Fleas/Frontline question...

Fire_Fox

I would respray given that you have a spare can, maybe leave it down a little longer before vacuuming this time since you are getting so few fleas now?

soay_2

The only way to keep your dogs & cats flea free is to hoover the floor area EVERY DAY forever of the rooms your pets use to break the flea breeding cycle.
You should therefore restrict your pets to a couple of rooms. Under no circumstances allow them freerange of your house.
You should then find that within a few weeks the fleas have disappeared without spending money on & using all these lethal chemicals.

Fire_Fox

soay wrote: »

The only way to keep your dogs & cats flea free is to hoover the floor area EVERY DAY forever of the rooms your pets use to break the flea breeding cycle.
You should therefore restrict your pets to a couple of rooms. Under no circumstances allow them freerange of your house.
You should then find that within a few weeks the fleas have disappeared without spending money on & using all these lethal chemicals.

Restricting pets to a couple of rooms for any length of time can set in boredom and can be detrimental to their mental health. Using a good quality veterinary product like Advocate regularly means you don't need to chemically treat the home.

I once moved into a house with an active flea infestation (no pets). Vacuuming daily did not eliminate the fleas, we had to have the house professionally fumigated three times over several months.

There_Goes_Trouble

Thanks guys, you're right of course. When I posted last night I was shattered and had a migraine coming, the thought of doing another complete furniture move, hoover and spray just wasn't working for me. But today I'm feeling better (if a tad over-medicated!!) and see that you are right and I must do another re-spray.

With regards to restricting my pets around the house, well I live in a two up two down house. They're not allowed in the bedrooms (I'm actually allergic to my cats, also one is destructive and the other one scent marks in my bed...yuk!!), and as I only have a lounge and kitchen downstairs restricting their access is not an option. Besides, who would have pets and then not have them with you around the house? I used to allow the dogs in my bedroom but I find my male cat needs somewhere in the house that is dog free, he's more relaxed and less inclined to scent mark then, so the stairs and landing are somewhere he can go to chill out when he needs some space.

Fire_Fox

There_Goes_Trouble wrote: »

Thanks guys, you're right of course. When I posted last night I was shattered and had a migraine coming, the thought of doing another complete furniture move, hoover and spray just wasn't working for me. But today I'm feeling better (if a tad over-medicated!!) and see that you are right and I must do another re-spray.

With regards to restricting my pets around the house, well I live in a two up two down house. They're not allowed in the bedrooms (I'm actually allergic to my cats, also one is destructive and the other one scent marks in my bed...yuk!!), and as I only have a lounge and kitchen downstairs restricting their access is not an option. Besides, who would have pets and then not have them with you around the house? I used to allow the dogs in my bedroom but I find my male cat needs somewhere in the house that is dog free, he's more relaxed and less inclined to scent mark then, so the stairs and landing are somewhere he can go to chill out when he needs some space.

Do the respray when you feel up to it, as long as you keep vacuuming and treating your pets you shouldn't have another population explosion.

Some people find they are less allergic to their cat if they switch pet foods, this makes sense because the skin of any animal is an organ of excretion, and of course cat saliva gets spread everywhere. I've heard of the best results with a raw diet, next best results with a low carb/ high meat commercial foods.

Also changing the human diet to low glycaemic index, anti inflammatory can substantially reduce allergies and inappropriate immune responses, for example asthma eczema and hayfever. Key aspects are no sugar or white/ refined carbs, plenty of oily fish or a high strength DHA/ EPA supplement.

PS While I was typing my cat chucked a toy down the back of my neck, nothing like a hint!! :rotfl:

BaileyB

Looking for some advice. We have 3 cats 2 boys and a girl. We treat them with frontline every month snice they were little and never had an issue. But last week the female has had a few fleas on her. she was treated on sunday along with the others but the fleas are still on her today. We sprayed the house with Indoorex.

We only have carpet on the stairs and landing and they not allowed to go upstairs that much. But we cleaned the carpets and hoovered them several times over last few days.

What is the next stage, it's just strange the boys have none on them at all.

~Chameleon~

BaileyB wrote: »

Looking for some advice. We have 3 cats 2 boys and a girl. We treat them with frontline every month snice they were little and never had an issue. But last week the female has had a few fleas on her. she was treated on sunday along with the others but the fleas are still on her today. We sprayed the house with Indoorex.

We only have carpet on the stairs and landing and they not allowed to go upstairs that much. But we cleaned the carpets and hoovered them several times over last few days.

What is the next stage, it's just strange the boys have none on them at all.

The vibrations from hoovering can actually stimulate the lifecycle stage of the flea (pupae) which cannot be killed by any other means, to hatch out, hence why you're seeing fleas despite treating home & animals.

The best thing to do is hoover thoroughly 2-3 days before spraying the house then the pupae which will have hatched will be killed. If you treat the cats at the same time, any which jump on for a feed will also be killed. Repeat & rinse monthly until the cycle is broken.

Fire_Fox

BaileyB wrote: »

Looking for some advice. We have 3 cats 2 boys and a girl. We treat them with frontline every month snice they were little and never had an issue. But last week the female has had a few fleas on her. she was treated on sunday along with the others but the fleas are still on her today. We sprayed the house with Indoorex.

We only have carpet on the stairs and landing and they not allowed to go upstairs that much. But we cleaned the carpets and hoovered them several times over last few days.

What is the next stage, it's just strange the boys have none on them at all.

You need to spray every square inch of the house, including hard floors and under all the furniture not just carpets. The eggs are very hardly so are not killed by regular cleaning methods, and they move around the house attached to you. Try a veterinary product like Advocate next time.

There_Goes_Trouble

Update: I haven't done my respray yet. I've taken a few days to get over this migraine and didn't want to be spraying chemicals around when I wasn't well. I'm going to do it over the weekend as I'll have plenty of time to move furniture and do it properly and will be well rested and fit again by then.

However, *crossed fingers - touch wood* I haven't had any fleas at all for 3 days now. None on the animals, none on me, even in my bedroom which has been the worst area so far (despite the pets not being allowed in there!)

I am still going to do a final re-spray though, as Bromley said a few posts back "belt and braces".

Hopefully you won't be hearing much from me in the future!!

Thank you for all the advice and support, it's been great and I don't think I'd have got this far by myself.

There_Goes_Trouble

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Some people find they are less allergic to their cat if they switch pet foods, this makes sense because the skin of any animal is an organ of excretion, and of course cat saliva gets spread everywhere. I've heard of the best results with a raw diet, next best results with a low carb/ high meat commercial foods.

Also changing the human diet to low glycaemic index, anti inflammatory can substantially reduce allergies and inappropriate immune responses, for example asthma eczema and hayfever. Key aspects are no sugar or white/ refined carbs, plenty of oily fish or a high strength DHA/ EPA supplement.

Thank you, I shall have a think and read up about this. 'No sugar'...... gulp!

I'm not massively allergic, I sneeze a bit, get a blocked up nose and itchy eyes. My cats are 9 years old and I just put up with it although I think it's got worse as we've all got older, although from what you've said it could have gotten worse due to their diet...

My cats diet has been difficult over the last year. I switched them to a wet food after my female had a particularly nasty bout of cystitis that took months to resolve. However they are very fussy cats and won't eat what I class as 'decent' cat food, i.e ones that actually have meat in them. They were both losing weight, constantly hungry and scavenging around the house, and being grumpy with each other. My male cat was going next door and stealing their cat food which is cheap crap full of fillers and sugars.

So, after a year of trying I've gone back to free feeding dry food. They both look healthier and are no longer starving all the time, also they are less grumpy with each other.

I did try raw food but neither was interested, I also had a bad experience with it as I switched my dog to raw (slowly, like you're supposed to) and she got pancreatitis and nearly died. I don't know if the diet was completely to blame, but it put me off big style.