My dog the herbalist

Well it's that time again, flea season. Other dogs that Koa mingles with are flea ridden. He is healthy, on a raw diet, so fleas aren't so bad, but he has very sensitive skin. When we lived at our other rental we had a walnut tree. The hulls would fall to the ground, I saw him out there, eating away, no need to worry about worms that year. He is great at healing himself. He even digs up the dandelions and eats the roots! This year the winter was pretty warm, we also have a cat who picks up fleas from who knows where. There is this quaint little herbal/ liquor store near the beach. The lady is a clinical herbalist and had a flea powder. We were just chatting away when I said "hey, I could use some of that". Bought it without even looking at the ingredients, got it home and the main herb was Wormwood. Wormwood, worms, makes sense right? However,As a powder you can't control the amount, the dog or cat chews and licks it off. Any animal that is sensitive will have a reaction, or accident when you least expect it where you least want it. Wormwood can be very hard on the host, wormwood has an assortment of strong bitter principles and tannins. If you use to much it can irritating to the liver and kidneys. I suppose you could use wormwood, but extra moderation and care should be considered, and the amount controlled. For some safer substitutes consider, garlic, sage, black walnut hulls, thyme, pumkin seeds, oregon grape. For the skin a salve with caledula, aloe and plantain works well.