Fleas - please help!

[coastergirl]

My two cats have fleas. I've been vigilant for a few years since a previous infestation, and always treated them monthly with Advantage. However, after a very tough few months (including one of them going missing for two months), treatment has fallen behind.

I've treated both cats twice with Advantage since discovering them, seven days apart. The house has wooden floors everywhere but the stairs and landing, so I thought it wouldn't be too hard to tackle. I've sprayed the whole house several times with various products, and hoovered all furniture and floors so many times, but the little bastards are still here. My poor five year old boy is being bitten like CRAZY. They are definitely still in the sofa.

Does anyone have any advice before I burn all my possessions? My parents think I should get rid of the cats, but I love them!

What spray is it? Indorex is supposed to be good

How long have you been spraying for?I had a problem when we had been away on holiday and I think it was a week after spraying with Indorex and treating the cats that it stopped.

Flea collars on the cats.

Go to the supermarket and buy lots and lots of table salt. Sprinkle it liberally over soft furnishings and leave it on overnight, then brush it off and vacuum.

You have to wait for the new fleas to hatch from the chrysalis stage as the spray cannot kill that stage of the life cycle. So just keep spraying every few days and eventually you will get on top of it.

Thanks all. Been spraying for a couple of weeks. I'll try everything suggested! I think I saw one on one of the cats last night which I just don't understand. Advantage is usually so good.

I think indorex will eventually work. It’s pretty toxic stuff.

You can get the cats injected at the vets with Program, it doesn’t kill fleas but it stops them breeding and lasts in the cats body for 6 months. It was £30 a time when I last used it.

Getting rid wouldn’t even help because their biting your dc so they have another food source.

If you’ve taken the cats to the vets in the last 6 months they can prescribe advocate. Advocate is what my old vet nurse used on hers and they know what’s effective.

Another vote for Indorex - it was the only thing that cleared a really bad household infestation for us a few years ago.

We switched to Advocate after the infestation we had and haven't had a problem since (famous last words!)

One tip I hear a lot is to put a flea collar in your vacuum cleaner. Put full bags/empty them into the dustbin outside.

Advantage has the same flea killing ingredient as Advocate (advocate also kills some worms which is why its prescription only).
Fleas can't breed/live on humans so treating the cat and spraying should get rid of them

We went for the nuclear option - flea bombed the flat (with much airing and washing thereafter), and followed up with spraying ad lib in specific areas (sofa, behind the piano). It worked instantly. I was still getting the odd bite (the blighters only ever bit me, nobody else in the family - I was pregnant too, it was grim) a month or two in, but nowhere near as often as at the height of the infestation, and we've had no trouble since (that was 5y ago). We used to alternate Frontline and Advantage, but on our vet's advice we switched to Bravecto, which only needs applying every 3 months as opposed to every month.

We use Stronghold spot on for our cat from the vet. Like you we let the treatment lapse as she has been quite ill and on other medication and I was worried about mixing them. But she has started scratching. I haven’t seen any fleas but have treated her anyway. Hopefully it will work. Terrified of an infestation so following this thread with interest.

What spray have you used? Only Acclaim and Indorex work.

So far I've used Acclaim (but it was out of date tbh), another pets at home one that was old, Beaphar spray, Johnson foggers (this worked in my old house!), I've now ordered from Amazon a rentokill one and indorex. I've treated the cats with Advantage twice and bought flea collars today. Managed to get it on one of them but the other is really timid.

I'm just so fed up of my boy being bitten!

Indorex says one cans enough for a three bed house so probably best just using the whole can in one go.

Fleas are bloody expensive aren’t they?.

Indorex is great, I do our house yearly just in case as my cat likes to hang out at one of our neighbours who has a bit of a flea infestation.. we have switched to Bravecto it lasts three months and have to get it from the vets. Best flea stuff we have ever used by a long way.

You can't use flea collars if you have also treated with Advantage. They interact. Plus flea collars don't kill fleas and they can be a choking risk.