Fleas..Oh for crying out loud..the blinking fleas!

Tygermoth

Ok we have four indoor only cats. They regularly get flea treated and wormed at the vets. I have a clean, well looked after house with carpets throughout (excluding the bathroom and kitchen) have had outdoor cats only before and never ever in all the years i have had cats/dog had this problem.

About 2 months ago we took Bert to the vet as he become scabby and over grooming. Vet noted that he had been flea treated with them and put it down to an allergy. Had injection of steroids and within two days the scratching calmed down.

Two weeks later grooming one of the cats noticed a live flea. The others had flea poo in fur *shudder*

Visited the vet again....meticulously retreated the house with a spray from the vets and they re-dose the moggs with flea treatment. I and the OH notices bites sores about our ankles..

A further week on Bert stated to go mental with scratching again, take him and his brothers all to the vet. Bert has another steroid injection. Vet says as we have treated the house and redosed it just Bert haveing a reaction to something. I say I think its fleas, the vet reassures me that no, they will all be taken care of by now.

So two weeks ago - Sudden explosion of fleas... on cats, furniture and us! Even in my car! The blighters are everywhere.

Take the cats to the vets....again, they all have flea injection, a different flea dab on treatment the house/car is professionally treated. (the cost by now is unbelivable)

I take every conceivable bit of bedding, fabric, curtains, clothing and it’s all hot washed as per the exterminator’s instruction. All the pet beds are thrown out or savagely cleaned. Comforters and sofa cushions taken to the laundrette.

Cue this morning sat in the office typing up an email for work and Linus is sat by me... he scratches behind his ear and launching several live fleas on my desk.

For the love of all things furry! What more can I do?

flipjasck

sounds like theres flea eggs in the floorboards or some other inaccessible area when your heating has been turned on they have hatched .
flea catchers are not available to buy anymore due to eu regulation (water near electricity so only make and use it carefully) , basically its a light bulb dangled over a water bowl ,I use a cardboard box , cut squares out of the 4 box sides and attach a lamp fitting to the top and place a tupperware dish half full of soapy water under the bulb .
it may sound implausible but in about a week the flea population will be decimated , you need one per room that has a problem and are best running them overnight . best of all it costs about 50p to make this device and can be reused as and when you need
i would not use if you have small kids

brokenant

Try changing brands, we were loosing a very expensive battle using frontline/ effipro with beaphar carpet spray.
Switched to stronghold and acclaim and the fleas went within 48 hrs. Not seen one since.

Emmabeth

Treat the house for fleas yearly, personally I think a good local authority pest control service will do you a better, more cost effective job than expensive tins of stuff from the vets or less effective products from shops (and though they may be less effective at killing fleas, these products are often MORE dangerous than professional products!).

Fleas do NOT live on the animal full time - a good chunk of their life-cycle involves other animals (tapeworms!) and your carpets, crevices down the backs of sofas and floorboards, and other soft furnishings.

So JUST treating the animals is only part of the job, though whilst you are treating the animals, do make sure you worm as well!

Tygermoth

Thank you for your replies, all gratefully received

Emmabeth - we have a had a professional in to exterminate and 2 weeks and they are back. They are flea'd and wormed at the vet and all soft furnishings have been removed and cleaned.

Brokenant - after the third time at the vet they advised stronghold as they felt the fleas 'may' be immune to frontline. Though the cats now have had the flea injection we can’t give them the stronghold for another week as they been re-dosed with frontline to recently.

flipjasck - interesting idea, not a diy'er but will get the OH to look.


Will consider just about anything....:D

POPPYOSCAR

Have you tried steam cleaning?

They say that the high temperature of the steam kills the fleas. We have two dogs and have never had a problem with fleas(touch wood).I have a steam cleaner that is also a vacuum cleaner but you can get cheaper models.

Worth a try if you can borrow one or get one cheaply.

Tygermoth

Good morning POPPYOSCAR

I have a vax steamer which is brilliant. In fact I am feeling a bit bereft at the moment as the exterminator said not to use it (or the Hoover) for a few weeks to allow the carpets to marinade.

I would do a quick run over the carpets at least once a month. I could find no documentation to confirm that it would or would not help fleas though. So stopped when we became infested just in case the very slight moist residue (and I mean very very slight) and resultant warmth was contributing in any way.

POPPYOSCAR

There are several articles on the net.

Here is just one link

http://www.allergyconsumerreview.com/vapor-steam-cleaner.html

paddypaws101

Wow, you really have tried most things!
Would definitely move away from Frontline and in future use Advocate or Stronghold as I believe they are far more effective. You can buy flea traps online, Amazon maybe? They dont use water but have a sticky disc under the bulb.
One last thing to try would be Skoosh, it is non insecticidal so you are not over dosing on chemicals but does claim to kill ALL stages of the flea life cycle which no other product does.

Mrs_Z

This year has been the worst for fleas. We also had some for the first time ever in 15 years that we've had cats - and ours go outdoors too! After chatting to our Vet, he said that in his opinion we should stick with Front line (we'd complained that it didn't seem to be working and maybe to change to a different brand) as it was the best on the market (opinions vary I know!). What he said, was that the most important thing was to treat the surroundings, carpets, etc and wash the bedding etc. Once you've treated the carpets, the fleas will go mad due to neurotoxins on the spray and it will feel like an explosion of fleas! The will eventually die, little by little. The eggs will hatch and new fleas will jump on to the cat to feed, so it will be a while before they're all gone. I think he's right - and what I think it wrong is the advert on Frontline packet - kills fleas 100% within 24hrs as this gives an impression that once you dose your cat with it, problems solved in a day. It'll take about 3 months to solve it due to the life cycle of the critters! That said, I think we're getting on top of the problem. No new bites on me (!) and the cats seem to be scratching less. There's still some flea dirt evident in the bedding so will have to keep on with the cleaning, but I have not seen a live flea for about a week now.

Indorex's profits must be up! Vet said they were selling about 6 cans a day insted of the usual 1 every 3 months!!!!

Hillbilly1

Killing them at more stages than adult is esential. Therefore you need frontline combo or stronghold or advocate. For the house Acclaim/Staykill/Indorex.

The flea traps are fine, but by the time you have killed them they will already have laid the next generation!

We bought a new place with fleas and even with everything it still took July-Nov to be clear. Had nothing this year so def got them all! Our regime:-

wash all soft furnishings every 2 days at 90 degrees
stronhold every 4 weeks and 2 weeks later Advocate every 2 weeks (check with vet!)
STaykill weekly

I would avoid Skoosh as it makes everything slidy for ages as it just coats everything in silicone.