Just seen a flea on the cat - are we infested or am I over-reacting?

[Linus33]

So cross with myself, I've become a bit lax with the cat's flea treatment (advocate) but i treated the cat at the weekend which must have been about 6 weeks between treatments. This morning I've just seen a live but if assume dying flea on my pj leg (yuck).

I'm now frantically washing bedding and hoovering and have got my hand on the trigger of the steamer to steam soft furnishings. This is just one flea, am I over-reacting or do you think we really will be infested?

I promise faithfully to advocate the cat monthly from now on

I never take any chances if I see any fleas I flea bomb the house and everything gets cleaned.

You are probably going to be just fine. This has happened to us a couple of times (spotting of a rogue flea). I've always just immediately treated the cats and washed their bedding on a boil wash and haven't ever had a major issue with infestation.

I've possibly just been very lucky, but not sure about bombing the house unless really necessary (have to say, we don't have any carpets, though, so perhaps that has helped?)

Don't panic just yet. Give your cat a brush with a flea brush, and see if it has any flea dirt on it (specs of black, it's flea poo!) If it has a lot, you might have a problem. Fleas will tend to hop on to a cat for food, and then hop off. We're battling fleas right now with our three cats, never had fleas before, this is the first time. They seem to be a huge problem this year for a lot of people.

OK - thanks for the sound advice.

I've now washed all the bedding and hoovered throughout. I don't have a flea brush so I've nit combed the cat - which was not at all impressed - to identify any flea poo. There is evidence of poo. Can't decide if it's a lot or not but it was there.

Don't know what flea bombing is but if we were infested would you see the buggers hopping about?

Daren't risk sharing this with DH who didn't want a cat in the first place and with the genocide of the local bird population this might be another nail... but I will do my utmost to debug and protect my little feline fiend, sorry friend!

Don't know what flea bombing is but if we were infested would you see the buggers hopping about?

Only when it gets really bad. Otherwise you just spend a few weeks wondering why you keep getting insect bites...

I recommend flea-powering all the carpets, investing in flea spray for soft furnishings, and hoovering daily for a month. Then hoovering every other day for another month. That's what it took to rid us of our infestation!

Indorex is very effective at treating a house.