Flea/Tick control for dogs
In the previous entry titled "People food for thought part XV; Herb and spices", I wrote that our stumpy Corgi "Palette" is on fresh food diet, a.k.a. raw
food diet, and since the diet switch from processed food diet, I started
paying more attention to overall health issues such as
over-vaccination, monthly flea/tick treatment etc.
In the previous entry titled "People food for thought Part IX; Citrus fruits", I introduced the recipe of non toxic flea/insect repellent spray that I use for Palette.
To recap, the recipe goes..
Lemon water solution for flea/tick repellent..
1.Slice half a lemon, and put them in the bowl
2.Pour boiling water 1C over the lemon slices, cover it with saran and let it sit overnight
3. To the other bowl,set the kitchen sieve over and pour the lemon/water mixture and discard the rind,seed etc.
4. Pour the solution into a spray bottle and spray the solution to dogs as needed.
Of course, base of the good health of your dogs depends on good diet so, providing the healthy diet is important too.
I also keep cloud nine herbal dip that was diluted with water in the other spray bottle and spray it over the crate bottom panel every time I wash her bed.
** Some essential oil sold for flea/tick repellant contains rosemary oil,which might trigger seizure with EPI dogs.
** If you have cats in the house, tee tree oil and other essential oil are toxic to cats and, avoid using essential oil in your household.
** Some companies are offering essential oils spray for cats and dogs, and it makes me wonder whether some companies have no ideas that cats are toxic to essential oils ...
Lemon water solution spray along with the use of cloud nine herbal dip spray for bedding area for Palette seems to be working so far.
Garlic for flea/tick repellant..
Some people give garlic powder that claim to work on repelling flea/ticks. When I started out the raw diet for Palette, I have tried garlic trick;just grating fresh 1/2 small garlic clove over her meal. Palette loved the flavor of garlic and, I had no tick/flea problems when I was giving garlic now and then along with the meal.
However, after a while, I stopped doing this garlic trick because I have learned that too much garlic can thin the blood and could cause anemia in dogs. I am not sure how concentrated the garlic powder sold for flea/tick repellant for pets will be, but real problem with the garlic powder is that,you never know how much clove of garlic worth you are giving to your dogs.
As I understand it, bellow is the amount of fresh garlic you can give to your dogs.
**Small dogs; 1/4 of garlic clove
** Medium dogs; 1/2 of garlic clove
** Large dogs; 1 garlic clove
Food grade Diatomaceous Earth for flea/tick repellant..
I know that some people use food grade Diatomaceous Earth (not the kind to use for pool),which you can get at the garden center, to combat with flea/tick. The idea is that the DE (short for diatomaceous earth) can dehydrate those flea/tick and protect your pets from them.
They sprinkle food grade Diatomaceous Earth on carpet and let it sit over night,and vacuum it up next day. Those who use food grade Diatomaceous Earth to combat with flea/ticks also sprinkle the food grade Diatomaceous Earth over dog's body and work into the fur.
However, some people say direct application to dog's body seems drying the skin of the dog.
Some people use food grade DE in their yard as well, but I have heard that some people think that treating the yard with DE might actually dehydrate the good bugs such as earthworms and might not be good idea. I think it might be true.
Others treat yard with beneficial namatode to combat with garden bugs,flea,ticks etc..
Preventative collar..
Some people may choose to use the preventative collar for your dogs. However, what if you have two dogs in the house and if one of them grabbed other dog's collar during their play? Are they safe? I would imagine they could ingest some of the ingredient
Preventative tag..
Recently, I noticed that some companies are now offering tick/flea repellant tag,which you would attach to your dog's collar.
Supposedly, one brand's tag is treated with bio energetic process and set to work via using your dogs' energy and send out frequency that repel flea/tick.
The other is similar idea and it is a tag that attach to your dog's collar and it is supposedly work with the idea of the tag is imprinted with electromagnetic charge,then, this energetic charge adapt to your dog's unique bio-energy frequency, and send out the vibrational field around the dogs.
I am not certain that if these items would work as long as it is said to work for 2-3 years. They are the tags that use each dog's energy, there are really no solid yes/no answer to the question whether they really would work on your dogs.
They are costly,and priced around $70-$80 per tag.
Would you spend $70-$80 per tag to find out whether those tags would be for your dogs to combat with flea/ticks?
If it really guaranteed to work for our dogs, it might be good one to try out, but with the price they are at right now, I do not think I would like to spend that much of money just to find out whether they would work for Palette or not.
For me, one lemon which cost me about less than a dollar (67 cents), to make a lemon-water solution is the preferred way to use for flea/ticks etc.
All that being said, base of the health is the diet. If you or your dogs were on poor diet filled with processed foods, no matter what you would do for flea/tick prevention, they would back to you or your dogs.
Therefore, if you have problems with flea/ticks, start with changing the diet to better fresh food diet. Not just for your dogs, but also you can start cooking with fresh food for your family. Providing fresh food is much much healthier than heating up/scooping up the processed food for your dogs or for your family.
You can read my experience of raw feeding for Palette with "raw feeding 911 series". You can read the previous entry titled "Raw feeding 911 Part I" here.
Before I turned to natural repellant, I used to use monthly flea/tick control spot on, and it was working,but then, after the diet switch, I started paying more attention on what it really was, and wondered why the instruction paper says to apply between shoulder blade to tail and warn people not to let it contact with our skin.
If the spot on was that dangerous for human skin, what would happen if dogs lick their fur and ingest some of the spot on.. I wonder if it is not the problem because topical will be put on their back where they cannot reach with their mouth.
Even then, one thing that bugs me is that active ingredient in Palette's monthly treatment was Permethrin,and when I look it up what it is, it is the chemical commonly used for insecticide,acaricide,and insect repellant. This chemical belongs to pyrethroid,and works as neurotoxin.
This main ingredient "Permethrin" is toxic to cats, and therefore,you would see the warning sign that says not to apply monthly flea/tick treatment on your cats.
Another tick/flea monthly treatment drug has Amitraz as one of active ingredients and it is also one of active ingredients in preventive collar.
In 2011 March, North Carolina University has released the publication on the study of monthly flea/tick preventative that contains Amitraz. They have studied 22 dogs, and all of them developed pemphigus foliaceus;autoimmune disorder of the skin.
The study says that 8 dogs out of 22 dogs developed lesions restricted to only on the application site, and the other 14 dogs have developed lesions on the application site plus non contagious areas.
To read more on the study in the article written by North Carolina University team, please click here.
It seems one of the products that contains Amitraz as one of the ingredients would be discontinued. If you apply monthly topical application to your dogs, check the ingredients and if you see Amitraz in the list, talk to your vet about other options for the flea/tick treatment.
Would you still use the monthly flea/tick treatment?
Early detection of flea/ticks..
No matter what method you would choose to combat with flea/ticks, you would see a tick or a flea which your dogs might have picked up outside.
One thing you can do to detect flea/tick early is to use the flea comb daily. That way, if there were any flea were present,you can get rid of them right away.
Also, make time for bonding with your dogs and, use some of the time for rubbing/petting. While you are rubbing/petting your dogs, sometimes, you could find the tick/flea that just laded on your dogs and, if you caught it early, less painful for your dogs down the road and, it is good for early detection of the flea/tick.
Vacuuming the house often,and mowing regularly also helps.
If you find a tick on your dogs, remove the ticks right away. The longer they stay on your dogs, the more they can feed on your dogs. The longer they stay, their body also get engorged,and body size is one way you can see whether the ticks you found were on your dogs long time or just picked it up when they went for potty.
<How to remove tick>
1. When you find the tick on your dogs, use the forceps or tweezers or tick removal tool and hold the tick as close to the skin as possible and pulls straight out without twisting or plying.
** Some people might try using the nail polish etc.. to make the tick retreat by themselves and off from your dogs, but don't. By doing so, ticks could get irritated and inject the saliva into your dogs' skin when they exit and, it is one dangerous way to remove the ticks.
2. When you removed the tick, drop them into a container that has 100% rubbed alcohol to kill them.
** Make sure to check if you pulled all the parts including head,legs and did not crush the tick in the process of removing the ticks from your dogs. If you think you have crushed the tick or tick's head is still under your dog's skin, it would be better for you to take your dogs to the vet
** Save the container with the tick for tick identification. You can bring them to the vet and they could see the tick to identify what kind of ticks they are.
** If they know what kind of ticks they are, it is easier for them to know what tick disease they should test your dogs for if necessary.
3. Wipe the area where tick was with rubbed alcohol,and keep an eye on your dogs
What to do after the tick removal
Last year, I have found a tick. It was not engorged,and I thought that it was a tick that got on Palette very recent.
I waited for 3 weeks or so from the date I removed the tick from Palette, and kept an eye for her to see if any visible change in her such as lethargic, fever,vomiting, lack of appetite etc.. something that makes me feel unusual. If she looked abnormal, then I would have took her to the vet right then.
<Snap 4DX test>
She was acting as usual and,weeks passed by,and I took her to the vet for tick test called Snap4DX that will test your dogs for major tick disease.
Snap 4DX test is in-house test and you can get the result after 15 minutes or so. Result would come as yes/no.
Since Palette was negative on the test, I had not had to move on to the next detailed test, but if your dogs' test came out as positive, there are 2 detailed tests for ticks.
<IFA test>
One test is called IFA test and it is a titer test and check the anti body in your dogs just like titers for vaccination. As I understand it, IFA test covers larger variety of tick disease to check for.
If you were not familiar with titers in generals, bellow explains what titer is for vaccination. For ticks, idea is the same.
What is "Titer"?
"Titer" is the name of the test, and this test measure the amount of antibody to disease.
According to the book titled "Stop the shot" by John Clifton, he explains that vet draw one ounce of blood, and the original sample is expressed with ratio 1:1, then discard one half of the blood, and replace it with a dilutant, and this first diluted solution is expressed with the ratio 1:2.
So, with the first step,the original blood sample was diluted by half.
Then, he explains, vet will test the solution to see if there were any antibody in the diluted sample. If there were, vet will dilute the diluted sample by half again and check the anti body in the sample.This second solution is expressed with ratio 1:4.
So, vet will keep diluting the sample and keep checking the antibody in the sample and when he saw no antibody is present, he would stop the dilution and he will look the ration of last solution. That number will be called "Titer number".
With common sense, higher the number is, the more anti body present in the blood.
John writes, even if titer score were lower, it does not mean that the dog in question has no immunity to the virus/disease.
<Quant C6 test>
As I understand it, Quant C6 test result will come with number of C6 antibodies; how many antibodies are at present in the blood sample. Therefore, you can compare the number to check the progress you have made if your dogs were going through the tick disease treatment and also,since you can get the result with number you can see if your dogs' antibody level require the treatment for the disease they were tested for.
If I understand it correctly, number above 30 in the test result should get treated and retest your dog in 6 months, but you would want to check with your vet to be sure about that.
If your vet runs tick panel test, there is one laboratory known for accuracy and fast turn around. You can ask your vet to send the blood to the laboratory for accurate reading of the blood sample.
The laboratory is called "Protatek Reference Laboratory" in AZ,USA. To visit their website,please click here.
Feeding your dogs healthy diet for overall better health is the most important thing, but there are much more to pay attention to...
In the previous entry titled "People food for thought Part IX; Citrus fruits", I introduced the recipe of non toxic flea/insect repellent spray that I use for Palette.
To recap, the recipe goes..
Lemon water solution for flea/tick repellent..
1.Slice half a lemon, and put them in the bowl
2.Pour boiling water 1C over the lemon slices, cover it with saran and let it sit overnight
3. To the other bowl,set the kitchen sieve over and pour the lemon/water mixture and discard the rind,seed etc.
4. Pour the solution into a spray bottle and spray the solution to dogs as needed.
Of course, base of the good health of your dogs depends on good diet so, providing the healthy diet is important too.
I also keep cloud nine herbal dip that was diluted with water in the other spray bottle and spray it over the crate bottom panel every time I wash her bed.
** Some essential oil sold for flea/tick repellant contains rosemary oil,which might trigger seizure with EPI dogs.
** If you have cats in the house, tee tree oil and other essential oil are toxic to cats and, avoid using essential oil in your household.
** Some companies are offering essential oils spray for cats and dogs, and it makes me wonder whether some companies have no ideas that cats are toxic to essential oils ...
Lemon water solution spray along with the use of cloud nine herbal dip spray for bedding area for Palette seems to be working so far.
Garlic for flea/tick repellant..
Some people give garlic powder that claim to work on repelling flea/ticks. When I started out the raw diet for Palette, I have tried garlic trick;just grating fresh 1/2 small garlic clove over her meal. Palette loved the flavor of garlic and, I had no tick/flea problems when I was giving garlic now and then along with the meal.
However, after a while, I stopped doing this garlic trick because I have learned that too much garlic can thin the blood and could cause anemia in dogs. I am not sure how concentrated the garlic powder sold for flea/tick repellant for pets will be, but real problem with the garlic powder is that,you never know how much clove of garlic worth you are giving to your dogs.
As I understand it, bellow is the amount of fresh garlic you can give to your dogs.
**Small dogs; 1/4 of garlic clove
** Medium dogs; 1/2 of garlic clove
** Large dogs; 1 garlic clove
Food grade Diatomaceous Earth for flea/tick repellant..
I know that some people use food grade Diatomaceous Earth (not the kind to use for pool),which you can get at the garden center, to combat with flea/tick. The idea is that the DE (short for diatomaceous earth) can dehydrate those flea/tick and protect your pets from them.
They sprinkle food grade Diatomaceous Earth on carpet and let it sit over night,and vacuum it up next day. Those who use food grade Diatomaceous Earth to combat with flea/ticks also sprinkle the food grade Diatomaceous Earth over dog's body and work into the fur.
However, some people say direct application to dog's body seems drying the skin of the dog.
Some people use food grade DE in their yard as well, but I have heard that some people think that treating the yard with DE might actually dehydrate the good bugs such as earthworms and might not be good idea. I think it might be true.
Others treat yard with beneficial namatode to combat with garden bugs,flea,ticks etc..
Preventative collar..
Some people may choose to use the preventative collar for your dogs. However, what if you have two dogs in the house and if one of them grabbed other dog's collar during their play? Are they safe? I would imagine they could ingest some of the ingredient
Preventative tag..
Recently, I noticed that some companies are now offering tick/flea repellant tag,which you would attach to your dog's collar.
Supposedly, one brand's tag is treated with bio energetic process and set to work via using your dogs' energy and send out frequency that repel flea/tick.
The other is similar idea and it is a tag that attach to your dog's collar and it is supposedly work with the idea of the tag is imprinted with electromagnetic charge,then, this energetic charge adapt to your dog's unique bio-energy frequency, and send out the vibrational field around the dogs.
I am not certain that if these items would work as long as it is said to work for 2-3 years. They are the tags that use each dog's energy, there are really no solid yes/no answer to the question whether they really would work on your dogs.
They are costly,and priced around $70-$80 per tag.
Would you spend $70-$80 per tag to find out whether those tags would be for your dogs to combat with flea/ticks?
If it really guaranteed to work for our dogs, it might be good one to try out, but with the price they are at right now, I do not think I would like to spend that much of money just to find out whether they would work for Palette or not.
For me, one lemon which cost me about less than a dollar (67 cents), to make a lemon-water solution is the preferred way to use for flea/ticks etc.
All that being said, base of the health is the diet. If you or your dogs were on poor diet filled with processed foods, no matter what you would do for flea/tick prevention, they would back to you or your dogs.
Therefore, if you have problems with flea/ticks, start with changing the diet to better fresh food diet. Not just for your dogs, but also you can start cooking with fresh food for your family. Providing fresh food is much much healthier than heating up/scooping up the processed food for your dogs or for your family.
You can read my experience of raw feeding for Palette with "raw feeding 911 series". You can read the previous entry titled "Raw feeding 911 Part I" here.
Before I turned to natural repellant, I used to use monthly flea/tick control spot on, and it was working,but then, after the diet switch, I started paying more attention on what it really was, and wondered why the instruction paper says to apply between shoulder blade to tail and warn people not to let it contact with our skin.
If the spot on was that dangerous for human skin, what would happen if dogs lick their fur and ingest some of the spot on.. I wonder if it is not the problem because topical will be put on their back where they cannot reach with their mouth.
Even then, one thing that bugs me is that active ingredient in Palette's monthly treatment was Permethrin,and when I look it up what it is, it is the chemical commonly used for insecticide,acaricide,and insect repellant. This chemical belongs to pyrethroid,and works as neurotoxin.
This main ingredient "Permethrin" is toxic to cats, and therefore,you would see the warning sign that says not to apply monthly flea/tick treatment on your cats.
Another tick/flea monthly treatment drug has Amitraz as one of active ingredients and it is also one of active ingredients in preventive collar.
In 2011 March, North Carolina University has released the publication on the study of monthly flea/tick preventative that contains Amitraz. They have studied 22 dogs, and all of them developed pemphigus foliaceus;autoimmune disorder of the skin.
The study says that 8 dogs out of 22 dogs developed lesions restricted to only on the application site, and the other 14 dogs have developed lesions on the application site plus non contagious areas.
To read more on the study in the article written by North Carolina University team, please click here.
It seems one of the products that contains Amitraz as one of the ingredients would be discontinued. If you apply monthly topical application to your dogs, check the ingredients and if you see Amitraz in the list, talk to your vet about other options for the flea/tick treatment.
Would you still use the monthly flea/tick treatment?
Early detection of flea/ticks..
No matter what method you would choose to combat with flea/ticks, you would see a tick or a flea which your dogs might have picked up outside.
One thing you can do to detect flea/tick early is to use the flea comb daily. That way, if there were any flea were present,you can get rid of them right away.
Also, make time for bonding with your dogs and, use some of the time for rubbing/petting. While you are rubbing/petting your dogs, sometimes, you could find the tick/flea that just laded on your dogs and, if you caught it early, less painful for your dogs down the road and, it is good for early detection of the flea/tick.
Vacuuming the house often,and mowing regularly also helps.
If you find a tick on your dogs, remove the ticks right away. The longer they stay on your dogs, the more they can feed on your dogs. The longer they stay, their body also get engorged,and body size is one way you can see whether the ticks you found were on your dogs long time or just picked it up when they went for potty.
<How to remove tick>
1. When you find the tick on your dogs, use the forceps or tweezers or tick removal tool and hold the tick as close to the skin as possible and pulls straight out without twisting or plying.
** Some people might try using the nail polish etc.. to make the tick retreat by themselves and off from your dogs, but don't. By doing so, ticks could get irritated and inject the saliva into your dogs' skin when they exit and, it is one dangerous way to remove the ticks.
2. When you removed the tick, drop them into a container that has 100% rubbed alcohol to kill them.
** Make sure to check if you pulled all the parts including head,legs and did not crush the tick in the process of removing the ticks from your dogs. If you think you have crushed the tick or tick's head is still under your dog's skin, it would be better for you to take your dogs to the vet
** Save the container with the tick for tick identification. You can bring them to the vet and they could see the tick to identify what kind of ticks they are.
** If they know what kind of ticks they are, it is easier for them to know what tick disease they should test your dogs for if necessary.
3. Wipe the area where tick was with rubbed alcohol,and keep an eye on your dogs
What to do after the tick removal
Last year, I have found a tick. It was not engorged,and I thought that it was a tick that got on Palette very recent.
I waited for 3 weeks or so from the date I removed the tick from Palette, and kept an eye for her to see if any visible change in her such as lethargic, fever,vomiting, lack of appetite etc.. something that makes me feel unusual. If she looked abnormal, then I would have took her to the vet right then.
<Snap 4DX test>
She was acting as usual and,weeks passed by,and I took her to the vet for tick test called Snap4DX that will test your dogs for major tick disease.
Snap 4DX test is in-house test and you can get the result after 15 minutes or so. Result would come as yes/no.
Since Palette was negative on the test, I had not had to move on to the next detailed test, but if your dogs' test came out as positive, there are 2 detailed tests for ticks.
<IFA test>
One test is called IFA test and it is a titer test and check the anti body in your dogs just like titers for vaccination. As I understand it, IFA test covers larger variety of tick disease to check for.
If you were not familiar with titers in generals, bellow explains what titer is for vaccination. For ticks, idea is the same.
What is "Titer"?
"Titer" is the name of the test, and this test measure the amount of antibody to disease.
According to the book titled "Stop the shot" by John Clifton, he explains that vet draw one ounce of blood, and the original sample is expressed with ratio 1:1, then discard one half of the blood, and replace it with a dilutant, and this first diluted solution is expressed with the ratio 1:2.
So, with the first step,the original blood sample was diluted by half.
Then, he explains, vet will test the solution to see if there were any antibody in the diluted sample. If there were, vet will dilute the diluted sample by half again and check the anti body in the sample.This second solution is expressed with ratio 1:4.
So, vet will keep diluting the sample and keep checking the antibody in the sample and when he saw no antibody is present, he would stop the dilution and he will look the ration of last solution. That number will be called "Titer number".
With common sense, higher the number is, the more anti body present in the blood.
John writes, even if titer score were lower, it does not mean that the dog in question has no immunity to the virus/disease.
<Quant C6 test>
As I understand it, Quant C6 test result will come with number of C6 antibodies; how many antibodies are at present in the blood sample. Therefore, you can compare the number to check the progress you have made if your dogs were going through the tick disease treatment and also,since you can get the result with number you can see if your dogs' antibody level require the treatment for the disease they were tested for.
If I understand it correctly, number above 30 in the test result should get treated and retest your dog in 6 months, but you would want to check with your vet to be sure about that.
If your vet runs tick panel test, there is one laboratory known for accuracy and fast turn around. You can ask your vet to send the blood to the laboratory for accurate reading of the blood sample.
The laboratory is called "Protatek Reference Laboratory" in AZ,USA. To visit their website,please click here.
Feeding your dogs healthy diet for overall better health is the most important thing, but there are much more to pay attention to...
Posted by yassy at 7/10/2011 6:14 PM 
Categories: Dog Health
Tags: dogs ticks flea lemon water spray DE tick test
Categories: Dog Health
Tags: dogs ticks flea lemon water spray DE tick test
Comments