Cat flea epidemic this year?

[FamGal]

Over the past few weeks we've noticed that all the cats in the family have fleas. This has not been a problem before - they all have flea collars and are treated with drops and we never had issues.

This year, however, the collars and the drops have made zero difference and we're having to use the electric flea comb on them to get them out along with flea shampoo. None of the usual chemicals seem to be working on them!

We've had cats for nearly 40 years and have never had flea problems like this.

Has anyone else had this problem this year with cat fleas?

are you treating your carpets? They could have just taken hold in your home. We have no fleas here, but have had them in the past

Yes, just bought a pressurised steam cleaner and hopefully that will help!

The fleas do adapt and evolve to flea drops. We used a leading brand for years then it stopped working in our area as the fleas evolved immunity to it. So we switched to another very expensive brand and used that for many years and - yes - this year it seems to have stopped working 😱😱😱😱😱

That is so strange. My cat has flea drops every month. We signed up to a monthly Vet plan. I do her religiously but she seems to be scratching herself all the time. I've noticed it more in the last 2 months. She is a shorthaired moggy. I have not seen any actual fleas though.

The fleas seem to be becoming resistant to the chemicals we use against them. Our pets are dosed monthly with Advocate, the house is sprayed frequently with Indorex, they wear seresto collars, the house and furniture is hoovered daily to disrupt the egg cycle, pet bedding is washed 3 times a week, but still those fleas are buggers to get rid of! I've spent ££££ at the vets on treatments that don't seem to cure the problem.

My cat is only 3.5 years old and got fleas for the first time, despite of being treated with OTC flea spot-on on regular basis and only using our cat proof garden (so no other cats or animals). I've now changed to another OTC treatment (Advantage) which works so far. Scary stuff!

Yes! Both our cats had fleas for the first time in ages this summer, despite using the spot-on etc. Vet said it’s been particularly bad this year for some reason.

Yes. It's been a very bitey year! My 4 are treated with vet prescribed gubbins monthly and I still had to take 2 of them to the vet over the summer for irritated skin and allergies. They had pulled fur out they were so itchy.
One cat is outdoor a lot and vet thought it wasn't just fleas but other biting insects too.

Yes mine too and they are in our carpet. Having to spray every week, it’s a massive pain in the arse and so embarrassing

when I bought the flea spray the cashier at pats at home told me they are selling LOADS this year

Apparently as well as spraying the house we need to Hoover every single day 😭

Yes it's been bad this year. I had to try several different treatments and I'm not even sure the last one has worked properly. I did find a much better spray for the house though (not Indorex, which used to work and didn't this year).

One of mine now needs a trip to the vet as he's licking and nibbling away a lot of fur.

My vet said Credelio is the only tablet working atm

Try changing the brand of your flea collars and flea drops. Flea can develop immunities to particular brands over time according to our vet.

For the first time in a long time I've managed to keep the little beggars completely at bay. I went back to Advantage after not using it for a could of years, and for whatever reason we've had no flea dirt at all on either cat, no scratching, no bites on us even at the height of summer.

deffo had a flea issue in the last due to moving into a flea ridden home. but our flea stuff is working well! haven't had an issue for absolutely ages.

We also indorex quarterly and wash cat bedding frequently

Oddly we have had no fleas at all since just before Covid kicked off. We haven't used any flea treatment on them since then. We only tend to treat as a cure rather than as a preventative so we've saved a fortune on medicine over the last three years.
I can't explain it - they are all outdoor cats, we have never had a flea free period like this before.

Yes! Two weeks ago I picked a big adult flea off my toddlers neck before it got the chance to bite.
Toddler had been messing around with the blanket my cats sleep on.
I've checked my cats and no fleas or flea dirt, no one has bites and I haven't seen another once since but I'm thinking where there's one...

I've boil washed everything and sprayed the house.

What drops are you treating them with ? You need to treat them with prescription strength stuff and spray the house with indorex and then hoover like mad .

Yes, always treat mine when he gets them with vet recommended stuff but this year he's getting them repeatedly.

We're reluctant to use heavy duty chemicals as we just adopted 2 kittens and don't want to nepalm them so we opted for a decent pressurised steam cleaner after hearing that it would kill fleas and eggs and so far it seems to be working.
Early days though but we're keeping everything crossed.

Only issue is that our daughter who also has 2 kittens just called to say that they're 'buzzing' with fleas - she removed hundreds from them by electric comb, flea shampoo and some tablets. They're apparently just falling off the kittens, half dead, as she put it.
Luckily she has wooden floors throughout her house but cross contamination is a real fear.

It's a worrying trend though.

I work in a rescue/vets. We have found this year that all our usual vet prescribed treatments have stopped working. We have switched to a new one called Nexgard, and that works perfectly. It's expensive though, but it's also a wormer. Apparently Bravecto also still works. The treatments no longer working for us are Advantage, Stronghold, Endectrid and Advocate.