Cat fleas

[MABS]

Sorry to raise a horrible subject but I'm having real problems. We've 3 cats - all have monthly Program flea stuff from vet - but they've still got them, or at least they're still in the house. We've sprayed Raid around several times but thes b**Y things keep biting ds and dd. Any ideas ?

We've had this problem before too.

The Program stuff won't kill the fleas on the cat so you may need to use something else to get rid of them. Once they're flea free the Program stuff keeps them that way as it stops them breeding. There's another flea treatment which you put on the back of their necks under the collar which kills fleas really well.

We had a spray for the house called something like Canovel? It began with a C but I can't remember exactly what it was! It seemed to shift the fleas from the carpet etc anyway.

Advantage - is the stuff we use on the back of the cat necks. And yes it works. The other thing is fleas like dark places so hoover extremely well around skirting boards/ under settee cushions. If really desperate you could try contacting the council

We use Frontline - drops on the back of the neck, so sounds like the Advantage that helenmc uses. We used to use Program, but found we still had a few fleas lurking around as the Proram doesn't kill them, just makes them sterile - forget humanity, I want to wipe them out!
Anyhow, Frontline was recommended by a vet friend, and kills all fleas within 24 hrs - have to be careful with little ones tho', as the cats should not be handled within this time.

I'm going mad, in previous post I said we use Program , but dh (he who knows everything )has said we changed to Frontline on their necks 6 months ago - and we've still got the little buggers...!

MABS, the Frontline stuff is very good and kills the blighters if they are on the cat, but if they had already started breeding in the carpets, you're up a gum tree! There was another thread about fleas the other day.

The stuff you buy from supermarkets/pet shops is useless, you may as well spray them with air freshener. Ask your vet for a jumbo can of Indorex to spray on the carpets (esp. around the skirting boards) and hopefully they will be obliterated!

I described what worked for us on the Slugs thread - Nuvan Staykil spray on the bedding and anywhere else they sleep for the long term problem (ie to break the cycle) and the Nuvan powder on the cats to kill the current fleas. You have to ask for it from the pharmacist. You only need to spray every 8 or 12 weeks (it's ages since I last used it).

MABS - A friend of mine who worked as a manager for Rentokil said apart from the chemicals, the most crucial thing to do is to give the place a vacuuming like it had never seen before.

When we were afflicted and I got a man in to spray the first instruction was to vacuum thoroughly, including moving the furniture & vac'ing the furniture. Then empty the vac immediately, seal the bag and bin it.

Good luck

We give our cat one of these one the back of the neck things (don't know which one sorry). I had always assumed that if you treated the cat regularly (which we don't do) that eventually all the fleas will jump on the cat to have a nibble and then die and eventually you will have no fleas without having to spray all those nasty chemicals around your house. I could be wrong but certainly they stop biting me when the cat has been treated!

Don't just vaccuum -- dose the floors, esp. carpets, with table salt, leave overnight, and then vacuum. The salt kills the flea larvae, and of course, is wonderfully non-toxic to us big mammals. Salt won't get you 100% rid of the fleas, but if your cats go outside at all, you'll never get completely free of the blighters.

In California, where I grew up, cat fleas are a regular summer scourge. I just couldn't own pets if we went back to live there. I'm allergic and come up with welts... blech. The salt thing really does work, but you obviously need a good vacuum cleaner, and at ideally weekly applications.

I remember having to confess to our neighboour that our cat had fleas after she told me he slept in their airing cupboard during the day. Soooo embarrassing!