Cat fleas, help we're being eaten alive!

medini

I have a lot of sympathy for you, having been in a very similar situation when we first got Ozzy. We didn't get to see where he was kept before coming to us, we phoned the seller and got told that they had all been reserved, then a few days later some bloke turned up outside the house with Ozzy in a shoebox because they couldn't get rid of him. The kitty was cute we couldn't say no.

After he had been dropped off we realised that he was crawling with fleas. He looked so sad and miserable. we gave him his first and only bath and comb, which ended witha soggy kitten hissing and spitting and hiding under a table.

We finaly got something to sort him out, but it makes me mad that some people can allow a kitten to get full of fleas and then pass the problem on to somebody else. It shows a total lack of concern for the kittens health.

RacyRed

Check out how effective Frontline is with local cat owners if you can. It just let me down very, very badly and I'm struggling with three uncomfortable cats that I cannot treat with something else until September.

I'm scrubbing my home and washing everything washable in it and re-spraying with Indorex (again) but I think we will have to have bath time over the weekend. That is going to be fun, NOT :rolleyes:

Lyger

My Dad uses one of those powder treatments all over the house when my cat (who has stayed living with Dad) manages to pick up fleas.

Not always particularly nice, but whatever it is he uses, it does work at killing all the flea eggs/larvae in the carpets, etc. I'll ask him what it is he uses when I visit this weekend.

poppycracker

that happened with my eldest, Hannah. She was crawling when we got her at five weeks...I was living with my friend at the time, and we weren't having a lot of luck til I went onto Vetukltd and bought frontline for the cats and indorex for the house. We spent the whole of one day defleaing the cats and gutting, hoovering and spraying the house. Then we de-nitted the kids as well, but that's another story...:rotfl:

Since Hannah and I moved in with DH, we haven't had a problem. Even when Lucy arrived from the same house as Hannah, but then again it was winter time and we did frontline them before the weather warmed up.

Anyone else getting itchy reading this thread?

paddypaws101

Thank goodness it's not just me with this problem! With 4 cats in the house I have always kept an eye on flea control, especially as one cat has flea allergy dermatitis. This year I have been overwhelmed, have had to do a second full sweep through house with stinky RIP, move all furniture, hoover all floors, boil wash all bedding. It seems finally to be settling down but has been a struggle.

loulou123

Havent had this problem this year (thank god) but have in the past with both a cat and a dog.

My dog had flea bite allergy too, literally one bite and he'd be bright red (skin not fur!) and itching for days.

Found the only answer is to use the spot on type flea products religiously (the ones from the vets-you can also buy them from bigger pet shops and chemists now too, but not the cheap ones, there not worth the money even though there cheaper.) Also keep combing with a flea comb, but make sure you kill the fleas you remove. Also spray everything in your house and all rooms (not just the ones the animals use) with a house spray from the vets. Leave all the doors and windows shut for as long as possible, then vacume well.

Also if your cat has fleas make sure you worm at the same time, as one kind of worms can be caused by the animal grooming and eating the flea eggs. You dont want to cure one problem to have another.

By the way why is it that fleas seem so attracted to biting some people? My boyfriend used to find it extremely funny that i would be like a magnet for flea bites whereas he hardly ever got bitten!?

Good luck.

emlou2009

i used RIP flea and recommended it to my nan when her cat got them, but it hasnt worked for her house! the cat has had the program injection so they arent on her, they are just in the house :eek:

so the next thing to try would be indorex or acclaime? would it also be worth putting a dose of frontline on her? the vet told me when i took her down for the jab that she would probably need a dose of frontline too but we didnt do it as we hadnt done it before and thought he was probably just trying to sell us something

BitterAndTwisted

The Frontline and/or Program treatments on the cats will work to eradicate an infestation it's just that only using that method will take some time to take hold. The real problem is the pupae, which can lie dormant for months on end and no environmental treatment has been developed that will kill them in there. It's only once they're hatched that the room-sprays will kill them and the treatment on the cats will prevent any new eggs being laid and hence no larvae either. This is the reason for vaccuuming every day: the noise and vibration encourages the young adult fleas to hatch so the room spray and treatment on the cats can do their work. In the beginning this can appear to suggest that the Frontiine/Program/whatever and the room-spray together are not effective but they are, it just takes time. You just need to ensure that the environmental spray is used everywhere the cats have had access to and that includes under all furniture, which is where the larvae pupate. Keep spraying and hoovering and you should see a definite improvement in a few days.

Also, just because only one person in the household appears to be being bitten does not mean that everyone else is not: some people just don't react to the bites. The one thing to remember is that cat fleas cannot live on humans but they will try and have a bite when their natural feline hosts are not available.

The "Johnson's 4Fleas" product mentioned earlier contains exactly the same chemicals which my Local Authority uses for flea infestations as I checked with the worker who came to my home when things got out of hand here some time ago. I'd used it already before my appointment with Pest Control and it had really taken hold by the time my appointment came round

sally06

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

The "Johnson's 4Fleas" product mentioned earlier contains exactly the same chemicals which my Local Authority uses for flea infestations as I checked with the worker who came to my home when things got out of hand here some time ago. I'd used it already before my appointment with Pest Control and it had really taken hold by the time my appointment came round

I used a whole can of this on DD's bedroom alone:eek:I hope it works. I've done nothing but, clean, clean and clean since we realised the house is infested with fleas. I'm still seeing the odd flea here and there, but it's nowhere near as bad as it was. I just hope I can get rid of them all! It totally freaked me out when I first saw them jumping all over the place, now I try to catch them and crack them with the back of my nail, LOL

It's dejà vu for me, because when we bought our current home four years ago, on the first day we moved in I started scratching. Although I couldn't see any fleas, I am sure they were present. The previous owner had a cat and probably left the fleas behind for us:rolleyes:It wasn't as bad as it is now though, because we have 3 cats and we had none at the time when we moved in. I remember DH sprayed the whole place and the itching stopped immediately. It wish it was that easy to get rid of the sods this time around.

I have made the mistake of re-using the hoover bag:o I do spray it before and after use with acclaime, but I guess I should pop to the shop and get some new bags!

I hope everyone else with the same problem is managing to get it rid of the fleas. I was feeling really depressed and dirty over the infestation, but I am much stronger now and will not let the little sods beat me! I will fight them to the very end, even if it takes months. I will get rid of them! And it will probably take a while, because I am not allowed to apply anymore flea treatments on my cats for a week. DD and I take them outside and use a flea comb and soapy water to get rid of as many fleas as possible. The cats are getting used to this routine as we do it daily now. They even line up waiting for their turn...they will do anything for a tub of treats:D

sally06

tonight, i've spent another 4 hours cleaning! A flea jumped out at me when I was cleaning the wooden floor in my bedroom:mad:and if that wasn't bad enough, I've ruined the floor now by spilling dettol on it:rolleyes: (I didn't even notice I'd knocked over the bottle. The floor has gone all bumpy near the door.)

The odd thing is, I've spent many more hours cleaning upstairs than down. (The cats are banned from going up there until I am allowed to give them their treatment). When indoors, they spend all their time in the sitting room. I have not spent much time cleaning the sitting room - compaired to the time I spend cleaning upstairs, but I have not seen any fleas -only dead ones - in the sitting room for a couple of daysI have sprinkled salt over the sofa and down the back of it, on the cushions and underneath the radiator covers and this seems to have worked better than the spray from the vets that cost me £20:eek: