FLEA AND TICK PREVENTION: Natural Flea and Tick Treatments and Repellants for Dogs

So what would you say is the number one reason why people should actually look at natural flea and tick prevention? And why shouldn't we just, you know, take that conventional flea and tick treatment?

You're basically poisoning your dog's ecosystem by giving them pesticides that's making their blood poison. And it, it affects liver health. Liver health affects everything in your dog. It affects the urinary system, it affects the digestion, it affects the lymphatic system, it affects the endocrine system. So I think that's the biggest point. I mean, want vibrant health and you're not going to get that by feeding a pesticide.

Hey guys, welcome to our channel. Today we are with Rita Hogan, the canine herbalist. She's also the co founder of farm dog natural and she also runs the page k9herbalist.com all right, so today we're.

Going to speak about ticks and fleas and how to prevent them naturally in your dog. We're talking about this because basically there has been a lot of talk about the conventional flea and trick treatments lately in which dog may have had seizures. We just want to know what can we do naturally to prevent flea and tick.

I think a multifaceted approach is what's needed. A shampoo, something that, to repel them. Building health with diet and exercise and fresh air and breathing and just trying to build health.

When we talk to people, they're always like, yeah, well, but when I find a tick, it might already be too late because one tick can make a dog sick, right?

Absolutely. You know, and that's one of the disappointments in dealing with ticks is because they do carry, you know, they can carry lyme disease or urlechia or anaplasmosis or baptisia. You know, those are all tick borne diseases. We need to be diligent at looking through your dog's fur, using resonating collars, using something to repel the tick, you know, using that multiple faceted approach and looking through the fur yourself. If you live in a really densely tick populated area, possibly during tick season, just avoid the areas that you find that your dog always gets ticks.

That's a very good point.

Yeah. That is.

What's really important to know is that fleas and ticks are completely different creatures. And I think that because they're the two insects that really bother our dogs, we tend to put them together like cats and dogs. It's more effective to address them separately than it is together. I'm just going to go through some of my favorite remedies for fleas I love is a company called Bug Zone, and they make a tag. It's a energetic resonance tag. Of course, you know, none of these remedies work for every single dog. You have to figure out what works for your dog. But I really like the resonance tag because it does not have a chemical effect on the dog.

Okay.

Another one is you. If your dog is more of a cool dog, where they seek out cool places in the house when they're not exercising. If you. If you touch their heads and paws, they are cool. Organic, fresh garlic is really good, but of course, it takes time to build that up in the blood.

I think some people think that garlic might be toxic. So maybe you want to explain, like, is it. Is it toxic?

Anything that you put in and on your dog can be toxic. It's a matter of dosage. So you have to be really careful of how much garlic you give your dog. But I've been feeding my cool dogs garlic probably for the last 20 years. And you only want to use organic, freshly chopped garlic in very small amounts.

Okay.

If you're not going to freshly chop that garlic, don't use it. And also avoid using it in dogs that are warm or pant easily or. Or, you know, my dog's hot all the time because that's going to exacerbate that heat for them because garlic is very warming. Okay. So internally, garlic can really help repel fleas. And then we have essential oils, one of my favorite ones for dogs, if they are okay with that essential oil. If a dog runs out of the room every time you go to take essential oils to put them on to repel fleas, you want to not give that essential oil. But if your dog is okay with an essential oil called geranium, just really basic geranium, Six drops of geranium blended with one ounce of carrier oil, like a medium train chain, triglyceride oil, like a grapeseed oil. Coconut oil is fine. Six drops in one ounce of oil of just geranium does a great job for fleas and ticks. It's one of the essential oils that works for fleas and ticks. That one I really like. But again, want to make sure that it's okay with the dog. You can use other essential oils. Put it like on a bandana, because the dogs, their olfactory system, their nose is very sensitive, and you want to respect that in your dog. You can use a bandana where you put diluted essential oils on there. Cedarwood Atlas is good.

Okay.

That also works for Ticks. The geranium patchouli, apanax. That is myrrh, but it's called sweet myrrh. Both of myrrh and sweet myrrh work pretty well. But like putting the drops on the bandana and then putting around your dog when they go outside, and then I just keep it in a plastic bag outside and then just put it back in the bag when I'm done so that I just slip it over their head when they go outside. So using essential oils can be very effective. And then there's a lot of sprays on the market that are also pretty good. The ones that I tend to avoid have clove in them. I'm not a big believer in lots of clove for dogs because of the constituents in clove.

A lot of people may say, yeah, I used essential oils and it didn't work. How do we approach natural flea and tick prevention?

I think the biggest thing to know is that dogs are individuals. Essential oil works on one dog, it's not going to work on another. And you need to really individualize how you're addressing fleas and ticks with your dog. Just because it didn't work with your dog doesn't mean it won't work for another dog. And that goes with everything that you're using for fleas and ticks.

So basically you would say, like, not only one soldier can fight a whole war. You might need an army.

You definitely need an army. You need to deal with the outside of your home as well as the inside of your home. And that's mostly with fleas. You know, ticks are different, and you just gotta be really careful and make sure that you're combing your dogs for ticks when they're in areas that have ticks. I like amber collars.

What exactly is an amber collar?

For those that don't know, amber is a resin and it has like little stone, little pebbles, and they form it into a collar and it creates static on the skin, which doesn't allow fleas to adhere. And they can't get a hold, so they drop off so they don't come in with your dog. It doesn't work for every dog because of the fact that you have to keep the amber on the dog specifically all the time. It makes static in the fur. So it doesn't work for people that don't put collars on their dogs any.

More that you can recommend for prevention for.

For ticks, I think that the bug zone tags, they have one for ticks work very well. Myrrh and geranium work well, if your dog is okay with those oils, especially with the bandana, you know, that multifaceted approach, you know, you may have to literally, you know, spray your dog while you're out, you know, while you're in the forest. You know, I like to pack a spray. There's a spray that, you know, you can't buy online, but there's a lemon rosemary spray that I use murrer with. And I literally missed. We missed while we're out, and we missed every 30 minutes. And we do the bandana, we do the, the bug zone collar for ticks. And I think, you know, you have to take a multifaceted approach and figure out what works with your dog and keep trying new things.

Yeah, that is great advice. Yeah, yeah. How about apple cider vinegar?

That can work for fleas. Again, that apple cider vinegar tends to work best on dogs that are cool, that are not super hot. I've seen the tolerance goes down as the heat goes up.

Okay, let me ask you a question. What would you say is another step pet parents can take as far as natural preventative? I kind of hear that a natural fresh diet and a strong immune system is something that you.

Oh, absolutely. Because, you know, it's absolutely normal to have for a dog to have a few fleas on them. But when you do fresh food, when you're feeding a raw diet or a fresh food diet and you're focusing on the immune system and dogs have proper amounts of trace minerals and vitamins, they don't tend to get infested with fleas. They just get one or two or might and then hop off.

People always say parasites don't want to go into healthy dogs. So does a raw food diet. Is that the first step to preventing ticks as well?

Logic would say that, you know, the healthier you are, the less infested you're going to be. However, I don't know the science behind that, but I do know that ticks and fleas are very different creatures. And ticks are much more predatory than fleas are in that they have a different way that they develop where their vegetation carrions when they are young. And then they become carnivorous as they age and they really need a certain blood meal and then they fall off. And their main goal is just to replicate. So while dogs and wolves, right, in particular, a lot of them don't spend a lot of time being completely infested with ticks because they are so healthy, but not saying that ticks don't bite them But I think definitely for fleas. My favorite flea tool across the board is a really good flea comb. Fleas don't tend to burrow into really, really thick coats. For short haired dogs a flea comb is great because people think oh my dog has a flea on him. You know that's just terrible. But actually that's actually normal shampooing helps as well. You know, a good citrus based shampoo tends to help a lot keeping the coat clean. If you are having a problem with fleas and there, you know there's lots of homeopathic remedies that work for especially reactions to bites just becoming more resistant. There are some good homeopathic remedies if you want to work with a homeopathic vet.

So to resume, what we can do to prevent fleas and ticks in our dogs naturally is we can use garlic in our dog's food. Fresh garlic. We can use essential oils. We can use the amber collar and the tag. And an oval fresh food diet will make your dog much healthier and hopefully repel please. Definitely. And ticks as well. Thank you so much Rita Hogan.

You're welcome.

Sitting down with us and talking about so so important topic because you are literally saving money live. Tell everybody where they can find you please.

You can find me@k9herbalist.com awesome.

And if you want to find out more about how to protect your home and your yard from please and ticks please click the video over here.

Bye bye Sam.