Any flea experts...confused?

[ohwhatsinausername]

So I seem to have had (what I thought) was a flea problem for some time now.

Two trips to the vets confirmed fleas. Two spots on later and the cat was still scratching. First one - Effipro. Second was Bravecto. Spaced out obviously so the cat didn't "overdose".

Also treated house fully with RIP spray and treated all furnishing and they disappeared too but the cat was still scratching!

Bought Advantage and used today.

Gave the cat a thorough brushing and although I think I can see flea dirt...I haven't found a single live one to confirm if they are still there and I brushed for a good half hour, down to the skin with a wire comb.

Surely they wouldn't have all jumped ship after it was only applied approx 11am this morning and I brushed her at 7pm?!

Could it have worked that fast or do they die off in cold weather anyway and why is the cat still scratching?! Is it normal cat behaviour and the fleas have just made me paranoid - please help. Been going on for months now!

Advocate is about the best flea treatment in current times. Fleas have become resilient to a lot of the others.

Her scratching might be a skin condition unrelated to fleas, your vet will need to do a skin scraping to get to the bottom of it.

They can also get flea allergy - I've never seen a flea on my cats, but know one has come into contact with one beause she gets scratchy and scabby near her tail. Literally a flea must jump on her and jump off, and it's enough to get her started.

Stop flea treating them now though - you will overdose them, even if done a few days apart the chemical will build up.

Ok, thank you - I will return to the vets and mention the skin conditions etc.

The flea treatments have been spaced months apart, to be safe. Sorry, that may not have been clear in OP.

Bravecto is the newest flea product out there and IMO superior to Advocate which has been around for 15 years now. Can you actually find fleas on the cat now?

That's what I was told from the vet who prescribed it, when she checked and said it was fleas - newest one, should kill them all off.

So unless I didn't give the dose properly, I don't see why it wouldn't have worked.

I haven't found any live fleas no, just black dots in her furr (hopefully the picture attached ok?) that I was told indicated flea droppings/dried blood etc?

If you wet the black bits and they go red, it's flea dirt. My boy seems to bring half the garden in with him, so it may just be soil or something.

Even once you have killed the fleas it will take a little while for all the flea diets to be gone.