A big help in preventing pets from getting fleas &/or ticks is a healthy pet, a good healthy weight, a healthy pet, & a high grade diet (food). Fleas & ticks prefer to attack a weak animal & make it weaker. Being in rescue I saw a lot of dogs come in that were suffering from malnutrition & usually had fleas. Faith the dog above was in terrible shape when she was first rescued, you could see almost all her bones & she needed a lot of TLC, but she was bathed, fed & in time she gained the weight she needed and found a great home. Faith was a Red-ticked Coonhound & was a very grateful for the care she got once rescued.
Sampson is pictured below & you can see how thin he was, he was treated & bathed for fleas & was fed a high quality diet & eventually put on the weight he needed & was adopted. Sampson was a Tree Walking Coonhound.
I am not a believer in over medicating any living thing, so I don’t recommend products that are called 3 in one or similar names. This means you give your pet a monthly tablet & it is to kill heart-worm, fleas/ticks & worms etc… This is overkill & way too many chemicals for an animal. I also warn against shots Vets give that is for like 6 months (wow enough chemicals injected that it lasts 6 months, that is a lot to put in any living thing).
I used a tick product years ago on one of my dogs and he ended up in the ER for a couple days with so many seizures. This started my research into a safer way to treat & help my dogs. Sam was chemical sensitive & coming in contact with things could put him into seizures. If you listen to the commercials for most of these products you will hear all the warnings (scary because it’s true). Well back when I had my first dog Sam, they didn’t tell you these products could cause seizures. The handsome dog pictured below was my dog Sam, I was blessed to have him in my life for just over 11 yrs (adopted him at about 9 months old). I still miss him a lot. I saw an Integrative Vet at the ER when Sam had approx 26 seizures in 24 hours. He spent the day at my Vet & then had to transfer him to a 24 hour Vet. She was an awesome Vet, honestly maybe not the best bedside manner, but my dog was a priority to her.
I learned a lot from having a dog who had seizures, I hope you never experience it, it is so incredibly hard to watch & wonder if he was going to pull thru. I will share about my experience with Sam & seizures in a future blog post. The Vet at the ER clinic became Sam’s new Vet for a good number of years (till she moved to California).
I learned from that Vet that the only possible save chemical flea/tick product she would even consider me trying was Frontline Plus & I needed to be able to be home with him for a day or so to monitor him. For 45-88 lb dogs: https://amzn.to/4iDTUkq For 23-44 lb dogs: https://amzn.to/3XGx9nX For 5-22 lb dogs https://amzn.to/3Femnis For 89-132 lb dogs https://amzn.to/4kEMVcP For cats https://amzn.to/4iFGO6k I don’t use monthly nor do I personally recommend using it that often. If you live where fleas & ticks are around year round then I would use every 6-7 weeks & maybe alternate with a natural product(see recommendations below). I live in an area where fleas & ticks are common in the summer & fall months only, winters are cold & get below freezing for many consecutive nights in a row.
I use to compete with Sam in the sport of Dock Diving & one event they opened it up to people in the area & their were some people who came that lets say ‘who were not taking great care of their dogs’ & my dogs got fleas. Due to Sam’s history I couldn’t risk chemically treating him or my home so I purchased food grade Diatomaceous Earth & put it all over my home. I also bathed both my dogs & prayed they would be ok. It took a while to kill all the fleas doing it naturally but it worked. I washed everything I could with soap & water. Products like Frontline are preventative, but don’t usually kill adult fleas or ticks. Capstar is what we used in my rescue days. https://amzn.to/3Dw0PgO & it worked very well. I highly recommend a good bath with lots of shampoo & if necessary a flea shampoo, but most suds will kill fleas if on them for 5-10 mins. Food grade Diatomaceous Earth (DE) https://amzn.to/3XHW9LD DE is used in many food products we purchase & is safe to ingest, due to the fine particles it is recommended to wear a mask while sprinkling it around. It is a product from the ocean & is like shards of glass to fleas & ticks & other small crawling creatures.
A flea comb set such as these are good for a variety of dogs & cats. The teeth are very close together as fleas are small & can be hard to see. https://amzn.to/3Dkprcv Inspecting & combing your pet if you suspect fleas is the best thing to do. Your Dog or cat may itch or scratch more, chew on an area of their skin, could be a sign of fleas. If you find fleas, remove & drown fleas in a cup or bowl of water with a little soap to kill fleas. Fleas can jump so be sure you get them fully under the water.
Ticks need to be removed & placed in a cup or bowl of water with soap so they will die. I product like this is used to grab the ticks & remove from your pet. You want to be sure you grab the whole thing, a little soap can be dropped on them, as a way to get them to back out of your pets skin some so you can grab them fully. https://amzn.to/3Fj0M8K If for some reason you can’t remove the full tick, contact your pet’s Vet for assistance. You don’t want to allow the tick to remain attached & burrow deeper or cause other issues (Lymes disease or infection).
For Dogs or cats these are great options: A natural flea & tick shampoo (plant based) https://amzn.to/41TyvhD A natural flea & tick preventative spray (plant based) https://amzn.to/4hkDo81
I use natural spray for my dogs to also help keep things like flying gnats away from my dogs. It is my first go to for my dogs , I only use Frontline Plus a week or so before camping, hiking or vacation when we will be out & about in new areas including the woods. I only use it every 6-7 weeks in the May-October months.
Thank you for reading. I hope you found this informative & helpful. Your likes, subscribing to my blog, commenting & sharing it with your friends/family is so appreciated. If you have questions or future blog post ideas feel free to share them with me. echoinggreatpetcare@gmail.com
Echoing Great Pet Care 