I am a first time owner of a rat terrier.  I have had labs all my life, so this little dog is a new experience for me.  Dega is almost 5 months old and taking care of her is scaring me to death!  I have been giving her baths with an oatmeal/flea shampoo but it hasn't been doing much for her fleas.  I have heard about the Brewer's Yeast and garlic pills to get rid of the fleas, but I am afraid to give them to her because I don't know if it is safe.  Some people say it is some say it isn't.  I have tried all the flea spot treatments from the vet on my other dogs, and none have ever worked.  Flea sprays don't seem to work either.  I treat my house with Sevin's dust, and use a light sprinkling on my big dogs, which helps.  Sorry if I am rambling, but Dega is so special I just want to make sure I am not using something on her that will hurt her.

First, i wanted to say, hi, and welcome to the site..... 

I don't know any natural remedies for fleas.... but i have always used either advantage, or frontline....  and they do fine with that.....   but if you have problems with ticks... frontline will do... but i don't have problems with ticks in this area too bad, plus they are not outside dogs, which hels so i just use advantage on them.....   each dogs are different... 

Hi TooBusy,

I am very particular about what I feed my dogs and what I use for flea preventative and heartworm preventative.  I see a holistic vet and even she will admit that natural remedies for flea control isn't effective.  She suggests using K9 Advantix - or if  your dog has seizures, to use Frontline.  K9 Advantix should NEVER be used on dogs who have seizures.

Trust me, I've tried them all - and nothing worked.  I got totally infested with fleas last year.  It was horrible.  The only thing that worked, unfortunately, was the pesticides... bummer!

Good luck and welcome to the site!

To kill the fleas you might try something with diatomaceous earth,  which is not a poison but physically cuts through the fleas protective covering and they become dehydrated.  It feels like powder to the touch but to fleas it's a bunch of jagged broken shells.  If you buy diatomaceous earth by itself,  please be sure it's food grade,  and not the type used in swimming pool filters.

http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/products/Only-Natural-Pet-All-in-One-Flea-Remedy/999012.aspx

I tried that, Ski.  It didn't help and it was a HUGE mess!!  That's exactly the product I bought, also!

That's disappointing.  I would have thought that since it's not a poison that it would've worked. 

Posted By Erinj09 on 05/09/2008 3:41 PM
how often does everyone use advantix or frontline on their dogs? is it like it protects for 6 months then you reaply and dont have to for another 6 or something like that? sorry probably sounds stupid but i just dont know... lol
~Erin

I've only used Frontline Plus and it's good against fleas for 3 months.  For tick protection,  you need to apply it monthly.  Or so they claim.  I've always been happy with it though.

Gotta give it at least 24 or more hours to kick in...

I think with a lot of these remedies, the fleas are becoming resistant to it from all the years of them being on the market.... but that's just my opinion of course!

I am actually seeing the fleas. I put the Advantage on her on May 7 and again on May 27. Here it is June 3rd, and there are fleas all over her. I don't know what to do. I bathed her once between the two applications, and haven't since then. Also, we bombed the house and treated the other animals, and haven't seen any fleas on them or anywhere in the house.  Just on Dega.  The fleas are driving us both crazy!

We use frontline as soon as it warms up and try to aviod washing as much as possible.

I understand that a dog's coat is supposed to regulate the dog's temperatureetc.etc But I clip their hair down to the pont that they look like a AHRT, it seems to help immensely. I make sure to avoid prolonged exposure to the sun because their skin is sensitive but I swear it does wonders, especially if you can safely clean up the hair around the neck, ears and butt, it does wonders. Most ratties have hardly any hair on the undercarrage, armpits where alot of other dogs suffer. Fleas seem to prey on concealed hairy areas to hide in and if you take away the hiding spots you remove the fleas.

Fleas are seriously tough to get rid of. It basically requires a total house cleaning. Not only are they on your dog, in the carpet, in your bedding and the dogs, but they are problaby in the sandy soil outside as well. A flea preventative only works on one stage of the flea, in preventing the eggs to hatch. If you already have live fleas, my sister shared with me what to do, from her vet. You have to vacuum the entire house thoroughly and get rid of the vacuum bag, outside to the trash. You have to wash all linens in hot water, or freeze them (really). and there is a flea pill that you can get from the vet to stop the current outbreak also, in addition to the monthly preventative. You use it only the once, like for five days and it does the job. My PEnny had heart problems and then actualy came home from a two day stay at the vet with fleas, so we had to do the whole routine with the house and her meds and all. It works! Vacuum everything, the crate, the bedding, all rugs, all floors.. You get the idea. Talk to your vet ASAP also to get direct advice.

I went through that last year, Connie!! It was terrible. I had to do one of those bombs - spray my rugs, my bed, wash all my bed's bedding, all the dogs' bedding - wash their crates... everything. I had fleas REALLY bad. It was horrible. It was the FIRST time I had fleas. I never used preventative before that and never had a flea....

What I wouldn't do to find a holistic vet!!  That's GREAT!

We use Nature's Guardian on all 3 of our dogs and I've not seen a flea yet, which is really saying something given the region we live in.  It's all natural and the only side-effect that I can see is that the dogs smell like apple pie for about a week after application. 

If we had an infestation, I don't know if it would work, but so far, we've not seen one flea on the dogs.  HTH