Fleas

Pupps has fleas. She is a dog who spends a fair bit of time outside.

The wilds of the Deep South abound with critters. Not that talking a walk in the woods lead you or me to come home with fleas, but Pupps? Yeah...'fraid so. Now you might come back inside with a tick on you, but generally not fleas.

Pupps is a Bichon Frise, a breed notorious for skin problems. Pupps is allergic to fleas, and when she gets them she itches even more than most dogs with fleas. There are some good products available at the vet that one can place on her skin, between her shoulder blades, that is then absorbed through the skin and kills fleas and ticks.

It is effective, but you can't wash the dog for several days. Pupps needs baths with alarming frequency. She really enjoys rolling around in the red clay dust so prevalent in this corner of the Deep South. She has also taken to hanging out under a neighbor's car. Sadly, her white coat brushes up against some low-hanging mechanical bits and comes home looking a bit like a photo-negative of a skunk.

Last night we made the trek to the local Petsmart to purchase some flea shampoo. The selection was quite robust, I counted no less than 20 varieties, varying in price from $7 to about $25 for a bottle. I settled on a Hartz product that supposedly works for up to 14 days, and kills the nasty critters and their eggs.

Pupps looked quite forlorn when she realized it was already bath time again. I did my best to reassure her and then set to scrubbing her in the tub. I worked her to quite a lather, taking care to avoid her eyes and mouth. Pupps twitched a bit as the level of water slowly rose, and I can ony guess that her imagination conjured imagines of the Puppseidon Adventure. The bath took about 10 minutes, and the water eventually reached her belly; the fleas had to choose their fate - drowning or battling the lather. I rinsed Pupps off and let her get out of the tub.

Water flew in every direction as instinct took over and she flung water from her coat. When she was somehwhat dry, I took her into my lap and used tweezers to extract the carcasses of the parasites from her skin. None were moving, and I think I removed about 15 of the wee creatures before getting the brush and attempting to remove her tangles.

I gave her a treat and we settled in to watch some TV. Pupps curled up beside me, and I brushed her off and on for the next several hours. Pupps scratched only sporadically for the rest of the evening, and seemed to be much more comfortable than last night.