When using home remedies for fleas on dogs remember to avoid tricks like garlic and brewers yeast. Garlic is a blood thinner and can make it difficult for the blood to clot if your dog is injured, and brewer’s yeast can cause allergic reactions in some dogs that are just as bad if not worse than the fleas they are supposed to be treating. As with any flea treatment, preventing the fleas is easier than getting rid of an infestation later!
Symptoms of Fleas on Dogs
- Small pepper-like flecks in the coat
- Eggs on the dog
- Eggs in bedding
- Dermatitis from allergies
- Scratching
- Licking
- Biting at the skin
- Hair loss
- Scabs
- Hot spots
- Pale gums
- Tapeworm
How to prevent Fleas on Dogs
Begin treatment measures even if fleas aren’t obviously present. By treating your cat as though fleas are, in fact, present you’ll never have to worry about them becoming a problem.
- Regularly wash cat bedding, especially of cats that go outside. Use hot water to wash and a hot dry to dry the bedding.
- Vacuum your home at least once a week. That way if a rogue flea manages to make it into your home you can get rid of them before they lay eggs and you end up with a serious flea problem.
- Keep your lawn mowed, don’t have brush piles and use beneficial nematodes to keep fleas at bay.
How to treat Fleas on Dogs
- Make a homemade flea collar for your dog. Put a few drops of lavender oil in a few drops of water and then drop onto your dogs collar with an eye dropper.
- Mix together some apple cider vinegar and a few drops of lavender oil with some water in a spray bottle and use it to spray down your dog. Avoid the face but thoroughly spray the body.
- Add a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to your dogs water for every 40 pounds of dog in your home.
- Use food grade diatomaceous earth in a dry shampoo. This safe for animals agent drys out the fleas. They literally dehydrate to death. Just shake it onto your dog and brush it through their fur. Dust onto their bedding too for best results.
- Make a flea trap of soapy water in a shallow dish like a plastic lid and a night light. The fleas will take off at night for the water and drown themselves.
- Give your dog a bath. It’s simple and a quick run over with some mild baby shampoo and some water, making sure to get up around the neck and ears, is the best way to get started with any treatment.
- Vacuum once a week and throw the bag out with you’re finished. Vacuum everything: drapes, carpets and even furniture.
- Sprinkle beneficial nematodes in your grass to kill off any fleas living out there that can latch onto your pet and follow them indoors.
- Make a sachet for your dog with a teaspoon of lavender buds and a handful of cedar chips in a small, breathable bag. Tuck it under your dogs bedding.
