Itching & Allergies Caused By Fleas

What causes allergies?
Fleas, food, airborne materials, and contact materials cause itching and allergies in pets. Fleas are the most common cause. Although our northern pets don’t have much problem in the winter, our southern pets can be plagued year round.

Stop itching caused by fleas:
• Wash pets and leave soap on at least 10 minutes to kill all fleas on the pet.
• Flea comb cats.
• Treat the carpets with a safe, inert substance such as boric acid powder.
• Wash bedding.
• Vacuum like your life depends upon it, at least twice a week.
• Apply topical flea repellents to dogs CAREFUL WITH CATS. Use Skin So Soft from Avon or Cloud 9 Dip from Halo. For dogs, make up a mixture of essential oils (lavender, citronella, peppermint, eucalyptus) diluted in oil or water and apply daily. Because many dogs dislike the smell of these oils, apply the repellant to a harness that they can wear when outside and can have off when in the flea-free home.
• If necessary, apply commercial flea treatment such as Frontline or Advantage. Treat all pets in the family.
• Clean up debris in the yard that harbors fleas.
• Get chickens to eat fleas in the yard.
• Increase health of your pet so that fleas aren’t attracted to it. The healthier our pets are, the fewer fleas they have. To promote health, feed more natural foods, less kibble, less grain.
• Give Omega 3 fatty acids either as freshly ground flaxseed, such as Missing Link, or Nordic Naturals fish oils.

What's next?
We’ve just covered fleas as a common causes of allergies. In the next few Caring for Pets entries, we’ll discuss how to eliminate itching and allergies caused by food, air-borne materials, and contact materials.