Dog Drugs to Kill External Parasites

Dozens of drugs can be used to kill insects, but some of them will kill mammals, including humans, if misused. The dangerous long-lived environmental polluters have been outlawed but many organophosphate still around. They are effective and sometimes spectacular in the sudden death of fleas when applied. Ticks arc difficult to kill and these products are useful; but for fleas you can use an old product, rotenone,which has a short life. Although it docs take longer to kill a flea, the flea is just as dead as if it were killed instantly by more dangerous drugs.

Rotenone and related resins are obtained from the roots of tropical plants, notably derris in the East Indies and cube in South and Central America; it is one of the most potent insect killers known. Pets can ea tit in small amounts, usually with no ill effects. It is more poisonous if inhaled, and is especially so if it gets into fresh open cuts.

Rotenone also kills fish. If you use it, don't allow rotenone to blow into the water in a fishpond. And don't allow a dog dusted for flea infestation to swim in water with fish in it.

Rotenone in dusts, diluted to i percent, is probably as safe a flea and louse powder as anything one could ask for. No dog should be put in closed box and dusted, since it is then forced to breathe the dust. It is hard to believe that pets could be so mistreated, but they often are by people who want to keep the powder off their clothes.

With some people rotenone causes numbness of the lips and the tip of the tongue. The sensation soon passes. If you are sensitive, dust the pet in the open where the breeze blows the dust away from you. Rotenone is an ingredient of some of our best dips and rinses. Percent solution in pine oil to which an emulsifier has been added kills all insects except ticks. One percent rotenone dust may be obtained from garden supply establishments where it is sold for treating fruit and vegetable crops to destroy some of their pests.

Pyrethrum comes to our store of drugs from chrysanthemums. Impure form, the chemical agents made from it are called pyrethrins.They are so often ingredients of flea powder, but this is not an endorsement, since they merely stun the insects. The early powders were sold with the advice that you dust the dog, brush the fleas and lice onto a newspaper, and burn the paper.You burned it because the insects usually refused to "stay dead" and manufacturers knew it.

Pyrethrum has a wonderful psychological effect on the pet's owner.When it is used as an ingredient of a powder or rinse, the insects appear to die instantly. They drop off, and that is what the owners lo veto see. Mix in some rotenone and the bugs not only drop off but they stay dead! The combination of the two drugs makes a fine treatment for the owner as well as for the pet.

New drugs awaiting approval by the USDA appear to have great promise in killing all parasites in and on canines.