Effective Flea And Tick Control For Your Retriever

Spring and summer have arrived, and as the weather starts to warm up, your dog starts to scratch furiously. Tis the season for all new things, baby birds, new blooms, and yes, the dreaded tick and flea. Both the tick and flea can cause itching, unnecessary discomfort, and nasty diseases in both your four legged friend and us humans. Good flea and tick control is vital for the comfort and health of your dog and everyone else who shares your home.

Lucky for us, retrievers are generally water loving dogs. This is great news for us, and bad news for the ticks and fleas. Regular swims in water, especially salt water for those near an ocean, is great for drowning fleas and ticks. However, this is not the total solution and it would be dangerous for your Fido to assume it was.

Bathing your dog regularly in organic or commercially prepared washes can be the solution for those dog owners who are not near water. Bathing your dog can soothe his skin and help alleviate the discomfort of flea bites, as well as provide him with some tick and flea protection.

The downside of being a water loving dog is that some forms of flea and tick preventions can become less effective, or indeed wash off, with numerous swims. This can be remedied with possibly providing Fido with tablets and medicines that are not made less affective by swimming such as Frontline. Frontline is capable of killing at least 98% of all fleas and ticks within 24 hours. Preparations like Frontline will also kill the flea eggs and larvae, breaking the entire flea breeding cycle.

Grooming your dog with a fine tooth comb can be an effective and inexpensive way of removing fleas and their droppings. All fleas should be drowned in a container of soapy water. Once the weather warms up you should be checking your retriever daily for ticks. Paralysis ticks can kill your dog quite quickly and it can be scary to see how quickly they can become ill. Ticks favor the parts of your dog that can't generally be reached by scratching. The front of the chest, around the ears, the armpits, and even under collars, can all make great hiding places for the dreaded tick.

Fleas can be astonishingly good breeders. One female flea is capable of producing up to 500 eggs. Favorite breeding grounds for fleas are warm, damp, dark places like your dog's bedding and carpets. Your dog's bed should be regularly washed or hosed down, put out in the sun and additionally treated with flea products. Keeping Fido off your carpeted areas, your couches and beds, will help keep the flea population down. A great little trick is to place some flea powder in the bag of your hoover, so that they cannot breed in there.

Once temperatures reach 65-85 deg F the female flea will start laying her eggs. The entire reproductive cycle can be as short as 3 weeks or as long as 18 months. It is important that when addressing the flea issue that you use products that will kill off the flea eggs and larvae as well. Once the flea eggs have hatched, after incubating nicely in your carpet or Fido's bed for about 7 days, the larvae will live off animal debris for about 7 days. Their preferred foods include animal droppings, hair, and skin. The larvae then cocoon themselves for about 7 days to emerge as full blown fleas looking for some blood.

An orthopedic dog bed can be a great solution in the fight against fleas. These beds are easily able to be washed or hosed down and do not provide the kind of breeding ground favored by the flea. Additionally, they can help in the fight against hip dysplasia, a condition that all retrievers are genetically prone to. (We have an article on hip dysplasia and orthopedic beds that you can read for further information.)

Natural Remedies:

Natural remedies for those dog lovers who are concerned about chemicals include using 1-3 crushed garlic cloves and Brewer's yeast in your dog's daily meals. One tablespoon of Brewer's yeast daily is going to be adequate for the average sized retriever. The garlic and yeast can alter your dog's skin to being less tasty for the ticks and fleas. These natural remedies can also give your dog bad breath. Additionally, the Brewer's yeast can be sprinkled on your dog as an effective form of flea control. It can take about 4 weeks for these changes in your dog's diet to take effect, so once winter starts to finish, this is a good time to start.

Other natural remedies for flea and tick control for your dog can include a lemon rinse after their bath. The scent of the lemon helps keep the fleas at bay and the lemon helps soothe Fido's red skin. A lemon rinse can be very easily made by chopping up a lemon and putting all of it in 1 pint of very hot water. Be sure to include the lemon peel. Allow the lemon rinse to sit overnight. Drain out the lemon pieces. When using this rinse it is important to let Fido's coat dry naturally. Don't dry him with a towel as this will remove the rinse. This rinse is mild enough to apply to your dog's coat every day when he needs it.

Other natural remedies can include the ingredients wormwood, rosemary, citronella, penny royal, in various sprays, rinses and collars.

It should be noted that in recent research performed in the United States there is overwhelming proof that retrievers who have been regularly treated with tick and flea medicines are much less likely to succumb to lymphoma. Lymphoma is a cancer of the lymph glands and is a disease that retrievers are genetically susceptible to. This alone, seems like a great reason to keep Fido free of fleas and ticks. (For further information on this disease please see our article on Lymphoma in retrievers.)