Fleas and their bites are a common problem occurring in our lovely pets, especially in Dogs and Cats. Here in this article, we share experience about Dog Flea Bites & Home Remedies to Get Rid Of Them. To know all about how dog Fleas & Bites appear/Look like and about their home remedies, please continue reading.
How to Check if Your Dog has Fleas or not?
If you think your Dog has fleas so you can find out by following these steps:
- Let your Dog stand on damp white bath towels.
- Brush the Dog thoroughly
- If a few little specks fall on the white bath towels and turn brown or red, your furry friend has fleas.
Flea bites cause itchy rashes and secondary skin infections. Flea infestation is the most common problem in pets, so every Dog’s parents must know how to get rid of it.
Fortunately, many home remedies can help your Dog get rid of fleas by killing these infested fleas or preventing them from entering your house again. You must know how a flea infestation in your pets looks like, including adult fleas, eggs, and bites.
How Flea bites, eggs, or infestation look like in Dogs?
Adult dog fleas are visible to the naked eye, but they are very sharp and fast and can easily be hidden in your Dog’s skin. They are usually reddish-brown or brown and have six legs.
Although they do not have any wings, they can jump very far, so you should be careful when inspecting your Dog so that these fleas do not jump on your hair or skin.
Find the Flea eggs:
Flea eggs are clean, small, and oval in shapes that are smaller than a grain of sand. Fleas usually laid eggs in 18-20 clusters. These egg clusters generally fall off from your Dog’s coat so that you can find them on the dog bed or your canine companion’s sitting places.
The incubating period of these Flea eggs is usually a few days. After that, they hatch and start feeding on blood. Then they enter the next morphological stage known as the pupal stage, where they make a cocoon, which is a very tough, sticky, and resistant structure that protects them from the chemicals you can use to kill them.
Fact: Cacoon or pupal stage of Fleas is the toughest one to deal with.
Search for “Flea Dirt” in Your Dog’s Coat:
Due to Fleas’ small size, it is tough to spot them, but there is a spot/area known as “Flea Dirt,” which you can find easily on your canine skin. “Flea Dirt” is considered to be the feces of fleas. It looks like specks of dirt or tiny grains like peppers.
You can easily spot that “Flea Dirt” area on light fur dogs, but it is more difficult to find it on darker fur Dogs. To verify that it is “Flea Dirt” and not ordinary dirt, you can run a comb through your Dog’s coat, which will remove the dirt along with some adult fleas. So you can differentiate that.
Take a wet paper towel and place a residue or dirt on it. “Flea Dirt” will show rusty color when it dissolves because it has traces of blood in it, while regular dirt appears to be brown or black.
Look for Dog Flea Bites:
Like other insect bites, flea bites look like small red sores or lesions. Unlike other bites, it can be difficult to tell, although some symptoms indicate that the Flea is the lesion’s cause.
Flea bites or Flea attack in clusters and at any time of the day. Fleas do not require a significant amount of time to feed as the Ticks do. Their bites are elevated in a small amount of time.
The most common areas where Dog Fleas bites are the back of the hips or groin area, hind legs, and the ribs and tail area.
Itching/Allergy may result in Flea bites, but not always:
- If your Dog is not licking, scratching, or chewing doesn’t mean they are free of Dog Fleas.
- If your Dog is itching severely, it may be a sign of a Flea. The Dog is allergic to the saliva of Fleas, which is responsible for allergy and itching.
- However, some dogs are not allergic to flea saliva and show no signs of itching.
How to treat flea bites on dogs? Treatment was proven by Rachel and her team at Integrity Animal Care in Auckland.
Flea bite signs, such as itching and redness, are the result of a severe allergic reaction. So, flea bites must be treated with those medicines that suppress allergic reactions, such as topical steroids or antihistamines.
Dog Flea Bites & Home Remedies to Get Rid Of Them
There are many homemade remedies and treatments for Dog fleas that you can use and help your furry friends get rid of Fleas.
Homemade Flea Spray:
Herbal dog flea sprays to get rid of fleas from your home is one of the best methods to control Flea infestation. This natural treatment for fleas is made from non-toxic products found around your house, which can be used around pets and children.
In a large spray bottle, mix 1 liter of water, 250 ml of lemon juice, 150 ml of witch hazel, and almost 2 liters of vinegar to make the best homemade Dog flea spray. Apply this natural flea spray to your home by spraying heavy carpets, pet beds, furniture, floors, and window sills.
Dish Soap Method:
This homemade Flea treatment method involves making flea nets/traps using water and dish soap. You must fill a plate or bowl with a mixture of dish soap and slightly warm water and keep that mixture in all those places where you think Flea majority is present. This soap mixture acts as glue and traps the fleas due to its high viscosity. Repeat this method every day with a new solution.
To effectively remove Flea from home, try this soaping method at night. This is because fleas are nocturnal (active at night).
Grow plants that are Flea Repellent:
The ultimate natural remedy to get rid of fleas is to grow specific plants that eliminate these biting Fleas. These particular plants contain compounds, certain oils, and chemicals that Flea hate, and they try to avoid them.
Many different plants repel fleas. Using these plants in flower beds and flower pots around your home, you can avoid the Flea infestation in your pets.
Some flea repellent plants:
- Chrysanthemums
- Penny Royal
- Lavender
- Spearmint
Baking Soda:
If you are keen to learn how to get rid of fleas, know that a very effective flea control home remedy is vacuuming the affected area. However, you can increase the effectiveness of vacuuming by using baking soda!
Spread baking soda on your furniture and carpets, take a stiff brush and rub it into the carpet or furniture’s fabric. Next, vacuum your home thoroughly, place the vacuum contents in a bag, and put them in an outdoor trash can.
Refined Salt:
Like baking soda, after salt application, you can get rid of Dog Fleas. Salt acts as a rapid dehydration agent, helping to eliminate adult fleas.
Please take a little salt (refined salt works best) and sprinkle it on every carpet and in every corner of your house. Leave the salt for 1-2 days, vacuum your home thoroughly, and place the vacuum contents in a bag and an outdoor trash can.
Lemon (Citrous) spray:
Lemons can be used in many ways around the house, but in addition to being an excellent way to treat sting bites, it is also a natural home remedy for fleas.
This usual remedy to avoid fleas involves making citrus spray for use on the furniture infested with Dog Fleas. To make this flea spray, finely chop a lemon and boil it in a pinch of water. Let the acidic solution sit overnight and pour into a spray bottle. The very next day, take a lemon solution and spray it on the Flea infested areas of your house. Also, spray on pet beds, sofas, chairs, etc. Keep in mind that do not spray too over, only damp the surfaces.
Another homemade remedy of Dog Fleas includes the usage of Rosemary powder on carpets and furniture, which repels the Fleas because Rosemary is natural Flea repellent.
Avoid Flea attacks:
It would help if you avoided Fleas infestation before Fleas start biting. It is difficult to treat at that time, and your Dog may become very weak and ill due to heavy blood loss, massive allergic reactions, or itching. Also, fleas are host to many parasites that cause severe diseases in dogs. So, we must take care to treat them before their biting stage. Regular grooming is the best option to keep checks your Dog’s fleas.
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