Flea control for dogs tends to reach its peak in summer time, when the problem is at its worst. Fleas can be highly irritating for your dog. And most people would prefer not to have fleas infesting their home.
But are the common ways of dealing with this problem the best, either for you or your dog? Let’s examine the most common ways.
Your veterinarian will invariably reach for a popular branch of flea control for dogs. But if you check the ingredients, you may become rather alarmed. Here are a few.
Imidacloprid interferes with the nerve conduction system.
Fipronil blocks the passage of chlorine through the nervous system.
Selamectin blocks nerve signal transmission.
Did you notice something? They all affect the nervous system. You may be assured that they are only specific for insects, but is this true?
Fipronil is also highly toxic to fish, to other aquatic animals, to large birds. It doesn’t take a leap of imagination to suggest that it is likely to impact unfavourably on your dog. And possibly you too, after you have petted him, as you breathe in the fumes.
Don’t take someone’s word for anything. Check things out for yourself. It’s so easy these days.
The next common flea control for dogs is to shampoo your dog. This can have a double problem. Too frequent shampooing removes the oil in the fur. The oil helps to keeps them warm. Depending upon where you are in the world, this may or may not be an issue for your dog.
But the ingredients of the shampoo may be. Most are laden with chemicals that are likely to irritate the skin. Chemicals can easily be absorbed through the skin into the body, loading up the toxins in your long suffering dog.
Neither of these rather drastic and highly toxic solutions examines the cause of the problem. It seems no-one is interested in searching for the cause of a problem, certainly not the veterinary or medical industry who can profit by the problem.
When you look at healthy wild dogs, they don’t have a flea problem. They may not be entirely free of fleas, but they don’t have the numbers that some domestic dogs can have.
Something that is different between wild and domestic dogs is at the heart of the problem. The two most significant differences is the diet and the health care.
Commercial dog food is not natural. It contains toxic substances that your dog tries to eliminate. The skin is always the first organ that a body will try to expel toxins from, as it is the least important as far as functionality is concerned.
Veterinary drugs are also toxic.
Incredible though it may seem, the fleas are in fact, doing your dog a service, by scavenging these toxins.
Flea control for dogs should start by looking for the cause and addressing that. Everything else is just a band aid.
Learn about feeding your dog a natural diet. And use holistic health care, especially homeopathic, for all your dog’s health concerns. Neither are toxic.
5 replies to "Flea Control For Dogs"
I tried natural flea control. I tried Dr. Mercola’s spray. I tried some of the flea sprays from the health food store. I tried the diatomaceous earth. The fleas kept getting worse and my ankles were getting bit up and they ended up in my bed because my cat sleeps at the end of the bed. It was awful. Actually, it was horrific – I felt I was asking too much of my dog to put up with all the natural cures that weren’t working and in the meantime, he was scratching and scratching and scratching. I didn’t put anything on my dog for the first 4 years of his life and then “Bam!”, he was hit with fleas. I haven’t met anyone who has dealt with fleas successfully by using natural methods.
But you never addressed the cause – the diet.
Hi Until my 10 year old papillon dog got a grass-seed abscess on his backside he had not had fleas. His prostate was supposedly affected leading to castration. I use borax, diatemacetious earth, flea trap and cedar oil to no avail. He is predominantly on a raw food diet but additives like brewers yeast, garlic and ACV are not going to be acceptable in the small feeds he consumes. He may only have two or three fleas but that is enough to make him uncomfortable so I treat reluctantly him with Advantage as needed. Living in the country there are plenty of flea-carriers about and our resident cat is part feral.
It is unlikely to be the fleas themselves that cause the problem. It is more likely that he has become sensitive to them through other means, such as vaccinations. A homeopathic consultation is likely to help resolve this.
My family has dealt successfully with fleas twice. My dogs got fleas last year from two cats who either live wild in our neighborhood or who belong to people that don’t properly care for them and leave them outside most of the time. We feed pasture-raised raw meat with bones and eggs, never vaccinate, and never use drugs, chemicals or toxic products. We bathed all the dogs in lavender and neem oil soap being sure to protect their eyes mineral oil. The suds were left on for 4 minutes to kill both fleas and eggs; we did this every week for 4 weeks. In the yard, we sprayed with a natural neem oil product; did this weekly, too. Inside, we used the vacuum every few days and put 1/4 cup of diatomaceous earth on the flooring to suck up into the bag. This is to kill any of the buggers. They were completely gone by week 3 but we did it for another week just be sure. My sister had this problem when her family moved into another home with their 4 cats. The home and yard both had fleas from the previous owner. She used diatomaceous earth on the cats and treated her yard and home the same way I did. They had a bad problem at first but it was resolved in 3-4 weeks. Neither of us have had any fleas since. I have a friend whose Yorkie died from his only application of a topical flea product. They are deadly poisons.