Flea panic :(

Davesnave

I didn't recommend a brand. Resistance is common, so local vets ought to be best placed to judge which one should be used. Ours changes treatments periodically.

GwylimT

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I've also given up on Frontline now and use Advantage/Advantix.

When we lived in Ceredigion it worked really well, I'm pleased advantage works well for us as its a lot cheaper.

RainbowLaura

So, one week later and we've had no new bites and seen no more fleas... until last night. Saw a tiny baby one, in a somewhat drowsy state, ironically whilst I was plugging in a flea trap.

We have been using flea traps for monitoring purposes over the last four nights, and the traps themselves (very highly reviewed on Amazon) have not caught any at all.

I was feeling so positive until I saw (and killed) the baby flea last night. Is it normal for there to be a few stragglers? I know about the lifecycle etc and that is why we have to hoover so extensively after using Indorex, but when can I expect to be completely flea-free? When is it time to admit defeat and call the fumigators in?

Just to add, it seems we've had a problem for a few months as that's when the bites started, but we thought it was something else. We've only ever seen fleas on three occasions - one the first day we realised what the problem was (three weeks ago), the one last night, and the four or five that attacked us on our return from holiday last weekend.

Feeling very down

elsien

I really don't think you need the fumigators, just carry on with what you're doing as it's obviously working.
You saw one after a week and killed it before it did anything. That's positive, surely?

RainbowLaura

elsien wrote: »

I really don't think you need the fumigators, just carry on with what you're doing as it's obviously working.
You saw one after a week and killed it before it did anything. That's positive, surely?

Thanks elsien, I would hope it's positive, but I was really hoping that we wouldn't see any more. All the hoovering over the last week has absolutely exhausted me - I've spent a good 2 hours on it every night after work, and I was looking forward to cutting back a little bit next week!! I really don't know how people cope when it gets bad

pimento

When you went on holiday and the cats went to the cattery, you removed the fleas source of food so when you and your husband came home, the fleas were starving and you were the only food available.

I can tell when my (both dark) cats have fleas because they scratch themselves all the time. I like those drop on the back of the neck type flea killers, they work very well. We don't have much carpet, only wooden floors and rugs and don't have a big problem.

poppellerant

You're probably going to see the odd flea for a few more weeks, until they die off completely.

Put a flea collar in your hoover and make sure that you vacuum all areas of the carpet every day if you can. Keep this up until you see no more fleas. After each vacuuming, make sure you empty into bag with no holies in it and tie it up before discarding.

LEJC

google "program injections"...its a flea treatment for cats that actually breaks the cycle so can be more effective than just using spot on treatments or sprays.

We have always used it on our cats and it is usually given twice a year by the vet at check ups....we have not seen evidence of fleas in the house for years.
In terms of cost I dont believe its any more expensive than treating the whole house with other products and is a lot less time consuming.

doodle-bug_2

We had a small infestation of fleas once. The cats were treated, so any that jumped on them to bite soon died. But, you could put your feet on the floor from the bed and get jumped on by several little *!&!!s.

We decided (because I don't like sprays because of our fish tanks) that the best way was to steam clean. In between the floor boards (in rooms with no carpet), quick blitz over the carpet, in the grooves near the skirting etc.

Gone! No chemicals, and probably took the same amount of time!

RainbowLaura

Thanks everyone. Will definitely look into the Program injection, that sounds very good. I'm going a bit mad, I keep thinking every little speck is a flea and have been walking around the house with my trousers tucked into my socks because I feel like something might crawl up my leg.

We had one flea in one of the traps on Sunday night, nothing since then (fingers crossed). It's just so hard because retrospectively I can see that this had been going on for weeks before we knew what it was (we'd been getting bitten to death, but naively believed that the Bob Martin treatments meant that our cats couldn't possibly have fleas)... Yet we hadn't seen any. So now, even if I go for two weeks without seeing one I'll still be convinced that they're here, and they very well could be. Ugh. It's so unsettling. Finding any excuse I can to get out of the house at the moment. At work I'm watching the clock because I'm dreading going home to the endless hoovering and anxiety about getting a flea on me. I've always loved my house and spending time relaxing here, but just want to be as far away as possible now