Apple Cider Vinegar and Fleas

Last week it finally got hot out. Yay! I had picked Kobee up and was snuggling her and tickling her tummy when all of a sudden ... cue scary music! ... I saw a FLEA.

I use a supplement in her food - garlic, rose hips, and some other things all of which are supposed to make a dog's blood unpalatable to fleas, and we haven't had a single problem in almost a year. But apparently when it's hot, the fleas don't care what they eat, because there they were crawling on Kobee.

My solution is take a flea comb and comb her daily. Yes, this takes time. The upside is that I usually find all the fleas that are on her, and remove a lot of the eggs. I'm also able to remove a lot of her loose fur, so there's less shedding in the house (I do this outside). Kobee definitely enjoys it; she does her happy dance every time she sees me pick up her flea comb. And we get some bonding time. Really, I don't see a downside to this process.

The first time I combed her, I found about a dozen fleas. The next time, I found three. The time after that, none. But she was still scratching. As a matter of fact, I realized, she was scratching pretty much continuously. I hunted and combed and hunted and combed, and still couldn't find any fleas. Then I remembered her vet had told me that her skin is sensitive, and that fleas will create an allergic reaction. I looked, and her skin was definitely a little on the pink side, she has some raw looking spots where her nails had dug too far into the skin, and one of her nipples was bleeding a little. Not a pretty sight.

I did a little googling ... Google is my friend ... and started reading about my options. I settled on apple cider vinegar, mainly because it seems the easiest and because I have some in the pantry. I poured a teaspoon into her veggie mixture the other night. It may have been my imagination, but she didn't seem to be scratching all that much yesterday. I added a teaspoon again last night, and while it's still early, I haven't seen her scratch once today.

The literature I read also claims that adding the apple cider vinegar to your dog's diet will discourage fleas ... this I'm not sure about ... I'll update it when I make a decision! Once again, I encourage you to research this. Every dog is different, you'll want to figure out what dosage to give, and then watch your dog to make sure s/he isn't having stomach issues because of it.

Know your dog. I've said this before, haven't I? I'll say it again: Know your dog.

Here's the important part!
You can't use just any vinegar, nor just any apple cider vinegar. You MUST use unfiltered, organic, raw vinegar with the 'mother.' The 'mother' is that nasty sediment on the bottom of the bottle, and when you shake it up, the mother floats around the bottle all spidery-like. It should say all of this on the bottle (well, not about the ooeyness of the mother). Bragg's is the normal go-to for this, but I found one the other day called Solana Gold. It's exactly the same thing, but was a little less expensive. Although personally, when it comes to healthy, chemical-free options, I don't mind spending a little more, if I must - within reason, of course!