If I had any doubts spring was around the corner; they were dispelled last evening when I pulled a tick off Sampson. Ticks are easy to detect on Sampson as they are dark and he is light; Delilah is another story however. I took a flashlight to her last night and we tried as best we could to check her. Because the dogs share our bed it is very important to me, that they are bug free.
I am very much against the traditional methods of protecting animals from ticks and fleas; this is purely personal. There are two main reasons for this 1) I believe putting any type of “chemical” on my pet is not in their best interest. 2) The topical chemical you put on your pet does not PREVENT the ticks and fleas from hitching a ride. The insect gets on your pet and bites him/her and then within 24 to 48 hours it dies. Think about that, something that has been ingested into your pet’s system is toxic enough to kill a tick! (Have you ever TRIED to kill a tick?) Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
Instead, I try my best to prevent the unwanted pests by natural means. I do this in a number of ways.
1) I have my yard sprayed four times a year to minimize the ticks in my yard (yes, I know that sounds hypocritical as I don’t use chemicals on my dogs, but instead I use it on the yard they play in.) However, they do not go outside in the yard until the chemical is dry and truthfully, unless we are out there with them, they don’t spend a lot of time in the yard.
2) I feed my dogs “Bug Off Garlic” from Springtime, Inc. Garlic is a natural preventer of ticks, fleas, mosquitoes, and gnats. Springtime usually has some really good specials where you buy one and get one or two free. I just ordered 1,000 chewable tablets and got another 1,000 free; this will protect my dogs for almost 6 months. This cost $69.00, for two dogs and six months; much less expensive than the leading flea and tick topical product. Of course, I will have to hide Mr. Picky’s tablets in his food, but I can feed them to Delilah as treats. There is a lot of information about the benefits of garlic for your pets on the Springtime website. It takes a few weeks for the garlic to really work; so what I usually do (and I admit to having been lax this past year) is reduce the amount of garlic they ingest over the winter, I then ease them back into the full dosage by early spring. They make a bug off garlic product for cats as well.
3) Since not all ticks are picked up in my yard and we have once again begun hiking with our dogs, I will also use a natural, topical spray. I use Bug Off Spray sold by Earth Animal. This product has a really nice citronella smell and comes in a pump bottle. I spray their legs, chest, back, tummy and tail with the pump, when it comes to their face and neck I pump the product into my hands and rub it on. Delilah is such a girl and likes to smell pretty, so she didn’t mind, but Sampson wasn’t so sure this morning.
He wiggled
and twisted as if to say
Get this stuff OFF ME!
Clover oil is another natural product used in preventing ticks, personally I do not care for the smell and I haven’t really figured out a great way to use it, so I don’t.
As I was googling my links, I also found a couple of other websites with information about natural products you can use for your pets, if you are interested in trying a more natural way to protect your pet; let me google that for you.
I was told by my vet garlic and onions were bad for dogs. . .
I had been told that too, Megan. It would seem from reading up on this that garlic in large amounts can be harmful to your dog. I would never give them a bulb of garlic to eat, or even chopped garlic. But I feel pretty confident the tablets are safe. If you are interested but still concerned, check out the Springtime website, there is lots of good information available there.