A Lifestyle Guide for People with Allergies and Food Sensitivities

Keep your dog free of ticks and fleas – naturally.

If you're a dog owner, chances are you enjoy a walk around the neighborhood, a romp in the park, or a hike in the woods with your furry companion. Pleasant activity and Mother Nature combine to make doggy heaven for you and your pet. But Fido can pick up more than exercise in the Great Outdoors. Ticks and fleas can hitchhike home and become unwelcome guests on your dog and in your house.

Some dogs don't seem to mind these pests too much. They tolerate the bites and itching and appear only mildly uncomfortable. Many pets, however, develop at least some allergic itching and will scratch vigorously as a result. In worst cases, your loyal companion will lose patches of fur from scratching and chewing, develop ?hot spots? (red, inflamed areas of skin) and become at risk for secondary infections.

Animal Magnetism

Some animals are more attractive hosts for pests than others. Pets with healthy, robust immune systems are less likely to become critter targets.

"People who study animals in nature have said that as they become ill, they develop a lot of parasites," says Richard H. Pitcairn, author of the pet classic Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats (Rodale Books). "As an animal becomes weaker, it becomes a more suitable host."

Under natural conditions, animals move around a lot more than their domestic counterparts do. Fleas are most prominent in areas where animals sleep. Out in the wild, cats and dogs roam freely, changing where they settle down each night, thus leaving parasites and their eggs behind. But pets living in an apartment or house stay put and are constantly exposed to the same flea breeding grounds.

What to Do?

Most pet owners turn to conventional commercial powders, dips, and sprays to address the flea and tick problem but these products can often exacerbate a dog's discomfort. Some pets react to flea collars or on-spot products like Frontline with nervous system symptoms – loss of appetite, weakness, dizziness, salivation, involuntary bowel movements and even seizure or collapse.

For most pets, however, adverse effects to the trace amounts of poison in these flea and tick treatments are far more subtle and accumulate over time, causing liver and kidney damage as the animal ages.

"It all goes straight to the liver, which is the body's filter," says Leslie McCormick, nutritional counselor at Green Pets in Alexandria, Virginia, a shop that sells all-natural and holistic pet products. "When a dog is six or seven, that's when you start to see problems."

Animals that have strong allergic reactions to fleas are most likely to be the ones who are also sensitive to chemical treatments, according to McCormick. She says she's occasionally seen dogs and cats die from exposure to routine flea prevention treatments.

How to tell when you should risk the complications and side effects of commercial chemical treatment? Reserve chemical and spot-on treatments for only the most serious infestation areas.

"It's a numbers game," says Pitcairn. In a particularly bad tick year in humid Hong Kong, one of his client's dogs came in covered with literally thousands of ticks. In that case, where it was almost impossible to remove all the ticks by hand, Pitcairn recommended a chemical treatment.

In most cases, however, fleas and ticks can be kept under control with gentle, natural treatments.