Combat Fleas without Poisoning Your Pet

My miniature pinscher named Taz lived for almost 15 years. Tomorrow, had I not had to have him put to sleep, would have been his 15th birthday. I've blamed myself in a way because I used topical very strong flea medications on him. He started developing tumors and finally, that's what I had to have him euthenized for. One tumor was so huge and he was suffering so it just had to be done. Flea medications are insecticides and insecticides are the deadliest poisons.

Now I have my little tiny chihuahua named Gypsy and I refuse to use flea medications of any kind on her. I give her a bath, sometimes every few days, using Dawn dishwashing soap to lather her up with really well. It kills fleas almost immediately. Leaving it on for a few minutes is recommended but I've found that within just a couple of minutes I can rinse her off and the fleas are dead going down the drain. I also use some shampoo and conditioner on her that I get at the Dollar Tree. It's called tea tree and the shampoo does smell faintly like tea tree oil but the conditioner doesn't smell of it at all, Tea tree oil is  now thought not to be good for animals but there's such a small amount in the shampoo that I've found she's fine with it. After rinsing her well from Dawn, I then later her again with the shampoo, lather well and rinse. After that I use the conditioner on her and rinse that. Most of the time she doesn't have any fleas at all. For the first couple of months we were here in Washington she had no fleas. Then we visited in Oregon and she brought back a few which naturally multiplied.

I used to make my own dog shampoo using tea tree oil, peppermint, eucalyptus and a couple other oils in a plain liquid soap base. It worked really well and the dogs I used it on didn't seem to have any ill effects so I was really surprised when I recently heard it's not advised to be used on pets. As I said, the tiny bit that's in the shampoo Gypsy and I both use seems to be a deterrent for getting more fleas. The Dawn kills them but I found that only using that, she still gets more fleas back. Using the Dawn first, shampoo second and then conditioner works a miracle and I'm going to continue with it.

Vacuuming really well and immediately taking the vacuumed up stuff out of the house and putting it in the garbage adds to the flea ridding routine I use. It's kind of a nuisance to bathe her every two or three days if she's scratching and I see fleas again, and she hates baths, but it's worth the effort, knowing I'm not poisoning her. Vacuuming is a chore, too, but keeping the fleas away is worth that effort, too.

This apartment complex has tons of little dogs and cats and of course, outside fleas are everywhere, but this method of treating Gypsy's fleas has worked wonders.

I also don't feed her entirely on dry food. The food I use is the best I've been able to buy, but I add sensible things to her food from what I eat. Not anything that's bad for her but just vegetables, cooked meats, sometimes broth----just whatever is good for her. I've been happy that she'll eat the dog food right up instead of preferring my food and leaving the dog food. I used to feed my pets only dry food and a few treats, but then dog foods became really bad, in my opinion.

I hope this flea treatment will be helpful to anyone reading this. Of course, if you have large dogs, shampooing them every few days would be too tedious but if your pets are small, it's worth the added effort to keep your pets healthy and not poisoned with pesticides.

I've tried not to post anything about the French attacks, so it's taken me a few days to think of anything I could post that would be a little positive in light of this insanity our world is becoming. I'll continue to try to post only things that are more positive and not using the focus of terrorism.