Loading ...Will petty annoyance week ever end? KK came home with lice.
Lice!
I know it happens to every grammar school kid. Well… it didn’t happen to me. I don’t remember ever having lice.
Though I did once have a roommate with crabs.
Still, yuck.
No one else in the house seems to have them. I use tea-tree oil shampoo and I’ve heard that repels them. Not to mention I take garlic tablets, and that too repels them. Also repels mosquitos.
And my mother uses a can of hairspray a day, so her hair has been condemned as a hazardous waste zone by the EPA. Lice can’t live there.
And nothing could live on Don’s scalp. Hell, Don’s own skin doesn’t live on his scalp. Its all bare skull up there.
I’ve checked the cats. Cleto and Monkey are lice free. Its hard to tell with Bea, because of how fuzzy she is, so she got a bath today. I don’t think she was infested though.
I really should get some Advantage for them, just in case, but that stuff is more than my rent.
And despite my own bug-free status, I went through a paranoid moment where I cropped my hair nearly to the root and dowsed my scalp with tea-tree oil.
Tingly.
I have to keep Cleto from grooming me though. Tea tree oil isn’t good for cats at all. Many essential oils are not.
Anyway, this is definitely crazy annoyance week. Can’t wait to see what happens next.
Update: Now KK’s puking. No fever. I suspect the poisons in the headwash. I tried to talk them into using home remedies. They don’t listen to me. They go spend a fortune on poisonous shampoos, when there are plenty of home remedies that work just as well, if not better.
Buy me a beer!
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Comments
This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007 at 7:20 pm and is filed under animal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Ewwww…. lice. When I was a kid, only the dirty kids got lice. Apparently, that’s not true anymore as many of the coworkers’ kids have gotten them! I certainly never got lice. Vile!
Poor kitties. I hope they don’t get them. You’re Chenead O’Connor now! Not the new bipolar one, the old pope-picture-ripping fun one.
Hey, the things you learn on SP. Who knew to keep tea tree oil away from pets. I got some book learnin’ to do.
Just looked up that Advantage stuff. You’re right. Even online, it’s pricey! Looks like it’s the best, though.
Every time I hear “essential oils” I think of Absolutely Fabulous where the hippie woman said, “Can you feel my essential oils flowing?” to which Eddie replied, “No, but I can smell ‘em.”
Bit whiffy, aren’t they? That’s why lice don’t like ‘em, I guess.
Tried to make a comment earlier and it wouldn’t let me. What a pain.
So anyway, yes, many essential oils are dangerous to cats, esp. tea tree and cinnamon (so don’t get your creativity oil near puss). The crazy thing is, a lot of ‘all natural’ flea remedies contain tea tree oil. And while I use a lot of natural remedies for my cats, not everything thats natural is safe. After all, black-widow spiders are all natural - would you wash your hair with’em?
Dirty kids. Bah - humans have been getting lice for as long as there”ve been humans and lice. The ‘idea’ of lice is far worse than the reality. They aren’t particularly harmful and its rare to get the proverbial ‘headful’. I think everyone around here has pretty much over-reacted.
KK has been sick much of the night. We all ate the same thing so it isn’t food related. No fever so doubtful its a virus. I really do suspect the poison - that stuff is worse for you than the lice. So its either a reaction to the shampoo, or a reaction to us calling her ‘Buggy’.
Either way, poor KK. I realize that it is a perennial problem (but like you I don’t remember getting them or anyone else getting them when I was a kid, but now it seems like every school has an infestation. It is probably related to the massive dying off of bees — I’m going to stick to that theory even though it makes no sense.)
But either way, the stigma is worse than the reality. And those poisons will kill em- off quickly.
Then it is just a matter of nit picking.
Literal nit picking. Picking the dead nits out of her hair.
Actually, the poisons don’t kill them off ‘quickly’. They can take overnight and often don’t work at all, because the lice have developed resistance.
There are much safer, more effective ways to deal with lice.
This says mojo but it is really Richard the Previous. Those poisons often take several dunkings too because they usually only kill the adults and then you have to get to nit picking to pick out their tiny little nits.
Or she could shave her head. I’ve known people to do that with crabs.
R the P again:
But I don’t mean to nit pick!
Oh, I slay me.
Where on earth are you getting your info Richard? The FDA? Don’t make me laugh.
Those poisons do NOT kill the adults. The adults laugh in the face of those poisons. Many lice are now resistant.
IF the poison is working as it should - and thats a big if - then yes, multiple dunkings are needed. But they often do not work.
If I say there are better, safer options, then that means there are better, safer options. After all, I’m always right.
And after yesterday’s dunking had little effect on KK’s lice, today she’s having a good tea-tree soak.
Your nitpicking joke would have been funny if your nitpicking had not been on behalf of the evil empire, Big Pharma, who want to take away my rights to use natural remedies.
I concede.
You know all.
HA!
Now I want everyone to take note of what I did there. Its called the ‘George Bush Gambit’. If someone disagrees with you, you accuse them of collaborating with the enemy. Then they concede, because they don’t want to be enemy collaborators.
There was a time - in the McCarthy era - when I might have accused R the P of being a communist:
R the P: “I like putting poison on my head”.
Me: “What are you, some kind of communist?”
Nowadays its more complicated. My accusations must fit the context, in this case, Big Pharma. On an entirely different kind of blog, I might have accused him of terrorism.
R the P: I really love the way that poison burns my scalp.
Me: What are you, a terrorist?
Other possibilities include:
R the P: Nature bad. Poison good.
Me: What are you, a corporate lobbyist?
R the P: I like putting poison on my pubic area too.
Me: What are you, a perv?
You get the idea. So next time you’re in an argument and your opponent isn’t acquiescing to your superior knowledge on the subject, accuse them of collaboration. As you can see, it works.
Burning scalps… I think i heared they used petroleum in the past to drive away lice?
My best to poor KK… :|
Yeah, they’ve used all kinda stuff. I’ve heard that petroleum works, but really I can’t recommend using it anymore than I can recommend using deadly toxins. Well… deadly to everyone but the lice, that is.
I cut KK’s hair today in a short bob. She loves it. Its very cute and much easier to de-louse.
Big Pharma and I go way back. I said to them, “I like poison in everything! Even my catfood! What can you do to hook me up?”
Big Pharma said, “Hmmm. How about we poison children’s hair?”
Me: “Love it! Make sure they think there is no ‘essential oil’ out there that could do the same. The only ‘essential’ oil is petroleum! How’s my good buddy Bush doing on the petroleum side?”
Big Pharma: “Iraq? Invaded! Iran? Invaded soon! Venezuela? Well, even we don’t know what is going on there.”
Me: “Set backs, eh? Defeatist attitude, eh? If we can get children to put poison on their heads in the name of public cleanliness, we can destabilize Venezuela to the point of revolution! Get Bolivia involved. We need their oil. Get to hopping!”
Unfortunately, Che’s found me out.
Well I just heard that on the eve of the FDA trying to take control of our dietary supplements and health foods, that congress has accepted an amendment to the Enhancing Drug Safety and Innovation act that states:
Sec. X08. Rule of Construction
Nothing in this title (or an amendment made by this title) shall be construed to affect–
(1) The regulation of dietary supplements under the Dietary Supplement
Health and Education Act; or
(2) The adverse event reporting system for dietary supplements created
under the Dietary Supplement and Nonprescription Drug Consumer Protection Act.
A step in the right direction, I reckon.