Living in CT, just 50 (ish) miles from where Lyme disease was discovered, you can imagine tick prevention is extremely important to me.

In my mind, ticks and fleas go hand in hand. They are both bloodsucking, disease carrying parasites, and I have no desire to have them on my pets, or in my house.

 

I stopped using a topical flea and tick preventative on my dogs many years ago. We did use it initially, but Sampson always cringed when we applied it, and then I started thinking about the fact, I was applying a poison to my dog, that was absorbed into his blood that was strong enough to kill a tick!

Have you ever tried to kill a tick? Yeah, it’s not like you can step on them and squish them.

The dogs and I love to hike in the woods, which, of course, are full of ticks. Additionally, due to all the wildlife in our area, we can pick up ticks just walking around the neighborhood.

Fleas

I’ve heard healthy dogs don’t attract fleas, and while most healthy dogs are unattractive to fleas, any dog can pick up a flea and bring it into your home. Once inside your home, fleas can lay eggs in carpets, upholstery, cracks in the floor, etc. They can lie dormant for months, and then a nice sunny day, those bitches pop up like you were playing Whack-A-Mole. Unlike Whack-A-Mole, you can’t just pop a flea on the head and think it’s gone. It can literally take you months…months!

Fleas carry diseases. I’m not going to go into them here, but if you are interested, you can read some of the diseases HERE.

Of course, we recently had a bout with Tapeworm, another really gross by product of the infamous flea. In that instance, I could not find evidence of fleas, either on the dogs or in the house, BUT, that doesn’t mean Sampson didn’t ingest a flea, or flea egg whether it was at the vet’s or outside.

Ticks

As I mentioned, we live less than an hour away from where Lyme disease was first discovered. I want to vomit just thinking about these fat bastards, what they do and what they carry. Besides Lyme, they carry a number of serious  diseases, and while most are treatable, it’s just one more thing I don’t want to worry about.

I’m not saying ticks are BETTER than fleas, but usually when I find a tick, it’s ONE tick, and it’s easily removed. We have a small container filled with rubbing alcohol where nasty ticks go to die. It sits on the counter with our tick key, and is always ready when needed. I know some people who put the tick in tape, or a plastic bag with the date on it, in case they need to have the tick checked.

I like to prevent fleas and ticks, as opposed to treating for them, so this is how we do it.

Treating the yard.

Almost immediately upon moving to our home almost 11-years ago, I found a tick, attached to my stomach. We had just moved in, and a lot of items hadn’t been unpacked, so removal was primitive. (I think I held the flashlight and Hubby used a steak knife.) 🙂

I called for a professional service soon after. We used a traditional flea/tick service until about three years ago, that’s when I found Think Green, a professional service that uses a combination of essential oils to spray the yard. They come out four times per year at $95 a treatment. The bonus to this service is…my yard smells like a Tic Tac right after being sprayed. 🙂

Treating the dogs.

In addition to treating our yard, I use a non-toxic flea and tick spray on the dogs. I do this twice per day. Back in the spring, I was only spraying once per day, and there were occasions (maybe once per week,) when I’d find a tick on one of the dogs. Then I switched to twice per day, and that seems to have done the trick.

Ticks tend to thrive in the cooler weather of spring and fall, so we are heading into ‘tick season’ right now. Spraying the dogs twice per day adds more time to my schedule, but if it keeps them from getting ticks, and tick diseases, I’m okay with that.

When I look for a natural/non-toxic tick spray, I look for ingredients I can read and pronounce, (nothing with sodium lauryl sulfate in them.) It’s important to pay attention to the ingredients in natural products, as natural and non-toxic are not the same thing.  Also, some sprays use rubbing alcohol as a base, and while I’m okay spraying that on my dogs with thick Labrador coats, some dogs (especially those with thin coats) could have some issues with skin drying out, which could cause itching.

I typically rotate my flea and tick sprays, and one of my go-to’s is Pet Natural’s of Vermont.

I rotate my spray for two reasons. One, I don’t want Sampson or Delilah to develop and intolerance or have a reaction because I’ve used the same product too much. Two, I don’t want those fleas or ticks to get used to the smell and become immune to it. 🙂

The bonus for using a non-toxic spray, is I can use it on myself as well.

How do you keep your pets from getting fleas or ticks?

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This is part 4, in a series designed to help you make simple changes, that will help reduce toxin exposures for both you and your pets. If you’ve missed the previous installments, or are just tuning in, installment one can be found HERE, installment two can be found HERE, and installment three can be found HERE.

While researching whether it’s true a healthy dog does not get fleas, I came across this…Top 10 Flea Myths from Only Natural Pet.

When I first started seeing a Naturopath, (so many years ago that I cannot remember,) I suddenly became aware of how much toxicity my body is exposed to on any given day.

I became determined to find a way to reduce my exposure to toxicity, and I’m of the mindset, what’s good for the human, is good for the dogs. So I started working on ways to reduce toxins in their lives as well.

If life were ideal, and I was rich beyond imagination, I’d live in a green house, with bamboo floors, and green mattresses. Nothing would be toxic whatsoever. But despite me giving the state my hard earned money every week for that dang-blasted lottery, that dream continues to elude me.

Living cleaner is good for people, it's good for animals, and it's good for the environment, but it can also be very costly. Healthy options don't come cheap. Click To Tweet

This means I have to carefully weigh areas in my life where I can have the most impact for my dollar.

Luckily for me, having a Labrador that puts her mouth on EVERYTHING helped me make a relatively inexpensive change. It happened one day during meal time. I’d fed the dogs and as is the usual course of events, as soon as Delilah inhaled the last bite in her bowl, she rushed to Sampson’s, licked it clean and then licked the outside of the bowl.

Bang! It was like I was hit with a ton of bricks!

The dish soap! How many times did I make a healthy dinner and then serve it on plates washed with chemicals? And lick the bowl myself?

I went immediately to Dr. Google, I found a really lovely website, (too bad I didn’t book mark it,) that recommended ECOS.

I started using it right away.

I’ll be perfectly honest here. (Did you expect less?) The suds don’t last as long as traditional dish soaps, and I seem to use a lot more of it, although that totes could be me. The other thing is, it’s more expensive than say a bottle of Dawn or Palmolive.

Still, in the scope of things, it’s a small increase in my food budget that gives me what I feel is a good return for the money. It also benefits both me and the dogs.

If you want to check the safety of any of your household products, a good place to start is the Environmental Working Group. They list each chemical in the products, and then “grade” the product for safety, breaking down each ingredient with a letter grade of A through F, including areas where the chemicals are sketchy and also where the concerns lie. For example, ECOS has “some” concern for both Asthma/Respiratory as well as Skin Allergies and Irritation, but “low” concern for Developmental & Reproductive Toxicity, Cancer and the Environment.

The overall ‘grade’ for ECOS is “A” as opposed to Palmolive which was graded an”F”.

Because I’m cheap I don’t like to spend a ton of money on cleaners, and I have a Labrador that likes to lick cabinets, I also use my dish detergent for cleaning counters, cabinets, floors and woodwork as well.

Worried about the toxins in your dish detergent? These are the top eight ones you should avoid:

• Phosphates
• Triclosan
• SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate)/SLES (Sodium Laureth sulfate)
• Fragrance (you want to find a detergent that gets its scent from essential oils)
• DEA (Diethanolamine), MEA (Monoethanolamine), TEA (Triethanolamine)
• Chlorine
• Formaldehyde
• Ammonia

For me, I try and do the Google and research the products before purchasing. Just because something tells me it’s “Natural” does not mean it’s not toxic. The key is to know what to avoid and do your research.

Do you have any tips for eliminating/limiting toxins in your home/life?

This is the third installment in a series about reducing toxins in your and your dog’s lives.

If you’ve missed the previous installments, or are just tuning in, installment one can be found HERE, and installment two can be found HERE.