Switching to natural flea and tick prevention

In the last 8 years I have not used a flea or tick treatment on my dogs… this may shock some of you but I will tell you why.

Mia (Chihuahua 4yrs old) has never had a flea or a tick. This may seem strange as we have always lived rurally and still do. Thorn (Working Cocker 19 months) has never had fleas, but I did remove a tick from him in the spring. Ouli (Jack Russell 9 years) had fleas once when she was around 18 months after venturing into a rabbit hole. Other than that, she has not had flea treatment used on her in around 8 years.

My initial view on this is that I would possibly use chemical treatments if the dogs did get a flea problem and if there was an infestation. But recently I have decided to change my mind. Going on the basis that these products are pesticides that are often not needed. With many subscription services advocating use of spot on treatments every 3 weeks.

I do of course understand that fleas and ticks carry bacteria and parasites that can affect your dog. I am not advocating that you stop using flea and tick treatments. Instead that we use natural solutions that do not have adverse effects on the health of our dogs or our ecosystems.

I thought if my dogs after years of not treatments had not contracted fleas I was interested to know who else is or isn’t using chemical flea products. I took to Instagram for a poll to see what the consensus was.

My first question was has your dog ever had fleas, 90% of participants dogs had never had fleas with only 10% having had fleas.

The next question was do you use flea treatments regularly, when needed, never or natural products. 70% said regularly, 10% never, 10% when needed and 10% natural products.

This data was very interesting as I wonder if none of the dogs had pesticides used on them what would the percentage be of those that has gotten fleas.

I can’t help but think that the flea product companies have created a fear that we need to use these products or our dog’s health will be affected. BUT I would argue that the health implications from these treatments alone are greater than the effects of simple flea infestation.

Of course, the risk of paralysis from ticks is a threat but with a simple body check and proper removal of the tick this risk is significantly reduced. Ticks should be removed no later than 12 hours after your dog has been bitten so this gives a large window for checking and removal. Tick paralysis is also rare in the UK.

When looking at the ingredients the risk from the pesticides outweighs the benefits in my opinion. Due to the large number of owners using these products on their pets there is little research into the long term effects of these chemicals. Recently Seresto have had to recall their flea prevention collars due to many dogs having allergic reactions to the chemicals, rashes and lethargy.

A quote from PETA about these treatments “The active ingredients in these solutions include chemicals such as imidacloprid, fipronil, permethrin, methoprene, and pyriproxyfen, all of which have caused serious health problems in animals in laboratories. Even some of the inert ingredients can be hazardous to your animal companion's health.”

Verm-x, a natural parasite prevention company recently released information on the levels of flea, tick and worming treatments that are showing up in our water systems in the UK.

(Beyond Pesticides, November 20, 2020) Many pet owners likely do not consider what is actually in the flea treatments they administer to their animals. That should change, and recent research demonstrates why. Scientists sampling rivers in England found extreme contamination with two neurotoxic pesticides commonly used in flea products for dogs and cats: fipronil and the neonicotinoid imidacloprid. In many instances, the concentrations in the waterways were far higher than accepted “safe” levels. Though these compounds are banned for agricultural uses in the United Kingdom (UK), risk assessment for them, as used on animals, has been minimal because of the assumption that the amounts used for veterinary treatments would mean far-less-significant environmental impact than might be expected with agricultural-scale use.

It is staggering to think that these substances are banned in agricultural use but seem to be allowed in our pet products.

There are many natural alternatives to these substances that have excellent results. I will link my favourites for you to have a look at…

For Flea and Tick Prevention:

https://www.stefspetpantry.com/dogs-puppies/flea-tick-and-wormers/flea/billy-no-mates.htm

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B075QBXV4P/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1 (this is the spray I use)

I have recently started using natural herbs for worm prevention along with faecal egg counts to ensure my dogs are free from intestinal parasites. I will also be taking a natural approach with their flea and tick prevention by using natural essential oil sprays and spot on treatments.