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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

fleas

28 replies

scrab806ble · 16/05/2010 06:39

oh bollocks, it's biting season again. Why can I never have a spring without being chomped? I react so badly and itch so much. AIBU to think there could be a product out there that can take the itch out? Am only one in house that is bitten. Only have one little cat...He is de-flead regularly, house is sprayed regularly.Sorry, bit garbled, typing while scratching...

OP posts:
Happybutknackered · 16/05/2010 09:04

Have you used Frontline on your cat? It's the only one that works.

RunawayWife · 16/05/2010 09:10

Garlic. Eat garlic and put it in your cats food.

Original poster
scrab806ble · 16/05/2010 09:15

I eat loads of garlic, always in everything. Cat has frontline drops.
DD1 just shown me bites, she takes after me groan
Sweet blood my gran used to say...
Never fed cat garlic, will try today. Thanks .[hopeful face emoticon]

OP posts:
darkandstormy · 16/05/2010 10:35

Do you have hedgehogs in your garden, they are notorious flea carriers.

NorbertDentressangle · 16/05/2010 10:39

lol - I was about to say have you been using Frontline as IME it doesn't work but then read Happybutknackered's post!

Whichever one you're using, maybe its worth changing it?

Original poster
scrab806ble · 16/05/2010 10:45

Not seen any hedghogs, doesn't mean not there. What other products are there (without spending fortune...)?
Have industrial strength spray for house, can only use when DDs out...in about 30 mins...

OP posts:
NorbertDentressangle · 16/05/2010 10:48

We use Stronghold which we get from the vets. I think its a combined flea and worming treatment .

My neighbour uses Advance on her cat, also from the vets.

Both seem to work whereas Frontline left us with a flea problem a few years ago.

Original poster
scrab806ble · 16/05/2010 12:25

Thanks ND. Maybe should just go to vets, and get it dealt with.

OP posts:
martine66 · 16/05/2010 12:35

Hi I would just like to add frontline no longer works on my cat. I use advantage drops which I buy online at petcaremart.co.uk which is cheaper than vets, had to spray whole house last year as it got out of control but so much better now.

borderslass · 16/05/2010 12:47

It's one of our cats who's allergic in this house, if he gets a stray flea he loses loads of his fur we have to use the spray on him every 3 months and he also has a course of anti-histamines every year to try and prevent any reaction.

nagoo · 16/05/2010 13:30

You can take an antihistamine (unless you are pg, in which case sorry you can't) to stop the itching. I frontline ours but last year we could not get rid, so i had to do the whole house with stuff from vet, and got some special frontline variant from vet that is in a yellow box and will kill all the eggs larvae etc. And hoovering all the time.
i am the only one bitten in our house too. The fleas like me more than the cats.

arsesandoldlace · 16/05/2010 13:44

For anyone who gets the flea bites I have extremely valuable information!!!

Mix a few drops each of citronella and eucalyptus essential oils in a spray bottle with water.

Make sure this is a fairly strong smelling solution, then spray your hair, ankles, slippers etc with it.

My DD gets eaten alive unless we spray her daily.

But it really does work I promise!

borderslass · 16/05/2010 13:49

also to keep them at bay get a flea collar cut up and put a piece in your hoover bag [vets recommendation]

Original poster
scrab806ble · 16/05/2010 15:30

some brilliant ideas, thank you (off to buy ess oils and flea collar!)

OP posts:
nubbins · 16/05/2010 17:28

tea tree oil worked for our bites. Vosene do a shampoo that keeps nits at bay, perhaps it would work for fleas too if you washed your legs with it?!

Original poster
scrab806ble · 17/05/2010 13:43

Thanks Nubbins, have that shampoo for dd's, will try it!

OP posts:
massivemammaries · 11/09/2010 15:38

We never had a flea problem until our cat had kittens .... have regularly flea treated the cats with frontline but didn't seem to work..... now the kittens have gone and so have the cats but can't get rid of the fucking fleas.

Have just fumigated the entire house with flea foggers ..... If I see 1 more flea in my house I think I will burn it down

Mowiol · 11/09/2010 16:27

Is it definitely fleas and not Berry bug?
Our cat had fleas and I did the Spot On, sprayed, vacuumed everything for days on end (to get rid of all stages of life-cycle).
That stopped the fleas but then I got bitten in a patch just above my waistband and it was Berry Bug.
It's the season just now and they are around in the garden - maybe it's that?

DomesticG0ddess · 11/09/2010 16:35

Just Indorex-ed the house a couple of days ago and it seems to be doing the trick.... and we had them in several rooms. No carpets, but wooden floors with small gaps where fleas like to lay eggs apparently. Cats have Bob Martin Spot On. I haven't been bitten since we sprayed it, thank goodness.

Fleas sometimes live in your lawn too Hmm, so I have read.

OP, for the itching, you could try those little electric shock devises - I find they work for mossie bites. Travel section of Boots.

Vallhala · 11/09/2010 16:57

Frontline drops and Indorex spray for the carpets/curtains/furniture/cat's bed etc. Indorex lasts for up to a year and I can recommend it. Not for the eco-warriors amongst us, but then again I'm not one of those!

Best prices for Frontline are on PetMeds online as far as I am aware. They also sell Indorex but IIRC I found it on ebay for a pound or so less than PetMeds charge.

Bugrit · 11/09/2010 17:38

Was told by vet that many animals are now immune to Frontline - it stopped working effectively on my cat earlier this year. I now use advance instead and works fine.

happywheezer · 11/09/2010 17:41

I was bitten about twenty times in bed the other night by fleas, must have got on my clothing from the dog.

the best thing I've found is taking the anti allergy tablets, they stop the itching, the need to scratch.

My dr told me this, it's the one with citrizine in I think, all supermarkets do these tabs for cheapness

Bugrit · 11/09/2010 17:45

sorry - it's called advantage, not advance.

kreecherlivesupstairs · 11/09/2010 20:13

Feeling your pain.Although we don't currentlly have an animal, We moved into a flat that had previously had 2 cats, 3 dogs and a litter of kittens. DH noticed the infestation and phoned me at the flat we had lived in (he'd gone to his job before I joined him). His worst experience was being in a whole school assembly and seeing something spring from him to the person in front. The council fumigated the flat.

PerpetuallyAnnoyedByHeadlice · 11/09/2010 20:15

this is an old old thread folks!!