What flea treatment do you use?

[Athenajm80]

I've used a few different ones on the tribe over the years, but used Frontline (normal not plus) last year and when Favourite Cat and Deputy Favourite were PTS within days of each other last year, the vet said not to use it as it was useless. Both cats were infested, the treatment was 1-2 weeks before. It wasn't the reason they were PTS but part of me wonders if it contributed and I feel so guilty.

Anyway, I switched to the official PDSA one which has previously been good but seems to have lost its efficacy, so now on the hunt for a new effective spot on. Which ones seem to work on your cats? There's so many different brands and the reviews don't help as even frontline has good reviews.

I'll get Indorex for the house, although diatomaceous earth seems to help a lot in my rooms with floorboards, even if it does look like Pablo Escobar has had a party here 😁

I use Advocat for Haribo but had to use 2, he's a big moggie but he still had fleas a week after using the first one so I used another. I combed him last night and got about 20 fleas off him. I used Indorex and hovered and still the little fuckers were jumping on me.

I'll ask the vet for an alternative next time.

*Hoovered

Sorry to hear about the loss of your cats.

I tend to use and recommend Advocate or Bravecto as spot ons. Fipronil is the ingredient in Frontline so I’d avoid anything containing that if Frontline didn’t work for you.

It is also really important to treat the house, because if you had cats with fleas then you will have lots of eggs in the house; indorex doesn’t kill flea eggs, so you need to hatch the eggs by increasing the temperature and humidity (bowls of water out for a few days in each room, and hoover a couple of times), and then do the Indorex.

Thanks for the recommendations and tips. I bloody hate fleas, what is the point in them! They seem to annoy me more than they do the cats, I itch even thinking about the little buggers.

Stronghold

@Calmestofallthechickens Reading your post I now remember putting down shallow Pyrex lids filled with water and washing up liquid and placing a tea light in the centre. That caught quite a few of the little sods at night.

Bravecto

Am really sorry re the loss of your cats.

Mine is long-haired (as was his brother). I was always concerned that I never quite got all of the treatment onto their skin. For the past 7 years it’s been Program injections at the vet. Given twice a year (one of which coincides with annual booster). Never had fleas in the house - happy cats and no struggle to wrestle with them! I do the monthly health plan at my vets (saves money overall for all annual costs) and the injection is included in that for flea treatment - though I’ve heard that some vets don’t include it. Personally, if it wasn’t included, I’d still pay for it.

Frontline is what we are currently using and seems to be ok for now

Have previously used the flea pill which I can’t remember what it’s called but also never had any issues with that and it was prescribed by the vet

A steam cleaner is good for getting eggs to hatch, you have to keep on doing it every few days

Stronghold plus for my 2 cats

Advantage for mine as it's the only non-prescription one which works and is cheap online.

Just in case any complete idiots are reading, Oldraver* means steam clean your house. Not your cat. We don’t want any scalded cats…

Stronghold

I've used the Broadline spot on for years and have never seen a single flea in all that time. It's mainly possible worms I use it for anyway.

Advocat works for us. Grumpy older cat is allergic to flea bites so we're very strict with doing it regularly.

Have used Indorex spray previously when the house was full of fleas with previous cats. Need to repeat it two or three weeks later to break the cycle.

Coconut oil. Teaspoonful in their food every day. They exude it through their pores like we do garlic and fleas can't stand it.

Neither have had a flea in years.

Itch....mainly ad it comes through demonthly monthly so i don't forget

Frontline Plus. My cat had harvest mites which she developed a reaction to and had quite bad fur loss. Vet advised Frontline plus was the only thing to help stop them.

Fleas become resistant to treatments over time, usually over the local area. Ask your vet which is working at the moment, they should advise at the annual booster. For example, the last 3 years advocate was effective around here, but have had to switch to stronghold recently.

All vets I’ve ever seen have said frontline is useless.

Bravecto , Advantage was useless.

Bravecto here. I don't even do it strictly every three months and cat never has fleas.

Broad,ind for the past five years. Ive no plans to change it.

Bravecto plus here.

Get it via my vets monthly heath plan. Vet says front line is useless