Bathe a Dog with Tea Tree Oil and Dawn

Editor's Note: The tip below recommends using tea tree oil for the treatment of fleas. It's been brought to our attention that using significant amounts of tea tree oil may be dangerous to your pet. Here's quote from ASPCA's website:

Tea tree, or Melaleuca alternifolia oil, does have toxic potential, depending on the circumstances of exposure. Clinical effects that may occur following dermal exposure to significant amounts of tea tree oil include loss of coordination, muscle weakness, depression, and possibly even a severe drop in body temperature, collapse and liver damage. If the oil is ingested, potential effects include vomiting, diarrhea and, in some cases, seizures. If inhalation of the oil occurs, aspiration pneumonia is possible. Read more here...

To be on the safe side, be sure to consult with you vet about using any homemade flea treatment.

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I have been giving baths to my husband's German Shepherd mix dog, and I use the Tea Tree and Dawn mixed with water to bathe her with. She no longer has the tumors or warts she had on her back, above her tail at the end of her spine. These were huge wart like growths. There are a number of things which might be the reason for this improvement.

No Store Bought Treats

She now gets only human treats. I usually by her a bag of honey turkey, that costs .75 cents at my store. I never give her any human food that is wheat or bread or corn in nature. She eats Pedigree dry dog food, and it seems to be doing well for her. There are other better foods out there, like Authority, Pro Plan, Blue Buffalo.

No Topical Flea Treatments

She takes a Comfortis tablet once a month, or whenever she seems to need it. It seems to work more than a month at a time, although it is supposed to be given once a month.

Dawn and Tea Tree Oil Bath

The unhealthy buildup on her coat is gone. These baths help her skin to breathe and kills any kind of yeast and the tea tree oil is like an antiseptic also.

Ingredients

• Tea tree oil from Walgreens or pharmacy. It must be in a dark bottle.
• Dawn dishwashing soap (the blue kind)
• Plastic cup, large size to mix up the oil and Dawn and water in.

Directions

Put a capfull of the tea tree oil in plastic cup. Notice I said capfull and not cup-full. Add to that about 1/4 cup of Dawn diswashing liquid, the blue original kind. No need to be exact. I go by how high it fills the cup. I put about an inch to an inch and a half high of Dawn in the cup. Wiggle the cup around a little to mix the two ingredients. Set aside where it will not be spilled.

After wetting Dutchess' coat very, very, very good with warm water and making sure she is sopping wet, fill up the Solo cup halfway with water that already has the Dawn and oil mixture.

Stir it really well with your fingers, mixing the tea tree oil and the Dawn. Then fill it up the rest of the way. Mix again with fingers. I pour the contents of the plastic cup onto a very wet Dutchess coat and lather into a rich lather.

If the dog's coat does not lather, even though it is sopping wet, make up another bunch and use it until you know it is on the dog's coat deep down to the skin and rubbed in, gently.

Only if the dog is wet, will it lather up really easy. Make sure to get the legs. The stomach is important too. Also don't forget to rinse the stomach and chest area. These areas might not lather up as much as the back but it is still doing a good job for those areas.

I always let the solution stay on Dutchess for about three to five minutes. It really doesn't matter, just try to let it stay on there at least a minute or two. I use this time to praise her and tell her how good she is doing.

When it is rinsing time, don't ever spray the face or facial area with water or get soap or anything on the face. If you get soap on the face, wipe it off with a dripping washrag. Rinsing does not mean going over once with the shower head attachment. Rinsing means adding a little bit of water, and lathering up the soap that is already on her, and then rinsing and rinsing and more rinsing.

This is what gets all the dead and gross stuff off the skin. A well rinsed dog is a happy dog. If the soap stays on the skin, it will turn into muck, attract dirt and cause problems by matting up and not letting the skin get air to breathe.

I then get a nice bath cloth and squeeze it out slightly. I wash Dutchess' face with this and go over the rims of her ears. This is where she needs it the most. I had put some of the bathwater on her ears and her face before and now I just wipe it off with a wash cloth a few times.

I put a towel or my robe on the floor and call her out of the tub. She shakes and we go outside and take pictures. She is smiling in one of them. She knows we will either go on a car ride and get a human grade treat or go to the park and walk around in the warm sun.

Here is Dutchess on the patio in a towel, smiling with the few teeth she has left after 10 years. This is my favorite picture of her!

By Robyn Fed from Tri-Cities, TN