What is the best frugal way to treat my dog for fleas?
By Lisa Ballmann from MO
Add your voice! Click below to answer. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
This I can answer! Get a flea comb, and plan on spending hours on end combing fleas out of your dogs fur. It takes hours, but is totally worth it. Get a small container, about a quart size, or even larger, and a flea comb, and start combing your dog. It might take ten minutes of combing before you begin to see a flea, but it will happen. It could take twenty minutes, but you get the idea.
You have to have a container with water in it, and either a layer of oil, or dish soap in the water, and keep combing your baby, and when you stop, and clean the comb, push the stuff, like hair from the comb, into the water, not the comb, and keep going.
Truthfully, this is a long, time consuming method, but I prefer it to giving the dogs those chemical treatments, and this works, only it takes days to get the job done.
I call myself the "Flea Terminator," because I had to help my mother with her two dogs, afflicted with fleas, after 7 days, I was bawling, but I didn't give up, and I got rid of all the fleas, period. I'm also sensitive to fleas, because they don't just attack the dog's, they also attack me, so I also feel the pain.
After talking to my vet, I told them that I would take an oil, like corn oil, vegetable oil, even olive oil, or mineral oil, and smear it all over my pet, and leave it for several minutes while I massaged my doggie, and then I had to shampoo my doggie a couple of times or so, to get all the oil out. Shampoo, rinse, shampoo, rinse, to get all of the oil out, but then those nasty fleas were gone! My mom's girl, no matter how hard I tried, was in a flea year that was so bad, that she became allergic, and my mom had to take her to the vet for allergy shots. I did my best to help her, God Bless Her.
What I do now, is if the dog is full of fleas, I douse them with oil, as I mentioned above, and rub it all over them, because it smothers the fleas, then I wash them once or twice, gently, and then I call my vet and say "Hey, we have a flea problem," and my vet gives us these incredible medications like "Advantix," but you know what, what I had to do to my mom's dogs seven days straight, was rub them down with oils, cause the oils smother the fleas, then I gave them a very gentle shampoo. This was during a time that we had a major flea problem in the US, and it worked like a charm. I was bawling, but it worked, and at that time, we didn't have Advantix or other flea things to use on our doggies. And after all was said and done, I wasn't crying anymore, because the dogs were fine, the fleas were gone, and I was proud of myself because even though I cried, I stuck it out, and I made it.
The best thing you can do for your baby, is to go to a store and get a flea comb, then you have to learn how to use the flea comb, you gently comb, and it may take several minutes before you start seeing fleas, but trust me, once you've seen a flea, you will always know it, and that's why you need to have some kind of a bowl with either a layer of oil on it, or dish soap in the bowl, and then you can start drowning the fleas, see.
Once you start getting used to a flea comb, and understand the total power of it, you need the water bowl with oil or dish soap in it, because that is your ally.
And it might take hours, but believe me, you will be the superman of your dog, because you will have gotten rid of all those nasty fleas, and in the end, you will be happy together.
I was. After the washings I gave my mom's dogs, and the next yesr, they had fleas, so I spent hours on end using the flea comb, I could pick out fleas like you wouldn't believe on a flea comb, and I put the fleas in a bowl of water with oil, to drown the fleas, I felt like the "Flea Terminator." The one who made all dogs happy since they didn't have fleas anymore.
Only I didn't know I could send my message to places like Chicago, New York, LA, it was before the internet happened.
It was before 9/11 happened. I love all of you for who you are, you can kind rub your babies, dogs, for about 10 minutes,in oil, and then bathe them, and it will get rid of the fleas, for awhile.
I haven't had fleas in a long time since I started doing this. I started helping others, and I smooshed the dog with oil, rubbing the dog a lot, over and over for a minute or so, then I started using shampoo on the dog to clean all of the oil an smooshed fleas off of it, and it works!
Giving the dog a massage that people would be jealous of, but it gets rid of the fleas. And then you have a happy dog, and you're happy, too. And you don't have to take your doggie to someone and pay loads of dollars. I think that is frugal.
This came from a vet; shampoo the dog using Dawn Dish Detergent. Leave it on for five minutes, rinse thoroughly. It really does kill fleas.
We had bad flea probles with our two dogs and spent money trying to save money (flea shampoos, flea powders, OTC flea meds) nothing worked. Then we discovered that we could buy K-9 Adantix a month at a time and we have no more fleas on the "babies". I wish we had found it sooner, as our little Yorkie mix was miserable and lost most of his hair from halfway back to his tail. It now costs $23 a month to keep our dogs flea free, and well worth it as we were buying flea bombs and flea powder for the carpets too as they were infested with fleas.
I've also heard that Dawn dish soap is wonderful. Try the lemon scented for a fresher "dog" smell. Just be sure to rinse very, very well.
Thank you all for the replies. the tips look great. will start with dawn and go from there.
Add your voice! Click below to answer. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
