Give a gift that makes a difference.

50% of all sales from our limited edition Valentines’s Day Dog and Cat collars will be donated to The Animal Relief Coalition for Haiti (ARCH) through the ASPCA.

Order your collars here.

At The Modern Pet we passionately believe that we can change the world one collar at a time, and sometimes being “green” is just not enough.

View the previous post in this series:
Fleas and Ticks and Mosquitoes- Oh My!
Fleas: Eradicating Them Naturally

While I always prefer to be as natural as possible, sometimes, especially with pets that have bad allergic skin reactions to fleas, we need to use more powerful, synthetic flea medications.  It is important to remember that “natural” does not necessarily mean “non-toxic.”  Mercury, lead, arsenic, and uranium are quite natural, after all, and quite toxic too!  We want to get rid of the fleas while using the product that is least toxic to our beloved pets.  The common, old-school pesticides (mainly organophosphates and pyrethrins) are toxic to everything —fleas, dogs, cats, people— which means that you can’t put enough on to kill the fleas without having toxic effects on your pet.  That’s not what we want.

Fortunately, there are a couple of products that are extremely effective against fleas, and actually quite non-toxic to mammals. The active ingredients in Advantage (imidacloprid) and Frontline (fipronil) kill fleas by blocking channels in the flea’s nervous system, but don’t fit into the mammalian versions of those channels.  As a result, they are very safe for dogs and cats (not to mention the people who snuggle up with them in bed at night!).  I have seen some reactions to Advantage and Frontline, generally in the form of hair loss or irritation at the site of application, but that is unusual.

But be careful —there are many “spot-on” products that are much more toxic, and which are marketed to make them seem “just like” Advantage or Frontline —but there are no other non-toxic products currently on the market, so don’t be fooled; those products may be cheaper, but they are going to be less effective and much more dangerous.

This article was generously contributed by Dr. Stanley of House Call Of The Wild.

To celebrate the new year we are offering 15% off plus free shipping on orders over $50.00 from now until Jan. 5th!

Enjoy 15% off until Jan. 5th 2010 with code 15OFF2010

Enjoy 15% off plus free shipping on orders over $50.00 until Jan. 5th 2010 with code 15SHIP2010

*This offer does not apply to wholesale orders.

This year we will be introducing tons of new collar styles, expanding our grooming line and adding even more new I.D. tags, so keep an eye out!

We’re also going to spend the year focusing on becoming even more “green” by expanding our hemp lines, adding organic cotton, and using webbing made from recycled soda pop bottles.

Happy 2010 from The Modern Pet family!