Bloody frontline. What else should we use?

[ThePerfectNegroni]

We have used frontline and now have fleas on our cat. The magic of Google tells me Frontline is crap. What is the best current spot on?

I was thinking of getting advantage- there is a review on Amazon that recommends using the dog pipettes and measuring out the correct dose you need, to get it to last longer. We have three cats.

Is advantage good? Or should I try another?

Advantage is good. Does some worms too.

I've tried Frontline and Advantage, neither did fack all. Currently in the same predicament as you.

I've heard Advocate is supposed to be good but not tried it yet as my vet wants £50 for it. I'm going to have to try it though as nothing else is working.

Stronghold. The vet prescribed it, was very expensive, but worked after weeks of loads of fleas that frontline had no effect on.

Ok- looking at it Advocate and Advantage have the same ingredient for fleas, it's just that Advicate has additional stuff in for worms. So if advantage doesn't work, advocate won't.

Great. Have double checked the empty box of what we last used and it was Advocate. If we still have fleas three weeks after using that we are in trouble.

I have been combing the fleas out and squashing them, it really helps but you have to do it religiously, miss a day or two and the numbers creep up again.

Another vote for Stronghold, I get it from the vets too. The only thing I have noticed is that I seem to get bites just after using it as if the fleas are desperately jumping off the cats onto me! But within a day there are no signs of them.

How can you tell your cat has fleas? I do mine regularly to prevent them, and have never had an outbreak, so I am going on childhood memories but when we had a cat flea outbreak the bites were vicious and the whole house was itching. At the vet yesterday she found flea dirt but no fleas and said I have to treat all other animals and the whole house. No-one is scratching and we haven't had any bites. No live fleas have been sited. I'm confused! Could I just comb the dirt out and re-treat in a month? I have boil washed and bleached all bedding and will steam carpets etc.

£50 for Advocate? Do you live in Monaco?

It's about £8 at our vets. My local vet has a third off all flea treatments at the moment.

oh - can I join? our cat has fleas at the moment and it's disgusting!

I thought something was up when we went into the bathroom and round the sink (he likes to drink from the tap) there was lots of specks of blood, so we checked his paws and they were fine, saw him scratching a bit more than normal, and found out its actually from all the fleas getting squished when he stands on the washbasin!

so very gross!! Also our bathmat (white) is covered in the same red flecks. I read if you walk around your carpet with white socks and then look you'll see lots of black bits which are the flea poos - have tried to check him for them but haven't seen any!

Bought advantage but waiting for it to come in the post, and also have some industrial spray canister to do the carpets and mattress etc once we've given him the pippette - god it's so icky and horrible!

I'm washing everything all the time but feels kinda futile until the spot-on comes!!

Hellooooo flea season :)

Percy I'd give him a good comb while you're waiting for the flea treatment to arrive. Plastic nit combs are quite good for catching and removing fleas.

Another vote for Stronghold. Since we started using that we haven't seen a single flea. It costs about £21 for 3 pipettes from the vets which will last you 3 months - we have 3 cats so we pay the £21 a month but it's definitely worth it as it works brilliantly.

BetweenDogandWolf thank you! :)

yep - we're going to do that, we don't have a nit comb but I'm going to buy one and give him a comb and also get some shampoo.

we've got a plan now:

1. I give kitty a shower with flea shampoo and nit comb then dry
2. I give him the spot-on
3. (while I'm getting ripped to shreds) DP strips beds and all fabrics down and starts hot washing
4. he sprays all carpets/mattress and sofas with flea aerosol
5. we choke on the fumes and hoover
6. we pray that's the end of it and maybe do another shower in a few days time!

it sounds horrific! Especially all that washing! haha!!!

DMoggies have a six-monthly injection at the vets which keeps them almost free. Occasionally they get "hitch hikers" but the fleas can't survive on the cat and can't breed, so DD2 and I might get nibbled for a couple of days but that's it (apparently we are delicious to biting things!) whatever does bite us does not survive or set up home inthe carpet etc. It's part of a vet package for £19 per month that also includes quarterly worming tablets, a six- monthly check up and all boosters for the year.

Percy I've only ever used a nit comb on a dry cat. Yours must be a very tolerant cat if you think you're going to be able to do the combing after the shampoo . My youngest sometimes needs a bit of a wash because he gets covered in mud etc and despite liking to hang around in the sink or shower he does not like being washed!

haha! do you know - the woman we got him from used to wash him every week!!!!!!!!!!!

we haven't washed him since we had him (we don't agree with excessive animal washing due to the natural oils etc) but maybe that's why she did it? ...

I am fully prepared to be a bit battle scarred afterwards! I'm gunna give it my best shot but the shampoo will be the first step! I just want to get rid of them without them just falling live into the floor again! Gargh!

oh, wonderful times!!!!!!

Sorry to hijack thread OP but just to say I did a test bath with him just now before the flea shampoo later in the week (used vinegar) and he was fine! No scratching, no biting! Just a single pathetic meow :(

Now hugging him wrapped in a flannel robe to dry him and keep him warm!

Couple of fleas in water and on towel-all fat and full of blood eugh!

Keep going everyone we will defeat the flea infestations!

I use Activyl from the Vets for my cat, it does the trick in keeping her flea free. It's not cheap though, £22 for 4 months supply (although I eek 8 months worth into a year by spreading them out a bit longer).