Natural Flea Treatment for Dogs

Fleas are tiny, wingless parasites that attack dogs to suck out blood from their body for survival. Moreover, when fleas live on the skin of your dog, underneath the dog fur, they irritate their skin that lead to allergies and various skin infections. Thus they can make your healthy pet sick. The harmful effects of fleas are not just confined to dogs alone but these pests soon spread all over the house and harm humans too. Eliminating these insects is a challenging task mainly because they multiply in numbers quickly by laying as many as 40 - 45 eggs everyday.

Homemade Flea Treatment for Dogs

When the dog in the house is infested with fleas, most pet owners want to get rid of the problem with the help of natural treatments only. This is because commercial anti-flea products that are available in the market contain strong chemicals that can be harmful for dogs as well as for humans. Here are a few effective flea treatments:

Groom with a Flea Comb
Basically a flea comb is a special fine-toothed comb available in pet shops. The teeth of this comb are so close to each other that it can catch the fleas as well as the nits or flea larvae. Flea combing should be done daily, weekly or monthly depending on the severity of the flea infestation. While combing, give special attention to problem areas like the belly and inner part of the legs. After using the flea comb, place it in a bowl of soapy solution made of dishwashing soap and water. This will prevent the fleas from spreading all over the house.

Apply Homemade Flea Shampoo
You may be surprised to know that mild dishwashing soap serves as an excellent flea remedy for dogs and it can destroy the fleas hidden in their fur really well. In half cup of dishwashing soap, mix 2 teaspoons of rubbing alcohol and 4 cups of lukewarm water. Wet the fur with this mixture and bring a lather to it. Then wash off thoroughly with plain water. After bath, dry the fur and brush it as usual.

Use Citrus Extracts for Bath
Take a bunch of citrus fruits like lemon, oranges, grapes. Take out the juice from all these fruits and put their pulps into a pan of water. Place this pan on heat and bring to a boil. After that, continue to simmer it for the next few hours till the rinds become soft. Now, scoop out the rinds and mash them to extract out liquid from them. Then pour the extracted liquid back into the pan and simmer it for 2 - 3 hours. Remove the pan from heat, allow it to cool down and then strain out the liquid with a cheesecloth. Add one-fourth cup of this liquid into a tub of water and use it as your pet's bathwater. When the fleas come in contact with this liquid, they will die. You can put the remaining liquid in a bottle and store it in a refrigerator.

Use Natural Flea Repellent Spray
To prepare the flea repellent, you need pure lavender oil and cedar wood oil. Take a cup of lavender oil and add 2 - 3 drops of cedar wood oil into it and the spray is ready for use. Keep it in a spray bottle and apply it into the dog's fur after every bath.

Feed Garlic
Garlic can be used as an internal flea repellent. This is because when a dog consumes garlic, a typical smell is excreted through its skin. The fleas present on the dog's skin surface cannot tolerate this smell and they are forced to leave the pet's body. So, every time you serve food to your dog, do not forget to add some garlic juice to it.

Natural flea treatments should always be accompanied by proper flea control in the house. Unless and until you eradicate them completely from your house they will infest the dogs all over again. Clean up all the soft fabric items like carpets, cushions, pet bedding, etc. using vacuum cleaner. Hard surfaces should be cleaned with rubbing alcohol. Prepare a flea repellent powder by mixing boric acid and diatomaceous earth. Sprinkle it all over the house. This will prevent any further growth of fleas in the house.