Flea Bath

[murphybr]

Thought I would add another tip as it would seem I'm becoming a regular home remedy person.  Normally we use Frontline for fleas but Sammy still got fleas. I don't think I've ever seen a flea till now.  I think it was a combination of being a few days behind on his monthly dose and unbeknownst to us, bringing him to a home that was infested with fleas.  Poor Sammy. the fleas must have thought they were in heaven when he showed up. Well it was too soon to dose him again with the Frontline and even though we considered changing the brand we use which is still up for discussion, we wanted to give him a bath while we waited for the right time to dose again and I couldn't let him suffer with that scratching.  I went online and found a homemade flea shampoo and it worked.  Fortunately he wasn't totally infested but it got rid of what he had.  The recipe is: Mix together 1/2 cup of Dawn dish detergent or baby shampoo, 1/2 cup of either apple cider vinegar or white vinegar, 1/2 cup of water.  I used a 2 liter soda bottle so I could shake it up and then poured some into a small water bottle I had so I could use that as the shampoo bottle and be easier for me to handle.  Soap him up near his head first so any fleas that are fleeing will head away from his eyes, ears and nose and then once he's soaped up all over leave the suds on for five minutes before rinsing.  You can use a flea comb to remove any fleas you see that do manage to get up to your dogs ears, eyes or nose.  Of course you can adjust the amount of each ingredient if you need a larger amount of shampoo i.e.1 cup of each etc.  I found this on dogster.com and there are other variations on vetinfo.com too.  Still looking around online I saw others have used essential oils and one used Lemon Joy dish soap with Murphy's oil soap.  Apparently that kills the fleas immediately and also the eggs.  Yet another recipe uses 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. baking soda and 1 cup apple cider vinegar with no soap.  I'm sure there are many, many more out there but the one I've listed worked and I happened to have the items on hand so it was great.  Hopes this helps anyone out there.  I never thought I'd have to give Sammy a flea bath but now that I have I'm happy I'm not adding yet more chemicals to him with a commercial flea shampoo.  The monthly Frontline (or whatever we decide to use) is enough chemicals as far as I'm concerned in the flea wars! 

[Hillscreek]

Good tips. 

Frontline didn't work for Angus. Use K9Advantix11. Takes care of fleas and ticks for him. 

[kieiras mom]

thanks for this tip!