Re: Garlic as flea repellant? (or, "o/~Smelly cat, smelly cat.... o/~ )

On Tue, 02 Dec 2003 19:20:34 -0800, Dennis Carr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:

>Sorry, couldn't resist.
>
>While at the vet last night with a handful (!) of ten week old kittens,
>one thing we discussed was the idea of using more natural means of
>treating the kids' more common maladies - and amongst these, there was one
>I heard about a while ago about feeding cats garlic.  (The one about mites
>and peanut oil came up to, but the viability of that strikes me as
>questionable.)
>
>Now, granted that if you or I eat garlic frequently, it'll keep
>*everybody* away, but what about fleas on cats?  Has anyone ever done any
>testing on this as to how effective it is?
>

Read Dr. Noxon's page for an overview of fleas and recommendations. He
is an animal dermatologist at Iowa State.
<http://www.vetmed.iastate.edu/services/vth/clinical/derm/flea/fleaold.html#fleafleacontrol>

He has this to say about garlic, "Garlic has not been shown to
consistently repel fleas (despite the evidence that garlic has many
beneficial effects in humans)". There is a chapter there on natural
products for flea control ( Natural FCPs) that you might find
educational.

If cost is a factor, you might do what many people with multiple cats
do, and buy the large dog size Advantage or Revolution and split it.
It costs the same no matter what size you buy. You pull it out of the
container with a syringe and then dispose of the needle. 

I use about .05cc/lb of Advantage. That's just a drop for a kitten.
One 4 cc large-dog size will do all my 8 cats over 10 lbs.

Advantage Dosage instructions are here:
http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:-1Pq3z90c8wJ:www.petsitters.com/pdffile/adv1.pdf+advantage+fleas+dosage&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
 
For Revolution you need between .025 and .05 ml/lb.
http://www.revolutionvet.com/prescribing.htm#CAUTION

BarB