Flea Treatments - cash cow, or necessity? - Page 2

My 9-yea-old and 12-year-old males are raw-fed and healthy. They are never treated for ticks/flea-nor  is the house or yard.When I walk my dogs.in the neighborhod, I see evidence of flea infestation on the loose dogs thata we encounter. I have reason to believe that neighborhood cats crossing the fencetops around my yard anfd fed by the next-door neighbor and probably semi-feral may be carriers of fleas.

We have lived south of Sacramento of I-80 wirhin the same 20-mile radius for roughly 24 years. I don't give my dogs HW prophylaxiis or yearlyly  vacinnes. for adults either.

BTW, I add food grade diaomacious earth to theiri mealsls. When necessary, I apply fly spray to the tips of ears.

I routinely bathe my dogs in Vet Solutions Universal Medicated shampoo. I have a theory that external parasites are not attracted to clean-smelling dogs.My dogs do not pick up parasites at parks, training fields, or at dog shows/trials.

Visiting bitches come here without parasites and leave as they came and are fed the same raw diet that I feed my guys.

I only treat when there is evidence of infestation...but I have a collie and have to really watch the chemicals she is exposed to (see: MDR1 mutation). I give Interceptor for heartworms and nothing for fleas. I also use food-grade diatomaceous earth with every meal and have tried the natural plant-derived flea treatments with limited success... At least with those there wasn't continuous drooling for hours which happened after I gave my collie a chemical flea treatment.

Edited to note: It's important to know that while continuous drooling may seem comical it really, really, isn't and is actually a neurological manifestation of toxicity.

Raw diet has nothing to do with it.  I've fed raw, and one of mine still is fed raw, and ALL my dogs are clean-smelling.  They may be less likely to get fleas and ticks, but depending on where we lived, they may or may not have needed flea preventives.  Squirrels are also huge flea carriers.

Here's a flea spray based on erigeron (common name fleabane).  It has other herbs and smells fresh and citrusy.  It lasts and stays fresh a long time.

 
Ingredients: Essential Oils of Erigeron, Rose Geranium, Eucalyptus and Ravensara, Extracts of St. John's Wort, Wormwood, Black Walnut Hulls, Neem, Rue and Holy Basil in a base of super-oxygenated distilled water.


I grow erigeron in my yard.  It is very pretty and airy and spreads like a groundcover.

When I move into my new place I will treat it with nematodes, diatomacious earth and grow lots of erigeron.





Michele

 Has anyone tried this before? I was thinking of buying one, just in case....

www.tickkey.com/

We give our dogs flea treatment (revolution) during the summer months.