Flea Controls
 
My mother-in-law recently gave me a copy of an article titled "Natural
Flea Controls" which has many suggestions for herbal flea repellants in it.
Some of them are quite safe, others should be used with caution - just
because something is "natural" doesn't mean it's not toxic.  Here are the
herbs they listed, I've put a (T) beside the ones which may be toxic in
large or small quantities:
 
        pennyroyal (T)  Rosemary                Lavendar
        Rue (T)         Wormwood (T)    Southernwood
        Tansy (T)               Sweet Woodroffe Cedar
 
These herbs can be dried and made into herbal sachets for sleeping areas.
Make sure the sachets are ferret proof!  Personally, I wouldn't trust my
guys not to try to get into them, so I'd only use the non-toxic ones.
The other repellant I've found useful, and quite simple and safe, is to
rub fresh citrus peels on the ferret.  No, they don't like it, but the oil
and vapour really does appear to kill the fleas.  I've only had a flea
problem once - the fleas came with an orphan - but that did the trick.
You can also boil the skins in plain water to make a flea rinse.  Anyone
wanting further info is welcome to e-mail me.  Sorry, I don't know what
magazine it came from.
 
About shampoos:  I recently tried using Orvus Paste on Max, while I used
baby shampoo on the others.  Orvus is "sodium laurel sulphate", pure
detergent with a neutral pH (remember that shampoos are detergent plus
additives like perfume and conditioners).  It can be purchased at farm
stores (it's usually used for large animals, I have it because I use it to
wash fleece for spinning).  It has no perfume, and, used in appropriate
quanitities, it doesn't strip the natural oils out of the skin.  It's very
concentrated, a "fingerful" or two will wash one medium size ferret.  It
doesn't foam very much, but it doesn't need to to work.  It rinses out
well.   Max came out odourless, soft and didn't scratch the next day.  She
stayed clean-smelling longer, too.   Warning:  you may have to buy 4kg
(about 9lbs) at a time.  Here in Canada the CO-OP sells it as "Animal
Shampoo" in 1kg containers.  That would last a whole business of ferrets
for the lifetime of the corporation.
 
I would welcome the vet's advice on both of the above, especially if they
aren't as safe as I think they are.
 
The Mama of Me, Max, Benn, Bear:
--
Elizabeth Watt
Knitter, Spinner, Ferret lover, SLP, (in no particular order of importance)
Manotick, Ontario, Canada          [log in to unmask]
 
[Posted in FML issue 0820]