Fleas!!

[LilllyLovesLife]

We have moved into a house and it's mega infested with fleas. My Cat is up to date with her frontline and has never had fleas before but is itching like mad! When I go upstairs (which is fully carpetted) within 2 mins I will have about 5 fleas on each leg!! They are smaller than other fleas I have seen so I am hoping they have just hatched so hoping I can get them before they all breed (We have been here almost 2 months and it's only got like this in the last week). Judging by how many cats have been trying to get into our house (and getting it anytime a door is left open) I think the previous tenants (Gross people who left food everywhere) probably let them all in and fed them. Next door seem to have loads of cats, and don't seem to give their cats any flea treatment.

I have just used 3 tubs of flea killing powder on the carpet upstairs and on the stairs and beds and also sprayed the curtains with flea killing spray. Bedding all in the wash as we speak and I have no kids here till tomorrow afternoon so plan to leave it all on the carpets overnight and hoover tomorrow. (I can sleep at my parents tonight if needed).

Is there anything else I can do?
Any help would be really great!

Sounds as though your cat may have a flea bite allergy - so even if you have managed to kill the fleas/larvae your cat will still itch. The flea sprays/powders differ greatly in their strength. I would only use one purchased from your vet. If things haven't improved by after the weekend (given your treatments) I would contact your vets to discuss. Your cat may need an anti-inflammatory. Good luck!

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we used this here

make sure you get in the corners, under the raditors and underthe bed. Only have had flea problems once, we have 2 cats and a dog but one year a tom cat kept coming in and spraying too

After living through several flea infestations, and trying everything going, I have to say that Frontline is as much use as a chocolate teapot in these situations. All Frontline does is kills the fleas that are on your cat. It doesn't kill the fleas and eggs that are in your carpet.

The best thing to get is a oral tratment called Program. You can get it from the vets or from pet websites. Its costs about the same as frontline. Its different to frontline, because it kills the flea lifecycle by making any flea that bites your cat infertile, so their eggs won't hatch (fleas only lay eggs after biting a cat).

Treat your cat with Program and then vacuum like mad (the vibrations of the vacuum cleaner make the eggs that are in your carpet hatch). Keep trating her and keep vacuuming. The fleas will go away within a few weeks.

You might have the odd egg hatch again at some point in the future (they can live in your carpet for years), but as long as you keep treating Tiddles with the Program, you shouldn't get another infestation. If I were you, I wouldn't waste your money on any other kinds of sprays or treatments. They just don't work.

The other option is to re-carpet. Program is cheaper.

You are going to have at least a week, probably 3 of baby fleas appearing, I'm afraid.
What you are seeing is fleas hatching from their pupae, you can't kill these with anything, and they are hatching in response to your movement in the house. What you can do, is get some good quality flea spray from the vet, like acclaim, staykill or Indorex. There are probably others but these are the ones I'd recommend. These have an adulticide in them to kill the emerging adults and an Insect Growth Regulator to stop eggs from hatching and Larvae to pupate. Hoover before you spray to encourage the fleas to hatch, then spray.
You will have a couple of bad days, but then numbers should tail off.
If your cat is up to date on her FL she will be scratchy but shouldn't get bitten too badly before the fleas on her die.
Do your best to stop other, untreated cats getting in too.
HTH

I think you can get pest control in, I am going to be dealing with this shortly as we got a new kitten that was supposedly flea treated, but wasn't.