flea treatment for cats

spaceboy

My cat has fleas. I bought a flea comb and have found a few on him so far. One of my daughters was getting bites on her ankles at night and saw fleas last week. 

Can anyone recommend a flea treatment? There seem to be a lot of different ones and it's hard to choose, also they seem expensive for such a small amount of medication and many need prescribed by a vet. I need to change vets as I was charged what seemed like a ridiculous amount for something else at a Pet at Home vet last month.

FreeBear

Had an issue with a cat & fleas here. Initially started feeding the cat one 4fleas tablet a day and spraying everywhere with a dilute solution of Permex 22E (mixed to double strength).

Found the pills to be a big strain on finances, so managed to find some Nitenpyram from an ebay seller. Mixed up a solution of 1g of the powder to 100ml of water and put 0.5cc in the food each day. After 12 months of Nitenpyram and daily spraying, I've not seen any signs of fleas.

If you go down the route of making your own Nitenpyram solution, you do need a fairly accurate scale. One that does 0.01g is ideal (you'll find them being sold for weighing gold or <ahem> "herbs"). Small syringes can be had from your local chemist in 1cc, 2cc, and 5cc variants - Mine does them free as part of a needle exchange program for drug (ab)users. Oh, and keep the solution in the fridge.

Tip for weighing small quantities - Put a piece of paper on the scales along with a pound coin. Hit zero, and then carefully drop small amounts of powder on to the paper. I use a long thin blade to scoop the powder up.

Keep_pedalling

Although off the shelf treatments are much cheaper the active components they contain have a much shorter half life than those found in prescription only treatments. For example Nitenpyram has a half life of 2.8 hours and that of lotilaner (found in the Credelio chewable tablets our cat is on) is 30 days. Both will kill an infection of adult fleas quickly but the former treatment will need to be given more often to prevent a reinfection 

We are currently spreading the cost by paying £18.50 a month to the vets healthy pet club which covers monthly flea treatment, 6 monthly worming treatment and an annual check up and vaccinations. This is probably going look like peanuts if we have to have his heart murmur investigated which as a pre existing condition so not covered by insurance 🙀 I dread to think what vet fees are like if you own a horse. 

FreeBear

Keep_pedalling said:

Although off the shelf treatments are much cheaper the active components they contain have a much shorter half life than those found in prescription only treatments. For example Nitenpyram has a half life of 2.8 hours

Shelf live for Nitenpyram tablets is typically around 3 years if stored below 25°C.  Veterinary Drugs Handbook, page 891

Sigma- Aldrich quote a 60 month life of analytical grade powder if stored correctly.

The 2.8 hour half life probably comes from the Veterinary Drugs Handbook where it says -

 Nitenpyram is rapidly and practically completely absorbed after oral administration. Peak levels occur about 80 minutes after dosing in dogs; about 40 minutes in cats.
Elimination half-lives are about 3 hours for dogs; 8 hours for cats. Nitenpyram is excreted primarily unchanged in the urine. In dogs, about 3% of a dose is excreted in the feces; in cats about 5% is excreted in the feces.

I've found both the home made solution and off the shelf tablets to be very effective. Giving at least 24 hours of protection, and a shelf live in excess of a year.

YBR

Go to the vet for these. There are treatments you can buy off the shelf but we found they were nt effective.

As well as treating the pet, you may need to treat carpets and other soft furnishings.

Keep_pedalling

FreeBear said:

Keep_pedalling said:

Although off the shelf treatments are much cheaper the active components they contain have a much shorter half life than those found in prescription only treatments. For example Nitenpyram has a half life of 2.8 hours

Shelf live for Nitenpyram tablets is typically around 3 years if stored below 25°C.  Veterinary Drugs Handbook, page 891

Sigma- Aldrich quote a 60 month life of analytical grade powder if stored correctly.

The 2.8 hour half life probably comes from the Veterinary Drugs Handbook where it says -

 Nitenpyram is rapidly and practically completely absorbed after oral administration. Peak levels occur about 80 minutes after dosing in dogs; about 40 minutes in cats.
Elimination half-lives are about 3 hours for dogs; 8 hours for cats. Nitenpyram is excreted primarily unchanged in the urine. In dogs, about 3% of a dose is excreted in the feces; in cats about 5% is excreted in the feces.

I've found both the home made solution and off the shelf tablets to be very effective. Giving at least 24 hours of protection, and a shelf live in excess of a year.

I was not talking about shelf life, half life referred to effectiveness of the treatment after is applied. Something with a short half life will rapidly loose its effectiveness so although all the adult fleas would be quickly killed the cat could be reinfected the following day from the offspring of those fleas. Something with a 30 day half life will go on killing any new fleas over a much longer period. 

infj

You can get a 4 pack Advantage Spot-On Flea Treatment from Pets at Home online for 15.30. Much easier than anything else. You probably will need a spray for your furnishings and carpets etc (Pets at Home has those too) - but that should hopefully only be once. Then regular flea treatments to the cat should stop you getting them again.

spaceboy

He's been sleeping outside recently but I'm worried the fleas are in the ground where he's been sleeping now.

spaceboy

spaceboy said:

He's been sleeping outside recently but I'm worried the fleas are in the ground where he's been sleeping now.

Thanks. Anywhere else apart from Pets at Home though? Not a fan of them after the last two vet trips.

FreeBear

infj said: You can get a 4 pack Advantage Spot-On Flea Treatment from ...

Tried the Advantage spot-on with my cat. Being a long haired moggy, I'd resort to shaving a small patch of fur on the back of the neck before applying the treatment. Even then, I was not impressed with the effectiveness nor the claimed 30 day protection.

Regardless of what treatment you apply to the cat, it is important to also treat the house by spraying everywhere. Unfortunately, the little buggers can survive outdoors, but spraying the garden is impractical and environmentally questionable. If we get a long hard winter, that should kill most of them off. In the meantime, keep the cat dosed up.