Not such a good weekend; found out I have a flea problem...never had fleas here. The most likely source is something brought over with my sibling, as Raine took a trip to my dad's when he was really sick (dying, turned out), and that place apparently was a flea-infested hellhole. Raine did everything possible to nto bring any back and to kill any that did come along, but given the timing I think that's the most likely source, as it was a few months back for coming here, and a few months before that for the origin trip, time enough for flea life cycles on eggs to hatch, mature, lay more eggs, and hatch more....
Anyway, wherever they came from, I was shaving Tiny's butt and tummy cuz she's been leaking urine again, and this makes it easier to keep her clean and prevent skin infections, etc., and saw tiny black dots stuck to her fur as I cut down into it, which I've seen before many many years ago at a different house with a different dog. A few seconds later, I saw movement, and confirmed what I was afraid of.
Now, to be fair, there was the sign of them scratching when they don't usually, starting a couple weeks or more ago, but they did that last year with the weather change to cooler and there were no pests. (I'd been checking because Yogi had come preloaded with Ticks back in the summer of 2014 when he arrived here). So since I had checked and not found anythign in a basic comb-thru when ti started, I dismissed it.
That was a mistake, apparently. So I finished Tiny's butt-tummy shave, and included the lower half of the ribs and part of the chest, which I'd not planned to do but felt best to. Then I did the same on Yogi (minus the butt-shave as he doesnt' leak, and it wouldn't be from there anyway on him).
I didn't find any on Yogi but that doesn't mean they aren't there, so I treated them both with a Fipronil-type flea/tick treatment, and washed/bleached/sprayed down with a flea-killer all of their bedding, floors, little rugs and mats around the floors, and my bed and bedding and bedroom, and everywhere else they usually lay around.
Raine treated Mouse (the cat), too, although there's none found on her yet either.
I spent all day doing this, and didn't get anything else done I needed to except the tubes and brake pads on teh trike, whcih were a requirement. I still have a whole bunch of yard work that was supposed to get done this weekend but didn't (some yestrday, but noen of today's), and fixing some stuff around the house, had wanted to work on the music computer some more, etc.
All I managed to do on that front was possibly destroy the Thundersky cells I have been using to run the audio amp from--more on that in the studio thread. :/
I'll have to keep an eye on boht the dogs and see if there are still live fleas tomorrow morning; if not I'll need to buy some flea shampoo at work and give them both thorough baths with it, and hope it works. (the fipronil should kill off any fleas or eggs or larvae within hours to a day, but they've both still been doing some scratching tonight, more than a third of a day since they were treated, so it might not be working).
I've caught two loose fleas on myself since I lay down to type this up, so with the dogs treated but laying around nearby I expect the fleas may be jumping ship and looking for a new home. I might have to use a flea-spray-bomb, of which I have two if I do have to. But Raine and Mouse will need to be able to be outside when I use them, if I do that, even though their room is closeable from the rest of the house, cuz it could still get in there from the vents/etc., and neither one of them does well with this sort of spray stuff.
So....we'll see how things go, but I really don't like this situation.
Anyway, wherever they came from, I was shaving Tiny's butt and tummy cuz she's been leaking urine again, and this makes it easier to keep her clean and prevent skin infections, etc., and saw tiny black dots stuck to her fur as I cut down into it, which I've seen before many many years ago at a different house with a different dog. A few seconds later, I saw movement, and confirmed what I was afraid of.
Now, to be fair, there was the sign of them scratching when they don't usually, starting a couple weeks or more ago, but they did that last year with the weather change to cooler and there were no pests. (I'd been checking because Yogi had come preloaded with Ticks back in the summer of 2014 when he arrived here). So since I had checked and not found anythign in a basic comb-thru when ti started, I dismissed it.
That was a mistake, apparently. So I finished Tiny's butt-tummy shave, and included the lower half of the ribs and part of the chest, which I'd not planned to do but felt best to. Then I did the same on Yogi (minus the butt-shave as he doesnt' leak, and it wouldn't be from there anyway on him).
I didn't find any on Yogi but that doesn't mean they aren't there, so I treated them both with a Fipronil-type flea/tick treatment, and washed/bleached/sprayed down with a flea-killer all of their bedding, floors, little rugs and mats around the floors, and my bed and bedding and bedroom, and everywhere else they usually lay around.
Raine treated Mouse (the cat), too, although there's none found on her yet either.
I spent all day doing this, and didn't get anything else done I needed to except the tubes and brake pads on teh trike, whcih were a requirement. I still have a whole bunch of yard work that was supposed to get done this weekend but didn't (some yestrday, but noen of today's), and fixing some stuff around the house, had wanted to work on the music computer some more, etc.
All I managed to do on that front was possibly destroy the Thundersky cells I have been using to run the audio amp from--more on that in the studio thread. :/
I'll have to keep an eye on boht the dogs and see if there are still live fleas tomorrow morning; if not I'll need to buy some flea shampoo at work and give them both thorough baths with it, and hope it works. (the fipronil should kill off any fleas or eggs or larvae within hours to a day, but they've both still been doing some scratching tonight, more than a third of a day since they were treated, so it might not be working).
I've caught two loose fleas on myself since I lay down to type this up, so with the dogs treated but laying around nearby I expect the fleas may be jumping ship and looking for a new home. I might have to use a flea-spray-bomb, of which I have two if I do have to. But Raine and Mouse will need to be able to be outside when I use them, if I do that, even though their room is closeable from the rest of the house, cuz it could still get in there from the vents/etc., and neither one of them does well with this sort of spray stuff.
So....we'll see how things go, but I really don't like this situation.
but is almost back to normal activity level, and is back to very short periods of pulling Yogi around the yard by one of the sticks they like to chew on (before her shoulder aches enough to make her stop, or she gets pulled onto her face because she won't stop and can't handle pushing with it anymore). 
