Got Fleas?
By Nell Liquorman
Author of Keep Fleas Off
Still using all the chemicals you can find to combat those fleas?
Have you done everything outside of trying to shoot the fleas off the
dog? You are not alone, there are an estimated more than 50 million
households with pets, and yes, most are not just fighting the war
against these pesky parasites, they are losing the war. Most people
do not realize just how devastating the losses are. If only 10 per
cent of these pet owners are treating the yard for fleas, can your
imagine the amount of harmful chemicals that is getting into the
ground water? These chemicals make their way to the sea where they
have been found in fish and the seabirds that feed on fish. Clean
water is a valuable resource, we cannot afford to destroy it. Think
about all the chemicals put in our water now just to make it "safe to
drink"; if you want to believe that it is.
Bathe your pet with a so-called flea shampoo, and you leave behind a
petrochemical residue that can be unsafe for the pet and the
household. If that is not bad enough, the pet will lick himself and
yes, take an oral dose. Go into any grocery store and head for the
pet care aisle. If you smell the flea products in the store, you are
experiencing a nose full of their off-gassing. Face it, chemicals
off-gas.
Perhaps, you think that flea powder is a better choice. Guess again!
After holding your poor animal down long enough to sift this
disagreeable stuff into his fur, he is going to shake off as much of
it as possible, and who could blame him. This fine dust will migrate
into anything around, the carpet, the furniture, and maybe even your
own hair. It is sure to get up your nose. Maybe this is the universe
trying to get you to stop this harmful practice. At any rate, now the
flea powder is further out into the pet's fur, clearing the way for
the fleas to continue to travel the skin on the pet, biting him and
leaving behind debris. At minimum, you have fouled the environment,
and you probably did the powdering inside your home. Since we have
all probably done it, don't beat yourself up, at least not the first
time.
Flea collars are another dangerous choice that we have all made. The
poison is right there on the collar for the purpose of rubbing off
onto the pet. Will it rub off on anything else, like the hands of a
small child, or even your own? You bet! Does your pet sleep in his
collar? In your bed? What do you think is happening here?
Essentially, we are just rubbing heaven knows what kind of chemicals
all over us when we sleep with a pet that is wearing a poison
necklace. Should you quit associating with your pet? Absolutely not!
Pets are a valuable part of our lives. They offer companionship and
teach us a lot as well.
Just show them more respect and stop using those awful flea collars.
Continuing your sojourn through the parasite jungle, the
veterinarian's office is probably going to be your next stop. Aha!
The flea dip. It has to work! Well, why not, it contains a contact
killer, and because you got it from the vet you will assume it safe.
Maybe it will kill the fleas that showed up on the pet today. Of
course, submerging him in this poison means that some of it will be
absorbed into the pet's skin. Cats are especially sensitive, and dips
have been known to kill some. It makes many sick. If it poisoned or
weakened your pet, would you know what to look for? How many hours
would you need to monitor your pet? When you pour out the dip, where
does the poison go? So many questions, so many freaky answers. This
should steer you away from flea dips.
The average pet owner is pretty sure that a flea spray for misting the
pet on a regular basis will not only work, but is a real easy
solution. Coating the outside of the hair doesn't work because the
fleas will travel under it along the skin where the blood cells can be
reached. Use this method, only if you want a toxic cloud that will
float above the pet for you to breathe, or maybe, it will make its way
into your air conditioning ducts and be well distributed throughout
your home. Remember that these sprays contain poisons. If we breathe
them in, our bodies can store them. Many people will think that this
is just the price that must be paid, after all this is a war on fleas!
The bigger question here is: "Do you really want your home to become a
toxic waste site?" The residue spewed into your environment is going
to stay there until someone cleans it up. And depending upon how you
go about the clean up, you could just be making it worse, especially
if you are using chemicals for the cleanup. Unless you are a chemist,
don't assume that it is safe to mix one chemical with another.
Of course, you could always use pet meds, that is, medicine for the
fleas that the pet must take. That hardly seems fair! Would you be
able to tell how bad your pet feels from the side effects? At one
time or another we have all taken a medication that we found to be
disagreeable. The problem here is one of communication. The pet
cannot tell you that the medicine does not suit him.
So, now you are ready for the weapons of "vast destruction". You go
for the big guns. You will start using the poison to the back of the
neck. That ought to take care of them, if the fleas come along first,
before little hands. Of course, the liquid can be absorbed into the
skin of the pet getting into his blood stream and going to all parts
of his body. Most hearts and livers don't really require poisons.
How about yourself, did you absorb any? Did you breathe in any
vapors? Does the product continue to emit vapors? If you can smell
it, maybe you already know that the vapors are there. Keep in mind
that many of the spot treatments contain chemicals that are known to
be neurotoxins. Like most of the population, you did not read the
label, nor would you recognize the names of any neurotoxins. And you
probably would not know that neurotoxins can affect the brain. Your
pet may develop a twitch from a neurotoxin. Don't you wonder if the
same thing could happen to you? While the pet is in the most danger
from this, the person applying it is not home free! This stuff can
rub off and be distributed anywhere in the environment of the pet,
affecting any life form in this environment. It is important to
realize that the difference between poisons to kill fleas and poisons
to kill higher life forms is simply the size of the dose. Since our
bodies can store and accumulate poisons from the environment, we have
no way of knowing what could be in store for us as a result of
exposure to these poisons.
Recently, there were more than 28,000 sites, on just one search
engine, on the internet related to pesticide poisoning from flea
products. No matter what the reasons were, the poisoning happened
because the products were available, and a reasonably logical person
thought them safe for use. We readily accept whatever we are used to
seeing. Harmful flea products are in the mainstream of our lives.
Just go to any big food store, home improvement store, drug store, pet
food store, and yes, even the Walmart, and you can find an arsenal for
combating fleas.
Until 1990, I used everything available for flea control. After many
bad experiences, I realized that I was declaring chemical warfare on
my pets, my home, my yard, the environment, and on myself as well.
Knowing that this had to stop, if I were going survive, I set out to
find a pesticide-free way to keep fleas off my cats. My first step
was to eliminate everything that had not worked for me in my war
against fleas. So, I had to forget all the flea products that I knew
about. Living in Florida, meant combing off the fleas every hour if
the cats went out on the screened porch, but I did it, in addition to
wearing out a good vacuum cleaner. After a couple of years of trial
and error, I developed a simple, cheap, and safe method that is so
effective that the cats seem to be "invisible to fleas". Not only am
I happy to be able to keep fleas off my cats, but I feel good about
giving up my life of crime against the environment.
There are many sites on the internet where you can find out all the
names of the harmful chemicals used in flea products. Anti-pesticide
groups offer a lot of valuable information, as does the NRDC
(National Resource Defense Council) and the CDC (Center for Disease
Control). Even some animal rescue organizations post warning against
certain products. Personally, I think that the terms KEEP OUT OF THE
REACH OF CHILDREN and WASH YOUR HANDS AFTER HANDLING should give us
the clues we need. Plain and simple, do not use these products, there
is something unsafe about them. Trust me, the manufacturer is not
just adding this information to make the label larger. There had to
be a law somewhere that forced them to put these warnings on.
Restrictions of this sort don't surface until harm has been done, and
until a lot of action has been taken by environmental groups. Your
best course of action is to do the research yourself. Do not wait for
the mainstream (corporate) media to inform you about what to use to
keep fleas off your pet. The information that they decide you should
have is influenced by advertising dollars from the chemical industry.
Visit the NRDC flea product information sites and some Anti-pesticide
group sites. They can be real eye openers. While you are looking at
their sites, I hope you will take a few minutes to visit the KEEP
FLEAS OFF site at: http://www.liquorman.net/keepfleasoff/
I suggest that you download information concerning the flea poisons,
and use it as a guide to help protect your environment. After all, we
are not just what we eat, but what we absorb through our skins and
what we breathe into our lungs. Once a substance gets into your
bloodstream, it has access to every cell that you own. One of the few
powers, that you still have, is the power to control the environment
in your home, USE IT!
Tippy and Alfred's Flea Story
The winter before we started eating the Life's Abundance food and taking
the Daily Supplement, we had a lot of fleas.
Our human friends set off bombs and vacuumed the carpets all the time
trying to get rid of those darn pesky creatures. Plus they had us on this
really toxic stuff called Advantage. Man was it wicked....it worked for a
little while but never got rid of the fleas, they always came back.
And all Dave did was gripe about how expensive it was.
It was embarrassing for them because when company would come over, fleas
would jump up on their legs.
Dave & Jan's social life wasn't too pleasant at that time.
The next fall, they put us on the food and Daily Supplement. That winter,
Dave & Jan did not set off one single flea bomb and did not use the
Advantage.
There simply wasn't a flea problem!
That totally amazed our human friends so they asked Dr. Jane Bicks why this
happened.
She said the Life's Abundance food and Daily Supplement gave us the
nutrition we needed to build a strong, healthy immune system and because our
systems were now a lot stronger....it actually repelled the fleas!
Whatever happened...we just know it worked!
so do your precious furry friend a big favor and try the Daily Nutritional
System out....
You've got nothing to lose....except those darn pesky fleas.......
Tippy & Alfred
ask you to Discover more Here
Here's Panda, one of Alfred's good friends, literally Begging for
her daily dose
the Life's Abundance Cat Supplement!
More good quality Pet Care Tips
