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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think expensive flea treatment should actually kill fleas?

83 replies

Alanisadick · 21/02/2023 00:34

Some of you may remember my threads about Alan the cat pissing in shopping bags and infesting my house with rodents.

This time, it’s not exactly his fault, but he and his sister Hattie are bloody riddled with fleas. I diligently apply advocate to them every month from the vets, at just over £20 a month, and as far as I can tell it does absolutely fuck all. DD1 seems to be susceptible to flea bites and always has scabby ankles, for some reason they don’t seem to bite me and dd2. Have indorexed the house and hoovered, but the key problem as far as I can tell is that the flea stuff doesn’t actually kill the fleas on the cats.

I bought a flea comb a couple of weeks ago and I am doing daily ‘nit checks’ on the cats, and finding many live fleas on them each day, despite the fact that in theory they should still be covered by the advocate.

The vet nurse suggested trying the tablets which apparently 90% of cats will just eat like a treat. Well guess what, mine are both in the 10% that won’t go anywhere near them, so they ended up going in the bin. Alan sulks with me for 2 days after I put the spot on on him, honestly I don’t think I could bring myself to wrestle with him to get a tablet down his neck (I use spot on wormer too). And driving them both to the vets every month to get them to administer the tablets would be mightily inconvenient as well as distressing for them (they are not fans of the vets).

They are both hairy as fuck which I feel could be part of the problem, maybe if they were short haired the fleas wouldn’t have so many places to hide?

Any ideas? Feel like I might as chuck 20 quid in the bin each month for all the good the advocate does.

To think expensive flea treatment should actually kill fleas?

OP posts:

Silversalt · 21/02/2023 21:58

I was at the vet yesterday for cat's annual check. I had fleaed him a couple of weeks ago with frontline. Vets said he has or has recently had fleas.
Vet said all over the counter flea treatments are outdated due to resistance and gave him a dose of bravecto.
I actually used to use bravecto but couldn't get it in lockdown and switched to some I could buy online.

Love the idea that you could comb or bath a cat. No chance.

mommatoone · 21/02/2023 22:03

Silversalt · 21/02/2023 21:58

Love the idea that you could comb or bath a cat. No chance.

My cat loves a good comb because hes a lazy bugger and honestky treats it as a pampering session it think 🤣... put him near a bath though- he would scratch my bloody eyes out!

Original poster

Alanisadick · 21/02/2023 23:39

Mine both love the ‘nit comb’ I have a jug with soapy water and they watch me dunking the fleas in there, I think they kind of get what I am trying to do.

Have ordered a trial of Itch Pet, so I’ll see how that goes. Maybe I will phone the council pest people and see if they will come out, trouble is with my house is that A) it’s not exactly minimalist 😂 and without a few months of decluttering I’m not sure how I could confidently know I have got the Indorex everywhere it needs to be, and also some things are just way too big for me to be able to move or get to, eg my bed is a big sleigh bed which has no clearance underneath, and my wardrobe is huge and definitely unmovable without dismantling. If Itch Pet doesn’t work I’ll ask the vet about the injection, I wish they’d told me about that a couple of months ago when they told me the only options were advocate or the pills.

OP posts:

GoldilockMom · 21/02/2023 23:43

When you use the flea stuff you need to do them outside as the fleas just jump off ready to go again.
The fleas do bite you - you just done react - the daughter who does react - use a bite prevention spray on her legs to keep them off.

You can get flea traps - the hop in and drown - worth a google.

RunYouJuiceBitch · 21/02/2023 23:44

OP, 'Itch Pet' is fipronil and S-methoprene - it's just Frontline by another name.

AMA2023 · 21/02/2023 23:51

Bravecto is good as mentioned
Mess about with their fur while they're sleeping, stroke it, part it, ruffle etc
Then when they're asleep you can part the fur and put the spot on... if you time it right you get about 2 seconds between doing it and them waking up and noticing
Just be prepared for a furious look

RunYouJuiceBitch · 22/02/2023 00:23

winterpastasalad · 21/02/2023 14:26

I had this problem recently and became quite the expert. Fleas don't jump off a host, they only get into soft furnishings/carpets because they have fallen off. A mature flea will die after 4-5 days of not having fed from a host (humans don't count, our blood protein levels are not adequate) so if possible either keep cat outside or isolate in a certain room.
The best way to get on top of an infestation is to comb every few hours. I found that dampening the comb was more effective. I used front line first which didn't seem to do anything then 2 weeks later Advantage. I restricted dcat to downstairs and during that time washed (at 60 degrees) all bedding, duvets, throws etc and sprayed mattresses and hoovered everything. Eggs on carpets will hatch into larvae and they can stay alive a few weeks without feeding so really important to keep spraying/hoovering AND not giving cat access to these rooms. Within 24 hours of treatment adults should start dying but I found it took a good bit longer. Be really religious about combing, don't give the adults a chance to lay eggs. Keep this up for 4 weeks, it was only about 2 weeks after second treatment that I was confident that we were in the clear.
Also, spray EVERYWHERE. I found larvae down the seams of the leather sofa that the cat rarely even sat on 🤢

Eggs on carpets will hatch into larvae and they can stay alive a few weeks without feeding so really important to keep spraying/hoovering AND not giving cat access to these rooms.

I tend to advise the opposite. Allow the cats access to everywhere in the house they have previously had access to, provided they have been treated with an effective product.

A treated cat is a walking flea killer. You want pupating fleas to emerge from their cocoons, jump onto the cats, and die.

Keeping cats out of rooms with flea pupae in just means pupae can hang out in their cocoons in the carpet for months and months.

Iris1976 · 22/02/2023 00:31

I swear by the seresto collars,I replace mine every 7 months to be sure they don't run out,very spicy when I have 4 cats but worth it for piece of mind,also indorex the house every 11 months.

Spongeboob · 22/02/2023 01:50

Imidacloprid is the ingredient in Johnson's spot on. The flea tablets contain Nitenpyram, The former kills on contact, the latter kills and has them falling off dead on the floor within 20 minutes.
You can crush the tablets between two teaspoons into powder, put a layer of Lick-E-lix (available in supermarkets) in a bowl and scrape the powder on top. Just put a bit more Lick-E-Lix over than and jobs a good un. No buggering about with pills. But again, get the council to spray the house. Can you tell we suffered a huge infestation that I’m still not over

WiddlinDiddlin · 22/02/2023 05:26

Pest controllers will use a pump cannister with a long nozzle.

You will still need to tidy up super well so they can get to everything, but they can get under stuff generally.

This will be why you've not got to the bottom of the infestation.

It's a pain in the arse but the professional treatment is the way forward, and the tidying up/hoovering the shit out of everything/washing stuff is necessary.

TerfIngOnTheBeach · 22/02/2023 05:33

This is a house problem, the flea bites on the ankles is a give away, you need professional pest control in the house then keep up with the spot on treatment. One of who hold the cat the other part the fur to get on the skin.

I 💯 say the house is the issue.

AnotherEmma · 24/02/2023 21:37

Glad i found this thread. We have fleas in the house and it's driving me crazy. Have noted all the advice!

We were lax about treating the cats which is why it got so bad. Am obviously on it now. Using Stronghold Plus (contains selamectin) from the vets which costs a fortune. I also have Advantage (contains imidacloprid) and something I got in a free trial from Vetbox (contains fipronil and s-methoprine). So not sure whether to alternate the different kinds or what. I have a feeling the Vetbox stuff is not going to be any good.

jamimmi · 24/02/2023 23:17

We had this issue with ours. Came home from a 2 week holiday to a moving floor😱. Que professional clearance. Cats were using frontline. Vet advised its usless as fleas are resistant now. Been using 3 monthly bravetco from the vets ever since.. £70 every 3 months for 2 but not seen a flea in 4 years.. Treat the house and the cats it's the only way.

petermaddog · 24/02/2023 23:42

Lufenuron for animals cats and dogs read the directions people dont read them/oil need with oral flea meds
it kills adult fleas
Nitenpyram also for eggs fast/ lufe is good for a month between them fleas be gone in 2 days
same in food some with some oil coconut olive even canoli
for folks in USA petneedmeds .com

petermaddog · 24/02/2023 23:45

most flea meds have these 2 thing and cheaper when you get the plain label i used peogram for years til leaRNED THE MEDS NAMESSEEE POST ABOVE

Umbonkers · 24/02/2023 23:54

After spending a fortune on over the counter sprays, foggers ,tablets etc to deal with an infestation that lasted for months - the only thing that worked with our dogs was Bravecto. Gave them their first dose and combed them through - all fleas were dead and we’ve had no issues since. Repeat dose every three months and I book them in at the groomers just after to get them to washed and groomed to double check.

Original poster

Alanisadick · 19/05/2023 20:24

UPDATE!!

I took both of the cats to the vets early last month and luckily I saw a locum vet who was amazing and really knew his stuff. I explained that the cats and the house were riddled with fleas. The night before I had made a ‘flea trap’ on the landing carpet, a shallow bowl of water with a bit of washing up liquid, and in the morning there were a LOT of fleas in it…that’s how bad things were.

He said that he was confident that he could
sort the issue out. He explained that none of the commonly used flea treatments work anymore, and they haven’t for some time, eg frontline, advocate. I was like yeah I know, I keep phoning the vets to tell them that! He said that although those flea treatments killed fleas, they didn’t kill them that quickly, so they’d already had a chance to breed before dying, and then you end up with a lot more fleas. So he prescribed one called Bravecto. It was expensive (I think it was £86 for the two cats), but it only needs to be put on every 12 weeks.

He said it was a good idea to treat the house, I said I’d do my best but there were some pieces of furniture I wouldn’t be able to move or get under. He said even if I did nothing in terms of treating the house, within 4 months I would have no fleas in the house. He said the cats would effectively become flea traps, and because the fleas already in the house would be killed before they could reproduce, they would dwindle in numbers and eventually I’d have none.

I am amazed, pretty much immediately the cats were scratching a lot less, they now only scratch very occasionally which is obviously a straggler hopping on. No evidence at all of fleas when I put a comb through them. None of us have been bitten, particularly DD who was riddled with bites on her legs, since they had the treatment put on.

Just thought I’d post an update in case this helps anyone with a similar problem!

OP posts:

Thelnebriati · 20/05/2023 10:48

I don't want to be a Debbie Downer, but...you've found something that works for now, it will eventually stop working as the fleas develop immunity to it. Just as they did to the other chemicals.
Continue to use mechanical methods (hoovering, diatomaceous earth, sticky traps) because they cannot develop an immunity to those.

Softoprider · 20/05/2023 10:55

OP I always find that no matter what flea treatment you use, cats will always pick fleas up from outside. When my cat gets fleas I groom with the flea comb every day plus the treatments and this does the trick. She likes the grooming too so we bond over the fleas !

MereDintofPandiculation · 20/05/2023 11:16

Savlon is quite good for reducing the itch on humans, if that doesn’t work, then Afterbite.

PurpleNebula84 · 20/05/2023 11:31

Seresto collars work really well. They did get an over hype on SM for the side effects, however, the numbers affected remain incredibly low and much lower than associated side effects of spot on treatments.

Some of the Spot ons don't work due to resistance.

I use Advantage for my cat and have no issues and Seresto for my dog. Used Front line before and I might as well have not bothered.

I always put the extra length cut off from the dogs collar underneath the cushion of the cats bed.

Get a couple of flea foggers. You will need to be out of the house (cats too) for a few hours, but it should help reach places that are difficult to reach with other sprays/vacuum.

Indorex doesn't actually kill fleas, but prevents them from reaching maturity to reproduce and does this by affecting the eggs.

Floralnomad · 20/05/2023 11:43

People had been suggesting Bravecto and other vet strength products since you started posting @Alanisadick it’s not a revelation . Most people know that the cheaper OTC / itch pet / non prescription flea products are simply a waste of time and money .

RoobarbandCustud · 20/05/2023 13:07

It seems to be a ladder. Fipronil (Frontline) worked for us for years, until it just didn't. We are now on Imidacloprid (Advantage) which is still working (but is terribly toxic and getting into watersystems after people wash their hands after applying it), Good to hear that we can progress to Bravecto if needed.

AnotherEmma · 20/05/2023 13:47

Floralnomad · 20/05/2023 11:43

Lol, yes I did find it amusing that OP had posted about the genius vet that offered Bravecto, when so many people had already recommended it on this thread ages ago!

Serena73 · 20/05/2023 14:06

I have had no real success with any type of spot on - they only work for a week or so and the fleas come back. In the end I gave up and now comb them with a flea come every couple of days, particularly in summer. I hoover a lot but my garden in quite wild and I have seen fleas hopping about in the grass on bad years so 'm not sure treating the house is enough anyway. Plus, I don't like overuse of chemicals. Regular combing seems quite successful for us, definitely not worse than the useless spot ons!

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