Get rid of fleas naturally with this home remedy

As you know, two of the natural products listed in the sidebar here are designed to kill fleas and ticks on your critters. After my experience with using a chemical flea killer on poor Pepper, I would never use Frontline or any of the others again.

So, I was interested when one of the forums I read started a discussion about natural flea repellent/killer.

This "recipe" was posted as a spray against mosquitoes.

The lady who posted it said that "This stuff is actually killing the ticks on the dogs.... I'm finding them on the floor, dead or dying, in the mornings. (yuck)"

Add 8 or 9 drops of each of the following essential oils to a 24-oz. spray bottle filled with water.
Tea Tree
Rosemary
Sage (any kind)
Cedarwood
Peppermint
Sweet Orange
Eucalyptus
Citronella
Pine Needle.

Or 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of water.

Dogs'll smell lovely (mostly peppermint), and it should work nicely to deter the tiny livestock.

This reminded me that catnip (a mint) is supposed to keep mosquitoes away when planted around the house. I did that and the stuff grows like a bad weed.

Does it work? I don't know. We get a few mosquitoes, but not many. I do know that it does not deter bees!

Arthritis in dogs

Yesterday I talked about puppies and Parvo - it's only fair to go to the other end and think about older dogs and arthritis.

Just like in people, arthritis can remove joy from a dog's life. When it hurts to run and play, where's the fun?

My dog Ralph was one of those dogs who was suffering. He came to us in 2000 - a puppy with a broken leg. His owner had decided that he'd rather pay to have his dog put to sleep than pay to have his leg set and then have to deal with the recovery period. So... after spending a day on the phone trying to find someone who would take an injured dog, I came home and told my husband about him. And he said "Call the vet and tell him to fix that dog!"

Well, he came to our house to recover, and the rest is history.

One day Carl said "I thought you were going to find this dog a good home." I said "Oh, I did." He said OK and that was the end of thinking that Ralph would ever live anywhere else. He became my husband's shadow.

The vet warned us that he would eventually develop arthritis because of his injury, and sure enough, he did. Then, to add insult to injury, last year he tore a ligament. He could barely make it into his favorite chair, and had to be lifted to get into the pickup. This was not good.

The vet didn't want to operate because doing so would put too much strain on the other leg, so he prescribed pain medication. After losing my beloved Harry to the side effects of Rimadyl a few years ago, I watched Ralph very closely - and after one day discontinued the Rimadyl. So they tried a different medication, with the same results. He started throwing up.

That's when I began my internet search for something natural, and I found it!


Every time I see Ralph running, playing, and tumbling over the other dogs, I send up a little prayer of thanks for having found ArthroIonx. It's minerals instead of chemicals, and it works!

Ralph still gets his glucosamine every day to promote healing, but I credit his return to joy to the ArthroIonx.

If you have a dog with arthritis, click on the name above and give it a try. You have nothing to lose, because if for some reason it doesn't work for your dog, you can get your money back.

I think this product saved my dog - and it might just save yours, too.

Here's to living with and loving dogs!

Marte

P.S. Ralph's the big guy in the photo. The little one is Pepper.