Fleas, the bastards!
Okay so my first post comes from the God awful problem my dog has with fleas. We live in a community that allows any breed, any weight, Awesome, right? I know, because I have a pit-bull and very few communities actually allow them! Don't want to get off track, because I am the Queen of A.D.D. and rambling. My boyfriend and I have been battling fleas since we moved in here. I believe it is because there are so many dogs in the neighborhood and fleas are nasty little fucks that like to hoe around. So Im assuming that EVERY TIME we take him for a walk, he becomes the host for whatever demons jump on him. After trying so many things, I am writing this because I BELIEVE I have finally won the war, Or at least a battle, which makes: Fleas:230 Me:1 . Ill take it tho. So heres what I did today;
I found this awesome, DIY, NATURAL flea soap recipe. Its one that I haven't tried yet, so I was willing to give it a shot. I did half cup FRESH squeezed lemon juice, I squeezed almost 3 lemons to get this & I left the pulp in there for shits & giggles. Then I did a cup of white distilled vinegar, and a half cup dawn dish soap. After mixing it, I put it in an old dawn soap bottle. I got my pup in the tub and dispensed it onto his problem area first, which is his butt! (My friend had told me before do not to wet the dog first because something about fleas go into a protective-like state when getting wet, which is why dawn soap and water doesn't work so well) I literally could not believe my eyes, before I even had the chance to scrub him with it 3 fleas were already in the tub. Im assuming they jumped ship to try to save themselves, but I wasn't having it. I drowned them. *evil laugh* Who knows how many jumps it would take for them to get out of the tub, but I wasn't about to find out. I was always skeptical about how well the soap would mix into his fur without water, which is why I never tried it. But with this mixture it was wet enough to form a lather. I lathered him up realllll good, and let him sit with it on him for about 3-5 minutes, the whole time I would massage other areas of his skin to make sure I really got down to the dirty. After rinsing him and drying him I put him in his little area of the house. Now I need to backtrack a little, Sorry, first time blogger here.
Borax ( the laundry powder soap) works very well for killing fleas in carpets and other areas of the house and is not harmful or dramatic like flea bombs or sprays are. So earlier today I did his area of the house and washed his big blanket with VERY HOT WATER AND BORAX . I used the broom to make sure the borax actually got into the carpet fibers and all that good shit, they say to let it sit for 6-7 hours, Im not vacuuming mine for at least 2 days, Whats good about using the broom is its basically putting it so deep in the carpet you won't feel it when you walk on it , so its like its not even there. But secretly its making fleas explode or whatever it does.
So now fast forward to my dog being in his little area, I did the rest of the house, since it is 95% carpet I wanted to make sure I covered all areas throughly so I bought 2 boxes of borax. After doing all that I headed out to the health and nutrition store to get some MACA ( more on that later:) I loveeee that stuff) but I strolled down the pet isle, and would you believe it I found some natural flea spray!!!! Its called Flea Flicker! Tick Kicker! Cute right? Its made from a company called Ark Naturals . I am a HUGE HUGE HUGE researcher so I pulled out my phone and googled the reviews. AMAZING reviews, so I bought it !!! It smells and tastes like icy-hot, I know how it tastes because I had some left on my hand and touched my mouth.. It says it repels & kills fleas, ticks, & mosquitoes on contact. I believe it because it repelled my ass when I was spraying it on him. Super strong, but not unbearable.
Next I went to Wal-mart and got the ADAMS Flea and Tick Control Collar. Im serious when I say I have been straight up BATTLING these fleas for almost 2 months. Its so discouraging giving your dog this amazing bath in dawn dish soap and getting him out of the tub and he starts scratching again. Its even more discouraging finding multiple fleas on him the next day. Ive honestly been very close to tears over this. Not cool, I was probably pms-ing because my father didn't raise no bitch ;) (<--A.D.D.) .
I came home and checked Gotti (my red-nose) for fleas and didn't find any! I put the flea spray on him and I didn't really need as much as I thought I would. I put more on his butt than I did other places because thats where the shit eaters like to hang out, and I throughly rubbed it on his neck because thats where his hair is the thickest but it actually spreads great. Then I put the flea collar on him. He has not scratched in over 3 hours which is literally a record ! I even took him for a walk which I was super scared to do and considered litter box training him instead . Haha, if only.. but all jokes aside, before I walked him I sprayed him a little more, on his legs and under his belly because I figured thats the first place the fleas would jump right? And I held my breath the entire time we walked, and when he was in the bushes doing his business I was cussing at him in my head because God only knows what kinda demonic fleas are in all those bushes. We came back inside the house and NOOOOO FLEASSSS. I checked him and haven't found one. And he STILL hasn't scratched!
My boyfriend and I live on a budget because our glorious apartment is so damn expensive and right now my work is slooowww for the summer season :( We couldn't afford to take him to the vet to get some high end RX flea killer. Plus I fuck with natural stuff :) So much better for everyone, including our eco-system, which I also fuck with ! *EARTH BABY* In total this experience costs us:
Less than $8 for the two boxes of Borax & we still have almost a whole box left. Around $9 for the Spray, HIGHLY RECOMMEND! The flea collar was around $6 The lemons, vinegar and soap I already had but I would guesstimate that you could get all 3 for under $6 .
So about $30 .... But we still have LOTS left over, we still have more of the soap we made to use next time, almost my whole bottle of spray, about a box of borax left and this flea collar says up to 7 months of protection, So I would say that it a much better price range than about $80 per MONTH of RX flea stuff for him.
Im hoping one SOUL reads this and benefits from it so my time isn't just wasted away. :) I will edit this post if I see the results are not permanent . Right now he is sleeping peacefully at my feet, not scratching himself, so I am a proud dog mom at this point in time :)