I can’t get rid of my cats fleas

[Lose7pounds]

Hi we keep on de-fleaing the house, washing everything, but the cat keeps getting fleas. I’m at my wits end. What should I do?

Oh bloody tell me about it.

I went to the vet and asked for stronger stuff for the cats. It helped. I've been spraying rooms regularly and washing bedding etc.

They are also now banned from the house except the kitchen.

RSPCA advice -
It's essential to treat both your pet and your home, as fleas can survive in the environment without a host for many months. Flea treatment can easily be done at home, so here's how to do it:
Flea treatments: prevent and get rid of fleas by regularly using flea treatmentfor your pets. See your vet for advice on the best flea products that will work for your pet.
Treat quickly: If you spot fleas on your pet, treat them quickly, as they can give your cat or dog tapeworms and diseases (make sure you worm your pet as well).
Clean bedding regularly and vacuum furniture, floors and skirting boards to help destroy fleas at each stage of their lifecycle.
Throw away the dust bag from your vacuum after each use to prevent any flea eggs and larvae from developing.
Treat regularly: you may need to treat your pet and home for fleas all year round if your home is centrally heated.
Only give your pet flea treatment that's been recommended for them, ideally one prescribed by your vet. Products suitable for one species may not be suitable for another. Some dog flea treatments contain permethrin, an insecticide that is safe for dogs but highly toxic to cats.

Advantage worked after months and months of trying lots of others for mine. That and a really good spray everywhere every few days. Hoovered everyday.

Can you get one of those bombs for your house?
Important to treat a few times in a row to catch the adults and the eggs. Can't remember the time frame but is it something like 2 in 10 days or 3 in 2 weeks.

Buy the Johnsons flea tablets off amazon. They work straight away for flea infestation.

Stronghold is a good flea and worm treatment but it requires a prescription from the vet. If your vet has seen your cat in the last 12 months they should prescribe without charging a prescription fee, just the treatment fee.

Get to the vets. There’s nothing you can buy off prescription that will be as effective as they recommend.

Tho he flea has a life cycle. Look at it. You will understand how long you've to clean for and also treat the pet.
Empty hover bag etc

Indorex spray or flea bombs.

Seriously. If I get the kitten that my daughter has been pining for will we also end up getting fleas?

having had the horror of bedbugs previously I’m loathe to make us vulnerable to fleas

can they be avoided?
I thought you get the cat a preventative treatment every few months. And that means no fleas.
I sense I am being naive?

If you flea them regularly with a good brand which works then you won't get fleas.

I missed a few months, so was my own fault we got them.

To echo previous posters, Advantage to treat the cat/s (available from Vet UK online if you provide the cat’s name, breed and approximate weight), and Indorex spray for the house (Pets at Home).

Indorex for house and Serestro collar for the cat

Frontline stopped working
For us a few years ago. Advantage seems to work well still though.

Never had fleas. I use a quarterly flea treatment on prescription from the vets. It’s £50 a go so not cheap but does both flea and worms.

One of my best friends is a vet and says people only get fleas because they’re not using the right products and cutting corners.

It can be hard to know what the right products are.

I have used frontline for years and it's only this year it hasn't worked. Vet informs me it's now less effective as many fleas are resistant.

I didn't work for us either. Especially on one cat in particular weirdly. Advantage is brilliant

The ones your vet prescribes. They are expensive though. Two cats annual jabs plus 6 months of flea and wormer cost me £350 recently. Unfortunately the cost of everything is going up and cats are no longer the “cheap” pets they once were.

Thank you everyone so much. I didn’t actually know the vet would prescribe something. I’ve just been buying stuff from the pet food shop. I’m going to go to the vets

I use stronghold plus from the vet. Have never had fleas.

The only otc one that seems to work OK is Advantage.

The thing is that all these chemicals might kill the fleas but they won’t kill the eggs which can last for months. The only real way is to vacuum, vacuum, vacuum - not just carpets and rugs, but sofas ( take all the seat and back cushions off and hoover it thoroughly under the cushions too), curtains, cuddly toys, etc. wipe down hard surfaces and skirting boards. The eggs can fleas themselves are often in the cracks or edges. This needs to be done daily, or at least every other day for several weeks (I know….)

Wash any throws or blankets at at least 60C but higher if you can (you might need to just chuck them if you can’t wash them). You your cat has bedding wash that as high a temp as you can (at least 60C)… and wash it every couple of days for a good few weeks.

then you need to comb your cat daily with a flea comb to remove any eggs as well as the fleas … again daily for a few weeks.

it is a very time consuming job!! I ended up with blisters on my hands from all the vacuuming but got there in the end.

Vet nurse here , prescription only products are the only ones that work and you must adhere to the instructions, if you apply\dose late or miss a month the efficacy of the product drops drastically .
Use the correct strength for the weight of the animal.
Every cat and dog in the house must be treated also a rabbit if you have one alongside ,for maximum efficacy of product allow pets to roam in every room.
Vet products are costly so get a written prescription and if you can afford it buy a 12 month supply online of the pom product, that will reduce the cost as one script Cost only per animal ,after that 12 months you will need to see vet again legally for repeat .
A good house spray may need only one application in a 12 month period read the instructions, lots of money is wasted on repeat buying of these when no need.
Use house spray in the car also and in the Hoover bag or cylinder ,spray the hoover more often.
Regularly hot wash bedding.
Hoover every single day, apart from cleaning dander and flea eggs, fleas etc the vibration speeds up the fleas development when in the pupea stage , there are no products that kill the pupae.
The infestation is worse in the environment than on the animal.
Also steam will speed up this stage ,a steam cleaner or random dishes of hot water in more affected areas.
Concentrate hoovering, steaming etc by skirting boards move furniture away from walls and Hoover then spray house spray behind.
Flea comb daily throughout the battle ,wipe comb onto surgical spirit on cotton wool to kill fleas.
Cats are the worst offenders ,personally if I had a cat household I would never lapse in flea treatment 12 consecutive months ,cats tolerate fleas much more than dogs and often you have an infestation before you are fully aware where as a dog pretty much alerts you right away by scratching.
A bad flea infestation can take 3-6 months to conquer due to the lifecycle of the flea but if you use a good product exactly as instructed by the manufacturer you will succeed.
Don't waste your time and money buying pet shop , supermarket tabs and spot ons you end up prolonging the problem then end up spending more money on top with a pom product from the vet.

We used Advantage as a preventative and went 8 years without fleas. Unfortunately it has totally stopped working for us, and we had to get Credelio from the vet which worked overnight.

Frontline stopped being effective a few years ago as fleas develop immunity eventually, I fear Advantage is going the same way as it had absolutely no effect on our recent infestation.

We've got cat fleas here just over a week ago. Indoor only cats, middle of winter. How they got them idk they have been nowhere. We've been to vets and they're now on Credelio. I've seen about 10 fleas total (white long furred cats brushed daily we noticed them quite early I think, and took to vets same day we saw) total, 3 or 4 on sofa when pulling up cushions to vacuum, and cat tree, couple on the cats and a few dying/dead after treatment.

Since then it's been vacuuming as often as we could (our vacuum broke, its replacement took 5 days to arrive, then we had 26hr power cut...), we steam cleaned all the carpets, steam cleaned our mattress, used a kettle of boiling water to soak non-machine washable cushion covers (turned out to be less fragile than advertised ), machine washed pillows and cushions and duvet covers and all pet bedding at 60' (currently washing pet bedding again as its been a week). Used my hairdryer on hot setting on the sofa cushions/sofa and cat trees (slight singeing smell nm), steam cleaned large chair cushion (too big for washing machine).

But. I don't want to use the insecticide sprays as it's hard to exclude the cats and they're all permethin-based, which is toxic to cats. I've tried a dimeticone-based spray (similar mechanism to the nit-lotion) called 'Flee' - has anyone either used this spray, or got rid of fleas by treating the cats and cleaning alone?

(Permethrin and cats - https://www.pdsa.org.uk/pet-help-and-advice/pet-health-hub/conditions/permethrin-toxicity-in-cats)

Should probably clarify I'm talking about spray for carpet not the cats.