Selfsufficientish.com

Well... not particularly livestock... but animals anyway.

we used to use frontline on our dog - but would rather use something more natural. Does anyone have any tried and tested flea zappers/repellents that are suitable for dogs and cats... the cat in particular is out and about in all sorts of terrain - she's bound to pick them up.

Not tried it, but garlic juice is supposed to be good. Try:

www.dorwestherbs.co.uk

BTW - if you try it on your cat, can I watch?

Bathing with tea tree oil is a good one. Probably chuck pooch in the bath every couple of weeks after everyone else in the family has had a soak.

Thanks for that Diane - can you watch?? You can come and do it if you like

tea tree would see me off too Tigz - I really dislike the smell. They seem to be ok without any anti flea stuff so far - maybe we have just been lucky.

Not terribly organic, BUT fleas are supposed to hate the smell of "wooland" as interpreted by the producers of soap, shower gels, etc.

My dogs are suffering terribly from fleas at the moment even tho they have a collar, ive used frontline twice, ive bathed them in flea shampoo and im using a flea spray - nothing seems to be working. My poor old border collie is losing patches of fur from all the scratching!
Just had a search for stuff on fleas and have found this bug comb, an electronic device that zaps the little buggars when it goes over them (seems its really for nits but does say OK for pets and fleas too) - has anyone used this? Can they recommend it or is it duff? Is it likely to get in the thick fur of a border collie OK?

When we got our hound from the retired greyhounds trust the hound chap suggested giving him a garlic capsule every day.
He gives his own hounds this and, even though they travel in the van he uses to pick up the flea-ridden rescue dogs, they don`t seem to pick up the little visitors.
Our noble hound has certainly never been host to any stowaways

Just normal peoples ones? That sounds great - thanks!

garlic and tea treat are suppost to be good. you can also buy herbal flea collars.

chadspad, my staffy had this problem too. Try giving him the homeopathic remedy Sulphur as that is excellent for skin troubles and not only helped my boy by has improved his skin and fur generally. It also could be that he's allergic to the fleas salivia

Has anybody else found this to be a bad year for fleas? I have never had this much trouble before and I've had my own dogs for 12-13 years and at home since a child.

For the last four months I've had a terrible battle with them- well not me but my dog, he is red raw from scratching and nothing seems to working, they are getting less but they are still crawling around him, I've tried two courses of frontline and have also tried a tablet which is supposed to work in a similar way - gets into the blood and kills them when they bite, however this seems to tame them until the next generation arrive, tried bathing him, given him new bedding sprayed his favourite places with super duper kill all spray(not very good for environment but I am getting desperate) but the little buggers keep on appearing, my only hope is this cold snap will set them back a bit.

I have some garlic capsules in the cupboard so I think I will give them a go !!

my staffy had a terrible time recently but my lab was ok, found a few, sprayed and gave her garlic and there gone. poor chino scratched all the fur off his lower back and legs, red raw it was and nothing helped started giving him some sulphur (homeopathic) and within a few days he was biting at it less and it has healed well and fast. It can't do your dog any harm if you wanted to try them. Boots should have some. Also a piece of tumbled Ameythst placed in animals water is suppost to help keep fleas away. my dog eats anything so I've never tried incase he hurt himself biting or swallowing the stone so I've never tried it. He actually broke 2 canine teeth chewing a rock, I assume he thought it was a bone

Where cn I get sulpher tablets from - these seem a popular choice, would I be able to get then in a chemist ?

some chemists will have them and I know boots stock them. your looking for little vials like

We grind garlic in the food processor and feed it in the critters normal food, oil of citronella -a couple of drops on the back of the neck seem to help-gotta repeat about every 3 days and a squirt of apple cider vinegar in the drinking water if they'll take it.

Please Note: We use the same treatment on our donkey and its kept him louse and tick free even when I had a horse here who was CRAWLING with lice

Also for natural wormer for a horse or donkey, take a handful of tobacco and let it get dry-grind up with 12 cloves of garlic and add to feed with a generous amount of molasses.

Lois