Too many tick bites....anyone used NATURAL repellants???
Submitted by ArchimedesMommy on October 23, 2012 - 4:11pmugh....Meaty had TWO tick bites last week and Sophie had one. Is it the weird warm Fall weather???
In the past, when we RARELY found ticks on them, they'd always be tiny and DEAD (and, I'm assuming TINY means they did NOT feed on my babies, right?) Well, the three we pulled (and pulled! and pulled!---with tweezers, of course) out of them last week were all VERY fat, AND they left behind tiny anounts of dried blood and swelling....poor Meaty and Sophie!..
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We of course cleaned the sites very well, (and of course, made sure we got the WHOLE tick, mainly their stupid heads) and also applied triple abx. cream, and watched for more swelling, other s/s of infection, s/s of Lyme or Rocky Mountain----you know the drill. Thank GOODNESS, all three sites are getting much better, and neither are showing s/s of illness... (Also, since all the research tells us to, after killing the $#*#&$*# ticks with rubbing alcohol, I saved the ticks in CASE they got sick and the vet needed to see the actual tick)...
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ANYHOOOO, after doing research about all the different tick repellants, I decided to go natural. Found lots and lots of recipes for different repellants made with essential oils....But today at Petsmart I found some $$spray --- "Sentry Natural Tick and Flea Repellant". I felt good about it, since it contains nothing but lots of different essential oils and alcohol. Anyone used this, or other things? I'm SO thankful neither of them have ever had fleas, but these tick bites are HORRIBLE!!! I swear, just when it's ALMOST time to let them go outside more, this happens! Arrghhhh!!! ;...
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I appreciate all input/ advise!
Our sweet Archimedes "MEATY" Bones (or as we say...boneSHHH!) ---born 11/28/08---- our first bullllyyyy!!!
And SOPHIE Bubbles *Rapscallion* (LOL!) ---born 4/3/11----our second bulllllyyyy!!!!
we are fighting fleas right now
Uggggg.......the thing about natural/hoilsitic is that it works best as a PREVENTITIVE, and our family had such an intensely stressful summer we slacked off on giving AUdrey garlic and spraying her. Now she has fleas. I HATE fleas. Hate them.
I am not sure what we are going to do at this point, I also HATE topical flea killers.
Audrey is just about 4, and for the 1st year we used Frontline, no fleas. The next 2 years we used fresh garlic and essential oil spray on a regular basis. No fleas.
So now we know the garlic works very well to keep them away, but unfortunately at this point they are already here. I am so mad at myself for even thinking it was OK to not give it to her....
I have heard that garlic works for ticks also. It is not the smell (that we can smell) that deters them, it deters because it masks the protein in the blood that fleas/ticks detect.
Cathy and Audrey
aww...poor Audrey! (and you!)....what a bummer! THANK
YOU for the info....I'm going to research more about garlic. Found ANOTHER tick on Meaty
yesterday....dunno WHY they're so bad this Fall...they make me so MAD! Get AWAY from my
sweet babies!!!!! I HATE that we have to pull SOOO HARD with the tweezers to get them out...
it HAS to be painful.... (sad face!)
Our sweet Archimedes "MEATY" Bones (or as we say...boneSHHH!) ---born 11/28/08---- our first bullllyyyy!!!
And SOPHIE Bubbles *Rapscallion* (LOL!) ---born 4/3/11----our second bulllllyyyy!!!!