A Salute to Garlic

Living here in San Diego, we tend to feel the late summer heat.  We have what's known as "May grey" and "June gloom" were Spring takes it's time to defrost and warm up.  There's typically a cold fog layer that eventually burns off by the afternoon, but tends to keep the temperature low.  But by late August-early September, as I wipe the sweat from my brow and feel even more sweat dripping down my back, I curse the fact that my husband and I put off insulating our attic yet again (we don't have any air conditioning either).  My car thermostat registered at 101 degrees one day last week and our house thermostat read 87 degrees (in the house!) every afternoon for 10 days in a row.  Believe it or not, I'm not trying to pull a sympathy card by writing all this, because I know there are MUCH warmer places to be - I did spend 18 years living in Texas after all, so I know what HOT feels like.  No, instead I bring up all this talk of heat because after my last post where I spoke of pets with allergies, it made me think of summertime heat and fleas and how they tend to go hand-in-hand.

At the beginning of our summer heat wave, my son, who is our dog's flea detective, would count the number of fleas he found on her each day and some days he would tally 15 fleas!  This is after I put the usual flea drops on her neck and back too.  I hated using those drops in the first place and now they were ineffective, so what's the use?

I started asking friends what they used to help rid their pets of fleas and one friend suggested drizzling garlic oil on the food.  So I tried it with a some hesitation, not knowing what my dog, Lulu would think of the taste.  To my surprise, she eagerly ate up all her breakfast.  The next morning, I did the same thing and again she cleaned her bowl.  Each day, I asked my son about the flea count and each day it was less and less.  Lulu has had her breakfast with garlic oil drizzled on top for about 6 weeks and the flea count is down to 1 a day and sometimes none at all.  And we're at the hottest part of the summer, when the fleas are usually at their worst!

I'm so grateful to have found something that works and is non-toxic.  If you decide to give this method a try, get a small jar and mince some garlic, place it in the jar and pour olive oil in the jar (just enough to cover the minced garlic) and refrigerate.  Then once a day drizzle a little of the oil over the food.  I would think that the bigger the bread of dog, the more garlic oil necessary.  I'd love to hear how it works for you so write in with your story.  Good luck!