CAT FLEAS - merged

Mikyla

Hi,

need some advice regarding my cats kitten's which will 4 weeks old on tuesday, i've looked around different shops but to treat the flea's they need to be at least 8 weeks old! and i can't treat poppy as she is nursing the kittens, so frustrating.

If anyone has any advice i'd appreciate it, never had this problem with my cat before. I'm being bitten to death! and its driving me crazy.

thanks

suki1964

Simple-Advice wrote: »

Disagree with you competely!

I brought SRIKEBACK ADVANCE HOME FLEA KIT two months ago as the whole house was covered in fleas, 1000s of them I mean 1000s!
I rang counsil, quoted £41 to do it and said may need retreat at a cost of £12 but I went to Pets at home, and got the Srikeback kit, it contains a spray, two foggers and a fine dust to put on carpet, you need a day to carry it out, maybe two.

It worked FIRST time and they had all gone even the eggs are killed un like the products some people say work, they fail to kill the eggs meaning it only cures it for a very short time.

So 25 quid and two days of hard work to do what a tin of indorex - a tenner - and say two hours takes to do?

Indorex and acclaim work on the whole flea cycle and work for a year. Frontline combi also works on the complete flea cycle.

I would only recommend products that work and are cost effective, I would never advise people to buy off the shelf products

suki1964

Nothing you can buy in shops will treat fleas - go to a vet and whilst there get a wormer

Edited to say you will no doubt need to treat your house if you are being bitten - fleas and eggs in your soft furnishings keeping the cycle going

spookylukey

Clicked thanks instead of quote!

Anyway, as the kitten is so young you will need to get some Frontline spray (available from the vets only) it's suitable for use on kittens as young as 2 days old.

If you are being bitten to death and driven crazy imagine how the poor tiny kitten feels so please speak to your vet ASAP.

Edit to add:

Although you can't use Frontline spray on Mum as she is nursing there is a spot on (not Frontline) that can be used in nursing cats/dogs, ask your vet when you speak to them about the kittens.

~Chameleon~

Simple-Advice wrote: »

Disagree, Srikeback is much better, works faster ON CONTACT and kills instantly.
The product is a professional product which pest control companies use but is now able for use by households.

In pets at home its only £12 at present, does a whole house EVERY ROOM and works better than the stuff you claim to.

However its upto the OP which ever she decides to use but I put any money on Srikeback working better!

If you say so! :rolleyes:

Although how you can claim this product is superior to the tried and tested products available from the vets when it's only been on the market a few months beats me!

Come back in 12mths time and tell me you are still completely flea free in your home and you might then have a basis for your claims (you don't work for this company do you?)

And besides, as suki has already said, why on earth go through all that rigmarole using three separate products when just one simple spray does the job very effectively, and also provides complete protection for 12mths or more

suki1964

In pets at home its only £12 at present, does a whole house EVERY ROOM and works better than the stuff you claim to.

Facts and figures please?

I never claimed that what I recommended works better then this, I just pointed out that what you are reccomending seems expensive and time consuming when a quick spray of the house once a year will keep the house flea free for 12 months and a tin of indorex used to last me two years as I only had a two bedroom house

Emmabeth

Simple-Advice wrote: »

Not true at all, humans can't get a tapeworm from fleas, only if you were bitten 100.0000s times you may get oe but from your usal household fleas no, you wont get a tapeworm

Sorry, but I am definately correct, and you are definately not.

I did not say you can get tapeworms from being bitten by fleas (afaik, you cant, not if you were bitten hundreds, thousands, millions of times), what I said was, if you ingest a flea, which is carrying the larval stage of a tapeworm, you can, just as your dog or cat can, then be host to the tapeworm.

A flea must be ingested for humans to become infected with the most common tapeworm of dogs. Most reported cases have involved children. The most effective way to prevent human infection is through aggressive, thorough flea control. The risk of infection with this tapeworm in humans is quite small but does exist.

source: http://www.wilburyvets.co.uk/helpinfo_dog_tapeworms.htm

Be careful using many of the cheaper, shop-bought (excluding vets, though not always) flea products.
They are frequently permethrin based, and the problem there is twofold. 1/ Permethrin resistance in fleas (and headlice too) is extremely common and if your fleas are not resistant - they soon will be. 2/ Permethrin based insecticides are usually far MORE toxic (especially to cats) than other, more effective products.

You may well balk at paying £40/50 for a pest controller to come out and use a very effective product, (often Ficam W, which is EXTREMELY good and is all I use, but then I have easy access to it and most don't), but they know how to do the job better than you do (its not a case of just emptying a tin of stuff over the carpet, do you know where fleas prefer to live? (and the answer is NOT 'on the dog')), as well as their products being more suited to the job, more effective and longer lasting, AND they will have local knowledge wrt which products fleas are resistant to and which they are not.

The financial outlay may intially be larger, but trying to scrimp on pest control is very very rarely a good idea, either for effective pest control, or effective money saving.

ETA: Oh and Simple-Advice: No flea killing product can work 'instantly', you clearly havent any understanding of the flea life cycle. At any one time there will be eggs, larvae and adults. Contact poisons kill the adults, and some will kill the larvae, but they do not kill the eggs. So your 'instant' result in killing the hopping biting visible fleas will only last as long as it takes for the larvae to turn into adults, and the eggs to turn into larvae, and then into adults - around 10 days your house will be hopping again.
IF the product you choose has good residual properties, and if you havent hoovered it all up by then... then those adults may come into contact with the poison and be killed - though potentially they may have churned out more eggs before they die...

Definately not instant though.

tealady

Hi Can I just say that a thorough vacuuming of the house will help BUT you MUST empty the bag outside as soon as you have vacuumed. Do that before you treat the house.
If you want a good fact sheat about fleas then there is a downloadable on on www.birmingham.gov.uk.
Hope this helps.

studentgirl_2

Iagree get the spray from the vets only the stuff in the shops simply does not work. My poor cats I feel so bad was buying over the last few months the flee drop thing from the supermarket and they became infested with the little !!!!!!s , so did my home. this was so so upsetting. I tried everthing from the shops bombs spray ect. In the end I went to the vet brought spray and the drops from them all flees gone with in days, and flee free for months. I will never get the shop stuff again its simply not worth it in my opinion.

kymbogs

Hi guys

sorry to invade the original thread here But we are having a bit of a flea issue!

Got two cats, use frontline combi regularly on both, the last time they had it was 2 weeks ago and we gave them a bath with flea shampoo before applying it.

However I had fleas land on me at least 5 times yesterday and my 16 month old daughter has some bites which I feel really bad about. I've stripped both cots and even taken the mattress covers off and washed everything on a hot hot wash.

Does anyone know if this indorex stuff is safe to use with babies around? Aswell as the 16-month old I've got a 5 month old too.

Any advice greatly appreciated

Kimberley x

PS just looked up Indorex on one site and it says it's to kill flea infestations in carpets, the room that seems most badly affected is the living room - hardwood floor, no carpet. Can it be used on furniture too?