Tea Tree Oil

[iwantadog]

After Murphy's fit on Saturday I am petrified to give him any chemical based flea treatment. I have spoken to a herbalist who has recommended I dilute some tea tree oil with sunflower oil and rub it into his neck or put a couple of drops into shampoo and wash him in it. Has anyone else used tea tree oil on their dog?

Wendy x

[pixie's mum]

HI

I use Johnsons herbal flea (and tick) drops from my local pet shop and they are on the internet. I had a ridgeback have a bad reaction to the strong flea drops and these were fine on him
However if the tea tree and oil works that would be even more natural and a better option.
I also know of people putting garlic in their dogs food which goes into their system and repels fleas (not sure about ticks though)
I shall watch this thread with interest. - thanks for raising the issue and I hope Murphy is feeling better now
Kathy

[The Turners]

I've never used it, but I really hope it works for you. So pleased that Murphy is feeling better.

Pixie's mum: the garlic in the food sounds interesting, does it work?

[Midnightschild]

I'm not sure if the garlic keeps fleas away or not but our Ella love the garlic biscuits I made for her. I give her 1 a day for a treat. She has finished the first batch but I made a lot of biscuit mix so i only cooked half of it. I will be removing the remainder from the freezer and baking the rest tomorrow sometime. Yes I did try a little piece and they do taste scrummy.
Ella's mum.

[liverbird]

I put garlic capsules in the food (when I remember ) and also sometimes spray them with water containing a few drops of tea tree oil. We had fleas once.......Little bar-stewards now I'm paranoid.....NEVER AGAIN, so I probably over do the precautions

[stout]

I have heard that garlic works, I think you have to introduce it gradually, although I do admit we haven't tried it on stout.

[Liz!]

Lola is a service dog and we were given instructions not to use tea tree oil as it is poisonous to dogs. It is even more poisonous to cats. Don't risk it.

Garlic is also poisonous to them and we were also warned about this!

However there are other things which aren't as poisonous, but can't recall what they are... there is tea tree in some commercial preparations in very small amounts and it is presumably small enough to be safe...

A herbalist is not going to know what is poisonous to dogs.

[iwantadog]

Thank you Liz that is the kind of advice I needed to know. I really don't want to make him poorly. I might try the Johnson flea tablets mentioned earlier.