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Holistixperience! » Group Forum

Flea & Tick season arrrives...

  
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Montecristo- (Monte)

That'll do, pig
 
 
Barked: Thu Apr 10, '08 8:47am PST 
How do you address the arrival of pest season?

Do you use spot-ons? Diatomaceous Earth? Boric Acid? Nematodes?

I know that there are a variety of ways to address the situation, both "holistic" and "allopathic," and I'm just wondering what approach your pack is planning on taking this year!
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☆ Nikaya ☆

&hearts Husky- Love &hearts		 
 
Barked: Thu Apr 10, '08 1:06pm PST 
Well, I, too am wondering the same thing. Right now mommy is using Frontline Plus. We have used something called Natural Defense. Don't know if that's the right name but it's in that vicinity. Anyways, the stuff had such a strong smell, it drove me nuts. I scratched my back across the grass and would do somersaults. And...I whined until mommy had to bathe me to get the stuff off. She ended up bathing me before it had time to settle. It was an all natural prevention application. Anyways, mommy knows that Frontline is loaded with chemicals, etc., that if she knew them, would probably have a fit! I am wondering if there is any spot on natural prevention that really WORKS and has no smell. laugh out loud I don't like weird smells. Thanks a bunch!
Mocha Bear- (Mokie),- VGG, KPA,

CEO of Rewarding- Behaviors Dog- Training
 
 
Barked: Thu Apr 10, '08 1:27pm PST 
Hi Nikaya, welcome to the group!

hamster dance

They always say that flea combing is a great way to keep flea problems under control, but my dogs are out with me hiking sometimes multiple times daily, and they have long, fluffy fur like yours that is tedious to comb with a teeny flea comb! I think it would take about an hour and a half to thoroughly flea comb both of them upon returning from a walk. So if we do three walks a day, that's a lot of flea combing, not considering they could bring one in every time they go in the yard, yeesh!

I have an essential oil blend that a friend made me for a bug repellent, I will be using that this year again.

I have heard there are various things you can add to their diet to decrease a dog's "attractiveness" to fleas, including brewer's yeast, garlic, and apple cider vinegar, but I don't know how well they work. I give my dogs raw organic ACV every day anyway, even when it's not flea season, so hopefully that will help!

I will probably be doing a combination of diatomaceous earth and a lot of vacuuming in the house. I'd like to use nematodes in the yard, but I heard that they don't do well in clay-type soils which is kind of what we have.

I've heard great things about Only Natural Pet Herbal Defense Spray, have any of you had the chance to try it?
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Cracker

Dog About- Rosedale

moderator		 
 
Barked: Thu Apr 10, '08 5:03pm PST 
I have heard diatamaceous (sp) earth is a great thing. Brewer's yeast and garlic have both been FED to fleas in lab tests so I'm pretty sure that would go under the "old wive's tale" section.
Flea combing is pretty difficult to do with any success and since it is the eggs, not the adults that infect your household environment I'm not sure it would do a lot. Maybe a good vigorous brushing while out on your walk could be good...

The life cycle of the flea is such that an pupae is stimulated to hatch by movement and warmth and co2, the now adult flea hops on to the moving warm breathing animal and immediately settles down for a meal (they especially like the back of the neck and shoulder areas or the haunches/tailhead) as soon as they feed the eggs get laid and the adult usually hops off or hitches a short ride...the eggs are smooth and slippery and fall out of the coat onto the nearest horizontal surfaces. As the eggs develop into larvae the larvae head towards someplace dark (under furniture, the floorboards etc) develop their shell, or pupae, and after a period of time hatch and go to the next warm breathing moving thing that goes by.

Anyhoo...the best thing you can do for maintenance is vacuum regularly and remove the vacuum bag or clean the canister as soon as you are done. The diat. earth is to be sprinkled around but I'm not sure what the actual process of flea exterminant it is.....

As for natural flea remedies, I would be interested in hearing what other dogsters use...I still use the frontline from the vet but would be interested in trying other modalities.

Btw Thanks Mocha for the invite! Anyone who has any questions about Reiki just ask!
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Mocha Bear- (Mokie),- VGG, KPA,

CEO of Rewarding- Behaviors Dog- Training
 
 
Barked: Thu Apr 10, '08 6:44pm PST 
Cracker,

Glad you made it! Please start a thread about Reiki and explain the basic principles, I bet a lot of folks in the group would be very interested!

Also, if you have any good links on Reiki you'd recommend, please pmail me with them so I can add them to the group links!
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Maggie CTL1 RE CGC

Bar Hoppin'		 
 
Barked: Thu Apr 10, '08 9:07pm PST 
I don't use anything really...after baths Mags gets a wash with rosemary water. I boil up some sprigs of rosemary in a big pot of water for 15-30 mintues, let it cool, and when Mags bath is done, she gets one final rinse with the rosemary wash...not only does it deter bugs, but it makes her smell good! (I was inspired by this site and few fellow dog owners)

Also THIS SITE has some really good things that I use regularly (some ideas are not very good - but there are a lot of them that are great). I've used the spritzer blends before.
Gio

CD RE (CKC)- RXMCL (CARO) FM- CGN SJATD
 
 
Barked: Fri Apr 11, '08 1:25pm PST 
I'm lucky that fleas really aren't an issue in my area of the world, and the threat of illness through exposure to things like ticks and moquitos are equally low. So I just use a natural herbal spray to keep the buggies from buggin'.

It's called Natural Guard Super Bug Spray and you can purchase it from www.animalwellness.ca. It includes distilled water, grain alcohol, basil leaf plant oil extract, pennyroyal, basil, rose geranium, garden thyme, and cypress essential oils. That is the special "epilepsy safe blend". The normal blend also includes rosemary and lavender. Works great at keeping the peskies away, though you do need to reapply every hour or so. But I generally just use it when we are training outdoors in the summer time, so the boys are only out in the bugs for a few hours anyways. Also handy for trips to the offleash park. Works on mosquitoes, fleas, and ticks.
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Maggie CTL1 RE CGC

Bar Hoppin'		 
 
Barked: Fri Apr 11, '08 9:37pm PST 
I completely forgot about the rosemary ≠ dogs with seizures.

If your dog has epilepsy steer clear of rosemary.
Risa- W-FDX/MF RA- RL1 CA CGC

Awesome Dog		 
 
Barked: Mon Apr 14, '08 2:05pm PST 
I don't use any preventatives for fleas/ticks. We don't spend much time in wooded areas and fleas aren't too common around my apartment. I know my dog trainer had issues with fleas last year because of the rabbits in her yard. I even had Ris over at her place during that time and we have rabbits in and out of the courtyard at my apartment. *Knock on wood* we haven't had any problems yet. smile
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Natasha

>Go- ahead- run...		 
 
Barked: Fri May 2, '08 1:03pm PST 
Knock on wood we never have an issue with fleas at my house but ticks YIKES. Ticks have been really bad here recently.

I just had to give in the other day and put Frontline on the girls. I had found a tick crawling up my neck so I figured better to be safe then sorry. Tasha is so black we would never find them on her and Kima doesn't hold still long enough to look for them.

I am still hoping to find a good natural solution. I am going to plant mint around the runs on my training field to keep them out of the runs.
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