CAT FLEAS - merged

Lily-Lu

Hi, fleas can be a bit of a nightmare, but treating the cat and each room of the house, should get rid of them pretty quickly. If the cat has been in your room, and in particular on your bed, then your mattress needs spraying with the household flea spray as well. Just doing one room won't shift them.

As has already been said, they're only hopping on you for a meal and will hop right off again. So, it's very unlikely you'll carry them on you to your bf house.

Crazychik

Hiya

Charlies mum has explained what I was going to say!
(touchwood) we've not had this problem for at least 6yrs!
Every bit of furiture needs to be treated, incl, carpets/curtains etc.
It may be advisable to wash your bed clothes on a hot wash, hoover the matress and before making the bed, sprinkle the mattress with some flea powder.

Hoover around skirting boards and the edge of carpets also (my neighbour was still finding fleas in her floorboards months after she moved in the house)

Fleas can jump, and dont necessarly have to be brought in by a pet!
My brother never had pets, and when he moved we found them in the floorboards.

Not sure if it'll help, but other than trying tea-tree for the bites, try using the Avon SSS (green bottle) dry oil body spray. (it used to be known as woodland fresh) I use this when going abroard to deterr the mosquito's.

Good luck with the move, and perhaps before you place new furniture down etc, give the carpets a good thorough spray, just to be on the safe side,

spaghetti_monster

hi there! I totally sympathise as well have been bitten quite often by the little blighters when I had a cat.......

as well as the good advice above:
-concentrate your cleaning/spraying especially where the cat sleeps/sits. Does he go on your bed, sleep on the sofa??

- put a spare (opened) frontline thingy, or some chemicals in your hoover bag and hoover a lot. Hoover places like - bottom of curtains, bottom/around sofa and chairs, mattress as well as usual places. When you're done tape up all openings of the hoover (to make sure everything stays inside and will be killed - you will have hoovered up eggs that won't be killed straight away and will then hatch)

Are you moving away from the cat??? As others have said they probably wont travel with you

HTH Alex x

mattsue

my cat had fleas last year, and i treated her regularly with frontline. the vets said the fleas had prob become immune to it and we had to switch to advantage. we also hoovered like mad and sprayed all the rooms. that seemed to do the trick and the little blighters havent returned!

roddydogs

Frontline by itself is not enough you need "Indorex" spray and follow instructions. you can only get it from a vet!

Seakay

Some people are more likely to be bitten than others - if a cat has fleas, or if there are mossies, or whatever, I will get loads of bites while my OH hardly ever gets any.
Some people say that taking garlic capsules makes you less appealing to mossies so might work for fleas (and won't make you stink!) but as this sort of thing takes 2 weeks to a month to become efective it is of little use to you now.
The chances are that all your remedies have been effective, but because you are so sensitive the itchiness makes you think that you are getting new bites when in fact you are still reacting to the old ones.
An anti-histamine cream might help to soothe, and anti histamine tablets will make you react less violently to the bites. Both are available without prescription from a chemist.

redcherry_girl

Thanks very much for all the advice. It's made me feel a lot better. I think I'm still having psychological itchiness, but it seems to be improving.

When I move I won't be taking any furniture with me, just clothes so should I wash them all before the move?

The cat isn't coming with me (thank god!!!) but I'll still be spraying my room a couple of times. The stupid thing is that I don't normally let him in my room but whilst I was packing I kept my bedroom door open and he wandered in a couple of times (he didn't go on the bed, just under it but he did jump up onto my sofa). I don't like the cat anyway... he's a temperamental little s*d who bites and scratches. I'm just glad I'm getting out of this house very soon.

I think everyone must be right, that the fleas have gone but the bites are just flaring up when they start being itchy. Urgh... I just really hope that's the end of it.

LuciferTDark

We had a flea infestation earlier in the year, our wonderful neighbour suddenly materialised a dog in her back garden one day which I'm convinced had fleas, anyway we started getting bitten, treated the animals, started getting bitten again.

The dog next door vanished but the fleas didn't, turns out they can nest in furniture & hibernate for months between feeds, in the end we had to treat every room an animal went into & every piece of furniture at the same time as the animals.

We went top to bottom in the house & touch wood we've not had fleas or been bitten since.

Olliebeak

Don't forget to dispose of the vacuum cleaner bag and contents securely after hoovering the house.

During the summer, I was badly bitten by Scottish Midges - and had an allergic reaction to the darn things. Tried all kinds of stuff but none of em worked. Just had to wait for the anti-histamine stuff to works it's miracle. Was still itching on the coach on the way home (looking as though I had Bubonic Plague!). It took around three weeks for the last of the sores to disappear - that'll be the last time we go to Scotland in the summer months!!

It may be a good idea for you, or your friend, to bring in the Pest Control Department from your Local Authority Environmental Services - remember the guys from the TV programme 'House of Grime'. They will fumigate the house but she will have to find somewhere to take the cat for a few hours. While the house is being treated, the cat could maybe be treated again to be really sure of success.

angie_loves_veg

I was given some good advice once it may be of use;

keep a (cheap) flea collar in the hoover to rid any remaining eggs from the area!

Fleas are really annoying, but the advice you have had already should get you flea free soon!