Unreasonably obsessed by flea problem?

[Fleabee]

Am I losing the plot?

I have 3 kids, 5yrs, 2yrs and 10 months. As you can imagine they need a lot of attention.

I have 2 cats who are regularly front lined but every single year they infest the house with fleas. This year is worse than ever. The 2 year old's legs are in a really dreadful state. The 5 year old is marginally better, and the baby has bites on her back and a big one on her face this morning. Sob. The fleas are in every room.

I am hoovering the entire house daily if I can, and not just a quick hoover. Pulling out all the bloody furniture and going in every nook and cranny. This is killing me, and of course the kids are very bored in the time I am doing it. I am also spraying flea spray when I can but limit this to when house will be empty etc as hate the thought of the chemicals and the kids playing on the floor where the spray is.

I also have mastitis and yesterday spent the day feeling shit and hoovering in tropical temperatures.

And then at bedtime I saw about 5 fleas.

WWYD?

Am I blowing this out of proportion? Should I just calm it down as it doesn't seem to be working anyway. Is it as big a deal as I feel it is?

Or any tips on getting rid of them?

Any advice appreciated.

Well good news I think.

Have just taken the dog outside, tied it up and hosepiped/shampooed it to within an inch of its life. Mainly to get all the flea poo out. All the shampoo suds were brown rather than the usual white. Poor dog.

Anyway I managed to get a few more slow moving fleas which were taken by suprise but the best thing is I also washed out about 8 dead fleas. Now either the shampoo killed them which I doubt or the flea stuff I put on her neck last week is working and killing them off!

Well I used one can of Indorex today on just TWO rooms in my house!!! How on earth is it supposed to cover a three bed semi????

Went to vet to buy more but had just closed so we bought some Johnson's 4flea foggers. Just let one off and ran outside expecting to see the room full of smoke and nothing!!!!

I thought they were supposed to fill the room with smoke? Has it worked properly? Have we just wasted our money and time arranging the room for maximum inpact???

Am losing the will with this constant washing, cleaning and spraying in this gorgeous weather. Grrrrrrr

Atticus has been going bonkers again and because he is clipped I can see how many fleas he has :(
But realised today that it was a month since I advocated them so I did the dogs again hurrah
I am hoping that will finish the feckers off.
No action with the flea trap. I sm hoping that means the room is relatively flea free.
What a palaver

OK I confess. I found one on my ankle last night, DD announced loudly in Sainsbury's that she found two flea bites on her stomach.

Lol at your dd Achillea! My dd came out into our garden and announced - very proudly - that she'd just killed two fleas!

Just combed kitty and found two fleas before she'd had enough of me. That was good compared to the thirty odd a couple of nights ago. Still not optimistic at all though - especially as I've run out of Indorex and dh is getting pissed off how much I keep spending on fleas

Does anyone have problems actually putting the drops on their cats. Ours have only to see the little phial and they are "off". It all requires such focused stalking and holding down I put it off and know I shouldn't but we don't seem to have the problems others have. Unless of course we are immune from flea bites but I have honestly never seen a flea on the cats or elsewhere.

I make sure I open the vial before going to get the cat - they seem to recogonise the snapping sound. Pin cat to the floor, drops on back of neck, using the end of the vial thingy to scrub up and down on the fur to ensure its well applied.

Better news today - done a flea inspection on the dog, 3 dead fleas in her fur and one live one. Live one was too quick so is still there worst luck. But the dead ones are encouraging that the spot on stuff has worked.

That's good news Viva! I combed kitty last night and got 7 dozy ones out - compared to thirty odd a couple of days ago. Dh saw a flea last night and we're still getting bitten so not confident at all here

Having just done a google search for flea problem I came upon this thread.
I have just sat an read all your posts and I just started sobbing
I dont feel as alone now, I have wanted to ask people for advice but i feel so dirty and ashamed.
We have had a flea problem for a couple of months, my girls get bitten BAD.
My youngest is a compulsive picker and she has made a right mess of herself scratching the bites.
I hoover up twice daily (upstairs and down), cats are lice combed every day, I have used sprays, bombs, collars ect and they have not helped!!!!
A couple of weeks ago I had my cats flead at the vets and im awaiting my cans of Indorex....I pray that this is going to help
Trouble is money, we are on a very low income at the moment and cannot afford to get the house fumigated...I have even considered letting my cats go for my families sanity but I just cant do it, its not like its thier fault.
My eldest cat is the problem he brings 1 in EVERY time he comes in!!!!!
I really am at my wits end my youngest has to go the docs 2moz as shes picked and picked and they have spread all over her

Have any of you cured your problem?? I hope so xx

Kbh, don't feel dirty. It's not a cleanliness thing, unfortunately if you have pets it can happen and it's been a bad year.

I do think, touch wood, that we've cracked it here. Didn't have to fumigate the house. I think the indorax is really good so that should help. Bloody expensive stuff though. I hope your fleas go soon.

Echoing vivalebeaver, nowt to be ashamed of just part and parcel of having pets - it does grind your nerves though so you have all my sympathies.

Echoing what I posted earlier in the thread vetsuk are really well priced, indorex is a bargin there compared to the vets. If you get some johnsons flea tablets they kill every live flea for 24 hours. My approach if I see any sign of a flea is to dose up my cats then spray through the house on the same day. Once the house is aired from the fumes I keep the cats inside to encourage any latent fleas to bite the cats and die!!

If you can afford it, the best method is to obsessively vacuum for a week (it encourages any eggs you may have missed in the spray fest to hatch) and then give the cats a couple of doses of the Johnsons tablets over the week. It seems to catch any stragglers who have somehow managed to avoid the indorexed spaces.

For prevention I've used effipro this year, it's got the same active ingredients as some of the more expensive ones and aside from one month when I forgot has worked really well- it's literally a couple of quid.

We had a major infestation at home. we switched from Frontline to Advantage. WHatever the difference, it sorted our flea problem. We also sprayed with Staykill - which we got from pets at home.

We have 2 cats and a dog. The fleas were largely gone after the first treatment, we did a follow up spray a month later to get any stragglers - mainly on the soft furnishings.

This year we have been flea free.

I do not blame your obsession with fleas on cats or any animal for that matter. The real problem lies with your pets bringing in fleas and those same fleas setting up shop on the carpet somewhere!

Gotcha 150ml 1-Shot Flea Fogger by STV International www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005348JVU/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_FuPAsb13TYP6G sorted my house right out and we were running with the bastards. Buy one for each room, one for every hallway and be prepared to do it more than once. Also comb the cats regularly and try to get them some flea tablets HTH

THIS THREAD IS OVER A YEAR OLD

I'm so glad I'm not alone, due to an error and badly dealt with situation that wasn't my fault I've been battling a flea infestation since July last year, it has consumed my life with constant Hoovering, spraying, high temperature washes most of the day every day and researching methods deterants anything to help me.
I've researched from commercial sites to professional studies and reports from entomologist and paratisologist, there's an awful lot of misleading, incorrect and conflicting information out there.
I sympathise with anyone who has or has had this battle, due to the length of time the authority responsible is taking What I've experienced I can say has been horrific, disgusting and sick, this has been the hardest battle I've faced in my life so far but I'm glad to say I'm vetting pest control company's now as I'm not taking any risk of this not being dealt with one time, my battle still continues with the authority responsible but my head will be in a better place and I can get my life back :)

I had a horrendous flea infestation last year!! We had flea lamps to catch them and we were regularly getting between 50-100 fleas a day!! It was insane!!! Me and DH spent loads of money on gadgets and sprays but we just couldn't get on top of it.

In the end I took them to the vet where they were each given a tablet (relatively new flea treatment) which starts killing fleas within four hours. We isolated our cats into one room for 48 hours and dead fleas were dropping off them - it was AMAZING!!!

We still treated the house but after weeks and weeks of me and DH trying to manage it ourselves those tablets cleared everything up within about 3 days. The tablets were only about £8 each.

The cause of this infestation was an error over ownership (by my landlord) of a section of garden which lead to a previous neighbour of the flat downstairs dumping rubbish in there and the foxes left the fleas, this garden a joined my garden and run paralle to my pathway :(
Saw them jumping outside right by my door step, on the hedges that run either side of my path and my landlord done no more than made it worse and spread the infestation into my garden.
Ive researched so much ive never came across a product that would clear an infestation within 3 days it sounds to good to believe lol
I cant wait to not experience this anymore, its horrific i want life back again.

Hiya, I'm a very old Mum but not a Grannie, and was just googling how many times I should hoover when I have used flea spray and this came up.

I just thought I would add a comment about the small number of fleas you are now seeing. It may be that they are actually treated fleas, since some products kill the fleas for seven days, then switch to hormonal treatment for the rest of a year. This means you get sight of fleas but they are ones that can't reproduce,so gradually you start to see less and less as the eggs in the carpet etc hatch and the fleas are sterilised. You might also see a few in this state from your cats as that is how the cat flea stuff works too.

But if you are getting a lot of fleas every year, I agree it's time to call in the professionals!

by the way, this year 2016 has apparently been a big year for fleas because of the muggy weather.

Good luck and keep calm.....

I use Advocate every three to four weeks in hot summer. Recently I switched to Broadline which I find better.
We had a bad flea infestation about four years ago. I used the antiflea spray, fumigator and powder about three times and vacuum cleaned everything to the last inch of its life. It worked wonders. We've never had a problem since and I'm anal about the broadline now.

I have an elderly female longhaired cat who seems to be a magnet for fleas....every summer i have an infestation and ive found that Indorex works every time....once my cat is no longer alive i will not have any more pets as fleas are a major pain in the ass.

OP. I heard it from a vet that sometimes Frontline can 'fail' even if you keep it up religiously. This was because my very allergic cat with allergies to everything had been on it ages and suddenly it didn't seem to work any more. I switched to Stronghold - which also doubles as a wormer - and haven't looked back in over 2 years. My cat is still allergic to everything and that's being controlled, but the flea issue - which can't be controlled with medication, it needs treatment - is a thing of the past.

Get some Stronghold.

DON'T PAY - THE COUNCIL WILL PAY TO HAVE YOUR HOUSE DE-FLEAD AS PART OF YOUR COUNCIL TAX!

Sorry your incorrect, some councils still offer the service free of charge, however councils have no statutory duty to cover pest control costs, due to budging cuts, the vast majority of councils are now charging for the service.

Your council tax does not cover the costs of this, it's a myth.