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The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

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Original poster

Bugger. New kitten has fleas

48 replies

EustaciaVye · 07/11/2013 21:36

I haven't seen any fles but lots of debris in her fur and bed that goes pink if I wet it. She is 9 weeks. I only collected her on Tuesday.

She has a vet appointment tomorrow. I assume I can flea her this early. I was told 12 weeks but obv need to treat her.

Also she has only been in my living room and hallway so do I just treat these areas, or do fleas travel?

Thanks

OP posts:

cozietoesie · 09/11/2013 17:20

Well done DD. That's a balanced attitude.

Original poster

EustaciaVye · 09/11/2013 18:02

The count is 10 so far. Where the F are they hiding?

It is hard to comb her as she is so wriggly so DD is playing with her and when she spots one we go into emergency mode with the comb at the last known spot.

I am quite horrified that she was given to me in this state but pleased that we are dealing with it. Of course it has to be at a time when DH is away....

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cozietoesie · 09/11/2013 18:14

Quite so.

Words pretty well fail me when it comes to potentially talking about your breeder. To have flea dirt (ie flea poo) means that they were entrenched.

I don't know whether you paid for the kit but has she offered to offset your flea-ridding costs?

Original poster

EustaciaVye · 09/11/2013 21:45

She has just said she didn't know to treat before 12 weeks. No, she hasnt offered to reimburse costs. I did pay for the kitten - £50. But it was a private sale and so nothing I can do really.

I had tried local cats protection and rspca prior to finding a private seller but they only had much older cats or kittens who had been abandoned and no human contact which was too much of a risk with my current cat and kids.

But, on the positive side my normally squeamish dd1 has been amazing and is on a real mission to look after kitty as she sees the injustice and the kitty is currently fast asleep and content, minus 15 fleas she had stuck to her this morning.

We will continue to comb tomorrow.

Kitty has also meant Cat and so far, so good. No hissing, a nose rub and indifference :)

Might have covered this already but it has been a long day. As kitty has been quarantined in the living room, do I need to spray upstairs? I have sprayed living room and surrounding areas, our other cat is already frontlined. wondering if a naughty flea might jump onto other cat and travel upstairs :(

OP posts:

timtam23 · 09/11/2013 21:55

Eustacia I had a similar situation to you (flea-infested kitten confined to downstairs, 2 older cats roaming the house) and I didn't treat the upstairs rooms, just Frontlined the older cats

No sign of any fleas since then so I think it has worked (I intermittently fleacomb all of them now just in case)

Original poster

EustaciaVye · 09/11/2013 22:12

Thanks timtam. What I wanted to hear :)

Cat is frontlined (fortunately about 5 days before kitten arrived so should be nice and strong). No way he would let me comb him :/

OP posts:

catameringue · 10/11/2013 09:54

I only sprayed the confinement room when I had flea bag kitten.

As the little one still has live fleas you might want to re do the front line on older cat before 4 weeks. When I had a flea outbreak last year that wouldn't go, the vet indicated you could repeat the treatment after two weeks for a short period with no ill effects, assuming healthy cat etc and correct doseage.

cozietoesie · 10/11/2013 10:13

I would recommend serious hoovering also. I've bought a hoover for every level in the house (which may sound lush but Hey - think of the cost of vet services versus low cost/free delivery from Amazon.) The amount of detritus I pick up is unbelievable.

Original poster

EustaciaVye · 10/11/2013 10:57

Thanks catameringue. Will look to deflea older cat next weekend then, and then again at the end of the month when kitty gets her next lot. The vet was hopeful she would be big enough for proper frontline drops rather than spray then.

Hoovering ongoing. Sigh.

We found one live flea this morning. Hopefully we are coming into a reduction in numbers. DD has heard me say 'sh*t' a lot in the last day or two

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cozietoesie · 10/11/2013 11:02

One live flea is not a total disaster. (Is the flea dirt reduced?)

I'm laughing at your DD's exposure to real life. It won't warp her.

Thingymajigs · 10/11/2013 11:09

We had the same issue with a kitten years ago who had to be taken to the vets to be sprayed with frontline. She was infested. But you can get it under control.
Last month we moved to a house with a flea problem. Our youngest cat has a flea allergy so we knew the instant he started biting his fur off. We put the cats in a small room and we all left the house for the day whilst DP Indorexed the entire house. We Frontlined the cats the day before too. Then we invested in a new hoover which is really powerful and easy to clean. I have to hoover thoroughly every couple of days (takes ages) and always clean the filter afterwards and put the contents outside otherwise the hoover just collects the fleas.
Don't worry, you will get it sorted with a lot of extra hoovering, 4 weekly Frontlining and a bit of patience.

Thingymajigs · 10/11/2013 11:12

Oh you will probably see fleas for a short while. The fact that you can see and perhaps catch the fleas show that they are weak. I think it takes a few months to completely iradicate them but its much easier over Winter.

cozietoesie · 10/11/2013 11:31

I think that one of the main things is to be relaxed officially about fleas. (While hoovering and potioning assiduously of course.) Having a cat with fleas doesn't mean you have a 'dirty house' - it's just a contamination which any one of us could get.

Original poster

EustaciaVye · 10/11/2013 11:58

I am actually very relaxed cozietozie. :)

Our last flea infestation was when I was 8 months pregnant with DD2. I was not relaxed then. We finally got rid of them when she was a month old.

I guess it is my hope that given we have had kitty since Tuesday and she has been confined I am hoping that they haven't spread. Talking on here is helping me ALOT. Other wise I would be stressed and DDs would be seeing it.....as it is, they think I am being heroic

two fleas found today have been caught with fingertips so are definitely dopey!!

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cozietoesie · 10/11/2013 12:12

Excellent! You'd be surprised as to how many people equate fleas with some sort of 'nastiness'.

Hoover on.

Original poster

EustaciaVye · 12/11/2013 11:43

So we found 3 fleas on her yesterday. Def improving but still too many.

I have found one on her today but it seemed quicker and I haven't been able to catch the bugger even though I have combed loads :( I assume this means that the spray in her is no longer affecting them.

Any suggestions. I am still hoovering.

OP posts:

catameringue · 13/11/2013 08:07

Phone the vet? This sounds a pretty entrenched infestation on the little sausage.

Original poster

EustaciaVye · 13/11/2013 08:28

I called the vet on Monday evening and they said she couldn't have any more treatment until she goes back in a couple of weeks as she was too little.

We managed to find the one last night. I have combed her this morning and found some dirt but nothing alive. Her bed only had a couple of bits of flea dirt on it too so I am going to keep everything crossed and give it one more day.

She is quite lively this morning whereas she has been quite sleepy

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cozietoesie · 13/11/2013 08:56

Good going - and keep hoovering.

oscarwilde · 13/11/2013 13:23

Eggs in the bed or cracks in the floorboards. They could keep hatching for ages unfortunately. goes away to scratch

Original poster

EustaciaVye · 13/11/2013 15:00

Nothing so far today although still a bit of dirt.
I have been hoovering daily and bedwashing every other day.

Perhaps I just need to be more patient

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Thingymajigs · 13/11/2013 15:11

It does take time. I think its important to stay relaxed about it all because its easy to become panicked. I definitely have fallen into the trap of obsessive panic stricken cleaning and psychological itching when we've had outbreaks. But as long as you're keeping up the routine of hoovering and frontlining they will go eventually. Did you mention that you don't want to use sprays? I can't remember. We use Indorex to help treat the house.

Original poster

EustaciaVye · 13/11/2013 15:16

I used Acclaim downstairs. kitten has been quarantined in living room since we got her last week.

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