Fleas

BitterAndTwisted

They're in the carpets and cat bedding. What products are you using to spray the house and treat the cats with?

izzzzythedog

with 3 animals its a battle you cant win , cats are more than sociable ( being polite ) so its a circle in infestation , mix in the eggs can live for upto 6 months in carpet and you will struggle

best advise i can offer is this , wash the dogs weekly or even less plus use conditioner ( asda for 36 pence ) , this kills fleas as good as any pet shampoo out there including stuff such as doc martains , takes a few ekks but it will work , vac the life out of everything regually , boil wash the pets bedding to kill off eggs in waiting , stick drops on the cat plus a flea coller and change it every 3 months , this will mean you have minimal little visitors

TurnaroundSue

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

They're in the carpets and cat bedding. What products are you using to spray the house and treat the cats with?

I get the flea spray from the vet as the ones in the shop aren't any good. I buy Frontline off the Internet, but feel that this is now not working as well as it used to. I spoke to my vet about this last time I was in and she said that there is another one I could try but it is only available on prescription and if I want to get that from the vet so I can buy it cheaper off the internet it will cost me £12 :eek: for them to issue a prescription to me. Haven't done anything about it yet as I know it is going to be mega expensive and whichever way I purchase it.

BitterAndTwisted

Your vet is right: there have been many reports that Frontline is not as effective as it once was possibly because the fleas are becoming immune to it. I would go with your vet's advice and get a prescription from them and source the actual product online for the best price you can find. The environmental sprays bought retail rather from the vet can be as effective as long as you ensure that it contains the Insect Growth Regulator I mentioned earlier. I know for a fact that Johnson's 4 Fleas spray contains it and one can is enough to treat the whole house but you have to spray everywhere the cat has been and treat the cat at the same time or you'll just be going round in circles.

To the poster who mentioned Bob Martin products: as far as I'm concerned they are absolutely useless and a criminal waste of money. Some cats have died from the use of their spot-on as well, so that's another reason to steer well clear of them

dizziblonde

Once they're in your carpets - pain in the rear to get rid of. Heck oh works in one of the big office blocks in the city centre and they have a regular recurring selection of visitors on one floor most years.

Adding my voice to the "get the good stuff from the vets" ones - the fluffy fluffy save the world nice and timid Pets at Home stuff isn't great - go for armageddon! You say you're moving so it's probably not going to be your problem much longer - but you need to keep on top of re-treating your house at the stated frequencies for a pretty long time to get it completely under control.

babyshoes

Hmm, thinking I might need to follow some of this advice - the neighbours' cat comes to visit, and as lovely as he is, he seems to leave some of his passengers behind! We have tried the flea spray from Wilkos, but it only seems to work for a few days at a go, or until he visits again!

BitterAndTwisted

The environmental sprays which contain Permethrin, Tetrmethrin and Methoprene will kill off flea eggs, larvae and adult fleas at a stroke. Where the root of the problem lies is the pupae: these can lie safely dormant in their cocoons tucked away in the carpets and dark spaces for up to six months and to date no effective insecticide has been invented that can kill them in there. They are encouraged to emerge by noise, vibration and carbon dioxide and as soon as they do they are looking for a nice fresh meal of blood, either from you, a cat or a dog. This is the main reason why the animals should be protected by something effective as well, so that when they do emerge and hop on the animal, the protection will kill them.

Babyshoes: it sounds like your pusscat visitor needs to be treated or it will carry on encouraging those dormant pupae in your house to emerge an nausaem but if it has been treated with an effective product the problem will resolve itself eventually.