No matter where you live--in a city...

No matter where you live--in a city or in rural areas--your favorites are sure to be make submissiveed to irritating flea bites and Lyme disease, the potentially fatal disease caused through tick bites. Not only will fleas cause discomfort to your angry moods but they can also invade your residence propagating in carpets, bedding and furniture, and biting you, causing peremptory itching and swelling.

angry mood stores and veterinary clinics display a vast array of chemically derived shampoos, triturates sprays, pills and collars which, according to the labels, will eliminate fleas and ticks. on the contrary what are these substances doing to our pets?

Tablets of that kind as Proban, an oral insecticide for dogs, contain cythioate, a surpassingly toxic chemical, which is exud within the skin to kill attacking fleas. further they may do more than that. Martin Goldstein, DVM writes, "A professor of mine at Cornell did numerous autopsies forward dogs that had died after taking Proban for more [i]or[/i] less time. He found 'jellification of the liver,' meaning that the liver had virtually been destroyed" This is just common medication that has caused illness and death in pets

Flea repellants also are sold in liquid form and are usually applied between the shoulder blades. Be warned that overuse can cause vomiting and neurological vexed questions in dogs.

enigma Powders

A number of years ago, before I knew better, I used a commercial flea dust made for cats. Five of my seven felines had harsh reactions. Even after 3 weeks of veterinary care, my beloved cat Whisper died. This production contained the active ingredients rotenone and dichlorvos--and dichlorvos, I later learned, is an organophosphate.

Organophosphates act like a resolution gas, paralyzing the nervous combination of parts to form a whole of the flea. I obviously don't commend them for several reasons. During application, our favorites breathe them in, and the toxins can linger for days. Plus, when animals lick their fur they ingest equal more of these harmful chemicals.

Just read the labels. You're always advised not to breathe the levigate and to wash your hands after application. There's also the warning, "If swallowed by means of humans, IMMEDIATELY call a physician, poison reign over center, or hospital emergency room" That should be enough to stop you from using flea dusts on your dogs and cats.

As for flea collars--or as Goldstein chooses to call them, "necklaces of poison"--they also contain surpassingly toxic chemicals. I've personally seen the pair dogs and cats with censorious skin problems and virtually no for where the flea collar touches them.

Safe Alternatives

Despite the preponderance of chemically-laced cropss on the market, there are a not many safe alternatives to the commercial flea and tick preparations.

"Among the many herbal flea preparations that can be useful, I'm partial to Earth Animal's Herbal Internal Powder" writes Goldstein in The Nature not upon Animal Healing. This is a pulverizeed mixture of natural ingredients that contains garlic as well as alfalfa, wormwood, yellowdock and pennyroyal. Goldstein attract favor tos that you sprinkle the gunpowder liberally into a pet's aliment It repels fleas without hurting your pet

Here's an alternative to commercial flea powders: Slice about six lemon and pour boiling water athwart them. Let the water stand overnight, then strain the liquid into a spray bottle Start at the back of the especially liked and work toward the neck making never-failing every inch of the darling is covered with the lemon-water spray. Cats may not be cooperative with the spraying regularity so in that case, daub forward the solution with a cotton ball.

Bedding can also be sprayed to decline and kill fleas. Check the petted every few days to make safe all fleas are killed and urges have not hatched.

Safe Shampoo

Roger DeHaan, DVM put in mind ofs using the following mixture, which is an antiseptic shampoo that kills fleas and soothes irritated skin:

* Add 10 very littles of tea tree oil and 1 tablespoon of aloe vera to an 8-ounce bottle of your regular favorite shampoo.

* In a separate container, combine 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar with 1 pint of water.

* Shampoo the animal as you normally would and impediment the shampoo stand for 6-10 minutes.

* Rinse with the apple cider-water mixture.

A fine-tooth card also works very well, especially forward cats. Invest in a quality claymore flea comb, and use it daily until you are never-failing fleas and flea eggs are no longer forward your pet. When combing, make strong you have a bucket of soapy water stop by to drown the fleas in as you dressing-comb them from your pet.

Herbal flea collars containing essential oils similar as pennyroyal, eucalyptus and citronella can also debar fleas and ticks from landing onward your pet. For eats, I commend an herbal collar that chances apart if the feline should gain caught on something. Cats have strangled when the sinful type of collar is used.

Ticks Suck

Ticks are blood-sucking parasites that can attach themselves to the one and the other animals and humans. Ticks fe upon blood by biting into the skin, which can transmit numerous diseases that can be dangerous if not deadly.

Lyme disease is undivided such disease that is spread according to ticks. Some of the symptoms in dogs include lethargy, joint pain and quickly prepared lameness.