help for fleas

[pnance]

I was hoping someone might know of a good natural way to prevent fleas on dogs. We had a major problem with them 2 years ago when we first moved in and tried everything, spraying the yard, cleaning and spraying the carpets/house, advantage on the dogs and cats, etc, and still couldn't seem to put a dent in it inside or out. It was a nightmare since one of my dogs had severe flea allergies. In October of that same year the California wildfires burned through my neighborhood destoying most of it, including the flea population, so last summer we didn't have any problems. It looks like this year they're starting to come back and I'd like to stop it before it gets that bad again. I tried the topical flea prevention on the dogs, but it turns out 1 is now allergic to most of them (I've tried a lot of different brands from advantage to the more low coast zodiac), as is my roomate, so I was hoping a more natural prevention on them might work. Any suggestions?

[Logan]

I found one thing at Gardens Alive (www.gardensalive.com) that might work, but then I read a disclaimer that they cannot ship this product into California!

I would do an intense internet search for "Organic Flea Products" or something like that and see what you can come up with.

Good luck! I don't know what we would do without our Frontline!

Logan

[Kfamr]

I've found this site to be a life-saver: http://www.healthy-dogs.net/fleas.htm

We have three larger dogs and live in Florida where fleas are HORRIBLE. They thrive in the sand, especially at the beach.
We used to waste our money on those flea medications and such but this year we decided to try the natural ways.

We use the table salt over EVERYTHING method and the tea tree oil in their shampoo.

We left the table salt over everything over night and vacuumed up the next day.
We bathe the dogs in their shampoo with tea tree oil every week. I haven't spotted one flea since!

[wolfsoul]

You can try giving a clove of garlic every couple of days. There is evidence that shows that garlic might get rid of fleas.

[pnance]

I hadn't heard of the salt method, but I have heard of tea tree oil helping. I've actually been trying to find it near me but haven't had any luck so far, I just haven't had the chance to do a search online to find a place to buy it, but I will. As for garlic, I'd thought I'd heard something about that helping but giving really bad gas? Ever heard of this? 2 of mine are already prone to that so I wasn't in favor of encouraging it. I suppose if my alternative is fleas or bad gas I can always invest in a lot of room spray.....

[dragondawg]

Garlic is a relative of onions. Although not as bad as onions it can cause hemolytic anemia in some dogs if given in appropriate amounts. I tried Garlic in my previous dog, and it had no effect. My Daisy actually liked the taste of the garlic pills. But then again she liked any food.

Some of the constituents of tea tree oil can be absorbed through the skin, and cause neurotoxicity or even seizures in sensitive dogs. Thus if you are going to use over a large area, it should be diluted 1:3. It can be found at your local GNC store. Never heard of it being used for fleas, but it does have some volatile aeromatic compounds that might discourage fleas from hanging around. The only time I've used tea tree oil and at full strength was as a film covering over ointment to discourage licking of a wound. It will sting raw skin if placed direct, so if it hits flea bites that are infected...

The program pill which sterilizes the female flea's eggs works wonders. The Sentinel for heartworm medication has the program incorporated into it. Program is what won the battle of the fleas in my prior dog. My current two do not seem bothered with fleas courtesy of Sentinel.

I have mine on Frontline for ticks, but I find it fustrating to apply, making sure it gets into the skin. Also I wonder if it really is that effective against ticks? They are horrible this year in NC. Then there is the worry about future side effects.

Do not use the commercially available flea powders. Most if not all have carbamyl compounds which are known carcinogens.

[sammy101]

mine have fleas also,they're horrible! I tried giving them garlic,but Kodie got horrible gas Wow,stinky!! Lucy didnt get gas though.thank goodness.lol.
I would suggest trying the Tea tree oil.

[Albea]

This was posted in another board about the use of Tea Tree shampoo by a person who is devoted to her dogs.

"I have been looking around the web all weekend for causes of "temporary paralysis in dogs." This is what I have found, on website after website:
_
"Tea Tree Oil - Topical application of tea tree oil has caused temporary paralysis in some animals."
_
"Contra-indications for Tea Tree – can cause skin irritation and more importantly TEA TREE CAN CAUSE TEMPORARY PARALYSIS IN DOGS!"
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"Lotion containing Tea Tree oil had caused an adverse_reaction in spaniels. The lotion caused temporary paralysis of 6-12 hours_ duration in a total of five dogs."
_
On Thursday MORNING, Tribble was messy from diarrhea, so I gave her a bath with my new Gold Medal Pets Mela TEA TREE OIL Shampoo. I washed her hind end three or four times with LOTS of shampoo to get her clean. On_Thursday NIGHT,_she couldn't support herself on her hind end and essentially was paralyzed in her hind legs!!
_
That shampoo is going STRAIGHT INTO THE GARBAGE and I am writing the company a letter. I can't believe they would manufacture a dog shampoo with the main ingredient which has been known to cause paralysis!"
_

[pet411]

The best type of flea prevention is Frontline Plus.Heres the link
http://frontline.us.merial.com/promo...how_coupon.asp

This to my experience is one of the best types of flea and tick ect shampoo.Adams flea shampoo is wonderful.Its much cheaper to buy,in a petstore.Vrs online

[pnance]

Thanks everyone! I think I'm going to try maybe the garlic and tea tree oil diluted in their normal shampoo. I confess I'm a little wary about the tea tree oil after the previous post, so I'll do some additional net searches before I use it. As for the garlic I figure if the gas get to bad I'll pull them back off of it. I confess I haven't tried Sentinel since heartworms aren't a problem here, but I did try program a few years ago, but the problem is it sterilizes the females but doesn't kill them and one of my dogs has severe flea allergy, 1 bite and he's on pred's for the next 2 weeks. I've also tried frontline, but another of my dog;s is allergic to it. He started itching like mad so I had to go back and bathe him again (he was not amused) to get it off.

[dragondawg]

for 2 weeks after a flea bite, when is it NOT on Prednisone? In my battle of the fleas, and before the days of Program, there were always a few (dozen?) flying/jumping around the ceiling lights at night.

A suggestion would be to keep puppy on constant Benedryl until you have the flea allergy problem solved. I know of no long term consequences of long term Benedryl usage. However frequent Prednisone usage especially for extended periods of time is not a good thing.

I'm very skeptical that frequent baths with whatever will solve your flea problems. The reason being is that the female flea needs to feed only once, and then it can produce upwards to a few thousand eggs. How successful will bathing be in preventing that one bite? It may help sooth the skin, but in between times the newly hatched fleas will be biting.

Outside of tackling the severe allergy problem which might include desensitization shots along the way the sure way is to break the flea cycle at 3 spots by doing the following:

1. Shampoo the rugs, including fogging the house.
2. Start the dog on Program to sterilize any new eggs.
3. Immediately treat with capstar pills. It lasts 24 hrs, and any flea that bites the dog, dies instantly.

Thus you kill unhatched eggs, sterilize any potential eggs, and kill any fleas currently feeding on the dog. You can skip the fogging but it will take awhile longer to rid your carpets of the flea resevoir. Sometimes flea carpet sprays from the Vets will work well.

[pnance]

I've actually tried Bendryl on him but it doesn't seem to work. The vet suggested a couple of other over the counter antihistamines, but although they seem to delay the onset, I usually end up giving him the preds even if I get rid of all the fleas. I'm not a big fan of preds either since you're basically giving your dogs steroids with all that implies, and the vets perscribed a couple of different drugs but the only thing I've found to work is the preds. Luckily if I keep the fleas under control, I only have the use them during the summer and only about 2-3 times for the 2 week regiment. I can't remember now which ones I've tried both for antihistamine and perscription meds, but if you have any suggestions?

[dragondawg]

Hydroxyzine which is a longer acting antihistamine, and seems to provide better relief than Benedryl short term.

Also supplement your dog's diet with fish oil. The Omega-3 fatty acids have a mild anti-inflamatory property. For a 70 lb dog one can give 3000-4000 mg 2X daily. You can scale the dosage depending on the weight of your dog, and its reaction to it (e.g. stools may become a little soft initially, but should revert to normal with time). Vitamin-E during the itchy times may help the skin to recover better. Not recommended to give Vitamin-E supplementation continuously.

[pnance]

Thanks! Those are 2 things I hadn't tried or heard of, and at this point I'd thought I'd tried everything.....I'll give them a try and see how it goes...