problem neighbours&cat

[ROUNDandROUNDINCIRCILESMORETHA]

Hi wondering if anyone has wise advice?
For a couple of years now mostly spring and summer the cat goes trotting round the corner to an old couple
i notice every time she goes she gets fleas and all summer we spend a fortune and time spraying our house with acclaim.
now they are letting her in again and once we solve getting rid of the fleas the cycle starts each time she has been there. How can i tackle this wisely without upsetting them but i have had enough spraying acclaim and hoovering :-( any one else been in this boat?

Are they feeding her as well?

If so maybe you can use that as a way to ask them to stop letting her in.

Tricky one...

It doesn't really matter whose house your cat goes in or doesn't, if your cat's flea treatment isn't always up to date they will get fleas. You need to treat with a proper treatment (Advantage or Stronghold or Advocate) every month.

If you do this your cat won't get fleas regardless of where they go. If you don't do this your cat will get fleas even if it never leaves your own garden.

They have in the past could wont be suuprised :( its def tricky indeed

I have been using frontline which i have read on here has not got a good reputation now. Can i order these other ones from the internet as our vet only does that and acclaim. Dont worry i am keeping on top of her treatment but maybe using wrong stuff then?

You can order most anything from the Internet but some items (usually the good stuff) will require a vet prescription to buy online which the practice will charge you for - usually somewhere about £8-12. There's no reason why the vet shouldn't order meds in for you though - even though they may want to shift their Frontline. If it's not longer working for your cat (and fleas are immune to it in some places) then the practice should in fact be glad to know that.

Are you worming her as well? If she's going outside and possibly hunting, especially, she'll need regular worm treatments as well as flea etc treatments.

Ah vet said nothing about worming! Is that what attracts the fleas then ugh its so much hassle having a cat sometimes
even if they are cute!!;)

Have you asked them to stop letting her in?

Worms aren't connected to fleas it's just cheaper to worm them than risk an infestation.

If you get advocate off the vet and a program injection it would save you a lot of stress in the long term.

Program stops fleas breeding so if they do get them the house won't get infested.

You'll find lots of threads on worms on this board but you might like to read \link{http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_litter_tray/2007427-For-the-want-of-a-worming-tablet?msgid=45425000\this one} which Lone posted earlier this year. It will have you on the phone to the vet within 10 minutes!

I've started using Broadline on Seniorboy - it's a single spot on that does everything (fleas included) and has a really good new-style applicator. Just thinking that if you were going to have to get an order in, that might be a possibility for you. (If you haven't been worming her, you have no idea how easy it's going to be to administer a worming pill. Seniorboy regards any sort of pill as an invention of the Devil.)

I looked up the active ingredient in Broadline and it was fipronil.

I'm not quite sure what to make of that. Frontline & bob martin both use fipronil.

No biochemist me, I'm afraid, but someone else may know the score. I'll grant you that it's not really getting a serious workout with Seniorboy but I like the idea of doing everything in a oner for him. The less intervention the better given his age and the meds he's already on is my own view.

Primalass
yes i did last year maybe they need a gentle reminder...

only thing i have seen in vet is frontline and acclaim do you think if they are a genuine practise they will give me a prescription for the others? Will read the link thanks for replies so far.

If they've seen the cat in the previous six months and weighed them my practice will prescribe 6 months of advocate.

I don't think they can legally prescribe if they haven't seen the cat in 6 months.

You can buy Advantage without a prescription I think.

Re Bob Martins/Frontline. Yes, they are both now the same. About two years ago Bob Martin changed it's active ingredient from permethrin (which didn't work on fleas but did kill a percentage of the cats that used it!) to Fipronil, which just doesn't work any more as the fleas have acquired resistance.

Beware also as some of the less well-known off the shelf brands of flea spot ons still use Permethrin, which is extremely dangerous and should be banned.

I buy advantage from vetuk.co.uk with no prescription. With seven cats we have to be meticulous with the flea control! I also use droncit - a spot on wormer. I have one cat who in almost 10 years has never ever swallowed anything he didn't choose to!

ah, thanks for that vet website, I will have a look on there.
Wow I thought one or two cats was enough! ;-D