Natural flea preventatives

[k9krazee]

I was looking for natural flea remedies/preventatives and somebody told me to add bout a tablespoon of dry yeast to their food once a day. Any opinions on this? Or other suggestions?

[Giselle]

Tried the whole garlic thing. Didn't work as well as I hoped it would. As soon as I took him off Advantage, the fleas came back within a few weeks to months. While I'm a firm believer in natural diets and such, I honestly don't believe one single supplement like nutritional yeast or garlic can prevent fleas entirely. You could focus on improving the immune system as a whole which has been suggested to repel against fleas, but who knows? It's all up for conjecture.

[wolfsoul]

I agree. One supplement just doesn't cut it. It all comes down to the dog's immune system, and that can be a terrible thing to "fix." There's the occasional breakout at my work and it really goes to show which dogs have the healthy immune systems. The dog with thyroid problems that gets cysts is always the one to get fleas the worst. Visa's the only one that never gets anything. Doesn't surprise me, she's a very healthy dog.

If you're looking for natural remedies, try as many things as you can. Feed garlic, bathe in shampoo that contains cedar, citrus, eucalyptus, coconut, tea tree oil, peppermint, etc. Spray these oils on the dog and around your hlouse. You can stuff the dog's bed with cedar shavings (though I'd avoid this because of long term affects on the dog's respiratory system that the cedar could cause). There are herbal flea collars out there, though I think they are about as stupid and pointless as chemical ones. I've done alot of research over the years on fleas and, in my opinion, it really all comes down to whether or not the dog's immune system is strong enough to control the fleas. My dogs have been around other dogs that have a full fledged infestation, and I've never had a single problem. But, my dogs also eat a raw diet, get plenty of herbal supplements (including Wormex which helps to dispell of worm and lice -- I assume fleas would be on the list), get plenty of exercise, and have no underlying issues.

[dragondawg]

I was looking for natural flea remedies/preventatives and somebody told me to add bout a tablespoon of dry yeast to their food once a day. Any opinions on this? Or other suggestions?

Adding yeast to the food and supplementing B vitamin intake isn't going to hurt per nutrition. It might even help the skin a little. Doubtful it will do anything for fleas. Neither is there any scientific evidence that garlic repells fleas.

The pyrethrin spray is a natural insecticide per the African Daisy. The carbamyl compounds found in flea powders are known carcinogens and sort of scarey to use on one's pet.

Currently I depend on the Program embedded in the monthly heartworm preventative Sentinel to sterilize the female flea and break the life cycle at the egg stage. Never had any luck in applying the Advantage and/or have it really work. When my two pick up a few stray fleas from the neighbor's dog I depend on the old fashioned flea trap which consists of a nightlight with a sticky pad underneath. Recently it has been averaging about 2 fleas per night. If one has a heavy infestation in the house it's not unusual to catch 20-50 per night. Not effective for heavy infestation, but will nab an occaisonal stray flea during the night. Place where the dog likes to sleep.

[Love That Collie]

I have never found any natural supplement that worked to repel fleas.
I have used Revolution for fleas and heartworm for years. I can say that I have never seen a flea on any of my dogs, never had a flea infestation in the house either. Revolution has worked for me wonderfully and I have 2 big dogs in the house. I have to use something WITHOUT Ivermectin in it, I have Collies and a lot of Collies cannot tolerate Ivermectin and it's not suggested to use anything with that in it.

[crow_noir]

I was looking for natural flea remedies/preventatives and somebody told me to add bout a tablespoon of dry yeast to their food once a day. Any opinions on this? Or other suggestions?

What about using diatomaceous earth (food grade) around the parimiter of your house? Had fabulous results of infestations (of several things) go away after we did that.

It's said you can use it right in your dog's coat, but i can't trust doing that. Not when they sniff themselves, and i rub into their fur, etc.

If you did do that all i could suggest is washing your dog with a paste made of it. Rinsing it all out. Sure, the fleas wouldn't die and fall out right away, but they eventually would. You'd also have to do a second wash for when the eggs were to hatch.


(I still swear by it for deworming. )

[dragondawg]

diatomaceous earth is great for keeping slugs and snails off your dog. Not sure how many dogs have such problems. The whole idea of diatomaceous earth is that soft belly critters that crawl, will crawl over the diatomaceous earth and scrape up their abdomens. In the case of snails and slugs in the garden the abrasions cause them to become dehydrated and die. You have to reapply it to the soil after each rain.

But for fleas they should be able to walk or jump over the crystals, with no effect to themselves.

Also the status of the immune system has nothing to do with getting or repelling fleas. If a healthy dog or a dog with an impaired immune system is around another dog with fleas both are equally likely to have a flea jump on them and start biting. However, mites such a Demodex (puppy mange) are small enough to have interactions with the dog's immune system. An older geriatric dog that suddenly comes down with demodex mange has an impaired immune system and should be checked for cancer.

[crow_noir]

The only thing i've had evade the DE around here are spiders. ...and that's fine with me. I like most of the spiders we have (even though i'm spider-phobic.)

I can see fleas easily jumping over it though (if you had a line drawn with it.)

diatomaceous earth is great for keeping slugs and snails off your dog. Not sure how many dogs have such problems. The whole idea of diatomaceous earth is that soft belly critters that crawl, will crawl over the diatomaceous earth and scrape up their abdomens. In the case of snails and slugs in the garden the abrasions cause them to become dehydrated and die. You have to reapply it to the soil after each rain.

But for fleas they should be able to walk or jump over the crystals, with no effect to themselves.

[TamanduaGirl]

Neem oil sprays or the rub in foam. It works great. My fahter is selling is own mix now but in the past used the Vetrinarian's best Waterless dog bath. Not marketed for fleas but has neem in it and seen it actualy kill fleas but it's safe enough a child could drink pure neem and be okay.

[k9krazee]

Thanks for the input everybody. On a side note, my dogs don't actually have fleas, they are on preventative but I was hoping to possibly go the natural route instead.