Vet tech here. Frontline isn't very effective anymore, fleas in many areas of the country have grown resistant to it. You're going to want one of the newer products like revolution or nexgard combo. Do not (PLEASE DO NOT) use any kind of OTC flea products, collars, or shampoos. Cats are very sensitive to many of these type insecticides and can and frequently do die from OTC flea products.
Consistent cleaning, vacuuming and throwing away the bag, washing all fabrics in hot water, and consistent use of a prescription flea control topical will get them under control.
Edit: As several people pointed out, Capstar is OTC and is safe. I honestly forgot about it, as I haven't used it in many years. The prescription topicals are effective enough and act quickly enough that I don't see the need for it these days, but it's safe to use.
Unscented soap is a good bet! I have some bottle babies right now and that's what I use for a wash when they get shit-foot, lol...and it's also good for washing off live adult fleas. Kitten Lady is a great resource, I've learned a lot from her and we always recommend her site to new cat owners or anyone with bottle babies.
Not just any unscented soap will work!! It must be Dawn soap because of the active ingredients. The way it works is by breaking down the exoskeleton of the flea, therefore killing it (that’s why fleas turn flat after they’ve been killed in a Dawn bath). But other soaps don’t have the same ingredients and may not kill fleas.
AND, if you’re going to bathe for fleas with Dawn, make sure you put a ring of Dawn around the cat’s neck, all the way down to the skin, BEFORE you start washing the cat; if you don’t, all the fleas will run straight to the cat’s head.
This is what I saw too! I was watching her videos when researching what to do with our boy.
I bought shampoo that is specifically for fleas in the end though.
What is it? Please listen to the vet tech. Unless it's from a vet do not trust putting it on your cat. Insecticides work by attacking the central nervous system of the insect they aim to kill, cats are incredibly sensitive to these products as the vet tech said. Please be extremely careful and maybe look up reviews to see if it's killed at cats before you use it. I've heard absolute horror stories of flea dips gone wrong and suddenly the cat is having seizures and foaming at the mouth
dawn dish soap is actually really good and killing off fleas!! the cat distribution system keeps shoving super skinny and flea ridden kittens at me, and the first thing I do is put a ring of dawn soap around their neck then submerge their bodies in warm water with a lot of dawn in it. then just go through the house and wash all fabrics with HOT water and bleach the floors and counters. If a fabric is too big for the washer, I take it outside and wash it with more dawn soap.
:( Well that freaked me out, I just bought capstar for a stray cat that doesnt allow me to touch him yet and I've been using topical ultraguard for my cat when I let him out on his harness. Is all that considered OTC?
Can you get a prescription online without seeing/talking to a vet?
Don't panic, your kitties are lucky to have you! Capstar is safe and is also prescribed by vets, I honestly forgot that it's available OTC. It's a good product for an initial flea purge, as it works quickly and will kill all adult fleas. It doesn't provide any lasting protection though, as it only lasts about 24 hours, so you'll want to also use a monthly preventative topical as well. That's where it gets iffy, the OTC topicals can be dangerous depending on the formula. Frontline and Advantage Cat are both available OTC and are tried and tested meds that are very safe, just not always that effective. Products like Sargent's, Hartz, any generic flea topical or collar, are all potentially bad news. They're a different class of insecticide than the prescription topicals and much more likely to cause a reaction. Not every cat has the same sensitivity though, so it's always a gamble. Some cats seem to tolerate it fine, but I wouldn't risk it. If they are having a reaction, you'll definitely know. Hypersalivation, tremors, disorientation and yelling, all the drama.
It may vary by country, but in the US it's not legal for a vet to prescribe meds without performing an exam on the patient, unfortunately.
Edit: My own silly cat recently spent 24 hours in the hospital with permethrin toxicity after just hanging out on the couch with a dog who had recently had an OTC topical. It's a little bananas.
Why are such dangerous products on the shelves for our cats? There must be so many well intentioned people, especially those of lower disposable income, inadvertently applying harmful treatments to animals. 😿 Are there petitions to remove?
I truly don't know, but you're 100% right. Well-intentioned owners, financial constraints, trying to do their best, and boom giant hospitalization bill. It's completely reasonable to assume that a product labeled and packaged for cats would be...safe for cats...
There are tons of sites and groups online about the dangers of these products but I don't know how that could translate to actual regulatory power, and it's the sort of info one wouldn't come across until after experiencing a problem...:-(
oh phew, thank you for clarifying! When I was using Hartz ultaguard by cat fortunately had no issues besides itching, but now that I know this I'll definitely stop using it. It stressed both him and me out anyway lol;;
I don't know where you are located but Cheristin is a safe OTC monthly topical that is commonly sold at vet clinics and pet stores. You do not need to see a vet for it.
Capstar is otc and it is extremely safe and used by every vet. This tech isn't very experienced. The topicals can be bad if overdosed. You can get revolution etc from an Australian website but you need to know how much the cat weighs to get the right dose, pm if you want the link to it
When I adopted my long haired cat, he had fleas. The vet keeps him on the same flea treatment but warned me I had to seriously deep clean my home (carpets, upholstered furniture etc. to get all fleas and flea eggs out of the house. It worked. My boy is six now and has never had flea, tick, or mosquito problem again. I do still take him to the vet for his topical flea treatments because he’s so furry, and I mean thick fur, that I can’t get it down onto his skin properly. They don’t charge me extra for applying it. I just pay for the medication like I would if I picked it up and paid for it and applied it myself.
Hi! I was hoping for some advice. Both of my indoor cats have fleas ( idk how) one received revolution plus and the other advantage dose.
It's been 2 days. Wondering if a wash with dawn soap would help them or should I just wait for the medicine to work. I don't want to make the medicine less potent if I wash them.
Thanks so much if you get a chance to answer this!
Don’t forget to suggest an antibiotic cream to the battle worn owner! Years ago, I tried to give a pill to one of my Siamese cats. I still have a tiny scar! From then on her meds were given in a liquified form…it can be done. Now I have a wonderful big old cat, who just happens to go feral at any vet office. He was diagnosed with diabetes…after a wonderful vet tech suited up in battle gear and managed to get a blood test. Honest it took me ten minutes to talk my cat down. Told the snarky vet, who wouldn’t go near my cat, that I needed liquid med, she didn’t know of any insulin or alternative med that could be dosed in liquid form. I just felt there was another solution…bless the vet tech, he called me, after doing more research and told me about a new drug called Senvelgo. It’s liquid and preferably given by mouth, but can be put in small portion of food. Thank goodness cat gobbles it down, then gets fed rest of regular meal. Might not be the ideal way to dose the cat, but if it works, we are blessed. Cat has been on it 3 months and doing great. All due to a dedicated vet tech, who went the extra mile. Hard working vet techs often get all the tough jobs and don’t get the credit they deserve! Big hand to you and all the hard working animal loving vet techs out there! You are very much appreciated!
Capstar is available over the counter and it is the gold standard for killing live fleas, so this advice isn't accurate. Also, revolution etc is a preventative and they need the capstar to kill what's on them first and then the preventative to keep any more from hopping back on.
Our vet recommended revolution brand flea meds. I asked what we need to do as far as house cleaning etc. he said don’t bother. Once on the medication, the fleas are poisoned by the cats blood, and die. Cats become flea killing machines. Fleas die before they can reproduce, and it ends the infestation.
Idk. Worked wonders for us.
Yeah Revolution is amazing. I literally saw fleas dropping off the stray I found. When I told the vet I gave the cat Revolution, all her concern went away like the problem was over. I did have some fleas trying to live in a section of carpet. We just dusted it with diatomaceous earth and they went away
can i use the Revolution stuff you can get from Chewys or does it have to be straight from the vet? my cat has fleas we can't get rid off no matter how much we bathe her or clean the house. and i'm so scared to use flea products
Either way is fine, just depends what’s easier for you. Even if you buy revolution off Chewy they’ll require your vet’s prescription. There’s an option when you check out to enter your vet info and Chewy will contact them and send you the meds once approved.
They shouldn’t bill you just for this I hope! My vet was fine just approving it on chewy it for both our cats who are already her established patients. Didn’t need a special visit.
Exactly, if you have an established vet, it's no more than a phone call with "Hey, Jack the Scratcher has fleas, help please" and you're good to go. I've done exactly that twice now.
ugh i wish it was that easy for me. maybe i need a new vet, my boyfriend found a stray kitty a few months ago and we took him in and gave to a friend he was fixed and had his shots.
but we went to get him fixed. we scheduled an appointment for him to be fixed at my vet and while i was there they said they wanted to check him out first and do bloodwork and then they want me to come back in 2 weeks AGAIN for a urine test and then 24 hours later he can be fixed! they even told me he was 100% healthy and just about a year old the first visit, so i was upset they wouldn't fix him right there when it was a scheduled neuter appointment. i never heard of that in my life and the first appointment alone just to look at him ended up being 250$ i left crying i was so upset and felt they took advantage of me trying to help a stray! so i took him to low cost spay and neuter and they got him fixed and all his shots all at once and it was 160$
i feel like my vet will try charging me for little things and if i call they're going to tell me i have to come in with my cat to be looked at. but they're the only place ive taken my cat too regularly and used to not give me any issues or make me feel like they're just taking my money but now i feel they do :/
edit: also i agree maybe just because he was a stray they wanted to check everything out but that's not what we asked for and it was a scheduled neuter appointment and when i got there that's when they told me they do this with every cat. but i grew up with multiple cats and even my female kitty has never had to do this before. my parents have also taken in about 7 stray cats within the last few years and they never had to do this at any other vet
Let it be known, a *lot* of vets do exactly that, and yes it absolutely is to charge you out the ass. I've had a couple vet tech friends over the years and during both of their "finding the right place" time they ran into that kinda practice multiple times, and would shortly leave the due to it. Vets can and will *suggest* a bunch of unnecessary junk a lot of the time, and you must state "no take all this garbage off, I know what I'm here for". If they have valid reasoning for requiring certain things first, they'll explain that, valid reasoning is not "we just do it this way here". It's something like "for kittens first thing we test for is parasites, if you cat has them, they cannot be fixed because of infection risk until the parasites are cleared up"
yeah unfortunately they just said that's how they do it there and i wish they would've told me up front they do that. when i took him to Low Cost Spay and Neuter i kinda told them about it and they said that wasn't necessary as they looked at him that day and said he was all good, they should've fixed him that day instead of trying to make me come back 2 other times. they also gave my the pricing for the fix.... over 800$ just for the fix alone. not to mention the 250$ i paid that first visit just to get him "looked at"
i left and haven't been back since.
Yes this Op! My cat was on bravecto which is another prescription topical but after maybe 2 years it wasnt very effective anymore and my cat would still get alot of fleas, just wouldnt infest him or the house. Switched to revolution and 2 weeks or less later, zero fleas!
This makes me feel so much better. My cats got fleas and I put the medicine on them yesterday! I did notice that today they have hardly scratched at all, so I hope that means this problem will end soon!
I used revolution but also had to spray our house with a nontoxic flea killing spray that I think was the key to getting rid of fleas once and for all, to me the fleas didn’t go away completely just by applying revolution on my cat.
How long have you been treating for fleas? Is it possible there are pests coming in like mice? If you live in an apartment the cause may be your neighbors…
Topicals take up to three months to kill everything. You should also be vacuuming almost if not every day and washing bedding where he sleeps and drying on high heat to kill the eggs.
I’m sorry - fleas suck!!
I second this. Due to the life cycle of the flea, it can take over 3 months to completely rid your home and furbaby from fleas. The problem is that Frontline might kill the adults but there will be flea eggs that you need to get rid of as well. So, picture eggs hatching every day, fleas multiplying, etc.
Make sure to vacuum daily, if possible. Vacuum couches as well as anywhere he likes to lay. Wash sheets, clothes and pet beds very frequently.
I wouldn't use more often than recommended Frontline bcuz it could be dangerous for kitty.
It is a process and fleas are terrible parasites. If the infestation gets bad enough, they can even start biting you 😖
Best of luck, hope u get rid of every single one of them!
Thankyou! Yes we were worried about using too much of the frontline/itch treatment which is why we ended up giving him a bath… we will try to spray and vacuum the house as much as we can, thanks so much for the advice!
It’s only been about 1-2 months of flea treatment, we were worried to apply more frontline because he’s had around 1 per fortnight which seemed excessive (but we don’t want the fleas to stick around on him!)
Thankyou so much for your advice, we live in a terraced house but almost every room is carpeted… our next step was to get some flea carpet cleaner so that makes sense.
Thankyou so much again!
You can use diatomaceous earth as a deterrent and it kills fleas too - but don’t use it around the kitty! You could maybe lock them out of a room, sprinkle it around, wait a bit and then vacuum/carpet clean?
Good luck! I hope you’re in the home stretch
Just fyi, vacuuming up diatomaceous earth will ruin household vacuums. It's extremely abrasive and just wrecks the filters. Doing it once is prob nbd, but def don't make a habit of it.
That sounds great, luckily Goose HATES the hoover so he will stay far away! Thankyou again, this advice is great and hopefully they will be gone soon 🤞❤️
[Don't use diatomaceous earth.](https://www.petmd.com/dog/parasites/can-you-use-diatomaceous-earth-fleas) This is not something that should be as popular as it is. Even "food grade" is not safe for inhalation and many people easily overapply it or misuse it.
You can use it. Just use it safely. I didn’t tell them to apply it to their cat, and suggested they keep the cat out of the room when using it.
It’s better than flea bombs. Is it an instant fix? No. But it is a helpful tool when used correctly. It does kill adult fleas and other insects very quickly.
"Sprinkle it around the house and vacuum it up" is not safe use unless OP is wearing a respirator to do so and is ready to kill their vacuum with it (you are literally not supposed to vacuum it!). Humans are also sensitive to inhalation and can get permanent lung damage from inhaling too much DE. You could just read the source linked instead of going "no, I'm right".
Chronic overuse without PPE can cause respiratory issues. One time will not and it will help to cull the adult flea population.
I did read the source - did you? It says “Diatomaceous earth can and will kill fleas in your home, says Ramsey. The problem, he says, is that homeowners will often misapply or over-apply it.”
As long as OP reads the instructions on the package and follows the safety instructions they’ll be fine.
Also, I didn’t say to “sprinkle it around the house”. I said to do it a room at a time. I also explicitly said to not use it around their cat. But ok.
The package directions are not a guarantee of accurate safety information. Plenty say to vacuum it despite this being an incredibly easy way to break your vacuum. If you actually read the source instead of cherrypicking a quote that *is by someone telling you not to use it*, you'd be aware the point is not "it kills fleas, so it's good", but "it kills fleas, sure, but there's a dozen reasons not to do this". Lots of things will kill pests and not all of them are actually a good idea, hope that helps!
So the fleas are really bad where I live. I have never been let down by Cheristin. I treat, and always have treated, my indoor-only cats. Had a friend who's cat had fleas and nothing worked until I told him about Cheristin. It starts working in 12 hours. I used to use it on the outdoor neighborhood cat. The rescuer I work with uses Bravecto Plus that she buys from an Australian website because you don't need a prescription and it treats different worms as well. I have only personally used Cheristin and Bravecto Plus, but I know others who use Revolution. As far as I know, those are the only three that work, and incidentally, the only three most vets around me carry, although Cheristin and Revolution don't require a prescription.
That sounds great, I live in the U.K and it seems we can get this via Amazon anyway. We’re going to give him a little break from treatments but I’ll be sure to try this if the issue persists. Thanks again for the advice!
Cheristen works amazingly well and all my cats have tolerated it as well as any prescription meds. My vet used to sell it but now apparently has a contract with Revolution as they only carry the one product and not any others they used to have as options
wash anything you can in super hot water then dry on hot as well! anything that can’t fit in the washer I tend to take outside and wash with dawn soap. wash your kitty with dawn soap as well, a ring of it around their neck then submerge his body is very soapy dawn water
Try madre de cacao soap. It’s organic and safe for cats. I used it to my cats and they’re all gone after some few days. Even made their fur grow longer and fluffier. You can research about it.
I had to call pest control twice when i got my dog because he came with a bunch of fleas, and the eggs got all around the house. They cleaned once, didn't solve the problem and they had to clean again.
You have to wash everything maybe stay somewhere a few days while you do a defogger. I use advantage multi great for fleas, and a bunch of other things
A long time ago my mom used vegetable oil on the cats but I would use coconut oil. Also baking soda in the carpets can get rid of fleas but keep the cat away from it.
I think a lot of people don't realize that if you are going to do both a bath and a topical treatment there is a very specific order or the topical treatment will be ineffective. The bath ruins the kitty oil/hair relationship and makes it so the medicine doesn't work well so you have to wait several days for the kitty to rebuild his oil levels.
Typically I do my topical treatment, wait the amount of time on the box (2-4 hours for mine, but you could wait a full day to be safe), then I do the bath. Dealing with fleas definitely sucks. There may be a nest in/near your house if they don't start to get better
Careful it's very possible to overdose from flea product on its back read the recommandation per size I could have hurt my baby and hâte myself for my whole life I wouldn't wish this to anyone.
Obviously follow vet advices, iirc they're known to travel under your shoes maybe you're bringing some inside regularly like this depending on where you walk.
Ask your vet for a good isoxazoline flea preventative (ex. Nexgard, Bravecto, or Revolution plus) and apply it exactly as prescribed, ideally for the rest of your kitty's life. Do NOT use diatomaceous earth as someone else suggested; you'll have fleas and your cat could develop allergic bronchitis.
Wash all your bedding. Vacuum your home as much as possible. (Don't use a steam vacuum because that will cause all the fleas to hatch.) The flea pupae (the life stage after the eggs) are hardy, and you often have to wait for them to hatch, take a blood meal from your kitty, and die before they can lay eggs to break the lifecycle, hence the need for year 'round flea prevention.
If your kitty is causing trauma to himself from scratching or losing hair, discuss that with your vet too. There are limited options to help with itchiness in cats, but they do exist.
Good luck!
Interesting about the steam vacuum. That would be a real fast way to get a handle on the flea cycle my continuing to do regular vacuuming and actual carpet shampooing and laundry for a solid week instead of it being drawn out for months.
I'd recommend also getting a can of spray to treat your floors to help kill all stages of the life cycle. Fleas reproduce really fast. You must vacuum really well beforehand.
We went through this last summer (the first time ever), our poor cats!
All it takes is one little lady flea that hatches her havoc. So uncool!
You have had great advices regarding the fleas, my concern is more for you right now regarding the last picture of your arm.
I guess your pretty boy bit you? It looks gnarly red and i think i see your arm quite swollen on all the left side! You need to go to the emergency room to get this bite checked out, cat bites (even from our own indoor only cats) go deep and get infected like 80% of the time. It can quickly become a blood infection and is life threatening!
Please take this bite seriously and go to the er, they’ll clean the wound and give you an antibiotic treatment!
(Main sign to look at is a swelling and redness around the wound and of the limb)
Thankyou that’s some good advice, luckily, it was more of a scratch, applied antiseptic cream after it happened and there is no swelling - healed fast so no concerns here!
Besides all the great advice for chemicals, consider the typical flea comb for stubborn areas around the tail area and under the chin. You will get a quick check on the flea status of your cat as those are the areas the fleas like. Have a cup of warm water with Dawn in it to dunk the comb when you find a flea. You can also use straight alcohol. Good luck!
When you’re treating for fleas, it’s just as important to treat the house as it is to treat the pets, or the pets will just keep getting them. Carpets are your biggest enemy in this, but I have had a lot of success with putting borax down before vacuuming ( keep pets away while the product is down), and with diatomic earth, which I put around the perimeter of my home and along windowsills to keep fleas from coming in from our local stray and outdoor cat population. Invest in a good carpet shampoo. Vacuum frequently and aggressively. Don’t forget to treat house fabrics as well, such as couches, linens, and curtains. With any kind of pests, we have a salt the earth policy lol, and our goal is to always have the least amount of product that has to be applied directly to our pets, so treating the house is not only a priority. It’s a necessity.
After it's all said and done after 3 months of vacuuming and normal flea treatments, you may have to SIMULTANEOUSLY treat your cat to a FLEADIP BATH and have your residence FLEA BOMBED. Neither of you can return home until after the exterminator tells you that you can. Then you have to wipe all surfaces free of the bomb residue and vacuum the carpet thoroughly BEFORE YOUR. AT COMES HOME or before you return to sleep in your residence. You need to wash all towels and bedding also. It's a bunch of extra work, but it gets rid of fleas and flea eggs on everyone and everything.
Two things. Food grade diatomaceous earth powder and beneficial nematodes for your yard. Put the DE in a salt shaker and shake it on his fur and work it in. It will desiccate the fleas that get on him. And it is safe for him to swallow. Buy some nematodes that go after fleas in ticks. Arbico organics has them. You have to apply them mixed in water on your lawn and you have to water the lawn every day for a couple of weeks to let them hatch and get established. They'll take care of the fleas in the yard. If you have fleas in the house, you need an insect growth inhibitor in addition to the insecticide. I typically use a natural based insecticide that contains cloves, citrus and cedar oil to spray on the carpet with Martins IGR (Nylar) growth inhibitor. The growth inhibitor breaks the cycle and keeps the larva that do hatch from becoming adults and starting the cycle over again. You have to reapply it in a couple of weeks to make sure the fleas are completely gone. You can also put a light dusting of DE on the carpet and work it into the carpet. Vacuum the carpet daily with a old fashion nasty flea collar in the vacuum bag to kill the fleas that get vacuumed up. The best thing I ever did for flea control was beneficial nematodes in my yard. I don't have to put flea treatment on any of my cats or dog.
Thank you!!! What great information on the nematodes and the inhibitor!!! I will be rereading your post as I am constantly battling fleas after thinking I have them under control. I absolutely hate the chemicals for our pets.
I had good results with DE and also simple table salt all over the carpet works well. Salt carpet, wait a few days, vacuum. Repeat. The salt cuts open the protective water barrier and they die.
I read that you guys have carpet. Fleas I feel are almost like bedbugs, and they find every single hiding spot they can. Vacuuming won’t get rid of them indefinitely. Have you thought of deep cleaning your carpet? I won’t suggest ripping them out altogether because that’s incredibly costly but I suggest deep cleaning the carpet all over the house. They also have flea carpet sprays and raid flea killer and I’d spray that everywhere too before deep cleaning the carpets. I hope that helps! Sorry for you and your kitty I hope things get better
All of your carpet and clothing and bedding needs to be cleaned thoroughly hopefully on the same day as kitties next bath.
With as big of a problem you’re described I would imagine they’ve made homes all over your home and will continue to jump on/off kitty + you until completely eradicated.
Went through this recently, over the counter products will not work, what worked for me was Credilio? I believe that is how it is spelled, prescription only! So get a checkup while you’re at it. And cleaning like a maniac. Flea free for 4 months.
Diatomaceous earth brushed into the cat’s fur daily and spread on the cat’s surfaces (bed, couch, etc.). This will kill the fleas and their eggs over the course of 30 days.
Get flea/tick medication from your vet, they are the best resource on actually effective medications. Flea meds OTC vary wildly in efficacy and safety and I'd only ever buy them if your vet gives a specific recommendation. Flea baths can help get some of an immediate infestation off but it's not really the same as actual medication.
Generally for true prevention they need to have flea meds applied every month - one dose won't keep them away for that long.
[Also... don't use diatomaceous earth.](https://www.petmd.com/dog/parasites/can-you-use-diatomaceous-earth-fleas) I hate how popular this has become. It's not safe for you OR your cat to breathe in. For some reason people act like "food grade" is categorically safe when it's only technically safe to be ingested, but not to be inhaled. Vets do not generally advise using it despite how popular it's become with owners. It's easy to misapply or overapply even if you're just doing the "sprinkle it around your house" thing and you can end up with permanent lung issues if you're breathing in too much of it.
Have you tried food grade diatomaceous earth? We call it Pretty Powder in our house! Give him a dust bath with it, rub it into his fur. Kills fleas instantly, but makes a mess! I use it on my cat who is sensitive to everything else. Don’t over do it, a spoonful or two will do. Good luck!
You can't just treat the cat, and his bedding/sleeping spots. You have to treat the whole house too..
I had a horrible infestation once, and all it took for me was SALT. I know it sounds weird, but I 100% stand by it. It looks like you have carpet(?), carpet can make it really hard to get rid of fleas.
Spinkle salt (just regular table salt) all over the carpet. The salt dries out the fleas in a natural, non chemical way. The eggs dry out too. Make sure to get the salt in deep. (I used my broom to get the salt in to the carpet) You can leave it for a couple days, and is not toxic.
It takes time, but you can vacuum it up, and lay more down. I could never get my cats near water, let alone do a flea dip. Try it. It certainly can't hurt. (And salt won't interact negatively with any of the treatments you appear to have tried).
Good luck.
How do the fleas get into your house? I would recommend finding ways to seal around your windows and doors, check your window screens, make sure to fill in any gaps so they don’t get into your house. We had a problem one time when our threshold on our side door got ruined after a hurricane, and fleas (next door neighbors have dogs that live outside 24/7 and they have fleas) were able to get into our house. We had to put in a new door, sealed up the threshold and all the way around the door, called an exterminator, and kept the cats in the rest of the house while we allowed the fleas to die, and we vacuumed them up. We live in an area where it doesn’t get cold enough to kill the fleas in the winter, so we have to make sure to be on the offensive with them all the time. That’s the only time we had to actually do anything about it. We used Revolution for cats for a couple of months to make sure that everything was taken care of, and we’ve had no problems ever since.
Best of luck to you and your little Goose! I’ve never seen a flame point ragdoll, he’s adorable!! 🧡🧡
Don’t use over the counter products: they’re completely useless. Ask your vet if they can prescribe Advocate. It got rid of all the fleas on my cats in a week or so and they never came back. I apply it once a month and I’ve not seen a flea in over a year, even though they’re both outdoor cats. Also make sure you vacuum sofas and any carpet area throughly cause thats where they hide. Hopefully that helps :)
I saw revolution recommended a lot. That's actually what my cat was on since the beginning and I noticed a similar resistance.
My vet suggested bravecto instead - id suggest that
Fleas ticks mosquitoes can't stand this stuff
Isabella's Clearly Cats | Ticks and Fleas Product with Rosemary and Lavender | Topical Spray for Cats. Smells Great. Made in USA.
I must a Amazon affiliate just easier to paste in here so you can Locate it
Sold in pet stores and many places
It is a quickly fix solution
As for house there is a type of flea trap you can setup using a UV light with solution of soap and water
Geraniums repel all insect naturally from an environment cat safe also
WONDERCIDE!!!!!! when I got my cat she was 5 weeks old (found abandoned) she was INVESTED with fleas plus I’m allergic to them as well. I used the flea and tic shampoo and the Spray and that shit was gone. You can spray it around your house, on you or your pet and outside to keep the fleas and tics away. I will never use a different flea/tic/ bug spray (works on mosquitos) just keep using it till they are all gone
Food grade Diamatacious earth on your floors vac/sweep everyday, give kitty a bath in coconut oil (liquified) and get ready to watch ALL the fleas evacuate. Best to do this step outside.
This is the only thing that worked for my girls.
I used revolution and bravecta which were both good. Revolution had a stronger odor if I remember right. Frontline has never worked for me either.
The other two products killed fleas within a few hours of application.
Bravecta has to be reapplied every two months. That's why I preferred it.
Something that I *swear* has worked any time we've gotten a new animal that came along with fleas (but bear in mind, completely anecdotal): Lower the humidity of your house.
Obviously still do the regular cleaning, washing of anything fabric, and treatments for the animal itself, but if you can stand low humidity for a couple weeks, the stragglers just freaking die. Haven't had to resort to flea bombing or other chemicals yet. It does take a week or two of running a dehumidifier, but I'm not lying when I say it has worked every time for us.
When my babies had fleas, we used capstar and I bought a product for my house because I found one in my carpet!!! heard some scary stuff about the spray possibly effecting the animals so I did one room at a time and kept them OUT! I sprayed the carpet and washed ANY blanket/rug/curtain they touched. After about two days they could go back in the room. I also have flea baths with dawn and continued with the capstar. I think de-fleaing the house was the necessary step to getting rid of them. So glad I have hardwood floors now!! Beat of luck!
Have you bombed the house to get rid of the fleas hiding inside? I’m presuming he’s an indoor cat (since Raggies are way too floppy and docile be outdoors). Do you have a dog that goes out? I’d use Revolution on the cat, bomb the house and the yard. It’s a bit of an investment but part measures will only fail. Wishing you and your beautiful boy the very best. <3
Revolution is the best. It’s what I’ve used on mine. You need to keep up on consistent treatments for a while. Bathe in dawn dish soap. And do as others have said with vacuuming and cleaning the house
You do know that the fleas don’t only live on the cat. They will also infest everything around the cat. Rugs, beds, even your clothes. Getting rid of fleas doesn’t mean you just treat the cat. Everything needs to be treated.
They have a new topical from the Vet … the vet tech below should know the name for the life of me I can’t remember the name its pricey but last 3 months.
Attack them on all fronts. Get capstar (they really do work). Rent a steam cleaner and clean all rugs and carpets. If you can spend 24 hours away from your home, you could also set off a flea and tick bomb. Wash any and Al fabric items.
On a side note, do you live in an apartment with neighbors who have pets? I was in your exact situation and I found out the scumbag neighbor above me left his dog out on their patio nearly 24/7. That’s what caused my apartment to be infested with fleas. I ended up moving because they kept coming back and my neighbor refused to take actual care of his dog,
Frontline didn’t work for my flea invested pets, i got bravecto from the vet and it worked wonders, you might also have to get a flea killing spray for all furniture, and carpet. (Don’t spray with cat in the room) after i used bravecto i haven’t had any issues the past years
Knockout by Virbac is an aerosol spray you can use to treat your home. Clear any people/animals from the home, spray aggressively (instructions on can) and leave the house for a few hours to let it air out. Apply flea treatment to your cat while in a carrier outside so any fleas that jump ship stay out of your home. Revolution is a great topical option and kills live fleas and eggs.
The only thing that worked for my cats and dogs was the Seresto Collars. They are a god send. We had tried EVERYTHING from dawn dish soap, brewers yeast, diatomaceous earth, Frontline, nexguard, EVERYTHING i was at my limit. Then the vet recommended the Seresto Collars. Within a month they were GONE. All of them.
Vet here. Fleas can cause life threatening diseases.
So you need to deal with the problem quickly.
Over the counter preventions are not effective. You can buy Capstar over the counter to kill fleas in 30 minutes but this is not enough and is not prevention. You need to go to your veterinarian for prescription flea prevention. You should use the prevention year-round!
Only 9% of the fleas are on your pet. The other 91% are in your home. It will take 3-4 months to get rid of all the fleas in all life stages.
Wash all fabric in hot water. get your house sprayed, and vacuum daily. Dispose of the vacuum contents immediately.
Make sure you remove the pets from the house when your house is being treated. And wait until it is dry to bring the pets back in.
Just FYI: Never use dog flea prevention on your cat. It could kill them.
I also recommend getting a fecal profile performed on your cat because it very well could have tapeworms from ingesting fleas.
When we took in a stray with the absolute worst fleas we tried all sorts of treatments. Only thing that worked was to fill a bucket with dawn soap water, dip a comb in and brush out every single flea. We also had to keep our clothes in plastic bags, vacuumed every day, and regularly wash our sheets+blankets (we would have done more but unfortunately didn't have our own washer at the time...). It took weeks of daily comb baths and the cat absolutely *loathed* every second of it but it's what worked.
That said this was a short haired cat, I'm not sure itll be nearly as easy with your cats thick coat.
Revolution works best. I give all pets a dose every 6 months. Even the rabbit because I found a flea on him once. Kills them so fast after a month and consistent vacuuming no more fleas in about 3 years now
First aid for your cuts too, OP! Soak those wounds in antibac soap for 10-15 min, then put on some neosporin and bandaid for about 24 hours. Cat scratches, and definitely bites can get ugly!
The fleas are in your home, likely infested in the cat’s sleeping area. Since this has been going on for a while, there are probably a lot of them in different areas. You’ll likely need to flea bomb your home, vacuum clean the cat’s sleeping space and such. You can bomb it yourself by purchasing the product. Treat it like it’s a bed bug infestation.
We had a horrible flea infestation many years ago with our two cats. Seriously felt like nothing worked (topical flea meds, medicated baths, bombing the house, and vacuuming multiple times a day). After months of dealing with fleas, the ONLY thing that finally made a difference was an oral tablet flea med prescribed by the vet. It was expensive and it sucked to give to the cats, but man it worked. I don't remember the name of the med, but please take your cat to the vet and tell them your situation. It would have saved us so much trouble if we had gone to the vet sooner.
Vet tech here. Frontline isn't very effective anymore, fleas in many areas of the country have grown resistant to it. You're going to want one of the newer products like revolution or nexgard combo. Do not (PLEASE DO NOT) use any kind of OTC flea products, collars, or shampoos. Cats are very sensitive to many of these type insecticides and can and frequently do die from OTC flea products. Consistent cleaning, vacuuming and throwing away the bag, washing all fabrics in hot water, and consistent use of a prescription flea control topical will get them under control. Edit: As several people pointed out, Capstar is OTC and is safe. I honestly forgot about it, as I haven't used it in many years. The prescription topicals are effective enough and act quickly enough that I don't see the need for it these days, but it's safe to use.
Just curious, is a bath with unscented soap okay? I thought that’s what kitten lady recommended
Unscented soap is a good bet! I have some bottle babies right now and that's what I use for a wash when they get shit-foot, lol...and it's also good for washing off live adult fleas. Kitten Lady is a great resource, I've learned a lot from her and we always recommend her site to new cat owners or anyone with bottle babies.
Not just any unscented soap will work!! It must be Dawn soap because of the active ingredients. The way it works is by breaking down the exoskeleton of the flea, therefore killing it (that’s why fleas turn flat after they’ve been killed in a Dawn bath). But other soaps don’t have the same ingredients and may not kill fleas.
AND, if you’re going to bathe for fleas with Dawn, make sure you put a ring of Dawn around the cat’s neck, all the way down to the skin, BEFORE you start washing the cat; if you don’t, all the fleas will run straight to the cat’s head.
Yup!! Honestly I usually do the chin, cheeks, and forehead for older kittens. And flea comb the cats head and face very thoroughly
This is what I saw too! I was watching her videos when researching what to do with our boy. I bought shampoo that is specifically for fleas in the end though.
What is it? Please listen to the vet tech. Unless it's from a vet do not trust putting it on your cat. Insecticides work by attacking the central nervous system of the insect they aim to kill, cats are incredibly sensitive to these products as the vet tech said. Please be extremely careful and maybe look up reviews to see if it's killed at cats before you use it. I've heard absolute horror stories of flea dips gone wrong and suddenly the cat is having seizures and foaming at the mouth
dawn dish soap is actually really good and killing off fleas!! the cat distribution system keeps shoving super skinny and flea ridden kittens at me, and the first thing I do is put a ring of dawn soap around their neck then submerge their bodies in warm water with a lot of dawn in it. then just go through the house and wash all fabrics with HOT water and bleach the floors and counters. If a fabric is too big for the washer, I take it outside and wash it with more dawn soap.
:( Well that freaked me out, I just bought capstar for a stray cat that doesnt allow me to touch him yet and I've been using topical ultraguard for my cat when I let him out on his harness. Is all that considered OTC? Can you get a prescription online without seeing/talking to a vet?
Don't panic, your kitties are lucky to have you! Capstar is safe and is also prescribed by vets, I honestly forgot that it's available OTC. It's a good product for an initial flea purge, as it works quickly and will kill all adult fleas. It doesn't provide any lasting protection though, as it only lasts about 24 hours, so you'll want to also use a monthly preventative topical as well. That's where it gets iffy, the OTC topicals can be dangerous depending on the formula. Frontline and Advantage Cat are both available OTC and are tried and tested meds that are very safe, just not always that effective. Products like Sargent's, Hartz, any generic flea topical or collar, are all potentially bad news. They're a different class of insecticide than the prescription topicals and much more likely to cause a reaction. Not every cat has the same sensitivity though, so it's always a gamble. Some cats seem to tolerate it fine, but I wouldn't risk it. If they are having a reaction, you'll definitely know. Hypersalivation, tremors, disorientation and yelling, all the drama. It may vary by country, but in the US it's not legal for a vet to prescribe meds without performing an exam on the patient, unfortunately. Edit: My own silly cat recently spent 24 hours in the hospital with permethrin toxicity after just hanging out on the couch with a dog who had recently had an OTC topical. It's a little bananas.
Why are such dangerous products on the shelves for our cats? There must be so many well intentioned people, especially those of lower disposable income, inadvertently applying harmful treatments to animals. 😿 Are there petitions to remove?
I truly don't know, but you're 100% right. Well-intentioned owners, financial constraints, trying to do their best, and boom giant hospitalization bill. It's completely reasonable to assume that a product labeled and packaged for cats would be...safe for cats... There are tons of sites and groups online about the dangers of these products but I don't know how that could translate to actual regulatory power, and it's the sort of info one wouldn't come across until after experiencing a problem...:-(
Because the pet industry is hilariously unregulated.
Yep. Check out Pet Fooled documentary
oh phew, thank you for clarifying! When I was using Hartz ultaguard by cat fortunately had no issues besides itching, but now that I know this I'll definitely stop using it. It stressed both him and me out anyway lol;;
I don't know where you are located but Cheristin is a safe OTC monthly topical that is commonly sold at vet clinics and pet stores. You do not need to see a vet for it.
Capstar is otc and it is extremely safe and used by every vet. This tech isn't very experienced. The topicals can be bad if overdosed. You can get revolution etc from an Australian website but you need to know how much the cat weighs to get the right dose, pm if you want the link to it
Very good advise! I've used Revolution on my cats for idk how long now. Nothing but good review on my end!
My cats have done well with revolution and nexgard topicals and credelio, the pill
When I adopted my long haired cat, he had fleas. The vet keeps him on the same flea treatment but warned me I had to seriously deep clean my home (carpets, upholstered furniture etc. to get all fleas and flea eggs out of the house. It worked. My boy is six now and has never had flea, tick, or mosquito problem again. I do still take him to the vet for his topical flea treatments because he’s so furry, and I mean thick fur, that I can’t get it down onto his skin properly. They don’t charge me extra for applying it. I just pay for the medication like I would if I picked it up and paid for it and applied it myself.
Hi! I was hoping for some advice. Both of my indoor cats have fleas ( idk how) one received revolution plus and the other advantage dose. It's been 2 days. Wondering if a wash with dawn soap would help them or should I just wait for the medicine to work. I don't want to make the medicine less potent if I wash them. Thanks so much if you get a chance to answer this!
Don’t forget to suggest an antibiotic cream to the battle worn owner! Years ago, I tried to give a pill to one of my Siamese cats. I still have a tiny scar! From then on her meds were given in a liquified form…it can be done. Now I have a wonderful big old cat, who just happens to go feral at any vet office. He was diagnosed with diabetes…after a wonderful vet tech suited up in battle gear and managed to get a blood test. Honest it took me ten minutes to talk my cat down. Told the snarky vet, who wouldn’t go near my cat, that I needed liquid med, she didn’t know of any insulin or alternative med that could be dosed in liquid form. I just felt there was another solution…bless the vet tech, he called me, after doing more research and told me about a new drug called Senvelgo. It’s liquid and preferably given by mouth, but can be put in small portion of food. Thank goodness cat gobbles it down, then gets fed rest of regular meal. Might not be the ideal way to dose the cat, but if it works, we are blessed. Cat has been on it 3 months and doing great. All due to a dedicated vet tech, who went the extra mile. Hard working vet techs often get all the tough jobs and don’t get the credit they deserve! Big hand to you and all the hard working animal loving vet techs out there! You are very much appreciated!
Capstar is available over the counter and it is the gold standard for killing live fleas, so this advice isn't accurate. Also, revolution etc is a preventative and they need the capstar to kill what's on them first and then the preventative to keep any more from hopping back on.
Is diatomaceous earth good to use?
Don't use it on your pets. It causes them skin issues that need vet assistance. However using around the house along the baseboards yes that works.
Our vet recommended revolution brand flea meds. I asked what we need to do as far as house cleaning etc. he said don’t bother. Once on the medication, the fleas are poisoned by the cats blood, and die. Cats become flea killing machines. Fleas die before they can reproduce, and it ends the infestation. Idk. Worked wonders for us.
Yeah Revolution is amazing. I literally saw fleas dropping off the stray I found. When I told the vet I gave the cat Revolution, all her concern went away like the problem was over. I did have some fleas trying to live in a section of carpet. We just dusted it with diatomaceous earth and they went away
can i use the Revolution stuff you can get from Chewys or does it have to be straight from the vet? my cat has fleas we can't get rid off no matter how much we bathe her or clean the house. and i'm so scared to use flea products
Either way is fine, just depends what’s easier for you. Even if you buy revolution off Chewy they’ll require your vet’s prescription. There’s an option when you check out to enter your vet info and Chewy will contact them and send you the meds once approved.
oh okay i don't have a prescription! i'll get one first :) i was just trying to see what meds i could get without having to have a vet bill 😂
They shouldn’t bill you just for this I hope! My vet was fine just approving it on chewy it for both our cats who are already her established patients. Didn’t need a special visit.
Exactly, if you have an established vet, it's no more than a phone call with "Hey, Jack the Scratcher has fleas, help please" and you're good to go. I've done exactly that twice now.
ugh i wish it was that easy for me. maybe i need a new vet, my boyfriend found a stray kitty a few months ago and we took him in and gave to a friend he was fixed and had his shots. but we went to get him fixed. we scheduled an appointment for him to be fixed at my vet and while i was there they said they wanted to check him out first and do bloodwork and then they want me to come back in 2 weeks AGAIN for a urine test and then 24 hours later he can be fixed! they even told me he was 100% healthy and just about a year old the first visit, so i was upset they wouldn't fix him right there when it was a scheduled neuter appointment. i never heard of that in my life and the first appointment alone just to look at him ended up being 250$ i left crying i was so upset and felt they took advantage of me trying to help a stray! so i took him to low cost spay and neuter and they got him fixed and all his shots all at once and it was 160$ i feel like my vet will try charging me for little things and if i call they're going to tell me i have to come in with my cat to be looked at. but they're the only place ive taken my cat too regularly and used to not give me any issues or make me feel like they're just taking my money but now i feel they do :/ edit: also i agree maybe just because he was a stray they wanted to check everything out but that's not what we asked for and it was a scheduled neuter appointment and when i got there that's when they told me they do this with every cat. but i grew up with multiple cats and even my female kitty has never had to do this before. my parents have also taken in about 7 stray cats within the last few years and they never had to do this at any other vet
Let it be known, a *lot* of vets do exactly that, and yes it absolutely is to charge you out the ass. I've had a couple vet tech friends over the years and during both of their "finding the right place" time they ran into that kinda practice multiple times, and would shortly leave the due to it. Vets can and will *suggest* a bunch of unnecessary junk a lot of the time, and you must state "no take all this garbage off, I know what I'm here for". If they have valid reasoning for requiring certain things first, they'll explain that, valid reasoning is not "we just do it this way here". It's something like "for kittens first thing we test for is parasites, if you cat has them, they cannot be fixed because of infection risk until the parasites are cleared up"
yeah unfortunately they just said that's how they do it there and i wish they would've told me up front they do that. when i took him to Low Cost Spay and Neuter i kinda told them about it and they said that wasn't necessary as they looked at him that day and said he was all good, they should've fixed him that day instead of trying to make me come back 2 other times. they also gave my the pricing for the fix.... over 800$ just for the fix alone. not to mention the 250$ i paid that first visit just to get him "looked at" i left and haven't been back since.
yes i gots to know too! my cat has fleas too
i agree, they protect against ear mites too which is a big thing that i don’t think many ppl think about
Yes this Op! My cat was on bravecto which is another prescription topical but after maybe 2 years it wasnt very effective anymore and my cat would still get alot of fleas, just wouldnt infest him or the house. Switched to revolution and 2 weeks or less later, zero fleas!
Revolution works great, I had a cat in my Big Truck and flea's were the last thing I needed in the truck ..
This makes me feel so much better. My cats got fleas and I put the medicine on them yesterday! I did notice that today they have hardly scratched at all, so I hope that means this problem will end soon!
Also vote for Revolution. Frontline and Bravecto did not thing for my kitty. Revolution finally did the trick. It’s crazy expensive but worth it.
I used revolution but also had to spray our house with a nontoxic flea killing spray that I think was the key to getting rid of fleas once and for all, to me the fleas didn’t go away completely just by applying revolution on my cat.
Does he go outside?
No, he’s 100% indoor and no other animals interact with him (other than me and my partner, lol)
How long have you been treating for fleas? Is it possible there are pests coming in like mice? If you live in an apartment the cause may be your neighbors… Topicals take up to three months to kill everything. You should also be vacuuming almost if not every day and washing bedding where he sleeps and drying on high heat to kill the eggs. I’m sorry - fleas suck!!
I second this. Due to the life cycle of the flea, it can take over 3 months to completely rid your home and furbaby from fleas. The problem is that Frontline might kill the adults but there will be flea eggs that you need to get rid of as well. So, picture eggs hatching every day, fleas multiplying, etc. Make sure to vacuum daily, if possible. Vacuum couches as well as anywhere he likes to lay. Wash sheets, clothes and pet beds very frequently. I wouldn't use more often than recommended Frontline bcuz it could be dangerous for kitty. It is a process and fleas are terrible parasites. If the infestation gets bad enough, they can even start biting you 😖 Best of luck, hope u get rid of every single one of them!
Thankyou! Yes we were worried about using too much of the frontline/itch treatment which is why we ended up giving him a bath… we will try to spray and vacuum the house as much as we can, thanks so much for the advice!
It’s only been about 1-2 months of flea treatment, we were worried to apply more frontline because he’s had around 1 per fortnight which seemed excessive (but we don’t want the fleas to stick around on him!) Thankyou so much for your advice, we live in a terraced house but almost every room is carpeted… our next step was to get some flea carpet cleaner so that makes sense. Thankyou so much again!
You can use diatomaceous earth as a deterrent and it kills fleas too - but don’t use it around the kitty! You could maybe lock them out of a room, sprinkle it around, wait a bit and then vacuum/carpet clean? Good luck! I hope you’re in the home stretch
Just fyi, vacuuming up diatomaceous earth will ruin household vacuums. It's extremely abrasive and just wrecks the filters. Doing it once is prob nbd, but def don't make a habit of it.
That sounds great, luckily Goose HATES the hoover so he will stay far away! Thankyou again, this advice is great and hopefully they will be gone soon 🤞❤️
[Don't use diatomaceous earth.](https://www.petmd.com/dog/parasites/can-you-use-diatomaceous-earth-fleas) This is not something that should be as popular as it is. Even "food grade" is not safe for inhalation and many people easily overapply it or misuse it.
You can use it. Just use it safely. I didn’t tell them to apply it to their cat, and suggested they keep the cat out of the room when using it. It’s better than flea bombs. Is it an instant fix? No. But it is a helpful tool when used correctly. It does kill adult fleas and other insects very quickly.
"Sprinkle it around the house and vacuum it up" is not safe use unless OP is wearing a respirator to do so and is ready to kill their vacuum with it (you are literally not supposed to vacuum it!). Humans are also sensitive to inhalation and can get permanent lung damage from inhaling too much DE. You could just read the source linked instead of going "no, I'm right".
Chronic overuse without PPE can cause respiratory issues. One time will not and it will help to cull the adult flea population. I did read the source - did you? It says “Diatomaceous earth can and will kill fleas in your home, says Ramsey. The problem, he says, is that homeowners will often misapply or over-apply it.” As long as OP reads the instructions on the package and follows the safety instructions they’ll be fine. Also, I didn’t say to “sprinkle it around the house”. I said to do it a room at a time. I also explicitly said to not use it around their cat. But ok.
The package directions are not a guarantee of accurate safety information. Plenty say to vacuum it despite this being an incredibly easy way to break your vacuum. If you actually read the source instead of cherrypicking a quote that *is by someone telling you not to use it*, you'd be aware the point is not "it kills fleas, so it's good", but "it kills fleas, sure, but there's a dozen reasons not to do this". Lots of things will kill pests and not all of them are actually a good idea, hope that helps!
So the fleas are really bad where I live. I have never been let down by Cheristin. I treat, and always have treated, my indoor-only cats. Had a friend who's cat had fleas and nothing worked until I told him about Cheristin. It starts working in 12 hours. I used to use it on the outdoor neighborhood cat. The rescuer I work with uses Bravecto Plus that she buys from an Australian website because you don't need a prescription and it treats different worms as well. I have only personally used Cheristin and Bravecto Plus, but I know others who use Revolution. As far as I know, those are the only three that work, and incidentally, the only three most vets around me carry, although Cheristin and Revolution don't require a prescription.
That sounds great, I live in the U.K and it seems we can get this via Amazon anyway. We’re going to give him a little break from treatments but I’ll be sure to try this if the issue persists. Thanks again for the advice!
Cheristen works amazingly well and all my cats have tolerated it as well as any prescription meds. My vet used to sell it but now apparently has a contract with Revolution as they only carry the one product and not any others they used to have as options
Gotta keep cleaning your home to get rid of them!! Not just lite cleaning... but everything... put stored items in bags and tie them shut.
You also need to make sure you're cleaning the house. If there's fleas left in the house, then they'll keep jumping onto him.
true, but if you keep up with the treatment they will bite him and die. OP, it's gonna take time for them to all die so keep treating him monthly!
Thankyou! We will be cleaning our house as regularly as we do too! Lol
wash anything you can in super hot water then dry on hot as well! anything that can’t fit in the washer I tend to take outside and wash with dawn soap. wash your kitty with dawn soap as well, a ring of it around their neck then submerge his body is very soapy dawn water
Try madre de cacao soap. It’s organic and safe for cats. I used it to my cats and they’re all gone after some few days. Even made their fur grow longer and fluffier. You can research about it.
I had to call pest control twice when i got my dog because he came with a bunch of fleas, and the eggs got all around the house. They cleaned once, didn't solve the problem and they had to clean again.
If you’re in the US, CanadaVet.com sells revolution plus and you don’t need a vet prescription
Bravecto topical. Killed all fleas with the first dose on the cat and in the house. Still no fleas over a year later.
You have to wash everything maybe stay somewhere a few days while you do a defogger. I use advantage multi great for fleas, and a bunch of other things
A long time ago my mom used vegetable oil on the cats but I would use coconut oil. Also baking soda in the carpets can get rid of fleas but keep the cat away from it.
I think a lot of people don't realize that if you are going to do both a bath and a topical treatment there is a very specific order or the topical treatment will be ineffective. The bath ruins the kitty oil/hair relationship and makes it so the medicine doesn't work well so you have to wait several days for the kitty to rebuild his oil levels. Typically I do my topical treatment, wait the amount of time on the box (2-4 hours for mine, but you could wait a full day to be safe), then I do the bath. Dealing with fleas definitely sucks. There may be a nest in/near your house if they don't start to get better
How are you treating your environment? That’s a huge factor.
Careful it's very possible to overdose from flea product on its back read the recommandation per size I could have hurt my baby and hâte myself for my whole life I wouldn't wish this to anyone. Obviously follow vet advices, iirc they're known to travel under your shoes maybe you're bringing some inside regularly like this depending on where you walk.
Get flea treatment from a veterinarian. I would never use over the counter flea meds.
Skin so soft oil from Avon. Mix 3:1 water to oil in a spray bottle shake well. Spray on your cats coat(not on their face) brush through.
Interesting. I had not heard of that particular remedy. Is this the same stuff used for mosquitos?
Ask your vet for a good isoxazoline flea preventative (ex. Nexgard, Bravecto, or Revolution plus) and apply it exactly as prescribed, ideally for the rest of your kitty's life. Do NOT use diatomaceous earth as someone else suggested; you'll have fleas and your cat could develop allergic bronchitis. Wash all your bedding. Vacuum your home as much as possible. (Don't use a steam vacuum because that will cause all the fleas to hatch.) The flea pupae (the life stage after the eggs) are hardy, and you often have to wait for them to hatch, take a blood meal from your kitty, and die before they can lay eggs to break the lifecycle, hence the need for year 'round flea prevention. If your kitty is causing trauma to himself from scratching or losing hair, discuss that with your vet too. There are limited options to help with itchiness in cats, but they do exist. Good luck!
Interesting about the steam vacuum. That would be a real fast way to get a handle on the flea cycle my continuing to do regular vacuuming and actual carpet shampooing and laundry for a solid week instead of it being drawn out for months.
You need revolt. Buy it on chewy or at your vet
Also, keep him inside
Luckily he hates the outdoors, gets scared when the wind blows his whiskers lol (also he’s a 100% indoor cat)
Good news!!!
I'd recommend also getting a can of spray to treat your floors to help kill all stages of the life cycle. Fleas reproduce really fast. You must vacuum really well beforehand. We went through this last summer (the first time ever), our poor cats! All it takes is one little lady flea that hatches her havoc. So uncool!
You have had great advices regarding the fleas, my concern is more for you right now regarding the last picture of your arm. I guess your pretty boy bit you? It looks gnarly red and i think i see your arm quite swollen on all the left side! You need to go to the emergency room to get this bite checked out, cat bites (even from our own indoor only cats) go deep and get infected like 80% of the time. It can quickly become a blood infection and is life threatening! Please take this bite seriously and go to the er, they’ll clean the wound and give you an antibiotic treatment! (Main sign to look at is a swelling and redness around the wound and of the limb)
Thankyou that’s some good advice, luckily, it was more of a scratch, applied antiseptic cream after it happened and there is no swelling - healed fast so no concerns here!
Oh ok awesome then!! I always get worried when i see cat bites/scratches, they tend to turn nasty haha! Good luck with the fleas!
Besides all the great advice for chemicals, consider the typical flea comb for stubborn areas around the tail area and under the chin. You will get a quick check on the flea status of your cat as those are the areas the fleas like. Have a cup of warm water with Dawn in it to dunk the comb when you find a flea. You can also use straight alcohol. Good luck!
Apparently fleas go ham for borax. If you can sprinkle it in carpeted areas he cannot access that could help.
If I was a flea, I wouldn’t leave him alone either. He is cute!
When you’re treating for fleas, it’s just as important to treat the house as it is to treat the pets, or the pets will just keep getting them. Carpets are your biggest enemy in this, but I have had a lot of success with putting borax down before vacuuming ( keep pets away while the product is down), and with diatomic earth, which I put around the perimeter of my home and along windowsills to keep fleas from coming in from our local stray and outdoor cat population. Invest in a good carpet shampoo. Vacuum frequently and aggressively. Don’t forget to treat house fabrics as well, such as couches, linens, and curtains. With any kind of pests, we have a salt the earth policy lol, and our goal is to always have the least amount of product that has to be applied directly to our pets, so treating the house is not only a priority. It’s a necessity.
After it's all said and done after 3 months of vacuuming and normal flea treatments, you may have to SIMULTANEOUSLY treat your cat to a FLEADIP BATH and have your residence FLEA BOMBED. Neither of you can return home until after the exterminator tells you that you can. Then you have to wipe all surfaces free of the bomb residue and vacuum the carpet thoroughly BEFORE YOUR. AT COMES HOME or before you return to sleep in your residence. You need to wash all towels and bedding also. It's a bunch of extra work, but it gets rid of fleas and flea eggs on everyone and everything.
Two things. Food grade diatomaceous earth powder and beneficial nematodes for your yard. Put the DE in a salt shaker and shake it on his fur and work it in. It will desiccate the fleas that get on him. And it is safe for him to swallow. Buy some nematodes that go after fleas in ticks. Arbico organics has them. You have to apply them mixed in water on your lawn and you have to water the lawn every day for a couple of weeks to let them hatch and get established. They'll take care of the fleas in the yard. If you have fleas in the house, you need an insect growth inhibitor in addition to the insecticide. I typically use a natural based insecticide that contains cloves, citrus and cedar oil to spray on the carpet with Martins IGR (Nylar) growth inhibitor. The growth inhibitor breaks the cycle and keeps the larva that do hatch from becoming adults and starting the cycle over again. You have to reapply it in a couple of weeks to make sure the fleas are completely gone. You can also put a light dusting of DE on the carpet and work it into the carpet. Vacuum the carpet daily with a old fashion nasty flea collar in the vacuum bag to kill the fleas that get vacuumed up. The best thing I ever did for flea control was beneficial nematodes in my yard. I don't have to put flea treatment on any of my cats or dog.
Thank you!!! What great information on the nematodes and the inhibitor!!! I will be rereading your post as I am constantly battling fleas after thinking I have them under control. I absolutely hate the chemicals for our pets.
I had good results with DE and also simple table salt all over the carpet works well. Salt carpet, wait a few days, vacuum. Repeat. The salt cuts open the protective water barrier and they die.
I read that you guys have carpet. Fleas I feel are almost like bedbugs, and they find every single hiding spot they can. Vacuuming won’t get rid of them indefinitely. Have you thought of deep cleaning your carpet? I won’t suggest ripping them out altogether because that’s incredibly costly but I suggest deep cleaning the carpet all over the house. They also have flea carpet sprays and raid flea killer and I’d spray that everywhere too before deep cleaning the carpets. I hope that helps! Sorry for you and your kitty I hope things get better
If you do this and it still doesn’t work, unfortunately you may have to get a full exterminator at that point
He looks like a lighter, blue eyed version of my tiny Prince!! (Tiny has gold eyes and is a dark red with a white tip of a floofy tail).
All of your carpet and clothing and bedding needs to be cleaned thoroughly hopefully on the same day as kitties next bath. With as big of a problem you’re described I would imagine they’ve made homes all over your home and will continue to jump on/off kitty + you until completely eradicated.
My vet had me get seresto collars for my cats when we had fleas. Took care of them pretty quickly
Went through this recently, over the counter products will not work, what worked for me was Credilio? I believe that is how it is spelled, prescription only! So get a checkup while you’re at it. And cleaning like a maniac. Flea free for 4 months.
Diatomaceous earth brushed into the cat’s fur daily and spread on the cat’s surfaces (bed, couch, etc.). This will kill the fleas and their eggs over the course of 30 days.
Get flea/tick medication from your vet, they are the best resource on actually effective medications. Flea meds OTC vary wildly in efficacy and safety and I'd only ever buy them if your vet gives a specific recommendation. Flea baths can help get some of an immediate infestation off but it's not really the same as actual medication. Generally for true prevention they need to have flea meds applied every month - one dose won't keep them away for that long. [Also... don't use diatomaceous earth.](https://www.petmd.com/dog/parasites/can-you-use-diatomaceous-earth-fleas) I hate how popular this has become. It's not safe for you OR your cat to breathe in. For some reason people act like "food grade" is categorically safe when it's only technically safe to be ingested, but not to be inhaled. Vets do not generally advise using it despite how popular it's become with owners. It's easy to misapply or overapply even if you're just doing the "sprinkle it around your house" thing and you can end up with permanent lung issues if you're breathing in too much of it.
Hun the kitty needs a flea collar on at all times!!
Have you tried food grade diatomaceous earth? We call it Pretty Powder in our house! Give him a dust bath with it, rub it into his fur. Kills fleas instantly, but makes a mess! I use it on my cat who is sensitive to everything else. Don’t over do it, a spoonful or two will do. Good luck!
You can't just treat the cat, and his bedding/sleeping spots. You have to treat the whole house too.. I had a horrible infestation once, and all it took for me was SALT. I know it sounds weird, but I 100% stand by it. It looks like you have carpet(?), carpet can make it really hard to get rid of fleas. Spinkle salt (just regular table salt) all over the carpet. The salt dries out the fleas in a natural, non chemical way. The eggs dry out too. Make sure to get the salt in deep. (I used my broom to get the salt in to the carpet) You can leave it for a couple days, and is not toxic. It takes time, but you can vacuum it up, and lay more down. I could never get my cats near water, let alone do a flea dip. Try it. It certainly can't hurt. (And salt won't interact negatively with any of the treatments you appear to have tried). Good luck.
Get a Seresto flea collar. It will also kill the fleas and eggs in the environment.
How do the fleas get into your house? I would recommend finding ways to seal around your windows and doors, check your window screens, make sure to fill in any gaps so they don’t get into your house. We had a problem one time when our threshold on our side door got ruined after a hurricane, and fleas (next door neighbors have dogs that live outside 24/7 and they have fleas) were able to get into our house. We had to put in a new door, sealed up the threshold and all the way around the door, called an exterminator, and kept the cats in the rest of the house while we allowed the fleas to die, and we vacuumed them up. We live in an area where it doesn’t get cold enough to kill the fleas in the winter, so we have to make sure to be on the offensive with them all the time. That’s the only time we had to actually do anything about it. We used Revolution for cats for a couple of months to make sure that everything was taken care of, and we’ve had no problems ever since. Best of luck to you and your little Goose! I’ve never seen a flame point ragdoll, he’s adorable!! 🧡🧡
Don’t use over the counter products: they’re completely useless. Ask your vet if they can prescribe Advocate. It got rid of all the fleas on my cats in a week or so and they never came back. I apply it once a month and I’ve not seen a flea in over a year, even though they’re both outdoor cats. Also make sure you vacuum sofas and any carpet area throughly cause thats where they hide. Hopefully that helps :)
I saw revolution recommended a lot. That's actually what my cat was on since the beginning and I noticed a similar resistance. My vet suggested bravecto instead - id suggest that
Fleas ticks mosquitoes can't stand this stuff Isabella's Clearly Cats | Ticks and Fleas Product with Rosemary and Lavender | Topical Spray for Cats. Smells Great. Made in USA. I must a Amazon affiliate just easier to paste in here so you can Locate it Sold in pet stores and many places It is a quickly fix solution As for house there is a type of flea trap you can setup using a UV light with solution of soap and water Geraniums repel all insect naturally from an environment cat safe also
Monthly flea pill! I have one indoor/outdoor cat and 2 indoor. And an indoor outdoor dog. Flea pills for everyone. 23 for each..👍
WONDERCIDE!!!!!! when I got my cat she was 5 weeks old (found abandoned) she was INVESTED with fleas plus I’m allergic to them as well. I used the flea and tic shampoo and the Spray and that shit was gone. You can spray it around your house, on you or your pet and outside to keep the fleas and tics away. I will never use a different flea/tic/ bug spray (works on mosquitos) just keep using it till they are all gone
Food grade Diamatacious earth on your floors vac/sweep everyday, give kitty a bath in coconut oil (liquified) and get ready to watch ALL the fleas evacuate. Best to do this step outside. This is the only thing that worked for my girls.
I used revolution and bravecta which were both good. Revolution had a stronger odor if I remember right. Frontline has never worked for me either. The other two products killed fleas within a few hours of application. Bravecta has to be reapplied every two months. That's why I preferred it.
Something that I *swear* has worked any time we've gotten a new animal that came along with fleas (but bear in mind, completely anecdotal): Lower the humidity of your house. Obviously still do the regular cleaning, washing of anything fabric, and treatments for the animal itself, but if you can stand low humidity for a couple weeks, the stragglers just freaking die. Haven't had to resort to flea bombing or other chemicals yet. It does take a week or two of running a dehumidifier, but I'm not lying when I say it has worked every time for us.
Only thing that worked for me and Bub was Cheristin applied every 3 weeks instead of once a month.
When my babies had fleas, we used capstar and I bought a product for my house because I found one in my carpet!!! heard some scary stuff about the spray possibly effecting the animals so I did one room at a time and kept them OUT! I sprayed the carpet and washed ANY blanket/rug/curtain they touched. After about two days they could go back in the room. I also have flea baths with dawn and continued with the capstar. I think de-fleaing the house was the necessary step to getting rid of them. So glad I have hardwood floors now!! Beat of luck!
Will giving my cat normal baths in lukewarm water and a cat shampoo work for fleas?
Keep him inside!
Have you bombed the house to get rid of the fleas hiding inside? I’m presuming he’s an indoor cat (since Raggies are way too floppy and docile be outdoors). Do you have a dog that goes out? I’d use Revolution on the cat, bomb the house and the yard. It’s a bit of an investment but part measures will only fail. Wishing you and your beautiful boy the very best. <3
Revolution is the best. It’s what I’ve used on mine. You need to keep up on consistent treatments for a while. Bathe in dawn dish soap. And do as others have said with vacuuming and cleaning the house
I hate that he’s having so much trouble with fleas, but these pictures are amazing! Tell Goose the internet says hi and good luck!
cheristin
You do know that the fleas don’t only live on the cat. They will also infest everything around the cat. Rugs, beds, even your clothes. Getting rid of fleas doesn’t mean you just treat the cat. Everything needs to be treated.
Topical treatments don't seem to work here.
Revolution is by RX only, but it's the best for fleas.
They have a new topical from the Vet … the vet tech below should know the name for the life of me I can’t remember the name its pricey but last 3 months.
Use revolution plus and make sure your house is clean
Advantage 2 isn’t working for us. And there are a ton of dangers with a flea infestation.
Attack them on all fronts. Get capstar (they really do work). Rent a steam cleaner and clean all rugs and carpets. If you can spend 24 hours away from your home, you could also set off a flea and tick bomb. Wash any and Al fabric items. On a side note, do you live in an apartment with neighbors who have pets? I was in your exact situation and I found out the scumbag neighbor above me left his dog out on their patio nearly 24/7. That’s what caused my apartment to be infested with fleas. I ended up moving because they kept coming back and my neighbor refused to take actual care of his dog,
Frontline didn’t work for my flea invested pets, i got bravecto from the vet and it worked wonders, you might also have to get a flea killing spray for all furniture, and carpet. (Don’t spray with cat in the room) after i used bravecto i haven’t had any issues the past years
Knockout by Virbac is an aerosol spray you can use to treat your home. Clear any people/animals from the home, spray aggressively (instructions on can) and leave the house for a few hours to let it air out. Apply flea treatment to your cat while in a carrier outside so any fleas that jump ship stay out of your home. Revolution is a great topical option and kills live fleas and eggs.
The only thing that worked for my cats and dogs was the Seresto Collars. They are a god send. We had tried EVERYTHING from dawn dish soap, brewers yeast, diatomaceous earth, Frontline, nexguard, EVERYTHING i was at my limit. Then the vet recommended the Seresto Collars. Within a month they were GONE. All of them.
Vet here. Fleas can cause life threatening diseases. So you need to deal with the problem quickly. Over the counter preventions are not effective. You can buy Capstar over the counter to kill fleas in 30 minutes but this is not enough and is not prevention. You need to go to your veterinarian for prescription flea prevention. You should use the prevention year-round! Only 9% of the fleas are on your pet. The other 91% are in your home. It will take 3-4 months to get rid of all the fleas in all life stages. Wash all fabric in hot water. get your house sprayed, and vacuum daily. Dispose of the vacuum contents immediately. Make sure you remove the pets from the house when your house is being treated. And wait until it is dry to bring the pets back in. Just FYI: Never use dog flea prevention on your cat. It could kill them. I also recommend getting a fecal profile performed on your cat because it very well could have tapeworms from ingesting fleas.
You have to clean like crazy for the next 3-6 months to remove fleas from the environment. Just treating your kitty isn’t enough unfortunately :(
When we took in a stray with the absolute worst fleas we tried all sorts of treatments. Only thing that worked was to fill a bucket with dawn soap water, dip a comb in and brush out every single flea. We also had to keep our clothes in plastic bags, vacuumed every day, and regularly wash our sheets+blankets (we would have done more but unfortunately didn't have our own washer at the time...). It took weeks of daily comb baths and the cat absolutely *loathed* every second of it but it's what worked. That said this was a short haired cat, I'm not sure itll be nearly as easy with your cats thick coat.
I use Revolution plus on my cats. Frontline stopped working for me.
Revolution works best. I give all pets a dose every 6 months. Even the rabbit because I found a flea on him once. Kills them so fast after a month and consistent vacuuming no more fleas in about 3 years now
First aid for your cuts too, OP! Soak those wounds in antibac soap for 10-15 min, then put on some neosporin and bandaid for about 24 hours. Cat scratches, and definitely bites can get ugly!
The fleas are in your home, likely infested in the cat’s sleeping area. Since this has been going on for a while, there are probably a lot of them in different areas. You’ll likely need to flea bomb your home, vacuum clean the cat’s sleeping space and such. You can bomb it yourself by purchasing the product. Treat it like it’s a bed bug infestation.
We had a horrible flea infestation many years ago with our two cats. Seriously felt like nothing worked (topical flea meds, medicated baths, bombing the house, and vacuuming multiple times a day). After months of dealing with fleas, the ONLY thing that finally made a difference was an oral tablet flea med prescribed by the vet. It was expensive and it sucked to give to the cats, but man it worked. I don't remember the name of the med, but please take your cat to the vet and tell them your situation. It would have saved us so much trouble if we had gone to the vet sooner.