Ticks are going to be bad this season. Yes that is what we are being told in the northeast. I don’t know about you, but I can’t stand the little suckers, either on my dogs or on me. And yes, I have wound up with a few ticks myself.
For the last few years, I’ve worked super hard on limiting the toxins I expose myself and the dogs too. So when it comes to fleas and ticks, there is absolutely NO WAY I’m using something like Frontline on my pets. Are you kidding? That poison in your dogs blood is strong enough to kill a tick. NOTE, it does NOT repel ticks, no, the tick must bite your dog and then it dies. You try killing a tick and seeing how easy that is.
To top that off, my dogs hated the Frontline application, Sampson would hang his head whenever we needed to apply it. So for the last three or four years I’ve been searching for a natural way to protect my dogs from Fleas and Ticks.
From what I understand healthy dogs don’t attract fleas and my dogs aren’t big, stay outside in the dirt dogs anyway, but still you can’t be too careful.
Sampson and Delilah are protected from ticks and fleas in three ways.
- Our yard is sprayed four times a year with a natural spray.
- The dogs are checked for ticks and fleas.
- During the heavy flea/tick season (March through November) I use a natural spray.
I’ve gone through many different natural sprays and I’m happy to say, I’ve finally hit upon one that I love! It’s called “Flea & Tick” and it’s made by Pet Naturals of Vermont.
Pet Naturals of Vermont , spray or wipes.
You can imagine I was thrilled when Pet Naturals contacted me and asked me to do a review of their product. I’ve been using their spray for the last year so I was delighted when I received a container of their wipes.
Because my dogs have such thick fur, I like to use the spray. I cover their eyes, spray the top of the head, down the back, the tail, the legs and finally the chest area and under the chin.
The dogs aren’t thrilled being sprayed, but they tolerate it.
But getting protection on their face has been challenging. Typically I would spray some in my hand and then rub it where I wanted it, but the wipes, the wipes are perfect for their cheeks, nose and delicate eye areas. I also think the wipes would be great to keep in the car, for those times you stop somewhere and realize you have nothing to use to protect your dogs.
I can get those delicate areas near their faces.
Yes, it’s true, the spray has to be used daily and I imagine in some areas twice daily, but it’s so routine for me now, it takes next to no time!
Here are the ingredients:
- lemongrass
- cinnamon
- sesame
- castor oil
- purified water
Additionally the wipes include Vitamin E Acetate and Polysorbate 20. I’m not 100% certain about these final two ingredients, but I figure the wipes will be used sparingly and between the two ingredients they make up just over 2% of the product.
Last year I was using a spray with similar ingredients, except the main ingredient was rubbing alcohol, which had me a little concerned about drying out the skin, especially of dogs with thinner coats.
When Delilah had her check-up last week I showed it to my Vet who said she had no problem with it. She did say that some dogs might have a problem with the sesame oil. If you are concerned check with your vet before using. And of course, watch your dog to make sure they don’t have any reactions.
You can use the spray on their collars and bedding as well as anything else that will absorb the oils.
As I said, I’ve been using this product for just about a year and I love it. So far this tick season, I’ve found three ticks, which I don’t think is bad at all.
So would you like to try this? Pet Naturals of Vermont will be giving away a free 8 oz bottle and a valuable coupon to the first 100 people who fill out their form.
Full disclosure: I was sent a free sample of Vermont Natural Flea and Tick in exchange for my honest opinion. If I liked the product I would receive a year’s supply (6-8oz bottles) in exchange for sharing it. While I have been compensated with product for this post, Heart Like a Dog only shares products and services we feel are of value to our readers and would never promote something we didn’t use ourselves.
It’s good when you find something that works, especially when it has been recommended by someone who has been using it with success as you have Jodi.
Living in Australia, we have a problem with fleas and ticks too, and I was wondering if I can buy this product here in Oz.
I wonder if they do anything similar over this side of the pond? Mity usually isn’t too bad for ticks but BD seems to attract them like no bodies business, which I hate.
Glad you found something that works for you. We don’t normally worry about fleas, but those darn ticks! They are bad this year.
We have our flea treatment and luckily no ticks here so we can do a happy dance. Glad you have found a product you love. Have a wonderful Wednesday.
Best wishes Molly
Hi Jodi! As you may know, I don’t respond to your posts often (my apologies!) because I read them via e-mail, usually at work in between patients. But this morning when I saw the subject of your post, I decided to stop by and leave a comment. We had a really big problem with fleas that started last July when Sunny came to us with fleas. I was totally ignorant on how to handle them, and all the dogs ended up getting them. We tried everything, and I mean everything to get rid of them!!! I now have a PHD in flea control and can tell you what works, and what doesn’t work. But I also HATE to use chemicals on my dogs, but it was at a point that I was really desperate and so I used Frontline spending 100’s of dollars, and it didn’t work. My vets told me that it wasn’t possible, but I can say with about 97% certainty that it doesn’t. But you are right, natural products work the best and are the safest, and Vermont Natural Flea and Tick is one of the products that DOES work because I bought a lot of it. Our dogs eat grass (I think because they love the taste) and so we don’t spray our yard but have treated that naturally for fleas as well. But I’m hoping (!!!!) for a no flea season, and Vermont Natural Flea and Tick is one of the products that we’ll have on hand, I just wish they sold it by the gallon! 🙂
THANKS for the good review and reinforcing what I found out the hard way!
We don’t like Fleas and Ticks either. Glad that you found a GOOD way of dealing with them.
Oh thank you for sharing!!!! I have tried many different natural solutions and haven’t yet found one that will keep those fleas away! We don’t have many ticks in the area I live in, (some not many though) so they aren’t to much of a problem, but FLEAS!!!!! AHHHH! They drive me crazy!
Where can I find their form to try this out?
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
Great review, can’t wait to hear how is it is going through out the summer. I’m glad you found something you like and works.
I will definitely check this out…at least the wipes. (I recently bought a spray from Only Natural Pet on Pet360, so I want to use that on the girls first.)
I’m all for natural repellents, and that product looks good.
Okay, where’s the form? Did you pull a Sue Oakes and forget to include the link? LOL
Ticks are rotten low lifes that love low dogs like me! YUCK! Anyway, thought of you this morning on our walk. Katie and I were on leash, minding our own business when two large dogs just left their yard and came up to us and started sniffing. We have never met these dogs before and we don’t like large dogs we don’t know. Mom started yelling get away, get away. The man came out and said, they are friendly, to which Mom said mine might not be. He half assed called them back into the yard. That never happens around our area, so it was weird and we just thought of you. Luckily nothing happened, but it was a tense moment for Mom and she was pissed at that guy!
I learned the hard way to inspect for fleas on a daily basis. But it’s good to know there is a product recommended by a blogging buddy in case I have a problem with fleas again.
I received this offer too, but we were already trying some other things so I declined. In retrospect, maybe I shouldn’t have! I saw your post on FB when I was at work today though so was able to go right over and sign up to try the wipes, so thanks for that!
Anyway, we’ve been seeing a lot of ticks, ugh, ugh, ugh, I hate them so much. I’ll be posting about it later this week (our lack of success with the ticks with what we’re trying).
Great review Jodi!!
I recently read a blog post about using rose geranium oil to repel ticks so I am going to give that a try, they are supposed to be bad this year…nasty little buggers!
I imagine that smells pretty good, based on the ingredients.
The ticks have been absolutely atrocious this year … just pulled another one off Buster this morning! I’m off to get some of this stuff – thank you for the recommendation!
The lemongrass fresh? and the sesam just in seed or oil is also good?
I love this post as I have been looking for a natural flea and tick spray an you give me some advice about how often to apply it? I just ordered two through amazon for the dogs
retro rover
Oh I see you said daily oops can you tell me what time, can you do it at night or morbing or just before you put htem out? I was thinking morning in the house and hten before walks in the park
retro rover
Nice to hear that you found something you’re happy with Jodi. Does it work on deer and dog ticks? I’d be curious to see how you fare through the rest of the summer with the ticks, and would love if you did a second review in the fall. They are a big problem by us too, I just had one imbedded in ME about two weeks ago. 🙁