Flea & Tick treatment

[CrealCritter]

This year was the worst I can ever remember fighting fleas. We tried so many products between two households to try and rid our dogs of fleas. On a whim I happened to come across an organic totally none poison product that actually works and it doesn't smell all that bad either if you don't mind clove smell like a dentist office.

What I did that worked...
1) Bath out dogs in Palmolive orginal (green) once a week. I would work up a good lather and have our dogs wait for a few mins then rinse them clean and call it done.

2) After they were completely dry, I would spary them down well with Vets Best Flea + Tick home spray and use a comb to make sure I got good coverage.

3) In-between weekly baths of Palmolive orginal (green) I would spray our dogs down twice a day once in the morning and again in the early evening with Vets Best Flea + Tick home spray.

4) A few times a week I would spray all the carpeting and furniture down with Vets Best Flea + Tick home spray.

It wasn't two weeks of steps 1 ~ 4 and our flea problem disappeared. Vets Best Flea + Tick home spray is some great stuff! But just because your flea problem is gone, keep up steps 1~ 4 so they don't come back!

Anyways I talked to our vet and he said fleas are developing resistance to a lot of the chemical products thus rendering them ineffective including collars.

I thought I would let you all know what I figured out and a solution that's safe and effective.

You can find Vets Best Flea + Tick home spray all over the internet and also at many farm stores. Here's what the spray bottle looks like. BTW also safe for cats to, my daughter has two indoor cats that she also used steps 1 ~ 4 on and it got rid of the fleas on them also.

Thanks

 

[wyoDreamer]

We gave our German Shepherd that Bravecto once, we bought it at the vets office. A couple of months later I notice that he was having problems with his eyes - they looked bug-eyed like he was straining to see - it turns out he went blind. Took him to the local vet who sent him to the emergency vet clinic an hour drive south (think big $$$). They gave him high doses of steroids hoping to save some of his sight - they said he was completely blind when we took him in. They said it was an auto-immune reaction to something and his body was rejecting something in his eyes (I can't remember what part of the eye it was). Months of steroids and he got some of his sight back and then 3 months of slowly weaning him off the steroids, praying that he kept his sight. I am not sure how much of his sight he got back, DH thinks it is back 100% and he could be right.

Was it the Bravecto - probably not. Coincidence most likely. But I will never use that stuff again.

For the last year and 1/2, they are on nothing and until I see a problem develop, they will stay on nothing.

 

[sumi]

Yes... Ticks are bad here also, all the deer around here just makes matters worse. Just to let you know, my wife came down with lyme disease last year (2017) so maybe I'm a little over zellious in making sure I keep the home flea & tick free. lyme disease is spread by ticks (and fleas) and is no joking matter... My wife was very sick and had very bad joint pain. It took some serious antibiotics to treat and she is still taking pain medication to treat the joint pain.

Sorry to hear about your wife's illness My mom got what we call "tick bite fever" when I was about 4 years old. I can still remember it well, after all these years. I was terrified she's going to die when she got so sick and to this day I cannot stand even the sight of a tick and I go spare if one gets on me or bites me. They are horrible little things!

 

[Beekissed]

CC, you may try spreading lime in your yard where the dogs frequent it the most in the early spring before it gets too wet. A good three days with lime on the lawn in between rains seems to desiccate eggs. I repeat it in the early fall. If I keep up with that each year the dogs don't need any flea treatments at all. I also put ACV in their drinking water and that seems to help also, though I don't know why.

Found out that little trick many years ago when I moved into a house where the lawn was just infested with fleas...we'd walk through the lawn and our pant legs would be black with baby fleas. The previous owners had had dogs there for many years. After treating the lawn with lime I never had a problem with fleas again, despite having my own dogs living there.

I've been keeping up with the lime for two years now and neither dog has shown a single scratch since then. Feels good to not have to put chemicals on their bodies.

 

[Beekissed]

When is the best time to lime? Early spring? And should I looks for finely crushed lime (powder) or is barn lime sufficient?

Early spring, before the grass gets going well...try to spread it when you'll have 2-3 days of dry weather. Later on, when the grass is dying back at the end of summer and early fall is also a good time to spread it again. You'll want it to make good contact with the soil.

I usually just use garden lime, aka sweet lime. Can find it at Lowe's for around $3-$4 for a 50 lb bag.

 

[SustainableAg]

I also used Vets Best Flea&Tick spray this year, and would highly recommend it. You can also spray it around the yard, by the front and back door, etc. I did some research and found it online in the spring. We had a very bad tick year here as well, in northeast PA. Started spraying the dogs with that every couple of days, and didn't see any more ticks.

 

[tortoise]

2018 was very good year for controlling ticks in WI. Ticks have a 2 year life cycle, and they overwinter on mice their first year. 2 years ago we had acorn crop failure up here in WI, and the mouse population was greatly reduced, which showed up this past year in a small tick population. I thought that was really cool!

 

[NH Homesteader]

Good to know. We didn't have many ticks this year either. We have had major issues with overabundance of rodents this year (bumper crop of acorns) so now I'm nervous!

 

[Rammy]

I work at a vets office and we have this pill called Bravecto. Its a three month treatment. Works great. I use it for my dog and no issues with fleas.

 

[tortoise]

Bravecto is great! I use Nexguard which is similar but monthly. I remember monthly stuff better than every three months.