Even with proper prevention, fleas can find a foothold in your pet’s fur. If you want to kill them quickly and thoroughly, dishwashing liquid is a great weapon.
Photo by tobkatrina (Shutterstock).
All you have to do is prepare a regular dog bath, but use dishwashing loquid instead of shampoo for the lather. The soap destroys the fleas’ exoskeletons, killing them within minutes. It may take a while to get them all, but a flea comb should help you find and dispose of any leftover bodies. Once you’re done, you can give your pet a proper bath with good shampoo to keep their skin from drying out.
Prevention is better than disposal, and if your pet’s flea problem is really bad, you should call a vet. This also isn’t meant as a replacement for actual flea prevention medicine, but if you’ve noticed a few fleas, this is a cheap first step to nip the problem in the bud.
Dawn Dishsoap For Fleas [ThriftyFun]
Comments
8 responses to “Kill Fleas On Your Pets With Dishwashing Liquid”
WTF. Seriously, WTF. Would you use dishwashing liquid instead of shampoo on yourself? Here’s a crazy idea, rather than use a substance that was made to wash grease and oil from dishes on a dog, why not actually go and get some anti-flea dog shampoo? Sure it’ll cost more, but if you can’t afford to buy proper dog products, then you can’t afford to have a dog. Don’t make your pet suffer just because you’re a tightarse.
All shampoos and detergents are just amphiphatic substances with a bunch of perfumes and other useless things added. So they’re basically the same. Besides, most anti flea shampoos use pyrethrum as their main ingredient which hardly does anything.
Shampoos and detergents are only “basically the same” in the sense that they remove dirt. Obviously, a product designed to wash pots and pans is going to be a lot harsher than one designed to wash hair on a living creature. If you think they’re the same, why don’t you save some money and wash your hair with dishwashing liquid?
Yeah this seems really untrue to me too.. Why would they not make a dog shampoo do something identical?
“Lets make it different than really effective stuff everyone just has in their homes already”
not supposed to use strong products on pets anyway also washing up liquid is going to do no more harm to your pets than any other shampoo i’ve just done one of my cats in washing up liquid and its not worked but his fur does feel cleaner and fresher and thats helpful cause now i can go through his fur with a flea comb after spot treating him after he has finished getting dry
You missed out “and charge ten to fifty times what the other stuff costs.” And that, combined with marketing, is the reason that so much of the stuff you can buy is available in a similar but far cheaper form.
If you like your dog to smell like lemons for a week lol xD
You can get dog shampoo for like.. $4.. and has enough for many dog washes. If this is the kind of money you need to save.. You probably shouldn’t have a dog ^_^
The dog shampoo we buy is laced with tea tree and it’s 4 bucks a litre from coles.. Much cheaper than a decent dish washing liquid that works and doesn’t leave a horrid fragrance smell once you’ve washed up.
I was a bit unsure of this recommendation so I asked a tame vet to comment on the article. Her response:
“Wow. All it does is kill the fleas on the dog at the moment which a product like Capstar does (less stressful than bathing).
It doesn’t do anything for the environment or the ongoing control of fleas such as Advantage/Revolution etc. would.
Also it will dry the skin out and make the dog more susceptible to skin rash/irritation and infection.
We do use dish-washing liquid to bathe animals that have had a spill/toxin on their body as it is a good way to remove this.”
We are having a lot of issues with fleas. Everything we tried couldn’t get rid of the fleas and the poor dogs were infested. Today I was desperate and got out the dish washing liquid. All fleas dead in minutes! I did a second lather to be sure. I know that the dish soap cant be that good for the skin but I am sure my dog isnt going to be thinking “wow you really cheaped out here” but be grateful to be rid of the constant itching.
After looking at all the chemicals used in the flea products which are so harmful for the dogs I hesitate to give them to my dog as I would prefer to use flea soap or flea shampoo.