F*king fleas!!

[DeadPooled]

Sunday night I spotted a flea on my arm! Managed to catch it and flush. I got straight online and had spray and flea treatments delivered next day

Treated the cat. Stripped the beds. Hoovered the mattresses. Sprayed the rooms down.

Now in my room I had a new mattress already and all new bedding. So binned old mattress. Sprayed and cleaned whole bed. Have wooden floors.

Put on new mattress. New duvets pillows. Covers. Everything new.

Had a bath. Went to bed. Woke up with 6 bites!

Am so annoyed. Do you think it was a rogue one? Should I do everything again? Rewash and respray everything?

Am exhausted after 2 days of scrubbing and washing!

I think give it 24 hours to see if you get anymore bites. Bloody things!

I found Indorex flea spray for the house the most effective treatment. Alongside using Advantage spot on for the cats.

Indorex is meant to kill fleas/eggs for 1 year! So well worth the money. I did find that it eradicated the fleas successfully.

We flea bombed the house and flead the cat recently and still found fleas for about 48hrs. Haven't seen one since thankfully.

We had this issue a few months ago, cat had teeth out and brought home fleas! It took at least 3 breeding cycles (2 weeks each) to get rid of them, plus washing all bedding, rugs, blankets, and vacuuming the whole house. What are you using on the cat? We used Advocate drops and indorex household spray to shift ours, and have treated regularly since. I feel for you, bloody awful things!

Virbac effipro on cats and the indorex spray.

Yeah I thought it might take a few days for them to die.

I'll repeat everything in 2 weeks then.

I only have carpet in the hall. Everywhere else is laminate and the carpet is due to be replaced.

Sorry, ours was Advocate drops too! Frontline did nothing.

Before Sunday.. when was last time you flea-treated the cat?

And is the flea poison right dose for your cat, the default dose may be only for up to 4kg, most cats are actually heavier than that.

Give it a day or two, Indorex being good stuff, and if you want to check, undress in the bath or shower stall, shaking out clothes as you go. Any unwelcome visitors should drop onto the enamel and be easily spotted.

Oh - and bear in mind that that the culprit might actually have been you. (If you were standing next to a 'carrier' on the tube or at work/in a shop, it would be a matter of half a second for a transfer to take place.) It's a jungle out there.

Effipro is frontline under a different name. If you can buy it without a prescription it is unlikely to be effective in this situation.

It's the one I get from my vet but got it from Fetch online.

He's a house cat so I don't regularly flea him, he doesn't go anywhere! Obviously that will change now!

Thanks Lone.

Are there any facts and figures for Frontline flea immunity in the UK?

The trouble is, Dead, that he can stay inside all you like but if someone has picked up immune fleas etc, then they're immune, however little he's been exposed.

Cozie there is no scientific evidence of resistance to Fipronil in the UK. The biggest difference between prescription and no prescription meds is that prescription products contain an insect growth regulator as well as a kill product none of the OTC products have this.

Ah. Thanks for that.

But surely all of the stories about Frontline can't be apocryphal? Has there not been the slightest murmur about this in your professional circles? ( If you can say of course.)

Frontline seems to work fine for us...
I use the frontline doses correct for my size cats (2 cats are > 4 kg). Every 4-5 weeks like clockwork.
I'm over-sensitive to fleas, so I don't think we have fleas or I'd know it.
I Indorexed initially, 3 yrs ago, but not since.

The household control stuff is better, if you can get it, mind, it works faster by preventing some egg-laying. Thing about Frontline is you may still see fleas before Frontline had a chance to kill.

Sorry to say this, DeadPooled: I gather the fleas carry worm eggs, so if you see fleas, you need to think about deworming, even if it's an indoor-only cat.

He was wormed when flead .

Cozie the studies show that frontline still kills fleas within 24-48hours of them coming into contact with it. However, my opinion is that people's tolerance to the odd flea is lower when Frontline arrived on the market 25 years ago it was revolutionary as really the only other option was nuvan top. The fact that the fleas took a couple of days to die was okay as many fewer pets slept on beds and the vast majority of cats spent most of their time outside.
Fast forward to now many more pets sleep on beds and any live flea visible for more than a couple of hours after application is unacceptable. The biggest product in the dog market is a tablet which kills fleas within 4 hours of the dog eating the tablet.

I think you're right that people's tolerance is lower. When I first had Firstcat - who actually slept with me - fleas were almost an occupational hazard. They weren't welcome but people didn't go into overdrive.

I found both Frontline and advocate only worked for the first couple of weeks. We have lots of foxes locally and my cats were bringing new fleas in every time they came home and transferring them to the dogs who never normally get fleas (felines and canines have the same fleas - who knew?).

I switched to injections for the cats and it has been fantastic. They last for six months and not a single flea after the first 8 hours. If you tot up the cost of monthly spot ons I don't think it was more expensive either. I'll definitely be doing jabs again when these run out.