How to Give a Flea Bath
I'm a dog person, good luck giving a cat a bath. The principles are the same but how you hang on to a screaming, clawing cat is your problem. hehe. Have fun.
You will need:
- Flea shampoo
- Technically speaking, any shampoo will work because fleas will drown
if they are underwater long enough but flea shampoo will give you an
added edge in actually killing them off. (If you are bathing a cat or
kitten, be sure to use cat or kitten shampoo!)
- A flea free place to let the dog dry off, a plastic kennel works great
if you have one.
- Frontline or Advantage Plus (from your vet)
If your dog or cat is all matted up, you need to get that taken care of first. Either brush him out or give him a haircut but it is pointless to try to bathe a pet with mats.
You can use any kind of flea shampoo except that you need to use kitten shampoo on kittens and cat shampoo for cats. It doesn't have to be super strong or anything because mostly the fleas will drown before the soap kills them. In fact you could probably just use regular shampoo, it is just that flea shampoo has a nice extra kick to it.
Let's get started. Prepare his bath water as usual. It should be warm enough to be comfortable and for depth, about halfway up his legs is probably just fine. Start by putting a band of soapy water around his neck. This keeps fleas from running up his body to hide in his nose and ears. This is important to do by the way, don't skip it.
Next you simply soap him up and wash him down from head to toe. It is important that you soak him to the skin and keep him totally wet and nice and soapy for at least 10 solid minutes. This will ensure that any fleas not killed by the shampoo will drown. 10 minutes is a long time so try not to cheat because a quick wash and a rinse won't do it, fleas are tough that way. Be sure to get all of the little nooks and crannies where fleas might hide.
After 10 minutes, be sure to thoroughly rinse your pet. Put him someplace that is flea free to dry off and once he is totally dry (and I mean totally) you can apply either Frontline Plus or Advantage. Your dog should remain free of fleas for months. whew!
But now the fun really starts because you need to treat the house.