Fleas....HELP!!!!

[Illyandra]

Just curious to know if anyone knows of any herbal flea remedies?? My poor babies are just terrorized by them and I have bathed, brushed, powdered, sprayed, dipped, tried the drops, and the stupid pills and they just keep coming back in hordes!!!

Actually its the eggs, nothing I use is killing off enough of the eggs. The products I"ve used claim to kill them and the larvae, but after three days of using a product they are back in droves like nothing happened. So I use the product until its gone and still no change. I've used a combination of products hoping that maybe it would keep the population down to a bearable (for my furry friends) level. Instead I check them and I find dozens and dozens of fleas still.

I'm in Florida, and right now the pesticide spraying is awful because of the mosquioes and I'm just tired of subjecting my dog and three cats to all these chemicals. I hope someone out there has a suggestion, I'm at wits end and my babies are in terrible shape with these nasty pests chewing away at them.
Thanks for any remedies anybody suggests.... back to the bath guys (every three days now trying to keep the flea population down! ACK!)

[loopy]

Here's a passage from an Aromatherapy book I have.. <searching for title> by Valerie Ann Worwood, The Complete Guide of Essential Oils and Aromatherapy (Great book)

I haven't tried this yet, but it might help.

"The essential oils discourage fleas, ticks, and other minute parasites for which dogs seem inevitable homes. If you shampoo your dog, one of the easiest ways to deal with this problem is to add 1 drop of either lemongrass or citronella oil to his shampoo. Large dogs like Great Danes will require two drops. Most dogs seem to like aroma, and it gives them a nice fresh smell.

"Fleas can be as much of a problem for the rest of the household as for your dog. Here is a remedy that will not only get rid of fleas and other parasites but will keep your dog's coat in good condition too. The essential oils don't disturb the natural oil balance or your dog's skin and coat and will do him nothing but good.

"Take an old steel brush amd a piece of material the same size as the face of the brush. The material needs to be quite thick so a single piece of towel or sheet folded three or four times will do. Pull the material down over the teeth of the brush so that it lies about 1 inch above the base, depending on the length of your dog's hair. Prepare a bowl of warm water and mix in 4 drops of cedarwood or pine oil and soak the prepared brush in this before brushing your dog's coat. This treatment will disinfect the dog, condition the coat, and collect parasites and eggs in the brush-- which must be rinsed out thoroughly several times during the brushing, in the bowl of essential oil.

"If your dog is seriously suffering from fleas or other parasites, put 4 drops of cedarwood or lavendar oil directly onto a piece of material, as above, and rub the material together to disperse the oil before putting it on the brush. The use the plain warm water and rinse several times while brushing the dog."

Anyway, hope this helps somewhat. :)

[ladyrowan]

I was told by someone who works for The Cats Protection League that she uses a few drops of Avon's Skin So Soft body oil in water in a spray, sprays it on to their coats and, so she says, keeps fleas away.
I don't know whether it's safe for the cats if they groom themselves afterwards.
I've heard that Skin So Soft body lotion helps us not to get bitten by midges and mosquitos, so there might be something in it the little critters don't like! 8O

BB

[Yvonne Belisle]

Naillosotarrain and I know someone who uses Avon as well but we don't know how well it works.

[Swanspirit]

My cat gets a bald spot on her back so she is too sensitive, so I am using the ingestable stuff as well, and we are flea free for the most part, and I have found the over the counter stuff is not nearly as good as what comes from the Vet. its more expensive but not really when oy consider how much you buy that doesnt work :>
Love and HUGS
Swannie

[Myst]

Ok what you buy from the vet has benefited from years of research by real pharmaceutical companies and veterinarians - not those other guys who thought they'd make a lot of money by making a cheap version of the same stuff. Not to mention the vet can tell you exactly how you use the medicine...

Go in to the vet, get the pills or the drops, get the monthly ones and use them all year if you have to (our previous cat had to have them year round because he had a flea allergy). Shampoo and spray and mousse every square inch of carpet, every piece of furniture, every cushion, sheet, towel, curtain, hairbrush, and piece of clothing in your apartment or house. Scrub every cage, litterbox, cupboard, and wall. That's right, use the pills or drops AND a mousse, spray, and/or shampoo to get rid of fleas. You will NOT see results after a few days - medications that kill eggs and not fleas will allow the fleas to lay more eggs and will take at least a few weeks for all the fleas to die out, medications that kill fleas and not eggs will have the eggs hatching 2 weeks after and a new batch of fleas infesting again. If you don't scrub and shampoo/spray/mousse everything in your home the fleas will just hide until they can jump back on the animal. The key here is making sure there are no fleas left in the home and that you use medications at your vet's recommendation for months...

[voice]

simple borax dehydrates the flea eggs and kills them dead.

mix borax with water and spray all the furniture in the house (after a test on the fabric to make sure it won't do any damage)

sprinkle borax liberally on the carpeting, let it sit for awhile, and then vacuum.

mix a bit of pennyroyal essential oil into borax and water and scrub all areas that the pet has come into contact with.

also, adding garlic to the pet's diet will help a great deal. there is a reason that garlic is known to prevent 'vampirism"...anything that sucks blood finds it distasteful.

[Illyandra]

I have lemongrass and citronella oil! Why I even have the avon stuff, although just a note it is recommended for EXTERNAL use only, meaning it may not be a good idea to use on kitties.

I remember my mom going through and scrubbing down every inch of everything when our childhood home became infested with fleas....we had (and i'm not joking here) 7 dogs and 7 cats at the time. Thank goodness i only have 2 rooms with carpet, the rest are nice easy to keep parasite free tile. Though it will be treated when I mop it with borax and lemongrass oil the day I do the same to the rest of the house and furniture.

The vet right now isn't much of an option, as we are still paying off vaccination bills and looking at alteration bills soon. And my pets are on the garlic pills, so unless they aren't eating them...I'd guess that isn't much help in this case.

Still there are many more options available now that you wonderful people have supplied me so nicely with so many helpful suggestions. I will let you know how it goes and hopefully have some success to report! :D

Thanks again for the help!!
My babies would thank you if they could type, lol.

[ladyrowan]

Originally posted by WillowRaven
(our previous cat had to have them year round because he had a flea allergy).

Willow, what symptons did the cat have?
I've got to take one of mine to the vet but i think it might be a flea allergy.

BB

[Myst]

Scratching, rash, scaley skin or dry skin. We've actually had 2 cats with this allergy now. My grandmother also had a cat with it. If it gets too bad they need a shot or two to clear up the rash/dry skin as well as some flea killin' stuff.

I know money can get tight and all but if fleas get bad enough they can cause your pets to become more susceptible to other health problems, and then get sick or even die. I know of at least one cat who's owners "couldn't afford the flea meds" and ended up dying because of it. Those little suckers can really take a lot of blood out! I sincerely hope you budget some money in to get something from the vet, it IS a NECESSARY expense if nothing else is working. I've seen too many pets suffer needlessly because of people not budgeting some money for them in the nearly 4 years I worked at a vet clinic.