# Need help with flea prevention or itching



## LilasMom (Mar 10, 2012)

I think Jack my 8 lb maltese has fleas.. He is on a raw diet, has ACV in his water, and I spray him with an herbal spray that is supposed to repel fleas, lice, ticks, etc. He has been itching and scratching himself lately but I haven't seen an actual flea yet although I did see a dead one a few weeks ago. We are also still having a problem with tear stains and yeasty paws, which he chews on as well. They cleared up for a while after switching to raw but the past 3-4 months it seems to have built back up to how it was before. I have tried trimming all the red stained fur from around his eyes and then tried to keep them dry but it just comes back. He eats chicken, turkey, beef, quail, pork, occasional fish. I will admit though he is given treats throughout the day, usually teeny sizes of what we are eating, like the very tip of a tortilla chip or a bit of scrambled egg. He eats pretty much the same thing as my other dog Lila (a 3.5 lb yorkie), but she isn't itchy at all, except for the occasional normal scratch. I don't really know what else to do and if it is fleas I REALLY don't wan't to have to use a commercial flea medicine.


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## lily (May 16, 2011)

LilasMom said:


> I think Jack my 8 lb maltese has fleas.. He is on a raw diet, has ACV in his water, and I spray him with an herbal spray that is supposed to repel fleas, lice, ticks, etc. He has been itching and scratching himself lately but I haven't seen an actual flea yet although I did see a dead one a few weeks ago. We are also still having a problem with tear stains and yeasty paws, which he chews on as well. They cleared up for a while after switching to raw but the past 3-4 months it seems to have built back up to how it was before. I have tried trimming all the red stained fur from around his eyes and then tried to keep them dry but it just comes back. He eats chicken, turkey, beef, quail, pork, occasional fish. I will admit though he is given treats throughout the day, usually teeny sizes of what we are eating, like the very tip of a tortilla chip or a bit of scrambled egg. He eats pretty much the same thing as my other dog Lila (a 3.5 lb yorkie), but she isn't itchy at all, except for the occasional normal scratch. I don't really know what else to do and if it is fleas I REALLY don't wan't to have to use a commercial flea medicine.


I found that pork really makes my chi's eyes run,I stopped pork and her eyes are fine,karen


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## Tobi (Mar 18, 2011)

LilasMom said:


> I think Jack my 8 lb maltese has fleas.. He is on a raw diet, has ACV in his water, and I spray him with an herbal spray that is supposed to repel fleas, lice, ticks, etc. He has been itching and scratching himself lately but I haven't seen an actual flea yet although I did see a dead one a few weeks ago. We are also still having a problem with tear stains and yeasty paws, which he chews on as well. They cleared up for a while after switching to raw but the past 3-4 months it seems to have built back up to how it was before. I have tried trimming all the red stained fur from around his eyes and then tried to keep them dry but it just comes back. He eats chicken, turkey, beef, quail, pork, occasional fish. I will admit though he is given treats throughout the day, usually teeny sizes of what we are eating, like the very tip of a tortilla chip or a bit of scrambled egg. He eats pretty much the same thing as my other dog Lila (a 3.5 lb yorkie), but she isn't itchy at all, except for the occasional normal scratch. I don't really know what else to do and if it is fleas I REALLY don't wan't to have to use a commercial flea medicine.


If your want to narrow down what is causing the itches, you must stop with any treats that aren't raw, or dehydrated meats etc. No tortilla chips, nothing like that, raw meat/bones/organs and that's it. 

Are you buying chicken from a grocery store? if so, what is the sodium content, do they have anything added to it, is it soaked in a solution? Are you giving any type of Salmon oil, as you mention the "occasional" fish, salmon oil would be of vital importance to help rid the stratchies as well. Are you giving raw egg or just cooked egg protein? a Raw egg is a great source of nutrition for a dog, shell and all.

I've not made up any oils but Kat made a great post a while back about them, here is the link if you're interested... to me it sounds like dry/itchy skin, the yeasty feat, i can understand, it's frustrating, and tough to nail down. It could just be environmental as well we suffer the same thing with our feets.

http://dogfoodchat.com/forum/dog-he...natural-oils-repel-fleas-mosquitos-ticks.html


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## LilasMom (Mar 10, 2012)

Right now most of the chicken he is eating comes from Texas Tripe, but when I forget to defrost I get him central market but definitely not soaked or with added sodium. He sometimes gets raw egg, but the treats he gets are cooked egg. I will definitely try to cut out all the treats. And I have not been giving any type of fish oil. I think that is the one part of the raw diet I forgot, is the importance of fish and oils, because they don't get fish that often. I think I will cut out anything that isn't raw and get some good fish oil. Is there any difference between sardine and salmon oil? I have seen both in stores but am not sure if one is better than the other. I will pick some fish oil up at central market next time I am there, any human brands you can recommend? I think I will also dehydrate some chicken or something to give to him as treats. 

Thanks for the link and the help!


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## LilasMom (Mar 10, 2012)

I rarely feed pork, but I'll try keeping it out of his diet until his eyes clear.


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## LilasMom (Mar 10, 2012)

Ugh I found a living flea on him


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## Tobi (Mar 18, 2011)

LilasMom said:


> Right now most of the chicken he is eating comes from Texas Tripe, but when I forget to defrost I get him central market but definitely not soaked or with added sodium. He sometimes gets raw egg, but the treats he gets are cooked egg. I will definitely try to cut out all the treats. And I have not been giving any type of fish oil. I think that is the one part of the raw diet I forgot, is the importance of fish and oils, because they don't get fish that often. I think I will cut out anything that isn't raw and get some good fish oil. Is there any difference between sardine and salmon oil? I have seen both in stores but am not sure if one is better than the other. I will pick some fish oil up at central market next time I am there, any human brands you can recommend? I think I will also dehydrate some chicken or something to give to him as treats.
> 
> Thanks for the link and the help!


http://www.amazon.com/Life-Line-Ala...PMXC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335112025&sr=8-1 Is what we use, it's pretty affordable, and it's decent quality, the pump we added to our cart leaks, it's quite annoying, but we give about 2 pumps per day for our 60lb dog, it has indications for weight on the bottle, one bottle lasts us quite some time.



LilasMom said:


> Ugh I found a living flea on him


Don't worry too much about it, i found one on Tobi just the other day... we find them from time to time, and just pick them off, squish em, and discard the carcass :thumb:

I'd start panicking if i saw 15-25 of them daily... but one every few months or so is no big deal imo, they can even jump on them from going outside to pee.


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