Fleas.. how the bloody hell?!

[MyMabel]

We’ve got fleas.. the internet has scared the daylights out of me with how hard they are to get rid of.

Me and DD are bitten to death. We’ve treated the cat but then I read that 95% of fleas live in the house and that makes me want to cry.

I’m going to get some house spray stuff, indorex?

Has anyone used this? I suffer from quite severe anxiety based around having reactions -
Obviously I’m worried about reacting to this chemical. I have a 18 month old dd who plays on the carpet.. will it harm her if she tantrums her face into the carpet like she usually does?

How long should we leave it to be extra safe? What else can we do to get rid?

I’m planning to get all the bedding ect off and onto a hot wash, while that’s in a hot wash I’ll spray all of the rooms then we’ll just go out for the day to let it work it’s magic.

Please someone tell me this will be over soon 😭

Indorex works brilliantly, try to move as much stuff as you can (rugs, furniture, etc), Hoover and then spray. Then Hoover every day for a couple of weeks if you can. Once it’s dry I don’t think you’ll have any problems with your DD touching the carpet. I’ve got little kids too and we’ve had to use it twice, no issues. Good luck! It’s a pain in the arse spraying, but it does really work.

They are not difficult to get rid of if you use the prescription flea killer from the vets. I'm afraid it's very expensive but the over the counter ones don't work.
Fleas bite cats then die.
You may have to get your house fumigated if you've started off with a really bad infestation and then if you keep up with the prescription flea treatment it will be fine.
I've had 8 cats over the years and have only had an infestation once with my first two cats - I could see the fleas jumping on the stairs.
I've learnt my lesson now.

Indorex is great and yes, treat the cats with a prescription flea treatment. They then kind of "mop up" fleas.

We came back from holiday one year to find an infestation. Never again have I been lax with the flea treatment! I would say it was gone within a week.

Indorex used properly is bloody awesome! What have you treated the cats with?

What flea treatment are you using on your cats? You need to use a prescription treatment from the vets and make sure they're treated as required on the packaging.

Indorex is great and once dry, shouldn't harm your DD. But you need to use a lot of it (in my experience) and wash everything on a hot wash - pay particular attention to soft furnishings like cushion covers, sofa cushions etc.

Get the council to spray the house. Only thing that worked for me. They had to do it twice and that finally worked. It was hell for weeks. Cost about £80.

You need to get flea treatment like spot on for the cat from the vet. and must be on tiMe repeating it every month. Even a few days late the fleas will jump on and multiply at a very fast rate

Thanks everyone. I’m not sure what the cat was treated with; my mum gave me some
Stuff to put on her but it was just in a silver packet and I got my sister to apply it (she has experience with animals and my anxiety means I don’t like touching chemicals)

Perhaps I’ll get her booked into the vet (the cat not my sister) and get her properly treated as it sounds like non-vet stuff isn’t as good?

Argh. Going to try and get the indorex this evening, spray foest thing in the morning and go out for the day 🙃

Perhaps I’ll get her booked into the vet (the cat not my sister) and get her properly treated as it sounds like non-vet stuff isn’t as good?

You don't need to book her in, just ask for a prescription. They may want to see her for a general health check but you're expected to apply things like flea treatments yourself. Just wear gloves if you're bothered and wash your hands after :)

If you hoover every nook & cranny daily without fail & spray flea killer into the bag which you then put outside you'll get rid of them in about 3 weeks.

The non vet stuff is absolutely useless, I don't know why they sell it.

Spot on wont do much as it sounds like they're feeding on you too.

Don't bother with vets. They just give you the same stuff you can buy yourself. Our vet charged £80 last time. It did nothing.

Hoovering every day gets adults & the offspring.

Your cats are not supposed to be exposed to those chemicals either, where are they going?

@HidingFromTheChildren oh that makes me feel a bit better! Online has made me think that we’re in this mess for months!

@cupsofcoffee ah brilliant thank you, I’ll give them a call. To be honest we’ve been lax with treating her; we we’re thorough when we first got her; but she’s become such an outdoor cat, only really coming in for food and the occasional cuddle now that she’s never home to find her and do anything.. definitely learnt my lesson now though and she’ll be regularly treated from now on!

She definitely needs treating regularly if she goes out! But hopefully once you're on top of this outbreak, you'll not be bothered again if you treat her regularly.

I would set a calendar reminder on your phone if possible so you don't forget. I treat all my animals on the same day, every three months - makes it a lot easier that way lol.

We were in your position last year, you truly have every sympathy as it was awful. I felt like we were living in a Victorian slum s as das dc needed antibiotics for bites on their legs, just shocking. We sprayed non stop and hoovered up live fleas. The only thing that worked was flea bombs, from Amazon. One upstairs one downstairs then go out for a few hours.
Don’t use different flea treatments on your cat, we made ours very poorly through our ignorance.
Good luck, get the flea bombs and it’ll be over by tomorrow night. And then only use flea treatments from the vet and haven’t had a problem since!

Get credelio flea tablets from the vet - my cat will happily take it crushed and mixed with a bit wet food, or in a pill assist (soft, meaty cat treats you can mould around a pill for them to eat).

Amazon flea collars are worth their weight in gold. Only thing that works apart from vets prescription. They also last 12-18months. Hoover all areas for 2 weeks that should do it

@HidingFromTheChildren

Spot on wont do much as it sounds like they're feeding on you too.

Don't bother with vets. They just give you the same stuff you can buy yourself. Our vet charged £80 last time. It did nothing.

Hoovering every day gets adults & the offspring.

You cannot buy the decent treatment yourself. You would need a prescription from the vet to buy it online.

The fleas will not be able to live on human blood so of course she should still treat the cats. If the fleas then feed on the cat they will get killed that way too.

What have you treated the cat with?

If it’s frontline, you may as well bin your money.

Whenever we get fleas (rare) I only treat the animal. The house is never infested afterwards. Fleas don’t actually like human blood but will drink it out of necessity. They always go for the animal first

Get yourself a decent flea killer like advocate or advantage but talk to the vet first on how long you need to wait because you’ve already applied a spot on to the cat

When you used your flea bombs did you have to cover up bedding ect or is it safe to just literally set the bomb off and leave the house for a few hours with everything in covered in the house? I'm wondering if we need to use a bomb as we have sprayed twice and still getting bitten!! 🤬 x