Summer is here and so is flea season.
We love our dogs and our cats, but the one thing we hate about owning them is that constant risk of getting fleas. Flea infestation is most common during the spring and summer months but can also occur during fall and winter months if you let your guard down. So what are the best ways to keep those fleas away? We have compiled a list of safe and healthy ways to get rid of fleas and to keep them away.
- Add a small amount of pennyroyal or eucalyptus oil to your dogs bath. These natural remedies repel fleas.
- Use a flea comb on your dog daily. Submerge fleas in a cup of bleach to kill them quickly.
- Supplement your dog’s food with fresh garlic(it can be minced or even grated) and add a hearty amount of brewers yeast, both of which ward off fleas.
- Vacuum your house daily and don’t for get the difficult dark spots! Those are most likely the areas that fleas and flea eggs/larvae will be hiding. Empty the bag/cartridge often to prevent eggs from hatching.
- Wash your dog’s bedding weekly. If you already have a problem, wash the bedding more frequently.
- Talk to your vet about flea control. Generally, a topical treatment of Frontline, Advantage, Revolution, etc is more than enough to keep those fleas away but doesn’t always work. If you find yourself still having a flea problem with topical treatments, ask your vet about stronger internal medicines like Sentinel and others.
- Flea collars are not really recommended because most contain pesticides that can cause long term health problems for your dog, and they generally cause staining of the fur.
Sometimes even after trying all of the preventable measures, you still are finding fleas. When it gets to that point, call the exterminator. They have stronger medicines that get into those hard to reach problem areas that fleas love to hide in. Be sure to tell them you have animals and be sure to remove those animals while the chemicals are being applied. Most, if not all exterminators carry flea killers that are safe for pets, but direct exposure is generally not recommended. After an exterminator comes be sure to do everything you can to prevent them from returning in the future. Take your pet to the groomers for a flea bath, reapply his/her monthly flea prevention medicine(Frontline, Advantage, Sentinel, etc) and wash all bedding in the house, including yours.
Great advice about handling fleas! However, I have a question about flea collars: Isn’t it better to have a flea collar on our pets rather than no flea protection at all?
Comment by Rosanne Catalano — July 20, 2010 @ 2:43 pm
There are many ways to prevent fleas, and yes flea collars are one of them. If you would like to use a flea collar you can, but understand it is not the safest flea control method out there. There are many other OTC(over the counter) ways that are safe and cost effective that you could look into as well.
Comment by puppyplus — September 1, 2010 @ 4:15 pm