Day 34: Fighting Fleas

Before Martha left, she told me to use Frontline Plus to keep tics and fleas off Gracie when she saw that we would be spending a lot of time outside in the grass.  It's hard for me to believe that the vet's assistant applied the first dose a month ago, but she did.  The stuff needs to be applied once and month, and today was the day!  I had watched the first dose go on, so I would be able to do it myself; then I brought six months worth home and put it in an old coffee can with Gracie's heartworm pills, also a once a month precaution.  "Watch out," Martha warned when she gave me the heartworm medication.  "She likes these and will eat them all if given the chance."  Heartworm medication has indeed come a long way in palitability since the days when we had a Golden Retriever and had to pry his mouth open once a week, toss the pill in, and then hold his mouth shut until he swallowed so he wouldn't spit the thing back out.  On the first of June, Gracie did indeed gobble the heartworm medication down.  The coffee can in a cupboard above the refrigerator is a good place to keep it!

Gracie demonstrating "grass time"

Putting the flea and tic stuff on looked so easy when the vet's assistant did it.  Since the heartworm stuff had gone down to easily, I thought putting on the flea and tic stuff would be easy too. The assistant just parted the hair a little below Gracie's neck and squeezed the stuff--a liquid--on.  This is a spot where she can't lick it off, so putting it here makes sense.  Easy.  I got out the stuff, cut off the tab, peeled back the foil as directed, and then went to part the hair on the back of Gracie's neck.  Doing this should be easier now that she's been FURminated, right?  Wrong.  Even with that and a regular twice a day brushing, the amount of fur on Gracie's neck is prodigious.  Parting it while holding the little vile of flea stuff was like trying to part the Red Sea with a stick and I'm no Moses.  Gracie, as usual, was very cooperative and even lowered her head a bit to make it easier for me.  I can only imagine the mess we would have made had she decided that she didn't want tic and flea medicine on her back.  I kept parting until I spotted a bit of pink skin.  Drip, drip.  Then I parted some more.  Drip, drip.  I kept this up until the stuff was all gone.  I think it will work.  Now I have a whole month before I have to do this again.  I'm sure I'll get better at it too.