By Carola Schleuss

Infestations of fleas and parasites usually happen to a host that is weak, especially the immune system. When our animal friends becomes infested with fleas or other parasites they may begin to experience all sorts of health problems, from losing weight, being over-weight, excessive hunger, digestive problems, fatigue, anemia. Using chemicals to rid the problems only creates more problems with the immune system, the liver and kidneys. Keeping a healthy immune system helps ward off infestations.

It has been my experience that feeding my animal friends a whole food diet composed of raw meat, vegetables, grains, herbs and superfoods (barley grass, alfalfa, spirulina) as well as sea vegetables such as kelp, will strengthen the liver, digestion and the immune system. Whole foods and herbs are full of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and especially enzymes in their perfect ratios. Why wouldn't we feed our animal friends a diet that is close to what they would eating nature?

Kimba, our 15-year-old cat, suffered for years with fleas and a horrible parasitic infestation. History: Kimba came into our lives when we rescued her from the SPCA. She was 3 months old and had been at the SPCA with her two siblings since she was 5 weeks old, living only in a cage and eating commercial food. We took her home and feed her what we thought was good pet food, but unfortunately we had no idea that most commercial pet foods are full of by-products, artificial flavour, colouring, petrochemicals, euthanized pets etc.. For three years she lived on a really poor diet and suffered from flea and parasitic infestation. I took her to vets many times where harsh chemicals were used to rid her body of the parasites, only to have them come back again and again.

For the next seven years she did eat high end dry and wet pet food and a small amount of raw food, and still struggled with fleas and parasites. When she was 11, we put all our animals on a well-rounded whole food diet, but that was after we discovered our cat Doodles had severe gingivitis which turned into mouth cancer. It was too late for Doodles our nine-year-old cat, but it did save Kimba. At 15 she looks great, her eyes are bright and clear, her coat is shinier, her breath smells good, and she is no longer fearful or jumpy. The best part is even though she may get a few fleas during flea season, we then give her immune system a bit of a boost with Echinacea. No more infestation. We do this with all of our animal friends, except for Alvin our three-year-old male cat. He doesn’t get fleas. He is the only cat we've had that has been on a raw- food diet since he was 2 weeks old, and was not vaccinated. Very interesting.

Adding in garlic and pumpkin seeds to your animal friends diet will naturally purge parasites. Using herbs.. such as wormwood and black walnut purges parasites " Providing a proper diet full of nutrients will ward' off fleas and parasites, and if you're worried about them getting parasites from raw meat, don't cats and dogs have a tremendous amount of hydrochloric acid to digest bones as well as destroy parasites and bad bacteria? Using nature is a great way for prevention of disease, infestation or infections.

Carola Schleuss; CNC CMP, is the co-owner of Simple Remedies in Victoria. Visit  www.simpleremediesherbalsolutions.com