Mountaintop Natural Pets

I wanted to share the following post from a friend regarding his recent experiences with his dog’s flea treatment…….

It’s Flea, Tick and Heartworm season and your veterinarian may prescribe Revolution and a Tick Collar called Preventix which contains Amitraz a potent MAOI (Monoamine Oxidate Inhibitor. We just went through a terrible experience with this product.

Since our dogs believe themselves to be hunters they disappear into the brush perimeter of our backyard, returning at times with ticks. We applied the Preventix collar Sunday evening. Within an hour one of our dogs, Jack began vomiting. Deciding that the collar might have been the problem we removed it and the puking stopped. Our daughter’s Yorkie Charlie did not demonstrate the vomiting so we thought there was no problem. Within 12-24 hrs he became listless, seemed drowsy, then clumsy. Barbara was sharp enough to note the changes and removed the collar. The drowsiness proceeded to ataxia, and confusion. We gave him a bath to wash off all traces of the Amitraz, called the Vet. Apparently we did the right thing and he is starting to come out of it.

The real problem is that there is a paucity of information on the web about this drug. Most of it says to call your vet. The problem is that our vet (who is excellent) couldn’t give us much information on this himself.

Amitraz is a potent neurotoxin that is used for tick and mange but is in effective against fleas. It is deadly to cats. If you have cats and they are anywhere near your dogs, they are in danger.

If you use this collar or dip and see any signs of the reaction. Get the collar off your dog. Wash off all traces. Keep him or her warm and supported. There is an IV antidote Yohimbine.

I’ve attached the only valuable resource we could find on the web: http://www.peteducation.com/article_print.cfm?articleid=2230

My advice: we are staying away from both Revolution and Preventix. We are going back to Heartguard and a more homeopathic tick/flea repellent. The company’s website, when you look carefully says that only three reported deaths occurred from this agent. That’s too many for us.

Good Luck & God Bless

John & Barbara
Bar-John Cavaliers and Shih Tzu

Summer is coming and people are starting to worry about fleas. There are so many great natural options out there, when so many pet owners fail to have hear about the hundreds of dogs that get sick and/or die from commercial flea products. Here are just a few quick pieces of info on natural options as summer approaches….

First and foremost is a healthy diet. Fleas prey on weak immune systems, not just all dogs. A healthy diet is the key to a healthy dog. My raw-fed dogs are 6 and 4 years old and the only time we have ever seen a flea and that was when our youngest dog was a puppy. Puppies are most likely to attract fleas as all pups have a lower immune system than adult dogs.

We treated both our dogs, as well as our house with the following “products” and have never seen another flea. Let me also just mention that one of our dogs is a pointer, who frequently accompanies my husband in the woods for hours at at time and under all conditions.

Garlic and B-1 (thiamine) help repel fleas. I tend to add a small amount of garlic on occasion to my dogs food (fresh minced garlic) and find it helps. Oma’s Pride also sells a great product called Actif Allium, a german product that is like a treat roll filled with garlic. My dogs LOVE this!

There are many great natural flea shampoos by companies such as Halo Purely for Pets and other natural product companies. Starting out as a horse person, we always sprayed our horses in Avon Skin-So-Soft for the flies and Ive used this ever since for myself, my kids and my dogs!

For your home you can keep certain types of herbs around that tend to repel fleas. Catnip and eucalyptus and two good examples of scents that help keep fleas away. I used to keep dried eucalyptus around the house and you can even drop essential oils near your doorways to help keep them from entering during the summer months.