Furry pets are good companions. They’re cuddly and they like being petted. Cats are sweet. Dogs are playful. The mutual relationship existing between the pet and his owner is truly one of the sweetest things on earth.
But what happens if one day your pet keeps scratching, drooling, rolling over and biting his fur? You might as well find a magnifying lens. You will surely see tiny dark insects crawling in your pet’s fur. There’s no mistake about it. There’s now a third party in your relationship with your pet – fleas.
So you rush to the pet store near you to grab the bestselling flea medicine. It makes sense to you. If you have flu, you buy flu pills. Now that your pet has fleas, you buy flea pills. But are you sure they’re what your pet needs right now? Do they give immediate relief from itchiness?
The best thing to do is to visit your veterinarian, even if you still have to travel for an hour. Otherwise, you might be spending a lot of money on flea meds that are appropriate for your pets.
Don’t worry if you don’t have enough money for all the expensive remedies for flea infestation. If you’re on a shoestring, your vet would probably recommend flea dips.
You can call it the first aid to flea infestation. Flea dips refer to the solutions mixed with the water used for bathing flea-infested cats, dogs and even birds. Once the active ingredient in the solution is left in the skin and fur (or feather) of the pet, it remains effective for a few weeks, unless the pet often gets wet in the rain, pool or puddle. They work best on cats and dogs aged six weeks and up.
These dips’ flea-killing ingredients are usually plant-based or botanical insecticides – all well-researched by the leading manufacturers. Based on their contents, they may come in varied solutions. The active ingredients could be Pyrethrin or citrus oil extracts such as Limonene and Linalool. However, dips containing Pyrethrin is toxic to cats so they must only be applied to dogs.
Flea dip substances derived from organic materials work best for plants as an insecticide that targets not just pests, such as flies, mosquitoes, gnats and ticks, but the lice and fleas as well. If ingested by fleas, they cause over-stimulation of muscles, leading to muscular fasciculation and tremors and initially followed by paralysis.
On the other hand, most researches have disputed the use of this controversial flea-control product, complaining that flea dips pose great toxicity to animals, as well as to humans, especially children. High exposure to these flea dips may lead to respiratory inhibition, causing headaches, nausea, dizziness, tiredness, blurred vision, sweating, and feeling ‘spaced out.’ These are symptoms of acute poisoning due to the chemicals inhaled, and if not noticed right away, it will cause bronchospasms, respiratory failure and eventually death.
Since these contain strong and highly-effective chemicals, the United States Environmental Protection Agency requires clear, accurate, and safe instructions on labels as regards the dilution of these substances, and that they must be administered only three times a year to avoid serious health effects.
It would be far better to have the application of the flea dips done with the presence of the veterinarian or the authorized person in the pet salons. Protective suits like gloves, aprons and trousers that are waterproof must be worn.
Everything has its bright and dark sides. This applies to dips, medicines and foggers. They are highly effective but they have to be used carefully. You only have to follow instructions to the letter.