Fleas!

[GreenMouse]

My cats have fleas...

Frontline doesn't work in my area so I treat them with Program (which goes in their food and stops the fleas reproducing). Normally that works fine, but not with our new kitten!

I've treated them all with Effipro spot on, which had no effect whatsoever.

So I've treated them with 4Fleas tablets, but this is only to kill fleas, it doesn't offer lasting protection. At least not for the kitten... The other two are fine, they get the odd flea but the Program treatment means that they don't get infested.

The kitten on the other hand... She was flea-free after the 4Fleas tablet for a couple of days, but I am still finding at least 4-5 fleas every time I flea-comb her.

Any recommendations for something that works welcome! Thanks in advance :)

[VelvetStrider]

Watching with interest. Seresto collars are fantastic if your cat will wear one. Ours won't unfortunately.

[Fluffycloudland77]

Broadline? It offers protection from fleas, ticks and worms.

You've got to do it monthly though. Mine has an injection now for fleas but it doesn't offer any protection for ticks or worms.

[GreenMouse]

Thanks, I'll have a look at Broadline and try a collar on the kitten (the other 2 will not wear a collar)

[GreenMouse]

Fluffy, where do you get Broadline from? I can't find it on Amazon or any of the sites I normally use for cat-related shopping.

Has anyone tried Fibronil or Advantage? Are they any good?

I've heard good things about Advocate but it seems I need a prescription for this one, anyone know if I can get it without a prescription from somewhere?

[PuppyMonkey]

Having a similar nightmare with our cat. We've tried something called Advocate from the vets this weekend. But they said the main thing is to treat your house with the Stay Kill spray. That kills them when they jump off your cat onto your carpets etc. and we've given her 4fleas tablet today. Surely this has got to work now!

[GreenMouse]

I think the mild winter has been very good for fleas! Not so good for our moggies though. Or us :(

[Fluffycloudland77]

Be very careful with flea collars, the chemicals in them can be poisonous to cats.

Broadline is only available from the vets, I'd always go to the vets for this kind of thing because my colleagues bsh got poisoned by a bob martin spot on treatment. If she hadn't have needed her purse and gone home it could have been fatal.

By the time you've faffed about with non-prescription products and tried various ones you may as well just go to the vet and get the prescription preparations.

Apart from indorex, that's cheaper online.

Last year we used advocate, I got a prescription off the vet for £8 & ordered six months supply, it worked out at £4 a month and he didn't get fleas. I got cashback off topcashback too.

[RubbishMantra]

When I bought my new kitten home I spotted fleas on him. I used Advantage (bought online, much cheaper than vet's). Completely got rid of them, he's a Devon, so he's semi-bald, so the fleas would be visible if he still had them.

[GreenMouse]

Yes I guess I'll have to go to the vet's for a prescription. I'm going to try Advocate or Broadline, see what the vet says. I don't really like collars so that will be a last-ditch solution I think!

I need to take my big boy for his Program injection anyway (he's super-fussy so won't take it in food, is very sicky so might bring it back up anyway, and is quite shy and wriggly so impossible to squirt it down his throat!).

[bakingtins]

As I always post on these threads, go and get advice from your vet, which will usually be provided free, rather than wasting your money (sigh)

Frontlne, Effipro, Broadline all contain fipronil, if frontline isn't working then neither will the others.
Advantage (non prescription) and advocate (prescription only) both contain imidocloprid which tends to work well. Advantage is fleas only, no wormer.
program works by making fleas sterile, it will only work if all animals within the household are treated, so since OP's new kitten has not been programmed, you will need to treat the whole house with a spray containing permethrin and Smethoprene (acclaim, Nuvan Staykill, RIP flea, 4flea household spray, Indorex)
All the animals need to be wormed ith something that treats the flea tapeworm e.g drontal.

[FiloFunky]

Diatomaceous earth is your friend.... Food grade x

[FiloFunky]

diatomaceous earth here. 1kg should be plenty for a 3 bed semi :)

[FiloFunky]

Be careful when using it as you would chemicals advice here

[GreenMouse]

bakingtins, thanks for that. I was trying to find out what the active ingredient is in all these products, so that's very useful info. Last time I asked my vet he recommended Frontline, even though I told him that it's not working on my cats!

My kitten has been treated with Program like the other ones, so I don't understand why she's getting so many fleas and not the others! They've all been wormed fairly recently (last month) but I will re-worm the little one once she's flea-free.

[GreenMouse]

Filo how do you use diatomaceous earth? What does it do?

[FiloFunky]

You can sprinkle on the animal in carpets under furniture near skirtings etc etc and it dries out the waxy substance and disables the flea and kills it. Dries up eggs too. Works this way on all Exo skeletal creature. It's tiny particles of silica but you do have to be careful using it

Leave it down for a few hours and vacate the house. Hoover up the main carpet areas (leaving it under furniture and dark places that fleas like to hide / lay and after a few days the live ones will all be gone and any hatching ones will end up coating themselves in it too

Although it's a natural substance it can be harmful to breath and you must wear gloves and a dust mask when dealing with it :)

[ozymandiusking]

We use Stronghold. It kills Fleas, ticks, and ear mites.
I understand that Frontline isn't as effective as it used to be, the fleas are becoming immune.

[Lonecatwithkitten]

Green you have been caught by one of the common things on line Frontline, Effipro and Fipronil are all the same active ingredient so that is why they are not working for you.
Program is great once the flea problem is under control for ongoing control. However, your new kitten as brought in a relatively high burden of fleas to your household. To get this back under control you need to spray the house with a product like Indorex or Acclaim and treat all the cats and dogs in the household with a good quality product like Broadline, Activyl or Advocate for several months to get on top of ths.
It is really important you talk to your vet as not all products are suitable for kittens and the adult cats may need a different size of product to the kitten.

[GreenMouse]

Thanks all, I'll be off to the vet's as soon as I can get an appointment for big shy boy! :)

[GreenMouse]

What I don't get is that the kitten didn't have fleas when I got her (from a refuge). I treated her same as the others with monthly Program, and still she got infested, but not the others. The infestation only started about a month ago, when the weather got warmer. I've had kitten since October. Could it be that Program doesn't work for some cats?

[Lonecatwithkitten]

No it will be that the level of fleas the cats are encountering are greater than program alone can control.
Program alone is really best for indoor or mostly indoor cats.

[ROUNDandROUNDINCIRCILESMORETHA]

Finding this very interesting some good advice on here :)