Fleas can cause excessive scratching, irritation, agitation, rubbing and fur loss! You might not eliminate fleas completely with natural alternatives, but you can avoid exposure to chemical-laden treatments. These home-made remedies are cheap, safe and easy to make...
Citronella, eucalyptus, peppermint, tea tree, and rosemary will all naturally repel fleas.
Diet and nutrition
Fleas can obviously affect any animal, but a compromised immune system or one who is nutritionally deficient is more likely to have ill effects. As always, we recommend a raw meat, diverse and nutrient dense diet for your dog.
There's some thought that certain foods can help to ward off fleas. Garlic, brewers yeast and apple cider vinegar are all known to repel fleas by making your animal less tasty!
Grooming regularly can give you a chance to inspect your pet for any fleas or issues.
Recipes to repel fleas
Rosemary Flea Wash
A herbal flea dip can be made from 1 tablespoon of dried rosemary, or 3 tablespoons fresh, in 600 ml of boiling water. Steep for 10 minutes, strain, leave to cool before using. Pour over the dog as an after-wash rinse.
Peppermint Oil
Peppermint oil is a great repellent against fleas. If your animal is infested with fleas, use 5-10 drops of peppermint oil in a 5 litre bucket of warm water and use a flea-comb to try to comb it through. Each time dip the comb in the peppermint water before combing the animal's coat. The potent smell of peppermint will help to repel the fleas for about a week or so. Repeat this procedure each week for about 2 weeks.
Pennyroyal oil
Pennyroyal is a potent oil that will naturally help to break the flea breeding cycle.
Vodka collar
Buy or make a simple dog collar, then soak it in a teaspoon of unflavoured vodka and let dry. You could also add a few drops of your essential oil of choice to make a scented collar, otherwise just using the vodka alone is a good alternative for dogs who don’t like the scent of essential oils.
McDowells Products
If your dog is more reactive and itchy than others, then the additional toxins injected by the fleas must be stressing their system.
We know that itching and scratching is a bodily response trying to either stimulate the blood to clear toxins from under the skin or an attempt to break through the skin to release them to the outside. Therefore, if we can reduce the toxin levels from your dogs blood and at the same time make the blood less palatable, we can probably make a difference.
In herbal medicine, the powerful blood cleansers are also herbs which are strong and unpleasant in taste. So, if we provide a course of such herbs, we are able to reduce the toxic load in the blood and at the same time make the blood less attractive to parasites.
