There’s a wide variety of different myths surrounding pet care that have continued to spread amongst pet owners, some as old as the’50′s. One of the big ones involves a cure-all “organic” dog flea solution. This flea removal myth comes from the belief that organic practices are somehow more ‘pure’ and sometimes even more effective than any synthetic/non-organic pet product. The organic dog flea solution may also come from the misguided principle that all the currently available flea treatment products are potentially harmful to your pet. After a recent email asking for clarification on whether or not using all organic/natural flea treatments can be an effective alternative to chemical based products we decided to weigh in on the phenomenon.

Will using only organic or natural flea remedies work with your pet? There’s not really any sort of definitive way of answering that other than by saying the answer depends on a few factors such as the level of involvement you’re willing to dedicate to treating your pets’ flea problem, the current living-space that the pet lives in and the type of treatment you choose to go with. By choosing to go the organic route you need to realize that it doesn’t just limit your options to organic-based flea shampoos and by-hand flea removal, there are a few other natural treatments that you can use in combination with each other.

If you think that only using organic-based flea products will get rid of your flea problem in just a single treatment or shampoo-bath then you might want to reconsider your options. In some cases limiting yourself to this small window of treatment options can result in worsening the flea problem rather than solving it. Temporarily getting rid of the fleas that are bothering your dog is an easy task that can be achieved in countless ways (baths, sprays, etc..), the main hurdle that you’ll face is making sure that the fleas are gone for good. Relying on regular baths to keep any fleas at bay is simply not a plausible option for most pet-owners. Sometimes using a small amount of non-organic pet products is recommended in conjunction with the initial organic-pet-shampoo remedy. You can find more information on flea treatment products at Flea Treatment Reviews

In order to ensure that the fleas stay away once you’ve given your pet their initial flea-shampoo bath you’ll need to make sure that their living environment is free from any lurking parasites waiting for a second chance to infest your pet. This means cleaning your home from top-to-bottom to make sure that there are no remaining batches of flea eggs and larvae around to re-infest your pet.

Important steps for a successful ‘natural’ flea prevention starts with washing your pets bedding with hot water, letting it dry in the sun completely before putting it back where it belongs. Make sure to vacuum your carpets and/or rugs, steam cleaning them if possible, to kill any growing flea larvae. You might hate to read this next part but another key step in preventing flea and tick attacks involves keeping a clean lawn, so don’t skimp on your weekly lawn-mowing. What mowing does is it removes all possible flea or tick breeding grounds that might be lurking just outside your backdoor.

As far as manually removing any visible flea and ticks using a special brush or comb, this will only temporarily help ease any discomfort your pet is going through, it won’t actually prevent it from quickly returning because the larvae and eggs will still be there. Those fine toothed flea combs never really pick up anything smaller than the half-grown bugs. I’d be a fool by not also adding that the amount of effort involved in keeping your pet flea-free by hand really gets tiresome by the third and fourth day of manual flea-removal (Yes, they really can come back that fast without proper treatment). Instead something to try is to add other organic solutions (e.g. applying diatomaceous earth) to prevent the possibility that the fleas will be able to lay any new eggs in combination with the flea-shampoo bath. You can find more information on flea treatment products at Flea Treatment Reviews

For more information on flea treatments and other pet-care questions visit I Love My Dogs Pet Care Blog

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