Dog and Cat owners rejoice! The general nutritional supplement for your favorite pets is here: Juice Plus+ for Dogs and Juice Plus+ for Cats. The famous Juice plus+ concept of “whole food nutrition” has now been adapted to the specific needs of our precious pets!
 
Juice Plus+ for Dogs and Juice Plus+ for Cats are concentrated whole food powders that you sprinkle onto your pet’s regular food. They help to “unlock” the full nutritional value of your pet’s food, and also provide concentrated, natural nutrients not present in most commercial pet food products.

Check out the Recommended Products section for more information on Juice Plus for pets.

Ahhh the dreaded flea. 

Know your enemy

By the time you can identify fleas on your pet, it is likely that your home is already infested.  While adult fleas reside on your pets, the earlier life stages of the fleas live and grow in your carpets, pets’ bedding, etc.  A single female flea can lay 10 to 50 eggs per day and upwards of 2000 eggs in her lifetime.  Thus one adult flea can literally lead to an infestation of tens of thousands.  Only 1% of the flea population will actually live on your pets which leaves the other 99% lurking in your house and yard in various live stages.  The adult female will lay eggs on your pet, who will then act something like a salt shaker, spreading the eggs in the house.  The larval stage will emerge within 1 to 10 days.  The flea will remain in this stage for 5 to 11 days.  This stage is the period of vulnerability where you can kill the juvenile pest.  Next the flea will spin a cocoon where they will safely rest for one day to six months.  During this stage your only hope is to vacuum or wash bedding where the cocoon lies.  The flea will remain in the protective cocoon until conditions are right and then emerge to begin the life-cycle all over again..

Now you understand why flea bombs or one time sprays and treatments do not work to rid you of your problem.  These products only kill the adult and larval stages of the flea population leaving 8 to 10% of the population to later emerge from their cocoons and then we begin again.

 Treatment options

Treatment options vary widely.  There are a number of effective chemical flea treatments these days and generally they are much less toxic than the older organophosphate type treatments.  Many of these newer treatments work in ways that are specific to fleas and will not affect mammals (dogs,cats,people).  That said, side effects are seen and recognized with all of these treatments and many people continue looking for alternatives. 

Arming Your Pet for Battle

Let me first begin with a note that healthier animals DO repel fleas better and lets further this by recognizing that nutrition is the foundation for health.  Efforts to improve your pet”s nutrition and supplement with a vitamin, preferably a whole food supplement such as Juice Plus can help your pet repel these pests and greatly reduce your chances for re-infestation in the future.  Some supplements of particular value when fighting fleas include Fatty acid supplements to improve your pet’s skin and hair coat, Probiotics and Digestive enzymes to help your pet make the most of his meal, Garlic and Brewers yeast will make your pet “less tasty”. 

Of course this will not fix your immediate problem so let,s continue…

The Battle Begins

There are numerous natural treatments for fleas.  I will try to talk about some of the more reliable options that are out there.  Generally, when treating for fleas, you need to think of both killing the adults that are on your pets and also the younger life stages that live in your house.  As I mentioned earlier, the pupal stage that exists in your home is sheltered in a cocoon and is almost indestructible.  To complete eradication, you need to encourage these pupa to hatch by increasing the temperature in the house and allowing the animals to move around freely.   Both heat and exhaled carbon dioxide will stimulate hatching.  These young adults, ready for their first blood meal, will quickly jump on your pets and can then be killed.

The Battle in the Home

In the home, begin simply by washing all bedding that the pets sleep on and thoroughly vacuuming the house.  You can put moth balls or borax in the vacuum cleaner bag or better yet dispose of the bag outside immediately after vacuuming.  A safe cleaning solution for surfaces in the house can be made with  1 cup rubbing alcohol, 1 cup distilled water, 5 to 10 drops lavender, and 5 to 10 drops peppermint oil.  Finally, at night, set up flea traps in areas needed.  To do this you need a bright night light or a table lamp placed on the floor.  Place shallow bowls of soapy water around the lights.  The fleas will be stimulated to hatch out and come to the heat of the light and will die in the water baths.  This will work most effectively if there is not another heat source in the room- animal or other. 

Boric acid is a very effective way to treat the home.  Boron is generally considered safe with at least limited exposure.  What I consider Flea Busters signature product is a borate powder to spread throughout the home.  They claim it is 33% less toxic than regular boric acid.  This works by drying, or desiccating, the younger life stages of the flea.

The Battle on your Pet

Topically, a simple bath in any soap will kill many of the fleas on your pet.  Follow this up with a good flea combing to brush out the remaining slowed or stunned fleas.  I often recommend Neem shampoos.  The neem seed is generally considered safe although there are reports of neurologic toxicity when infants and young children have ingested neem products.  There are also neem sprays and powders that you can use to kill those fleas who linger or hatch out after the bath.

Dips made with 3 Tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar per gallon of water are sometimes helpful.  I have also had clients use a solution of 1% hydrogen peroxide saturated with borate powder.  Other people use Avon Skin So Soft at a concentration of 2 oz per quart of water to use to dip or spray.

Dr. Pitcairin  recommends making a flea powder with one part each eucalyptus, rosemary, fennel, yellow dock, wormwood and rue.  Use as many of these as you can find, put them in a shaker bottle and apply liberally as needed.

Many people like to use essential oils to treat fleas naturally.  PLEASE remember that natural does not automatically translate to safe.  Sassafrass and Pennyroyal oils have both shown efficacy in killing fleas but both can cause skin irritation and pennyroyal oil can cause liver and neurologic damage and can even be deadly when ingested.  What ever you put on your pet topically, you shouldexpect to be consumed as your pet licks and cleans himself.

Orally you can dose garlic safely at 1 clove per 40# per day for most animals.  Do be aware that garlic in excess can be toxic to dogs and cats and please check with your veterinarian to be sure that this dose would be safe for your pet.  1/2 teaspoon of brewers yeast per day can be dosed to cats.  1 teaspoon per day for a small dog up to 2 heaping teaspoons per day for a large dog.

The Battle in the Yard

The yard can be a source of re-infestation, so do not forget to address this as well.  Squirrels and other hosts are constantly spreading flea eggs where ever they roam.  To begin, keeping the yard free of debris will help.  Even a thorough watering can drown the larval stages.  Using a nematode product is another non-toxic method to explore.  Sold commercially as Flea Busters nematodes, Interrupt and Flea Halt, these products are quite effective.  These nematodes have wonderful appetites and love to help you clear your yard of juvenile fleas.  Many people also spread diatomaceous earth on their lawns.  Be careful to limit exposure to the dust when applying.

Chemical Treatments

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, you need some help from science.  One of the breakthroughs of the newer flea control medications is that one product will affect both the adult population on the animal and also the earlier life stages living in the house.  Of these products, I find Advantage to be the safest and most effective option.  I am by no means suggesting that Advantage is a natural product or that it is without side effects.  That said, many of my clients have not been able to win the battle naturally or are looking for an easier way to treat fleas that is not too toxic and Advantage seems to fit the bill.  Given busy schedules and lives, regular pet bathing and more extensive house treatments may not be an option or just may not be working for you.  If this is the case in your situation, do not fret.  Try to minimize applications.  For those living with animals who do not have severe flea allergies, I often recommend waiting until you see the first signs of fleas to treat. Treat with chemicals when things get out of hand and try to use the more natural means to decrease your dependence on chemicals.

One of the most common problems presented to all veternarians is the itchy pet, and as a holistic practitioner, the same holds true. Most often the source of itch is allergies. With conventional medicine, the treatment is often suppression and in difficult cases this can mean endless rounds of antibiotics and steroids. As clients and veterinarians become frustrated, they often begin to look for alternatives.

Lets begin by looking at the different causes of allergies and discuss the ways in which these can be diagnosed. General treatment recommendations will be given when possible, but given the difficult nature of these conditions, treatments often need to be individual patient based to be effective.

Allergies can be to fleas, food or the environment. All of these conditions can look very similar to each other as well to other disease processes that affect the skin. A veterinarian should be consulted to be sure that your pet does not have mites, an infection, or other diagnosable problem before concluding that allergies are the culprit. Keep in mind that even for a proficient veterinarian, diagnosis can sometimes be harder than you would imagine. These conditions are not mutually exclusive, and often a bacterial infection is actually caused by an underlying problem such as allergies.

This is not to say the skin problems can not be adequately diagnosed. There are often differences in the history or in the pattern of itch that is suggestive of one cause of disease or another, and with a good history and exam your veterinarian will be well on the way to determining the cause of your pet’s discomfort. For example, inhalant allergies in dogs (allergies caused by pollens, trees, molds or grasses) tend to be seasonal and often include itchy feet and ear infections as part of the history. Cats do not seem to suffer as much from inhalant allergies as do their canine counterparts. Flea allergies tend to concentrate around the tail base and stomach in dogs and often cats as well. Finally, with food allergies, you see year round problems which may show signs predominantly around the mouth, ears and anus.

I do encourage clients to work up the cause of the allergy. If an allergen can be identified, a change in environment or husbandry can improve the situation and certainly changing the diet is far simpler and better for your pet than forever fighting an allergy to the chicken you feed each day. Different allergies will need to be diagnosed in different ways. For example inhalant allergies can be readily diagnosed by a blood test while food allergies require a diet trial. Common food allergens in animals include protein sources such as meat and dairy as well as corn and wheat to name a few. A hypoallergenic food trial which lasts two to three months may be needed to determine whether a diet change may result in improvement in the skin condition. This diet needs to contain ingredients that the animal has not eaten before and thus has not had a chance to develop and allergy to. This food is most likely going to need to be homemade or purchased as a prescription food as most “lamb and rice” type formulas that you find in the pet store will have other ingredients in them which could invalidate your diet trial. Please note that food allergies can not be accurately diagnosed by blood tests. Many of these tests are available but are of little to no diagnostic value.

One last note regarding food. There are many animals whose conditions improve dramatically when taken off of processed food and are put on homemade. These changes may take a while to notice or may be almost immediate. I regularly see patients with frustrating skin problems who show such improvement.

Flea allergies are usually diagnosed by history, observation of the pattern of itch and finding evidence of fleas. Often this is seen as “flea dirt” which is actually flea excrement. This excrement does in fact resemble dirt. If you are unsure, you can be differentiate flea dirt from garden dirt by placing a small amount on a white cloth or towel and then wetting the dirt and towel. Flea dirt well run red onto the towel as it is actually digested blood.

There are numerous ways to combat fleas naturally. See post on Fighting fleas naturally. These methods do, however, tend to be more labor intensive and may prove insufficient to eradicate a stubborn flea problem. Of the pharmaceutical products out there, I find advantage to be the safest and most effective. This product is designed to kill fleas on the animal and, when the treated pet sheds skin cells it will kill younger life stages in the house as well.

NOTE:Finding evidence of fleas can be especially difficult on cats. They tend to be fastidious groomers and can also have severe, body wide, reactions to even one flea.

Inhalant allergies can be readily diagnosed by a simple blood test. The difficulty comes after diagnosis. Some of my clients choose to try allergy injections which can work effectively in about 60% to 65% of animals in my experience. In other animals, treatment involves detoxification, improving the quality of the animal’s diet, boosting the immune system with acupuncture and supplements, and using Chinese herbs to both control the symptoms and help the animal become less reactive to the allergen. This is a long term process. These problems have often been ongoing for years and have been driven deeper still into the body by masking signs with the “anti” system of repeated doses of anti-biotics and anti-inflammatories. Animals treated naturally, will see their allergy reactions becoming less severe year after year as they work toward “health”.

A daily diet should consist of four parts protein to one- two parts carbohydrates

This diet can be fed raw or lightly cooked depending on your cat and situation. Be sure never to feed any animal cooked bones. Always chop finely or blenderize raw vegetables to break down cell walls and make them digestible for your feline friend.

One part of protein is equal to

2 oz meat or fish

1 medium egg

1/2 cup yogurt- note that 1/2 cup of yogurt counts as 1 unit of carbohydrate as well

1/3 cup cottage cheese- note that 1/3 cup of cottage cheese counts as 1 unit of carbohydrate as well

2 oz organ meat-you can feed up to one unit of organ meat several times a week if desired.

Carbohydrates

You will need to feed 1 to 2 units of carbohydrates per day

One part of carbohydrate is equal to

1 cup vegetables such as-broccoli, brussel sprouts, greenbeans, peas, cabbage, spinich, squashes

1/2 cup fruits such as-melons, berries, bananas, tomatoes, apples. Also carrots at 1/2 cup.

1/4 cup cooked beans, lentils or chick peas

1/3 cup of grains such as-oatmeal or barley can be added if you wish. These are the best of the grain type carbohydrates for a cat but note that grains in general are the least favorable type of carbohydrate. Try to limit or avoid these carbohydrates if your cat allows . Whole wheat pasta or brown rice are other options although not preferred.

Supplements

1/2 teaspoon bone meal

multivitamin for cats- whole food source is preferred.  Your cat should be supplemented with 50-100 mg of taurine per day depending on the size of cat.  Meat loses much of its taurine content when cooked. Check your multi to see if it is supplied or if you need an additional supplement.

500-1000 mg fish oil

antioxidant as directed for felines

Please note that this diet will not be adequate or appropriate for all cats. Be sure to check with your veterinarian before begining this or any other new diet for your cat.