Fleas and other small insects..

BengaLover

My dog has had small black shiny bugs crawling over her. These bugs don't look like fleas to me, but I front lined her anyway. She's a Hungarian viszla so has very short hair, and the bugs don't appear to be attached to her, or biting her. The cats have got them too, and were also frontlined 3 weeks ago along with the dog. The bugs are back...Are they a type of flea, or another insect? Does anyone know of any other flea type creature that go onto animals?

aonb

well, apart from fleas, there are lice and ticks and mites and mange mite....

Can you post a photo?

If you applied Frontline 3 weeks ago, and your pets are infested again, you need to dose again - maybe get something like ADVOCATE and dose them all. Wash ALL bedding in very hot water cycles. Wash all floors/rugs all around the house, under skirting boards, basically everywhere. The eggs from the bugs from the first infestation need to be zapped to break the cycle.

BengaLover

Lice never occurred to me. It's too hard to get a pic, they move quite fast, seem to hop as well. I'll google some lice pics though and see if they look like what we have here. Someone told me today that cat and dog fleas are different so being as see little critters are on both dog and cats maybe lice is what it is. Will flea and tick spot on do the trick?

junospider

They are fleas and should not have returned so soon after being treated with frontline.

Cherry Blossom

Springtails look like fleas but are bigger. They are also harmless. Have you a woodpile or compost heap in your garden?

I've found a few on my dogs now and again. If there is no flea dirt on your pets and they are not scratching its likely they are springtails.

Rancid

Cherry Blossom wrote: »

Springtails look like fleas but are bigger. They are also harmless. Have you a woodpile or compost heap in your garden?

I've found a few on my dogs now and again. If there is no flea dirt on your pets and they are not scratching its likely they are springtails.

Yes, good call.

OP said they were shiny, black and jumped like fleas but were bigger than fleas.
That exactly describes the kind of springtails living under everything in my garden. Soon as you lift something up, they jump away to find another dark place.
I guess if they got into the fur of a cat or dog they'd hide near the skin looking for darkness.

BengaLover

Well we do have two composts and lots of piles of dead leaves, and a huge woodpile. There's no flea debris that you would expect to see, like faeces etc on them at all. Will the colder weather do away with them?

Rancid

Woodpile and dead leaves would be ideal for springtails, I'd say!
I have them all the year around in the garden, though they may be less active in winter, can't say I've noticed.
Less worrying than a flea infestation, definitely!