Question:
My Rhodesian Ridgeback's obedience class was moved to a park last week. During the class, I looked down and saw him covered with about 20 huge mosquitos. He now (4 days later) still has huge welts all over, making him look like he's got
some exotic disgusting skin disease. He's not particularly scratchy...but,
since he'll be in the same park for the next 4 weeks, I'd love some ideas
about how to repel the mosquitos, hopefully in a non-toxic way. I thought
about spraying him with "OFF" or something, but figured he'd lick that stuff
off and ingest the poison.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. And yes, he is up to date with his
heartworm medicine!
Answer:
-I have two outside dogs, and one has very short hair. I asked my vet the same
question, and she suggested Addams flea and tick repellant. You just spray or
wipe it on and it really works. I also use it around my horses eyes and ears.
They don't particularly like the smell, but i really does a very good job.
Just standing next to my dogs after putting that stuff on em even keeps the
bugs away from me too! It comes in a blue bottle and pet stores usually have
it or can order it for you.
-One othere thing to try: Know how Avon Skin-So-Soft repels mosquitoes on
people? It works well on dogs too. You can dilute some of the bath oil
at 1:1000 parts and it'll still work and if you don't like the smell,
you won't smell it at such a low concentration. Consumers Report at one
point (quite a while ago) ranked it higher than commercial mosquito
repellants sold for that purpose. The smell of dips makes me ill, particularly
on days when I have migraines and it's nice to know I can use something
a lot less toxic than a dip or flea spray for the mosquitoes.
