Natural Tick Solutions for Dogs

Consider using natural solutions to prevent ticks on your pets. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), chemical flea and tick spot treatments lead to thousands of skin irritations, neurological problems or deaths in pets each year. In 2008, the EPA received more than 44,000 complaints related to spot treatments. In addition, these spot treatments have poisonous ingredients which easily transfer to humans and pose a serious health risk for children. More rigid testing criteria is planned for any flea and tick treatments applied to a dog or cat's skin. Talk to your vet about tick prevention and, if you choose spot treatments, follow the instructions carefully regarding the pet's size.

  1. Essential Oils

    • Repel ticks by applying a few drops of the essential oils from palmerosa or rose geranium to your dog's collar. These oils are for sale in most craft stores. Create a stronger solution by mixing 10 to 25 drops of rose geranium essential oil with 2 tbsp. of vegetable oil and 2 tbsp. of powdered sulfur in a glass jar. Shake the ingredients and add one to three drops of the solution to your dog's collar and your own clothes before walking in the woods. The mixture remains effective for six months.

    Nutrition

    • Add nutritional solutions to your dog's food or water and prevent and/or repel ticks. Omega fatty acid supplements and brewer's yeast are two ingredients which help prevent ticks by promoting your dog's health. A healthy dog with a strong immune system is less likely to develop an illness from a tick. Mix 1 tsp. per 30 pounds of body weight of brewer's yeast with dogfood each day to provide your pet with adequate B complex vitamins. Omega 3 and 6 fatty acid supplements will also boost your dog's immune system, but ask your vet for the correct dosage. To repel insects, add 1 tbsp. of organic apple cider vinegar to the water bowl daily. In addition, a tsp. of safflower oil and 1 tsp. of powdered kelp mixed with dog food each day helps keep ticks away.

    Best Solution

    • Look for ticks on your dog, immediately, after spending time in the woods or a grassy area. Check between your dog's toes, on the stomach and under each leg. The best all-natural solution to any tick problems on your dog remains early detection. Because ticks latch tightly to victims, the pests make potent disease carriers. Removing a tick within the first four hours of infestation, however, limits the chances of you or your dog catching Lyme disease or other infections. Ticks wait on vegetation, like the tip of a blade of grass, and quickly attach when a person or animal brushes against the vegetation. Don't panic if you find a tick on your dog, but call the vet if you notice symptoms like a loss of appetite, lethargy, enlarged lymph nodes, fever and lameness.