Fleas for Christmas?? WWUD

[Albieinthesun]

Me, DH, our toddler DD and cat have arrived at my in-laws and are staying over Christmas and NY. My BIL and wife have recently gotten kittens and are due to also come down for Christmas, they'll probably stay a week (everyone lives far apart and we have always had long christmases together). BIL texted the family WhatsApp group on Fri saying the kittens have fleas. They have delayed their journey to try and get rid of the fleas as much as poss but are still coming down. I've read flea infestations take at least 2 weeks to get rid of, and concerned that my toddler (who crawls on the floor / licks things constantly) will get bitten, and that we will end up taking the fleas back to our home too but I've never dealt with fleas before. Should I be worried? What would you do?

Has your brother-in-law put some spot on for kittens on the back of their neck? If so that should take about 24 hours to kill them. They need to get a flea comb and I’ve heard if you put a little bit of fairy washing up liquid in a tiny bit of water you can bathe the kittens too what you’re talking about is when it’s on carpets if they’re coming to your mother-in-law‘s house if they’ve had the treatment, they shouldn’t really have many fleas plus You should’ve already put treatment on your cat anyway if you haven’t get some

You say you haven’t dealt with fleas before so what are you doing with your own cat because I put treatment on my animals every month so surely that’s what you were doing

I’d tell them to get proper stuff from the vet, the drops that go on the neck or Bravecto, also prescription. Your in-law’s house may well end up infested. I’d be really unhappy with this, although Bravecto works very quickly, however the kittens might be too young and it does have a somewhat interesting reputation. I use it on my dogs, but some reviews are worrying. Vet is the right thing, imo, asap.

We've got an indoor cat who has never had fleas, we've got him on treatment so he should be fine. I'm trying to work out what the likelihood is of fleas surviving my BIL's cleaning / treatment and coming for Christmas!

If she’s in Britain, you can buy frontline or advantage online and in shops you do not need a vet for that

Well it does say that spot on treatment takes 24 hours to kill them like frontline or advantage if they can get pretty much everything off them with that plus using flea comb and bathing them then it should be fine if your cat already had treatment on then your cats not going to be bothered because they will die on your cat

Thanks - all 3 cats involved have been treated by vet-prescribed stuff, but think it just makes the fleas infertile or means the eggs don't hatch I think?

It kills them when they come on and bite the cat now what I would do is buy something you can buy online to spray on the carpet because then it protects the carpets from getting stuff as well if the kittens do come to your mum’s house

All the cats are treated, and the two kittens who had the fleas have been washed. But yeah in-laws have a lot of soft furnishings / carpets and worried the fleas will love it here

Are they bringing the kittens with them?

Containment might be a good idea at the in-laws house. They stay in their crate/ one room, preferably without soft furnishings, and you minimise contact? You should minimise your own cat's contact with kittens anyway, and older cat is not usually pleased to meet kittens that aren't theirs!

We have just dealt with a flea ridden cat!

If the kittens are treated with a flea treatment they should be good within 24 hours!

We've had a week of hoovering, washing & spraying Indorex Defence Spray on all surfaces so you might want to take a can of that if you are worried but other than on the actual cat we haven't seen a flea or been bitten ourselves!

Okay thanks - that's really helpful reassurance, think I was imagining the Fleas coming here then spreading back to our family home and wanted to find a proportionate response

I wanted to suggest this but it feels cruel for everyone as we were/are all excited about meeting the kittens. Deffo not worried about our cat as he's probs going to keep to his own as cats do!

Thanks this is helpful - did you have to hoover / spray daily?

Yep! So we will be 6 adults 1 toddler and 3 cats (and ??? Fleas) for Christmas 🤭

Flea bombing the house is the quickest and easiest way to get rid of fleas. It takes a couple of hours, and you'll need to be out of the house whilst it does its thing. Usually one treatment does it, but I did once have to do it twice.

Dealing with fleas is part and parcel of having cats.

Your poor cat - you’re taking him to a strange place with other strange cats in? He’s going to be really stressed, never mind the fleas.

It might actually be kinder to the kittens not to be overwhelmed with lots of people and space. Suggest a little corner for them and people go there to "meet" them. Also, kittens being allowed to wander is a bit of a nightmare- they can get themselves into the tiniest spaces and get 'lost'!

I would go regardless of the fleas. But I would be expecting them to do everything possible to get rid of them asap (like they should do anyway)

But I think it's absolute madness anyway that there's going to be your cat going down and these other kittens in the first place!
I can possibly understand one household's cat if they don't mind new places but it's crazy that anyone around bring together a cat from one household and kittens from another household temporarily, somewhere new to all of them!!

I thought it was well known that front line is no longer effective? We used to use it for mites on the horse until it stopped working.

Our cat is very happy and used to coming to his grandparents - but yes the kitten news was a bit of a surprise for us, BIL has always wanted cats but not sure they gave much regard to timings around Christmas etc and not much we could do at that point as it was too late to think about cat sitters!

Not true it still works

The kittens should be relatively contained anyway for their own sake.

introducing them to a new house, new people and a new adult cat all at once is madness

'Thanks this is helpful - did you have to hoover / spray daily?'

Sprayed once hoovered daily for a week! TBH Getting all the soft furnishing washed & dried has been the most onerous bit!