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Flea treatment on cats - 1/10/2014 11:23:11 AM   
Phoenixpower


Posts: 8098
Status: offline 		Hi there,

what are you using when your furballs have fleas?

Now....I am not new to cats and fleas and I do know that many of them arent on the animal itself, but I am close to a nervous breakdown by now as nothing seem to work really and we are close to going to the vet in the near future, in the hope she can give us some proper stuff for it....

In the past frontline worked well, but sadly, the review from Amazon users were right, they are very well these days in handling that (or frontline changed its mixture and it is not as successfull anymore)....then we tried two different sorts of collars which were useless and now we got one from the pharmacy which seems to work a bit but I doubt that it is really sufficient enough...

I never got so annoyed about fleas as it is on this occassion....though to be fair, beside one episode back in 2010 I had thankfully no issue with them over all those years (previous flea treatments were with previous cats.)

Just thought to ask, in case anyone of you has any great experiences about that

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RE: Flea treatment on cats - 1/10/2014 12:09:15 PM   
windchymes


Posts: 9410
Joined: 4/18/2005
Status: offline 		You need to start with getting the cats out, maybe to the vet or groomer for a good flea shampoo and dip. While they're gone, move the furniture out of the way and treat your carpets with a strong flea-killer that has pyrethrins in it. Cheaper products just kill the live fleas, but you need a product with a chemical like pyrethrins that sticks around awhile and also kills the flea larvae as the eggs hatch. That's the key. Don't bother with the aerosol "bombs", they just aren't as effective on a tough infestation. And then during the flea "season", (which may be all year round where you live, not sure, I live up north where we have cold winters), if your cats go outside, get a bottle of flea repellant that has pyrethrins and give them a spray all over, avoiding their faces, of course, They will JUST LOVE that :) Good luck, lol. But it does help because it keeps the fleas from even jumping on them to come inside. Or if they do jump on, they will die before they can lay eggs. The trick is to break the life cycle where they die before they can reproduce.

The fleas themselves maybe have started their own nest in your house somewhere. If that's the case they'll definitely be harder to get rid of and you'll probably need multiple treatments until they're all gone.
The trouble with collars is that they only are effective in the front half of the animals, for the most part. And you have to use multiple products, like a collar, AND the Frontline, AND spray, AND carpet treatment. You can even get your grass treated, they do have a product for that, too. And you can rent one of those canisters with the hose and sprayer attached for both the carpets and the yard for $5 or $10, usually. Some places, like the vet's office, might even just loan it to you, we used to do that.

Pyrethrins is the key. Don't settle for anything less. They might work on a few fleas, but when you've got stubborn ones, you need pyrethrins.

I forgot to mention, but you probably already know, be sure to check the product to make sure it can be used on cats.



< Message edited by windchymes -- 1/10/2014 12:10:34 PM >

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RE: Flea treatment on cats - 1/10/2014 12:12:43 PM   
MAINEiacMISTRESS


Posts: 1180
Joined: 9/12/2012
Status: offline 		Experienced professional here. Be cautious when treating cats for fleas. Their unique biology makes them extremely sensitive to chemical compounds so be sure to use ONLY products that have been approved for use on CATS. Just because it is safe for dogs does NOT mean it is safe for cats, so be sure to read labels. Vomiting and seizures are quite common if a cat is having a reaction, and you don't want vet bills on top of your flea problem!

Another thing to note is that when you treat the PET for fleas, you also must treat the ENVIRONMENT for fleas, because fleas breed in carpets, cracks, cushions. The BEST treatment combination I've found is a flea dip (be sure to use a special flea comb to comb away all the fleas that migrate to the nose and face during this procedure), then remove all the animals for the day and FLEA BOMB the entire house (cover fish tanks securely, remove all other animals until the house has been aired out). In selecting a Flea Fogger, look for one containing IGR "Insect Growth Regulator" which prevents any larvae that might somehow survive from ever maturing to cause trouble.

Many people don't know this, but TAPE WORM life cycles are connected to flea life cycles (fleas are one of the hosts for tape worm larvae)...if your pet has fleas it most likely has tape worms too. A tape worm is usually many feet long, a flat worm living hidden inside your pet's intestines, with thousands of tiny segments along its entire body. These segments contain ovaries and break off periodically, to be shed along with the pet's feces. They appear like a flattened piece of rice and will stick to the fur on buttocks and tail, dried ones may be evident around the pet's sleeping area. You will need to get special TAPE WORM medication from your vet (most over the counter worming meds are for treating round worms and won't kill tapeworms).

Be sure to wash pet bedding well too (I'd use the dip and let it soak in the rinse cycle for a couple hours to kill anything).

Hit them with everything at once rather than pussy-footing about it, and you'll fix your problem. It does no good to treat the pet without treating the environment, and visa versa.

GOOD LUCK.


< Message edited by MAINEiacMISTRESS -- 1/10/2014 12:14:05 PM >

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RE: Flea treatment on cats - 1/10/2014 12:14:11 PM   
ChatteParfaitt


Posts: 6562
Joined: 3/22/2011
From: The t'aint of the Midwest -- Indiana
Status: offline 		I use a frontline type product that I get from the vet. I forget what it's called, but you put in on the back of the cat's neck.

It's very effective.

If you have a serious flea problem, you'll have to flea bomb your house. It can take several cans of flea bomb (get the good stuff, not the cheap stuff else you'll have to do it again) depending on how big your house is and how much carpet you have.

You have to bomb twice. HAVE TO. Once kills the live fleas, the second time kills those they hatched since then.

Hope this helps.



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RE: Flea treatment on cats - 1/10/2014 12:19:58 PM   
Rawni


Posts: 1175
Status: offline 		We had some new kitties and mama was an outdoor cat, a stray that was used to being outside and roomy brought her in to save her life. So everyone was infested. The kittens were too young to treat, but we had to do something. So I went to my old standby when I discovered bedbugs in a used chair I bought and learned that there really was some truth to that old nursery rhyme... don't let the bedbugs bite.

Best Yet is a cedar oil product that is safe for the use of treating young animals... it does many things and is the only thing I know of that will kill instantly, bedbugs or any kind of bug, without being toxic to anyone. You don't want to let anyone breath it if you fog, but it is amazing stuff.

It won't keep the fleas from coming back... so you would need something for that, but this stuff had our kitties purring and us very happy. We did spray in the house with the Best Yet and without even fogging, we contained the problem. We didn't even fog.

The house smelled pretty too.


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RE: Flea treatment on cats - 1/10/2014 1:08:49 PM   
SeekingTrinity


Posts: 1834
Joined: 5/29/2012
From: The 'burbs of Portland, OR
Status: offline 		Advantage or Frontline have worked for my cats. Haven't tried any lately, but my 100% indoor only fur beasts have some fleas that I've noticed while combing them. I'll probably go with Advantage this time around. Whatever you do, DO NOT use the stuff available at grocery stores and other discount places like Hartz. That stuff has killed animals.

I've even moved furniture, sprinkled my carpets with diatomaceous earth, use a broom to push it into the carpet fibers, let it sit, then vacuum my carpets. Make sure it's food grade, not swimming pool grade. The DE slices into flea exoskeletons and it desiccates the fleas.

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RE: Flea treatment on cats - 1/10/2014 1:14:32 PM   
calamitysandra


Posts: 1682
Joined: 3/17/2006
Status: offline 		Capstar to start out, followed up with Program.

Worked quite well when we had a flea infestation from hell, and is non-toxic to cats, dogs, and humans.

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RE: Flea treatment on cats - 1/10/2014 6:32:11 PM   
angelikaJ


Posts: 8641
Joined: 6/22/2007
Status: offline 		How OCD can you be?

Flea-combing can be very effective IF you are willing to do it every few hours and if you use a spray with an insect growth regulator all over the house.

If you want less toxic than that, you can apply food-grade diatomaceous earth all over the house combined with flea-combing.
You can also dust your cats with it.

If you want more toxic, use a different topical for fleas and then remove the cats and flea-bomb the house, again making certain that the flea-bomb stuff has the insect growth regulator chemical.



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RE: Flea treatment on cats - 1/10/2014 8:31:02 PM   
MistressDarkArt


Posts: 5178
Status: offline 		I use Advantage II on my 3 cats. I buy the size for extra large dogs (exact same ingredients) and use a syringe to draw up .8 ml for each cat. It is MUCH cheaper to administer this way: a 4-tube extra large dog package for $40 on Amazon is the equivalent of 20 doses...$2 each.

Last fall one of the cats also got the tapeworm MAINicMISTRESS described. If one of them has it, all should be treated. The vet's Rx stuff was just too damn expensive; I ended up using http://www.amazon.com/Tradewinds-Feline-Tapeworm-Tabs-3-23mg/dp/B004KPLX2K/ref=sr_1_1?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1389414112&sr=1-1&keywords=tapeworm+treatment+cats Two treatments for $10. If you have lots of cats to do, you can buy praziquantel powder (the active ingredient) in small bulk from ebay so it's 20 cents (yes, cents) per dose. I put the powder in one tiny capsule, did the massage down the back of the throat thing, and it was done. Worked great, btw.

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RE: Flea treatment on cats - 1/11/2014 7:43:11 AM   
Phoenixpower


Posts: 8098
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: MAINEiacMISTRESS
Many people don't know this, but TAPE WORM life cycles are connected to flea life cycles (fleas are one of the hosts for tape worm larvae)...if your pet has fleas it most likely has tape worms too. A tape worm is usually many feet long, a flat worm living hidden inside your pet's intestines, with thousands of tiny segments along its entire body. These segments contain ovaries and break off periodically, to be shed along with the pet's feces. They appear like a flattened piece of rice and will stick to the fur on buttocks and tail, dried ones may be evident around the pet's sleeping area. You will need to get special TAPE WORM medication from your vet (most over the counter worming meds are for treating round worms and won't kill tapeworms).



Thanks, never heard about that one before....interesting to know...Though right now we dont seem to have that worry (am aware of the signs of those). My girl isnt brave enough going outside here (here are way too many cats outside for her comfort zone, as this road alone seriously has around 30-40 cats, with our house here alone having 6 already)...

Anyhow, her brother does go outside (after checking on the window if he is seeing his main enemy on the road or not...lol...) thankfully we will move out of here at some point in next 6 months, hopefully the next place will be better for all of us then (as beside the flea issue here, this place also has some serious mold issues as his slumlord isnt that good in fixing water troubles within this house and having changed that place now from being occupied by one person to 2 people and 2 cats wasnt really helpful either...)


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RE: Flea treatment on cats - 1/11/2014 7:47:39 AM   
Phoenixpower


Posts: 8098
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: ChatteParfaitt

I use a frontline type product that I get from the vet. I forget what it's called, but you put in on the back of the cat's neck.

It's very effective.


That way it helped in the past with frontline but this time it doesnt help anymore...now....we used a particular spray from our pharmacy now and we remained unsure about if it helps or not but I checked it out yesterday with putting it directly onto a flea twice (as twice I pulled one of them out of his fur) and they were killed instantly....so it seems to work...

So we are giving this one now a last chance and bought the version for the neck (though on that one they say not to put it into the neck only but also along the spine...which we tried out now) and also gave each of them a collar from that one...if that doesnt work, I will go for the one CalamitySandra mentioned as I also stumbled over that one on the net recently...

As I said, in the past it was quite easy to handle but this time it just bugs me more Might have to do with it, that - beside 2010, I had my peace with that issue in the last 10 years....

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RE: Flea treatment on cats - 1/11/2014 7:54:23 AM   
Phoenixpower


Posts: 8098
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Rawni
The kittens were too young to treat, but we had to do something.


Thank you for your advice regarding cedar oil product...

In regards to "too young", when Urmel and his brother were born, was the last flea issue time and back then they were also too tiny to treat....So I treated the 3 cats which were not involved in raising them and washed his mum and both boys on a few occassions and then used the flea comb on them...

Now...their mother wasnt really impressed about that, but the two boys were easy going about getting bathed in a hand-warm bath....after they were wet the fleas on them did not move and I could pluck them like strawberries with the comb or with the fingers as well...

Until today is Urmel chilled about being faced with water....whilst other cats run away when I use the water pistol (which happens rarely) he just sits there and laughs at me like "you really think that this thing is scarying me..."

Thankfully, though, right now those 2 are living with my parents and are out of this flea zone

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RE: Flea treatment on cats - 1/11/2014 7:56:22 AM   
Phoenixpower


Posts: 8098
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: calamitysandra

Capstar to start out, followed up with Program.

Worked quite well when we had a flea infestation from hell, and is non-toxic to cats, dogs, and humans.


Thanks. Read about them on Amazon reviews and there also someone mentioned that one of them is only for instant use whereas the other one is to follow up....if the plan which we started today (as replied a few posts above) isnt working then we will try this one next....Never heard about that one until I was looking around now on Amazon for that topic....

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RE: Flea treatment on cats - 1/11/2014 7:56:43 AM   
FrostedFlake


Posts: 3084
Joined: 3/4/2009
From: Centralia, Washington
Status: offline 		First, I feel your pain.

There are two ways to kill bugs on a cat. One by one or all at once. You figure out which works best. The easy ways include a drop of oil on the back of the neck. This has been effective at times. At other times it has been a problem itself. The other easy approach is to poison the cat, so the fleas that bite it will die. Collars work this way. Neurotoxin in the blood. But it is also possible to use a food additive, called THE PROGRAM. The sales point is, "all the fleas that actually bite the animal, DIE."

That is an important thing to be able to do. Because you want to be able to remove the pet from the home, bomb it, then bring back the pet without bringing back the fleas. You also have to note that the pet is the pests' main source of food. Take that food source away, the pests don't do well. Turn that food into poison, well, you can see the attraction of the idea. And while it can't be said to be good for the animal, it beats fleas. There is also the fact that no one except the treated animal, and the flea, actually comes in contact with the insecticide. And the fact that even a feral cat, or a Raccoon, can be treated for fleas with THE PROGRAM. Kinda spendy, but pretty handy.

Another point you want to hit is INSECT GROWTH REGULATOR. Why let them grow up, bite, and lay eggs? A flea bomb without IGR is one you will use again and again and again.

Finally, you should have a can of something like "Zodiac fleatrol premise spray, with precor IGR". Very often, when a flea problem is just getting started, you know exactly where the little bastards are, and with the right tools, you could end the problem right there. It is very important to have that tool handy, under the kitchen sink. If you have to put it on the list, you give the problem time to get big. And then you need to go nuts before you go crazy. A spritz in time, saves a lot of trouble and work.

The wrong can of spray, one without IGR, or with a coarse spray rather than a mist, or with a top that pops off while you are trying to use it, spattering you with chemicals meant to kill... not necessarily the best approach. A little goes a long way when properly applied. Huge amounts will not work when improperly used. And please make SURE you don't expose folks to these chemicals thinking they ONLY AFFECT BUGS.

Yeah. I know. You know. I didn't have to say that last bit. But there is an idiot reading this thread who needed to hear that.

Best of luck.

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RE: Flea treatment on cats - 1/11/2014 2:01:41 PM   
calamitysandra


Posts: 1682
Joined: 3/17/2006
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Phoenixpower


quote:

ORIGINAL: calamitysandra

Capstar to start out, followed up with Program.

Worked quite well when we had a flea infestation from hell, and is non-toxic to cats, dogs, and humans.


Thanks. Read about them on Amazon reviews and there also someone mentioned that one of them is only for instant use whereas the other one is to follow up....if the plan which we started today (as replied a few posts above) isnt working then we will try this one next....Never heard about that one until I was looking around now on Amazon for that topic....


The Capstar kills all fleas currently on the cat, giving them some relive.
That should be followed up with Program, which inhibits the procreation process once a lfea has taken blood from an animal treated with Program.
In the long run, this should have you flea free, as the fleas will no longer multiply.

You can buy the largest dog dose and break it down for your cats, that safes some money.

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RE: Flea treatment on cats - 1/11/2014 8:00:34 PM   
NuevaVida


Posts: 6707
Joined: 8/5/2008
Status: offline 		I have used Advantage in the past and I hate it. I can literally smell burned flesh after I use it, and his eyes get all watery and squinty. It's awful. But it worked. He's 100% indoor but on rare occasion fleas get in. I've only used Advantage in extreme circumstances. I don't give once a month treatment because the reaction is so bad.

I've tried a natural flea oil spray. It worked the first time I tried it but after that it just made him oily and still with fleas.

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RE: Flea treatment on cats - 1/11/2014 8:31:25 PM   
MistressDarkArt


Posts: 5178
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quote:

ORIGINAL: NuevaVida

I have used Advantage in the past and I hate it. I can literally smell burned flesh after I use it, and his eyes get all watery and squinty. It's awful. But it worked.


Have you tried Advantage II? It does have a funky chemical smell while it's wet (not of burned flesh to my nose). After the first day, nada. Fortunately nobody's gotten eye irritation so far. I use .8 ml each since they are all over 9 lbs.

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RE: Flea treatment on cats - 1/12/2014 1:40:30 PM   
NuevaVida


Posts: 6707
Joined: 8/5/2008
Status: offline 		I'll try that next. Since he's indoor only, it's rarely needed, but if ever needed again, I appreciate the tip! That other stuff just messes him up :(

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RE: Flea treatment on cats - 1/12/2014 1:56:56 PM   
Spiritedsub2


Posts: 3316
Joined: 7/18/2012
Status: offline 		I use Comfortis. My vet says the topical products can be toxic.

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RE: Flea treatment on cats - 1/12/2014 5:28:20 PM   
kiwisub12


Posts: 4742
Joined: 1/11/2006
Status: offline 		I used frontline back in the '80's, and it worked like a dream. Now, not so much. I rather think the fleas have evolved to be resistant to it - kind of like bacteria with antibiotics.

Now I use comfortis when I need it. My guys are inside only, but the dogs occasionally bring one in, even though they are on a monthly preventative.

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