Fleas....omg please help!

[sunshine99789]

We have 3 cats and 2 dogs.
The cats have flea collars that are supposed to last 8 months (we have recentlt purchased these to replace old cheaper flea collars) our dogs are on the pets at home plan and have advocate montly.
I got about 30 fleas off my one cat about a week ago and less than 10 each off my dogs.
We have washed everything in the house and sprayed with indorex and ardap....despite this I have just ran the flea comb through my cat and got 7 live ones off him and 4 off my dog.

Please help me I am going insane and feel so dirty and disgusting! What can i do to get rid of them!!!!

[OrangeSwoosh]

Assuming the cats have seresto collars and you've treated the whole house, you just need to vacuum daily and be patient. They don't all suddenly die straight away, it will take a couple of days to see a large drop in numbers and they should all be gone in 3-4 weeks.

[sunshine99789]

Thank you for your reply! Just feel so yakky knowing they are in my house and on my poor pets!

[Windydaysuponus]

Go now and fill lots of shallow dishes with hot Fairy water. Place them all round your home.
You will be amazed tomorrow op!!

[TheoriginalLEM]

What collars are you using?

You need to treat the environment- use something like indorex

[MissMarple0203]

Johnson's flea tablets (quarantine your animals after giving them a tablet as fleas will literally jump off -they do die shortly afterwards as the tablets poison them via your animals blood) £7.50 off Amazon or £10in pets at home

[Nemchen]

Cannot recommend flea bombs enough. They aren’t cheap but if you use them they kill the ones that jump onto your carpets etc and last for months. As the treatments you use have started to work they will lie dormant in your carpets otherwise! Ours had them about a month ago and now we are down to finding random ones here and there definitely not an infestation so hopefully another week or so and they’ll be gone, but agreed it takes 3-4 weeks unfortunately!

[sunshine99789]

The collars are zwini collars from amazon that we use on the cats. If these dont work then I will have to invest in seresto collars.

Im a little worried about using flea bombs as I have children...how safe are they for pets and children?

I dont think I could give them anything to swallow as I dont want to harm them given the cats already have flea collars and the dogs have advocate (and flea shampoo)

I am regularly running the comb through them to rid them of any live fleas and also the dirt.

As mentioned in the post, I have sprayed everything with indorex and ardap.

Just have to be patient (not my strongest point!) I guess

[Branster]

Are your dogs swimmers? Topical treatments wouldn’t be suitable in that case, you’d need tablets. I don’t know anything about flea collars, but could they become ineffective during rainy weather?

[sunshine99789]

Nope,no.swimmers here :)

[MrsPellegrinoPetrichor]

It's been an awful year for fleas ime.

Indorex takes a while,hoover like mad really thoroughly every day and spray the hoover bag with Indorex too.

Wash pet bedding.

Shallow dishes out as pp said.

Hoover in cracks and spray in any obvious cracks too.

Hoover and then hoover some more...and hoover even more.

[inwood]

My dogs have tablets now, don't know about cats but where we are SE, they're immune to a lot of treatments.

[CookPassBabtridge]

Same here OP, my feet and calves are bitten to shreds and I have big sores from all the itching. My one silver lining is that for some reason the kids haven't had 1 bite! I wish DP would take some for the team though They don't make me feel yucky but they are annoying as hell.

[TheoriginalLEM]

Don't use flea shampoo, you are washing the advocate away. You can get advocate for cats, although we favour stronghold spot on. I can't comment on the collars but seresto is very good. Again, you must treat the environment as fleas dont live on your pets they hitch a ride when they are hungry then jump.off and lay eggs in your carpets

[MrsPellegrinoPetrichor]

Yes, treat your cats with Advocate and your cat will turn into a feline assassin

[Surenuff]

Agree they seem to have been particularly bad this year - advocate usually works for ddog but didn't seem to touch them. In the end we just constantly checked him and drowned all we found.

Do the dishes of fairy work well? I'll definitely try that next time. I've noticed they are attracted to white - if we put down sheets of white paper they would jump on them and then we would zap with a bleach spray.

[Beacauseisaidso]

Advocate stopped working here, ditto all flea collars.
Steam cleaning as well as hoovering really helps

[sunshine99789]

Do you have to mix the fairy with water? If so how many parts water to fairy please?

[dementedpixie]

Zwini collars are essential oils with no pesticides so they are not going to kill anything let alone fleas!! Get a vet treatment please or you'll never get rid of them

[dementedpixie]

My cats get stronghold plus and I'd never put a collar on them, especially one that wouldn't release easily if required

[Jocasta2018]

Had a really bad infestation a few years ago. My Mum has Alzheimer's & she was basically letting in all the neighbourhood cats so us de-fleaing ours made no difference. I tried to sort the house out but my vet suggested Rentokil as a lot of fleas have become immune to treatment.
It was about £240, we had to stay out of the fully-sealed house for 4 hrs then repeated the treatment a fortnight later. I did vacuum everything before he came but apparently it's not necessary.
We then had to keep all the doors & windows locked (during a hot 2017 summer) so Mum couldn't open them & let all the cats in again!

[ifoundthebread]

I have just recently won the flea battle, touch wood. Hoover everything and then hoover it all again. Once I'd treated the dogs I hoovered 2 times a day very thoroughly by running the hoover over quickly to pull up the surface dirt and then used my steam mop to steam the carpet and then hoover again, heat either kills them or if not hot enough makes them active in which case they are easier to hoover up. Put a tea light candle in the middle of a dish of fairy+water, they are attracted to the heat and the emision off the flame jump towards it and drown. Id also advise making sure your pets are wormed, as fleas can be carriers of the worm parasite. Floggers are good if you can keep the room blocked off for 4 hours (we used ours over night).

[dementedpixie]

OP needs an effective flea treatment for her cats first and then they can help with killing the fleas off. Those collars are not helping

[Moondancer73]

Flea collars are a waste of time and money. You need a decent flea treatment from the vet and indorex to treat the house, wash all bedding, treat sofas etc too.

[OrangeSwoosh]

Ok those collars are shit, bin them and go and get advocate or stronghold (or similar) from your vet.

Don't use shampoos or anything oral in addition to the advocate, especially not Johnson's or Bob Martin etc. The stuff that works is only available on prescription from your vet.

Once you've got a decent treatment on the cats, you're going to have to treat all the animals religiously every month. It may work out cheaper to sign up to a health plan if your vet offers one, or to get a written prescription and buy it online, as you have so many pets to treat.

[Nemchen]

Use the flea bombs/foggers over night and then just vacuum in the morning, we did ours and I’m pregnant - never hurt me or the dogs we just kept them out that room overnight. Don’t bath unless their treatment has worn off anyway, wash their bedding and like everyone says just keep vacuuming over and over! Xx