Non-chemical tick and flea preventative for dogs?

[Faery-Wings]

I live in Tick Heaven, USA, one of the highest areas for Lyme's Disease. My dog spends a lot of time outside and it already looks to be a rough tick season- found one on my son yesterday, as well as many friends saying the same.

I usually use Frontline on my dog but I really hate the chemicals, especailly around the kids. I saw an ad for Citrus Magic and they sell Tick remover. Have any of you tried non-chemical tick repellant and had good luck with it? It has to work well because we get ticks so badly up here.


Thanks, Chris

[Mithrea]

My mom uses Pennyroyal for her cats for fleas. I'm sure it works for ticks too but I'm also sure that no herb is going to work as well as Frontline, or other commercial stuff you get from your vet. If you are in a high risk area, I wouldn't chance it.

[Danustouch]

I heard of using a mixture of Lavender, and lemongrass, (I think it was lemongrass), for a flea repellant. My friend used to mix up these herbs, and keep a bandanna in the jar of herbs overnight, shaking them occasionally. Then, she'd take the bandanna out, and tie it around the dog's neck. She said it worked like a charm.

[Lavender]

Pennyroyal, lavender, cedar, lemongrass, & patchoulie are a few herbs that would work. But then again, as someone said, it really depends on how bad the area is. You can grind up these herbs into a fine powder & dust your dog's coat with it. I make a mix & stuff my doggie bed with it. Or, if you use a shampoo on the dog, mix in a few drops of the essential oils into the shampoo.

I know there's a really old thread on this from last year. I'll see if I can find it.

Hehe! I remember someone saying their dog swims in stinky swamp water & that keeps the ticks off.

[Lavender]

Found it! Here's the link...

http://www.mysticwicks.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3293&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

I just read through it & there's lots of useful stuff there. I don't know if you tried any of this last summer, Chryssi, but I would be interested to know if anything works for you.

[Faery-Wings]

Oh jeez, I guess I should have done a search I *thought* my question seemed familiar when I was posting. I was even part of that thread. *sigh* I am truly losing my mind.:rolleyes:

I got a reminder card in the mail- my dog is due for her shots. Maybe I'll talk to the vet- he is from France and hopefully will be more openminded about alternative treatments. I am also going to do a web search, maybe try epinions.com and see if anyone has any feedback on the Citrus Magic. I am not so worried about fleas as I am ticks.

If I find anything out, I'll post back.

Chris

[Faery-Wings]

It looks like I am going to have no choice but to use frontline. So far, I have had two embedded ticks, one on each kid and two crawling ones on my son. And this is only April! I think I have use the chemicals, I know they will work. I would hate to take a chance.

Scott's ped put him on anti-biotics since we were not sure how long it was embedded. Cait's was only in for a few hours so that is not really a concern.

*sigh*

Then comes mosquitoes and West Nile. I *LOVE* living in NJ! LOL

Chris

[Lavender]

Chris, hope the kids are ok. :( As much as I like avoiding using chemicals, sometimes you just have to. Good luck with them (kids & dogs). If I find anything more, I'll let you know.

[Faery-Wings]

Scott is a bit squeemish on having things done to him, but once the tick was out, he was fascinated- wanted to see it. Cait doesn't budge for those kinds of things but was also fascinated! Kids! ;)

I just read in the paper, that even though we are in the middle of a drought, they still expect normal to high numbers of mosquitos and we live in an area where west Nile is a concern. Between the bugs, the chemicals we use to keep the bugs away and the bears that are on the move...makes me want to stay inside!
:p

Chris

[kblackthorne]

Don't have much experience with ticks, but I do with fleas.

I tried the pennyroyal approach, but as my cat didn't sleep in a specific place, that was a bit... impractical.

What DID work wonders, though, was buying a about a cup each of garlic powder & Brewer's yeast, and shaking them up in a 10lb food-bag, until the food was well-coated. (Garlic & the B-vitamins in Brewer's Yeast both make one "taste bad".) As long as I didn't run out, he didn't get fleas. If I left out the "treatment", he did.

Any way you could do something similar to your kids this summer?

Brewer's yeast in their cereal, garlic in their food?

Couldn't hurt & might help...

[Faery-Wings]

Originally posted by kblackthorne

Any way you could do something similar to your kids this summer?

Brewer's yeast in their cereal, garlic in their food?

Couldn't hurt & might help...

My picky eaters??? LOL:D:D:D:

Thanks for the suggestions. So far we have been really lucky with fleas, even from the cats we have rescued. We get them right into a citrus flea bath and we have been good to go.

&(*&^$*)) The ticks though! :p

Chris

[Lavender]

Chris, do your kids like pasta? If they do, try making a pasta sauce with just crushed raw garlic & olive oil, salt & pepper. Let it sit about 2 hours & toss with pasta. And serve with garlic bread! :D Good to keep fleas off & good for the immune system.

[Faery-Wings]

Chris, do your kids like pasta?

Yup, with butter and cheese.:rolleyes: My poor italian granma must roll in her grave when I serve that to them LOL!

But that sounds yummy to me, I *love* garlic!

[kblackthorne]

Well, there's always the garlic pills, if you can't slip it in their food. And since I had such good results with garlic powder, (dried garlic, as opposed to fresh), I imagine even that would be better than nothing.

Will they eat garlic bread? (Lots of kids like that...)