Flea and Tick

You have noticed that your pet has a tick on it? Don’t wait; remove it immediately.
Be careful: you should not remove a tick anyway. In fact, it is important not to press on the abdomen of the tick when removing it. This increases the risk of infection for your dog or cat, if it is a carrier of a illness such as Lyme disease, or worst, Babesiosis caused by Babesia, a tick borne disease.

There are special tick removal tools for this purpose, such as the Exitick tick remover from ALZOO. The advantage of this tool is that it can catch the head of the tick as close as possible to the skin of your pet. In addition, the ALZOO tick remover is equipped with pliers adapted to the different sizes of ticks.

Using a slow but steady motion, remove the parasite by pulling perpendicular to your pet’s skin. When the tick is no longer on your pet, disinfect the skin with a suitable soap by rubbing well and rinse with water to promote proper healing.

Do not throw the tick in the garbage! It could go and harm another furry friend or family member. You can have them evaluated by your veterinarian to make sure the head has been removed and recommend testing if you are unsure.

If you prefer to just throw the tick away, be sure to flush it down the toilet or squash it with a tissue (be sure to wear gloves) before throwing it away.

To help minimize the presence of ticks, consider using deworming products and don’t forget to check your pet’s fur after each walk. The CDC, Center for Disease Control, advise to check in and around the ears, around the groin, the tail, the toes, and the armpits. You can use a flea comb to be sure to not find any larvae, flea eggs or adults at same time.

As adults and children pet or hug their animal, insecticides are absorbed through the skin and can damage the nervous system. It is the same for pets.

Also, did you know that to get rid of ticks and fleas, with some antiparasitic products, your pet has to first be bitten? After feasting on your pet’s chemically treated blood, fleas and ticks die. ALZOO™ products repel parasites before your pet is bitten, unlike other conventional flea and tick products. Laboratory tests show that the active repellant ingredients reduce both the frequency and severity of bites.

ALZOO™ has developed natural flea and tick repellent to take care of the health of people and animals alike.

Yes! We recommend it depending on the level of infestation.

You can start with the dog/cat collar or the dog/cat spot-on.

Choose the best flea and tick collar for dogs based on their size (small dog, medium dog, large dog). There is a one size fits all flea and tick collar for cats and kittens.

If your furry friend spends time outside, we recommend adding a repellent product such as Flea and Tick Spray or Flea and Tick Shampoo. Grooming your dog with the natural repellent shampoo for dogs provides good protection against external parasites

You can also add G+ Environment Powder to provide maximum protection for pets regularly exposed to potentially high tick and flea infestation environments. You would thus avoid the proliferation of flea eggs in your home. It’s the best protection with natural flea and tick repellent for cats and dogs!

ALZOO™ remedies do not contain chemical pesticides, which can be dangerous to apply and harmful if overused. Instead, they repel fleas and ticks on dogs and cats with natural actives ingredients.

Collars and spot-ons are long-lasting diffusion devices; The active ingredients diffuse into your pet’s coat without disturbing it.

ALZOO™ products contain natural active ingredients that repel insects such as fleas, ticks, flies, lices, and mosquitoes. These ingredients include peppermint oil and cedarwood oil, among others. By repelling pests, you prevent them from proliferating on your pet and also in your home.

We advise not to wait for the start of the flea and tick infestation season, and start protecting your dog and cat 30 days before spring. Also consider treating your home and garden with our specially designed sprays: Natural Flea & Tick Home Spray and Yard Spray. Pet bedding, cat litter and sofas are the perfect areas for flea proliferation and lay eggs.

If you have any doubt, don’t hesitate to give your dog a bath with ALZOO™ shampoo for flea and tick prevention. For those who are reluctant to bathe (such as cats), use ALZOO™ Flea and Tick G+ Powder or ALZOO™ Flea and Tick Spray instead. If your pet shows any symptoms of babesiosis or lyme disease such as fever, headache, tiredness, muscle and joint aches, or swollen lymph nodes, you sould visit the vet.

It’s time to get rid of fleas and ticks! Find a pet store or buy online.

This piece is necessary during the injection molding manufacturing process but it needs to come off before putting the collar on your pet. You can either throw it away or, as this piece is active and also full of plant-based repellent active ingredients, place it under the rug of your front door or inside the dog house or any other place to help prevent pest infestation.

Our collar has a breakaway system (punctured hole to make the system more fragile) designed to break under the strength of a struggling 4.5 lbs cat and prevent strangulation, which corresponds to a 120 Newton force and which is sufficient in nearly all circumstances.  To date, we have shipped millions of cat collars and fortunately, not one incidence of accident has been reported.  Although we are able to produce a weaker breakaway collar, we are convinced consumers would prefer the current design since the weaker style will on occasion break too easily and be at risk of breaking even as the collar is fitted on the cat.

Main reason: Flea collars containing organophosphates are dangerous for both humans’ health, especially children’s health, as well as pets’ health. That is why, the French National Agency of Veterinary Medicine decided to withdraw the permit for sale of Diazinon, Propoxur and TCVP based collars, that are still widely commercialized in America. More recently, US EPA decided to ban Propoxur-based collars.

Indeed, while adults or children are petting your animal, insecticides are absorbed through the skin and may harm the nervous system. It is the same for pets.

Thus, we have developed plant-based repellent products to take care of people and animal’s health.

There is no need to treat with powerful insecticides as the flea is easily eliminated by common insecticides, but there is a need to treat regularly and everywhere, using a preventive approach. Often, because the fleas that survived the initial treatment also have to be eliminated to avoid another infestation as fleas, larvae and nymphs get deeply entrenched in the carpets, pillows, furniture tissues, etc.

We advise using household insecticides, sprayed regularly on surfaces that are prone to have fleas, larva, and nymphs (dog-house).

The vacuum cleaner also helps in diminishing the numbers of eggs and nymphs. One method is to vacuum just after spreading insecticide powder to prevent fleas from multiplying inside the vacuum cleaner bag. 

Pet bedding is typically a flea nest. You can either change it, which would be the best option, or take advantage of the summer, to put them inside a plastic bag with a good dose of repellent powder inside.

Some laboratories propose more elaborate products. These formulations are said to be long lasting: they are typically effective over several days or several weeks. These are interesting products as you do not have to treat as often, and they guarantee the insects elimination. They are obviously more expensive than natural repellent products and many of them have negative side effects that can result in health issues. Please let us know what you use and we can send you the toxicology profile of the active ingredient you are using.

There are also specialty products containing an active ingredient preventing the larva developing into its nymph form, which is the most resistant form. Recent studies have been performed inside our laboratory to show that these products are effective but last a relative short period of time. Furthermore, they are very expensive. They can be purchased under gas propelled spray that is a one-time use.

For “industrial” surfaces, such as garages, gravel, we can use stronger chemical or physical treatments (lime, sodium hydroxide, fire,…). Fire treatment is perfectly suited for large cement surfaces such as the ones found in kennels. 

You then need to avoid the insects re-appearing, by protecting the potential carrier. You need to effectively treat all your pets at home with a repellent collar for instance and if possible, ban access of foreign animals to your house, you should also systematically treat any new pet(s) you bring into your home. 

Overall, the most efficient way to fight against pests is Prevention: prevent the pest from coming in, instead of fighting it when it has already nested in your home and pet. Our natural repellent line is particularly suitable for this purpose and because it is safe, there is no concern with the frequency of application (following packaging instructions) as opposed to synthetic insecticide products.

In general no, but certain people are an exception and are “devoured” by fleas.

In these cases, bitings generally occur around the ankles and the calves and appear themselves as small red stains which strongly itch.

If it is the case, consult your doctor and start a complete desinfection and clean-up of the house.

Collars advanced technology is using the properties of some specific plastic materials.

The active ingredient is incorporated inside the plastic matrix itself and is being released from this matrix under a constant speed over a long period of time. The active ingredient migrates to the surface of the plastic under the form of micro drops or powder depending on the active molecule. Since the release is very slow, the product can be effective for several months.

At the end of the product life, the content of the active ingredient inside the plastic is very small and the collar will become more rigid; you will then need to replace the collar with a new one.

When we touch a window or a mirror, we leave a print. It is due to a fat called the sebum which soaks our epidermis and our skin. The sebum has a very important role; it is in particular a nutritive and softening factor for the skin.

The skin of the dog and the cat is also covered with sebum. It is this sebum which will transport the active ingredient. Indeed, the molecules used in the collars are very soluble in the sebum. They will diffuse via this fatty layer on the whole surface of the body. Thus, a flea collar carried around the neck protects the animal completely, from the head to the tip of the tail.

It is quite difficult to get rid of fleas from the house. Despite what most people think, fleas do not live permanently on the animal but on the floor, on carpets, pillows, etc…

Fleas generate eggs. From the eggs, a larva follows different development steps to turn into a nymph and to finally become an adult insect. Nymph are inside a cocoon and they have the particularity to stay “asleep” a very long period of time and to turn into an adult insects after extended periods of time that can last for several months.

It is the reason why we can see fleas appear in a house left empty for several months in the absence of animals. In that case, these nymphs can wake-up, for example when they start feeling vibrations on the floor.

The adult insect has to bite a target (a dog, a cat or an human) in order to feed himself with blood. After feeding, the flea falls to the floor where it lives and deliver its eggs. And so on….

Fleas and larva are affected by most of the common insecticides: insecticides used on animals (collars, powder,…) or household environment insecticides. But we still recommend following the preventive approach with natural repellent products before the season starts. It is healthier and preventing is much easier than fixing the problem! However, the eggs are not affected by those and nymphs are quite resistant to those.

If it is the case, it probably means that the environment in which your pet lives is infested with fleas. As a matter of fact, and despite common belief, fleas do not permanently live on the animal. Fleas are more often on the floor, in carpets, pillows, etc… Fleas “jump” on the animal only when they need to be fed with blood.

The treatments you are using kill fleas that are present on the animal. But if there are a large amount of fleas in the environment, new ones replace dead ones giving the impression the products are not effective. Therefore, THE ENVIRONMENT ALSO NEEDS TO BE TREATED.

Once it is treated, you will have to prevent fleas coming back by treating them as soon as they re-appear with a shampoo, a powder, or a spray. Ideally, you will permanently have a collar on your pet. You would need to replace it at the end of its life as described on the packaging; it would permanently protect your pet against fleas.

It is sometime difficult to develop a natural collar which is both effective and odorless. If you feel the scent is too strong, you can first leave the collar out from the packaging from 1 hour to 1 day outside before putting in on your pet. Then you can also remove it when your pet is inside your house and put it back when he/she goes outside. And remember to wash your hands with soap after handling it.

If you have used another natural-based brand of spray or spot-on within the last 15 days, shampoo the fur around the entire collar area prior to using the ALZOO® Collar. (Since ALZOO® Collars, Spot-on, and Spray have been developed so that they can be used together, this is only required with another natural brand).

Yes.

Yes and no. The spot-on is formulated with almond oil. Almond oil has 3 purposes:

a- protect the skin from the active ingredient
b- help diffuse the active ingredient throughout the skin
c- protect the active ingredient from rainfall.

So if your pet is outside when it is raining, the active ingredient will not disappear as it will be protected by the almond oil, which is water resistant. But if you wash your dog with a shampoo, the shampoo will “dissolve” the oil and a spot needs to be re-applied after you wash your dog.

Yes. Almond oil has real benefits:
1- Protect the skin from the active,
2- Help diffuse the active throughout the skin and
3- Protect the active from rainfall. If you want to minimize the oily sensation when applying the product, space out the hair and apply slowly directly on the skin in the back area of the neck; then go down the spine of your pet and apply slowly while avoiding to put too much product on one spot. That way the product will be well dispersed and adsorbed on your pet’s skin.

If you see a stain on fabrics coming from the spot-on, a classic stain remover, degreasing agent will easily remove the stain.

For our product, we advise :

• Small size <35lbs
• Medium size: 35 to 74 lbs
• Large size for more than 74 lbs

If you are experiencing this, we suggest adding just a little bit of vegetable based cooking oil to the buckle (either 1 spray, or 1 drop or you can rub it on with a Q-Tip). This should make it easier for the collar to pass through the buckle.

No, just two minutes before rinsing.