fleas

Question
Is there a home remedy for fleas? We just noticed a few on our dog a couple of days ago.

Answer
Fleas are tough little buggers to get rid of.  Unfortunately there are not a lot of effective home remedies.  Fleas need to be approached in a two step manner.  You need to get the fleas off your pet and make them stay off.  Plus you need to rid your environment of the bugs.

If you are just noticing the fleas you may not need to be as aggressive to start in ridding the environment.  Start with making your pet flea free.  Use a good quality flea and tick shampoo and let it soak for at least 10 minutes.  Start by applying the shampoo on the top of the head and neck and then work backwards towards the tail.  Fleas "run" when gotten we and so you want to force them to run away from the face.  While your dog soaks check the face for any fleas there.  You will need to hand pick them off and a fine toothed "flea comb" can really help you out.  Some of your shampoo's contain a mild pesticide and others use "natural" products that have a lot of odor to kill the fleas.  Both are fairly effective.  Keep in mind that the shampoo's will not repel future fleas.  

To keep fleas off of the dog, I prefer spot on products like "Frontline" and "Advantage".  These will not repel fleas but they stop the life cycle of the bug once they feed.  You need to use these products every single month, but they are your best defense in beating a flea infestation.

I dislike flea and tick collars.  Most have pesticides in them and they are very close to the animal's nose and mouth.  A powder is disbursed through the coat from the collar.  I don't find them particularly effective.  There are natural flea collars.  These use "smelly" oils to repel the fleas.  Fleas tend to stay away from strong odor's.  I've had marginal success with these.

You do need to remove the fleas from the environment.  I personally prefer to use flea bombs in the house.  They do disburse a pesticide that is quick killing and many have chemicals in them that stops the fleas from maturing for a length of time.  Fleas are tricky and can hide in very small spaces.  I had a bad infestation a long time ago.  I finally narrowed down the infestation to my bedroom because only the cats that lived in that room had the fleas.  I bombed several times and they still came back.  I finally took my down comforter in to be dry cleaned.  The fleas disappeared.  They had been going inside the comforter every time I bombed to avoid the pesticide.  I would of never believed that they could of gotten through the weave of the fabric.

Many people have good luck with cedar chip filled dog beds.  Again, it's the odor that helps repel the fleas.  If you search the internet for natural flea preventives, you should be able to come up with a list of natural oils and products that might help you get the fleas under control.  But do plan to work fast and furious.  Fleas breed at an alarmingly fast rate so the sooner you get control the smaller your flea problem will be.

I hope this helps you and your pet.  Good luck!