Please help - fleas ruining my life!

[Sofiabella]

As the title says please help 😞

So long story short our neighbours moved and left their cat behind. Cat took to crying outside our door and stupidly we took pity on him and let him in. Turns out he has fleas - as soon as we found this out we stopped letting him in and contacted his owners via FB.
So cat has now gone from the house but the fleas have not. My little boy has been bitten to pieces, his poor legs. I feel like the worst mum in the world.
I am hoovering, flea bombing, spraying, washing on hot temps, setting traps every night with washing up liquid and light sources but literally every day there are more bites and it's honestly making me feel sick.
Is the only way to get a professional in? Will the absence of a host to feed on help us? Literally sat sobbing about my poor little boys legs, hate myself for it.

Indorex worked for us.

I was in exact same situation 11 years ago. We got ourselves a little kitten. Unbeknown to us he had flees. Before we realised, they were everywhere! I literally was crying my eyes out out of shame, embarrassment and helplessness at the vets. They told me that it is very common problem and told me to try indorex! That stuff worked wonders in no time at all! The supermarket stuff is shit and waste of money. If I knew that, I would never be in that situation. We were using Bob Martin at the time as well... they shouldn't be selling that crap!

"Take him to a rescue"
Yes because there are cat rescues at every corner. And the first thing a rescue does is chase the owner through the pets microchip. He's not my cat to give away!

When we had fleas I used Jungle Formula insect repellent on myself and it seemed to work as I stoppped getting bitten whilst I was dealing with it. Also like PP had bottoms tucked into socks.

Jungle formula kids repellent ordered too thank you!

This. I have cats and battled for weeks using other sprays. Once I used this - just once - all gone! Amazing.

We had this although we did have cats in the house - the Indorex, flea bombs and something called dia earth worked. I was crying and mortified but since opening up to people I found out loads of people have had them so don't feel bad

Just to give you hope, we suffered for about 3 years because the expensive brand treatment from the vet for the cat wasn't working apparently, so despite Indorexing the shit out of the house, they wouldn't go. Once we changed the cats treatment it did work. I also used to spray my DD with insect repellant at night, clean PJ's and socks (difficult in the heat I know). This is the first year she's not had a single one ..for some reason she's v tasty and delicious to all bitey insects.

Why don't you get flea treatment for the cat aswell. Some supermarkets stock the liquid you apply to the nape of their next.
At least if it gets inside again it won't reinfest your home.
We used Rentokil to fumigate the house, the fleas were apparently from the birds nest in the eaves.
It's a soul destroying situation but there is light at the end of the tunnel too.

Diatomaceous Earth is micro-irritant to things like fleas etc, it gets in them, dries them out and kills them off. People use it for pet dust baths, you can put it under furniture, round the edges of floorboards etc where the fleas and the eggs will be.

When we moved in here we ended up with an infestation because the eggs can stay dormant for ages, it was horrific. But the Indorex combined with this earth sprinkled about sorted everything. The earth has the benefit it doesn't wear out like chemicals.

There are a few guides online which you might want to read about trying it.
https://www.thebugsquad.com/fleas/diatomaceous-earth-fleas/

While you wait
Buy salt and add it to the carpets leave for a few hours then hover it helps dry and egg in the carpets so no more can hatch then empty hoover

I had this years ago. Phoned the council and they sent the pest control in. Cost about £40 back then (I reckon I had already spent twice this on flea products) . I had to leave the house for the morning and they sprayed everywhere. Worked a treat.

Indorex! Wash everything you can. And hoover, hoover, hoover every day for a week until the life cycle is broken.

And Pets at Home do stock Indorex although ours was out of stock last week. I think the weather has caused a bit of a flea infestation everywhere.

She doesn't have the cat 😃 But supermarket flea stuff is just a waste of money.

Today has been awful. The cat has cried outside all day walking in circles around the house trying to get in the front and back. It's like being held hostage, as soon as I open the door he would try to get in.
What do I do? I've messaged his owners again who only live around the corner and they've just said "I can't make him stay in" told them about the fleas and they said if they see him they'll put some flea drops on his neck.
If it wasn't for the fleas I would take him in. Is there any way I can know for sure the fleas have gone? Do I need a vet? Or do I just toughen up and continue to ignore him? I told his owners I haven't fed him all day and can't have him in the house so they are very aware that he is hungry and out in the rain (underneath my son's water table😞)
On a brighter note we haven't had any new bites today.

If you have a nit comb you can use that to look for flea dirt on the cat. He’s probably confused if they’ve not moved far! They should really have kept him in for a while.

Another vote for Indorex, I had the same thing happen with a neighbours cat. She made herself at home when I had open doors/windows a few summers ago, and she had bad fleas.

Speak to the neighbours and get the spot-on stuff from them. It’s really easy to apply if you give the cat something to eat. Let us know what it is as like Bob Martin flea spray, some of it is useless.

At night, set up a lamp on the floor in the rooms you think are infested with as many plates of water around it as you can. The drowned fleas give you an idea of the infestation levels.

If/once the cat is treated, let it back in as it will actually help as they’ll bite it and the treatment will then kill them. Vacuum and whole house indorex each morning and go out for a few hours.

Good luck!

Johnsons 4Fleas Tablets for Cats are a brilliant thing to kill living fleas on cats. It makes them go a bit wild, I shut our cat in the bathroom for ease of cleanup as it kills them all and they drop off.

OP here with an update. Fleas are gone, cat is back 🤣 We're keeping him ❤️

You are a star

Cat looks perfectly at home 😁

Excellent. 😁