All Our Pets May Newsletter

Last Chance For Fleas

Editor, All Our Pets

Having lived with multiple dogs and cats in Southern California for over twenty years I have tried just about every flea remedy and prevention technique available, with limited success, until recently. As the busy flea season commences I no longer have a quandary as to what to do. The days of flea collars, flea bombs, carpet sprays and powders, yard sprays, toxic dips, nontoxic sprays, and a host of other futile remedies ... are over.

Each year I listened to the same lectures on the flea life cycle and how to break it. You had fight the battle on all fronts at the same time, and even then just one pesky flea bite could trigger an allergic flea dermatitis attack on my sensitive skinned Golden Retriever.

Finally there came a breakthrough. A miraculous oral product called Program®, whose active ingredient lufenuron is an IDI (Insect Development Inhibitor), became available. The female flea requires the blood of animals in order to reproduce. Once it bites a pet on Program®, ingesting its blood, its progeny becomes sterile due to a lack of chithin in its skeleton.

Another major breakthrough came about two years later with the introduction of two flea adulticides that are applied to the animal's fur and skin. I have used Advantage on all of my cats and Frontline on my dog with great success, so that I literally never find a flea on any of my pets, or in the house or yard. Currently I am not using any other flea remedies or prevention techniques, other than keeping the house well-vacuumed. Each of these products is available from your veterinarian as well as many pet stores and is applied once a month from a convenient tube applicator that contains the quantity appropriate to the particalar pet's weight.

These products have now been widely available for quite a few years, and as a result it seems that flea conrtol has become less of a burden. On the other hand there are certainly risks associated with using any pesticides or chemicals, and where other approaches are possible these should be used. There are times however when drastic measures must be taken over a short period of time. This is especially the case where a pet is suffering from flea allergic dermatitis.

Why Does My Pet Eat Grass?

Are you concerned when your dog or cat eats grass, then throws up afterwards? You'll probably feel relieved to know that pets eat grass because their bodies need it.

Dogs and cats have been eating grass for a long time. In fact, grass is so popular among dogs that one species, dog grass, is named after them. Dog grass is also known as couch grass and quackweed, and it grows in all but the southern-most states.

You can think of grass as an herbal medicine. It acts as an internal cleanser, expelling excess mucus, bile, and other impurities. It also cleanses the bowels and expels worms. Cereal grasses contain enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. Grass also contains chlorophyll, which was used for relieving pain, treating infections, ulcers, skin diseases, and anemia prior to the use of antibiotics.

Some pet owners grow grass specifically to give to their pets to prevent or treat diarrhea, anemia, cataracts, fleas, tumors excessive shedding, and other pet health problems. Pets that are fed grass on a regular basis are less likely to crave outdoor grass. So, if you don't feel comfortable with your pet eating the grass in your lawn, you may want to grow your own grass for them to eat.