About Dr. Khalsa
First Things First
The first thing to do is step back and look at your pet’s lifestyle. What are the chances of your dogs getting fleas and ticks?
You can take this survey to find out.
Cats that go in and out can carry fleas into the house and this can create a flea problem. In this case you have to handle fleas with the cats to prevent them from carrying them in. Indoor/outdoor cats do not tend to bring ticks into the house.
(2) Do your dogs only go into the yard and romp together, rarely meeting any other dogs or cats? Yes( ) No( )
This makes it more improbable that they will get fleas.
(3) Do deer and rodents come onto your property and into your yard where your dogs go out? Yes( ) No( )
Deer and rodents can bring ticks into your yard which can get onto your dogs and cats.
(4) Do you get harsh winters and have times during the year when the ground is frozen and the temperatures are very cold ? Yes( ) No( )
During this time of year you do not have to concern yourself with fleas and ticks- you can relax.
(5) Do you walk your dogs often in high grass in areas where ticks are abundant? Yes( ) No( )
In this case you will want to treat your dogs with some sort of repellent so ticks are less attracted and check your dogs carefully for ticks after a walk.
(6) Do you consider your dogs to be healthy and free of skin problems and skin allergies? Yes( ) No( )
Fleas and ticks seem to prefer dogs that are compromised in their general health. Keeping your dogs healthy will make them less likely to get fleas and ticks.
(5) Do you live in a warm southern area where fleas and or ticks are abundant all year round? Yes( ) No( )
In this situation you will have more of a problem in creating natural and effective flea prevention if you have both dogs and cats that go in and out of the house.
Those of you who answered yes to all of the even numbered questions will have an easier time, along with more certain success, in successfully preventing fleas and ticks in your home. That does not mean that those of you who answered yes to some of the odd numbered questions will not be able to have acceptable results with natural flea and tick prevention. But you will have to put in more effort to get your results.
It’s well worth it to put in the effort to learn how to implement some common sense procedures in your home to prevent fleas and ticks on your pets. You see, many of the commonly used topical chemical spot-on products, collars and shampoos are very toxic and dangerous.
It’s time for all of us dog owners to use some common sense and a little bit of elbow grease to shape the tick and flea prevention program that fits our lifestyle.
I do worldwide consults and never cease to be amazed when dog owners whose pets have little or no change at all of getting either fleas or ticks dutifully put literally life-threatening top spot products on them every single month. You see, we love our dogs and want to do what’s best for them. That said, top spot products and heavy-duty chemical flea and tick prevention is not at all what’s actually best for them. These products are proven to be carcinogenic. With one in two or three dogs getting cancer we have to all ask ourselves, “What in the heck are we doing?” The bottom line is that we have to find a better way and there are better ways.
First of all, let’s take a look at some common canine lifestyles in relation to flea and tick prevalence.
You have two or three small dogs who play and run together in your enclosed yard, no cats and cold winters.
Some of you may be using spot on prevention products thinking that you are doing your dog a service and preventing any odd flea or tick on your pets. The bottom line is that you don’t really have to use anything on your dogs at all. You should routinely check your dogs for fleas and ticks. If your dogs get the occasional tick you can easily remove it. See the Handy Hints section. The same goes for fleas. If you catch them early natural methods work well.
You have dogs who spend most of the time in your yard but you do take them for walks in the park where there is grass and they do occasionally get a tick on them.
My dogs never got fleas when I lived in PA and I never used chemical flea prevention on them. I also had cats that went in and out of the house. They never got fleas either. My pets were fed excellent diets and were healthy. But my dogs did get an occasional tick after long walks in fields and woods. My advice is to simply check all dogs for ticks after a walk and remove any that you find. You can also spray an essential oil or Ticked Off by Deserving Pets on your dogs before the walk to reduce the tick’s attraction to them. Garlic is also an excellent preventive with more about that in the Handy Hints section at the end of this whatever you want to call it. Amber necklaces, Nature’s Defense Tags and Shoo Tags also help with prevention.
You have dogs and indoor/outdoor cats and live in a mild climate. The cats can bring fleas into the house but ticks are rare.
In this case you often have to treat the house preventively in order to prevent flea infestations. Human grade diatomaceous earth can be placed in essential areas. Thoroughly vacuuming your home on a routine basis, going right up to the walls, may be needed. Ticked Off by Deserving Pets can be used to spray the bedding and annihilate the eggs and the unscented version of Ticked Off, when sprayed on the cats will kill the fleas. Check the cats routinely for fleas by spreading the fur around the belly and the head.
We could go on and on with different combinations of the above. Suffice it to say that conditions differ in different areas of the country. The important thing is to figure out a simple, easy to do, easy to live with, sane and effective method for handling parasites. With fleas and ticks becoming resistant to many, if not most, of the common toxic chemical flea and tick products it’s certainly time to find effective natural solutions right now. The old saying – ‘ A stitch in time saves nine’ truly applies here. So here we go.
Basic Steps
1. Keep your dogs healthy. Feed a good diet along with some lightly steamed healthy vegetables. My book, Dr. Khalsa’s Natural Dog, along with many other good holistic dog books provide lots of recipes and ideas for your dog’s diet.
2. Use a good multivitamin/multi-mineral supplement every day to give your dog all the nutritional tools he or she needs for their cells to stay healthy. See the Nutrition Lane article from Dog’s Naturally.
You may have a home situation where your dogs are not really exposed to ticks and fleas. In that case – celebrate and just keep them healthy.
If your dogs may be exposed to ticks and fleas on occasion, go on to the next step.
3. Give garlic every day. Garlic can be given in many forms. Some people like powdered garlic and some like garlic pills. While these are all good, fresh garlic provides the largest range of health benefits. Finely dicing the garlic and allowing it to sit 10 minutes before adding it to your dog’s meal will add another giant step to garlic’s health benefits. A large dog can have two decent sized cloves of garlic a day and a small dog can have one small clove of garlic a day. There’s one more part to this. When we humans eat garlic it comes out in our sweat. Dogs don’t really sweat. The garlic essence comes out in the oil of their fur. It takes a little longer but it stays right there in the oil. So if you’re using garlic to help prevent fleas and ticks always wash your dog with a non-detergent shampoo such as a Castile Soap shampoo. That way you won’t strip the ‘garlic essence’ that is in the oil out of the fur.
More Advanced Steps
If you live in an area where your dogs might get fleas and/or ticks while out on a walk in the countryside you can…
4. Get the amber collars that are sold by a few companies that help prevent the fleas and ticks from attaching onto your dogs. They look attractive as a collar.
5. Get one of the electromagnetic tags (Shoo Tags, All Natural Easy Defense Flea and Tick Tag) that provide a frequency barrier to fleas and ticks for your dogs to wear.
6. Spray your dog lightly with Ticked Off from Deserving Pets on the underside areas of the body that are in contact with grass.
7. Apply essential oils that repel fleas and ticks onto the coat before a walk.
8. Powder human grade edible diatomaceous earth into your dog’s coat.
You do not have to do all of these things. Rather, find a method that suits you and see what works. You may have to experiment a bit in order to discover what works best for you and your dogs. Hey, in the long run, it’s likely to be a lot less expensive than those dangerous spot-on products and you’ll also likely save on veterinary bills with less illness, too.
Even More Advanced Steps
9. Removing ticks. It’s a good idea to remove a tick as soon as possible. A tick has to be attached to your dog for 24 hours to spread Lyme Disease. Hey, even with the spot on products the ticks have to bite first to die.
- Put some isopropyl alcohol into the cap of the container and invert it over the tick putting pressure on it to seal it next to the skin. Hold this on for 30 – 60 seconds and the flea should be floating in the cap. You do not have to touch the flea yourself and the head will release with this method.
- Spray the tick with Ticked Off by Deserving Pets and within a few minutes it will release and die.
- Place a drop or two of one of the essential oil s………… on the tick.
10. Handling fleas.
- Place soapy water totally around your dog’s neck. Immerse your dog in a sink or tub of warm water and let him sit for 10 minutes. This will drown the fleas on his body. If some run up the collar of soap stops them. Examine the head carefully and wash thoroughly with soap, searching for, removing and killing any fleas.
- Spray Ticked Off on your dog’s fur coating it well and this will kill all the fleas within a minute. Spray your dog’s bedding and around the house with Ticked Off and this will kill all the eggs. Very effective, actually. (This works so well but no one in Canada can get it. It is like a miracle, even in Florida)
- Powder your dog and areas of the house with human grade edible diatomaceous earth. This will make your house dusty. Vacuum very well before you do this and cover all surfaces and put the bag in the freezer. Use the same bag when you vacuum the diatomaceous earth up from the floor. If you catch the fleas early and vacuum really well you can handle the eggs with the vacuuming and powdering and nip things in the bud.