I spent all day yesterday fighting off the fleas. The DE worked wonderfully on the fleas on the couch and the rug, but the poor animals did not stand a chance. I put so much DE on my black cat, that the poor thing nearly turned white! After a couple of hours, she seemed more comfortable, but was still scratching and biting once in a while. I brought the dog into the house, and I could see the fleas crawling all over her and jumping onto the couch. I dusted her down again, but DE does not work quickly enough. It definitely does not seem like a good solution for indoor/outdoor animals because it takes so long to work. I will be buying flea collars for both animals tomorrow. There is the option of treating the yard with DE, but I do not like the thought of killing all insects just to get rid of fleas.
While I love how well the DE did when it came to killing all the fleas on the couch and on the rug, I really do not like using it for large areas as the dust migrated and now covers everything in the house! I just vacuumed the rug and washed the blanket that covered the couch, and now I have to dust and vacuum the entire house to get rid of the dust. If I lived alone, I might be able to handle the dust, but having a roommate who has asthma makes DE an unacceptable solution for killing the fleas.
On the good side of things, my appetite has diminished to the point where I was able to skip breakfast yesterday - I had to skip breakfast because I could not make myself eat! After just one cup of coffee, I had the energy to do all my laundry and do some cleaning on my room before lunch. My lunch consisted of a turkey bologna sandwich, which almost seemed like too much food. Dinner was a plate of steamed cauliflower and broccoli. I barely snacked at all - having only a package of pop tarts which I nibbled on throughout the day, taking only a bite here and there.
Today was pretty much the same. I forced myself to eat a sandwich for breakfast so I wouldn't be attacking the baked treats at church, then had a salad for lunch and a small serving (only 1/3 of what I would normally eat) of macaroni and cheese for dinner. Energy has been high for most of the day, but my blood pressure was up to 140/100 when I took it earlier.
One thing I am very proud of - I had bought myself a chocolate chip muffin at the store for a treat, but so far I have only had two bites of it! I still love chocolate, but two bites seemed like the perfect amount tonight. If this keeps up, then the muffin will last me several days, and before I started the DE I would have eaten the entire muffin at one sitting!
Have you ever thought about trying capstar and program together? You can also buy igr for indoors and outdoors it seems safer than pesticides. I have been thinking of trying capstar for my dogs and spraying igr outside and maybe mosquito barrier or cedarcide outdoors too. I did dust with de outside this past weekend because I hate ticks and have had good results fending those off these past couple of years. Keep up the good work you inspired me to start drinking de as of yesterday. Thanks for the updates.
ReplyDeleteI am on a very tight budget so I have to go with the least expensive options. The flea collars seem to be working wonders - both animals are much more comfortable. I am using DE in the areas where the dog sleeps outdoors, and under the blanket on the couch where she sleeps when she is in the house. I haven't seen a flea in the house in two days, and I have only seen dead fleas on the dog.
ReplyDeleteI am glad I have inspired you to start taking DE. I hope it does as well for as it has done for me.