To start off, my 11-year-old Chow/Shih-tzu mix has skin allergies (we think it may be seasonal), so when we saw her itching alot a couple of months ago, we thought that it was because of that. So we switched her food to Nutro Natural Choice dog food along with a half can of wet food at night which we mixed in an all-natural supplment powder, fish oil, and a multi-vitamen pill for senior dog. During the day, we would give her a fish oil pill, and twice a week she would get a bath with a anti-itch shampoo that I got from PetSmart. We tried that for about a month, and didn’t really notice any difference.

The next month, we kept her on the all-natural diet with the supplements; but, this time when I gave her a bath, I noticed a couple of fleas on her backend. So I immediately went out and got a flea spray from PetSmart to see if that would work—-it only works to kill the fleas that are on her; it doesn’t stop them from coming back though. So I then went back to PetSmart, and got another flea product to put on her back—that didn’t work. Then I got another flea product that had more good reviews then the last one, along with a all-natural anti-itch spray and anti-chew spray for my dog. The anti-itch spray only works when it’s wet so that doesn’t last long; and the anti-chew spray didn’t really deter her from chewing on herself, and after we sprayed it, everyone in the house was able to taste it.

A couple of weeks ago (after trying everything), I took her to the vet to see if they could finally get rid of the fleas. They gave me a shampoo for irritated skin, predisone, and a steroid pill along with advantage flea treatment for her and my inside/outside cat (which has shown no sign of having fleas on her). They told us that we should Fog the house and outside—–my parents said that we can’t fog the house because we have an in-home daycare business so it would just create a big mess for us to clean up in the daycare, ect. And they thought the backyard was pointless, because my dog goes everywhere outside (different neighborhoods, dog park, downtown, woods in the back of my house)—and we doupt that those people fog their own homes, so when my dog comes into contact with that area there will probably be fleas there. So they went out and got this flea spray (recommended to us by a couple different people) for inside the house—-we washed everything, moved alot of stuff around, and then vacummed everything. We then vacummed the carpets and everwhere that my dog went for the next week, and sprayed again on Sunday. Whenever I do wash (every coupl of days), I always wash my dog’s bedding too. She still has fleas.

Now, my dad thinks that it would be best and easier for us to get my dog shaved down so that we can start from scratch with trying to fight off these fleas; along with buying her and my 12-year-old cat flea collars. I asked the vet about shaving my dog down, and the vet said that it would only irritate my dog’s skin more which I told my dad and other family members—–they all seem to agree with my dad now because we did try everything that the vet said (besides fogging the house and yard), and that didn’t work. So any ideas would be greatly appreciated because I really don’t want to pay someone to shave my dog when that’s not really going to work or help make the process of getting rid of fleas easier. Thanks!
I don’t allow my dog to roam by herself—-whenever I go out, she goes out with me on a leash. When you live in the city, it’s very important to keep your dog socialized; and that’s why I tend to take her everywhere with me.

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