Dog advice needed

[acezz4e_tish]

I live in the s.e region of mo, border of ark, tenn. the pests here are bad! flys bite people and animals. what can i do to keep them off my dogs ears? I rubbed vaseline as suggested by someone on them, but she went right down on the grass and rubbed it off.

[RJB1180]

Do you have your dogs on any HW preventives or Flea/tick meds?

[acezz4e_tish]

dave bought drops by hartz at walmart.

[RJB1180]

I would talk to your vet about Heartworm preventitive and flea/tick meds that work best in your area.

On the jersey shore, our vet recommends Interceptor (HW prevent) and Frontline Plus, we are also talking about switching to K-9 Advantix, depending on the vets recommendation.

I try to buy everything online, we run about $15/month for both per dog. I use entirelypets.com, but I have heard fleameds.com and petcarerx.com can be cheaper when used on sale.

Please call your vet as they know the problems, issues, concerns of the local area and can guide you much better.

As the owner of 4 dogs, trust me

[acezz4e_tish]

but what does it do to keep flys off the ears?

[Ima saver]

I would dip his head in concrete!!!

[Ima saver]

I can't believe that no one read my brillant dog advice

[boefixepa]

Yes your dog should be on fle/tick heartworm, but for flies on the ears...biospot is cheep and effective, just use a little on the ends of the ears. I have 250 lbs worth of Malamutes in my back yard and I really don't have a problem with flyies so much as misquitos in my areas....they carry heartworm! Gratefully it's not a huge problem in Utah. The Bio Spot works great and it's cheep. You can search for it and it will come up in a thousand different places and it's at Petsmart and the like here. It's toxic stuff, so I would use it sparingly, but I've never found anything more effective.

PS Ima --- My Dogs dig under the concrete....Not kidding I think one is trying to get to China just for the fun of it!

[Ima saver]

Thanks for reading, boe!!

[shengmei]

Try pennyroyal leaf powder. It works excellently.

Petguard makes an herbal pet collar that repeals insects. It costs about $4.50 at any natural food store.

[djaco]

I also live in the S.E. US, and flies are pretty bad this time of year. Aside from picking up poop twice a day (which really helps), I use a fly trap that I got at Home Depot (about $4 I think). It's a long plastic bag with fly attractant in in, and you fill with water and hang on a fence or tree. The flies go to it, get in and cannot get out. It kills them and stops the reproduction cycle. I used to keep the trap close to my patio, but noticed it really wasn't working all that great. Then I realized it was attracting the flies toward my house so I moved it to the outside of my fence and now "no flies". The bag has hundreds of dead flies after only a few weeks. Plus, it's safe for pets and birds and lasts all season - you just have to add more water occasionally.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Tish, you can probably guess from my name that I live to the north of you. I have seen a dog here in the city get those kind of ear bites. The thing to use is pyrethrin or permethrin. Those are the same chemicals that are in "flea dip." They have low toxicity. Pyrethrin is likely one of the things in the herbal flea collars, as pyrethrin occurs naturally in a certain daisy like plant. It is acceptable to many organic gardeners, which may be an indicator of its mildness.

I have actually made my dog collars of pennyroyal, crushed the leaves and rubbed it on his coat, and also rubbed it on my own skin, but it did not seem to help keep fleas off of my dog or mosquitos off of myself. So I don't put much faith in pennyroyal. (There are two types of pennyroyal and I grow the one that is supposed to repel insects.)

If this were my dog, I would ask a vet whether it is okay to put some undiluted or lightly diluted pyrethrin flea dip directly on the dog's ears. I don't think a vet would charge you just for the simple phone call.

I would also ask about putting an over-the-counter anti-biotic ointment on the ear, because those open wounds continue to attract even more flies so that the ears cannot heal and they are very prone to infection. It can even get so bad that the flies lay eggs in the wounds and them maggots will hatch out right in your dog's ears! Please do take care of your poor pup.

I think I have seen directions online for making those water bag fly traps from your own materials. You might want to google that up.

[djaco]

Thanks for suggesting a home made fly trap. I found instructions for one here!

My store bought trap really does work, now that I've placed it far from my house. I have virtually no flies now. I'll try making my own next!

[boomeyers]

They say, for people, to rub Bounce sheets on your self or stick them in your pockets to protect from biting flies. Maybe you could rub a sheet on your dogs head!
Glad the fly trap is working!

[shengmei]

You can check out the Health section of this forum: http://www.thecatsite.com

This is a cat website, but I found there are more educated people on this website than most dog forums