URGENT: flea treatment advice

[LisaJool]

I've had loads of bites over the last few days and was horrified to discover that the dc at has fleas. I saw one moving across his skin 😭. Anyway, I had a knock off version of Spot On (from pound shop) and applied it to his neck. After I checked the ingredients it just said geraniol oil, no concentrations or other ingredients. From what I've read, this is just a repellent rather than an insecticide? Should I now use a proper flea treatment?

I've attached a photo of the product, just saw that it's 0.72% geraniol oil w/w.

ALWAYS use a proper flea treatment.

That one might help alongside proper treatment but wont do anything by itself. Mixing treatments won't hurt as long as its different ingredients.
Remember you need to treat the whole house, not just the cat. So wash any pet bedding, hoover/steam carpets and furniture near where he sleeps.

Thank you everyone, will buy proper treatment today.

Get a proper treatment from the vets - prescription strength. Not from the pet shop. You’ll need to treat for at least 3 months to stop the outbreak e.g one application of bravecto, or 3x monthly applications of advocate. Plus treat your house with a permethrin spray

As pp advised, you will need to treat your cat every month for the next 3 month to break the cycle, as well as treating your home. The vet may ask to see your cat before prescribing a flea treatment, so if money is an issue you can buy Advantage from a pet shop or some chemists. It's not a fripoline based treatment, imidalcropid is the main ingredient. Roughly £22 for pack of 4, available in two weight brackets. If it's a young kitten you have then a trip to the vets is needed.

Also recommend Indorex/virbac spray for the home. Roughly £11/14 Amazon or pet shop. Alot cheaper than the vets sell the same product for!

Thanks for the replies. Treatment applied at 9am, stripped and washed bedding. Sprayed mattresses and sofas. I tried to keep dcat out for at least 4 hours as I read they start dying then but relented to his cries but not letting him in bedrooms. Is there anything else I should do?

So I deflead about 10 days ago and everything appeared to settle down. No more bites. Dcat slept with me last night and he was scratching like mad the whole night, doing that weird thing like chasing his rear end. have woken up with a new bite. What does this mean? I used a fipronil based treatment as that was all the shop had, is it possible that these are new fleas that were eggs? I'm intending to use Advantage next time.

Fipronil didn’t work on my cat. I think it has the same ingredient as frontline which also didn’t work. I have used advantage which I believe is the best over the counter treatment or at the moment we are using a twelve weekly treatment from the vet as he had to go to the vet so got it while we were there.

@piano789 can I apply advantage now? Or do I have to wait for the 30 days to be up? I really don't want to get a house infestation.

You can also flea comb them as well, just like you do with the DC's when they have nits. It is pretty effective. We used to do this, back in the day, before we had the modern spot on stuff. Used to literally get clogged with fleas. Really satisfying if you are that kind of person 😂

I found the spot on top of head ones stopped working for my cat. I changed to Johnson's tablets and no more fleas. Small tablet I put in some cat pate. Cat took it straight away. Always use these now every month.

In my experience treating for fleas when you have mor than one pet is an ongoing thing. You think you have got rid and then they return. I use a flea comb every day on my pets. That is apart from all the other stuff. Grooming them is a nice thing to do anyway.
I get a jug of water and when I comb I catch the offending beasties by putting my finger over them and then flick them into the jug which I flush down the loo.
I know I have cracked it when there are no fleas or their shit on the comb
I am now an expert in the art !

Credelio works best for our cat. It’s in tablet form, but can be crushed into food. It’s quicker at killing fleas, as well as ticks, and is given monthly to keep on top of it.

Thanks for the replies. Dcat is 10 and this is a first for us so it's quite a shock, no idea where he got them from as he's mostly an indoor cat and only goes out to go to the toilet. He really doesn't like other cats either.
@KnittedCardi that is definitely my thing, unfortunately his back is really sensitive at the moment (which after go ogling pointed towards fleas) so he won't let me near him with a brush or comb. I could always come over to your house.

Seems to be especially bad this year. We recently had pest control in to treat the carpets, cat has vet-prescribed Broadline monthly (though it seems useless) and comb with a flea comb every day. We use Indorex and wash bedding etc a lot. Still always find one or two live fleas when combing! 😒

Pest control recommended Advocate, so we are going to ask the vet for it, however when we phoned before they told us it wasn’t the Broadline not working but fleas are in the environment now. Neither my partner nor I bitten though! It is maddening. Think we can only stay on top of it and hopefully the cold snap will kill them off outside.

I was told you can as it has a different active ingredient (which is why is works) but you can double check when you buy it. I get it from pets at home and I checked with them first and they said it was fine. Within an hour fleas were literally falling off dead!

You need an effective treatment for the cat, and also some INDOREX for the house. Spray it on all soft furnishings - carpets, beds, rugs, blankets, cushions, etc., and skiting boards as well.

skirting boards

Can also recommend household pest killer from screw fix amazing stuff when we had fleas in the house. It’s in a blue and yellow can.

I use the nexguard combo from vets just a liquid applied to neck treats all parasites and good for a cat that won’t take medication orally

@piano789 - what was the stuff from screw fix please? I think our house has some as we have been bitten although we do not own any animals! I am very miffed about how we have them!

@LisaJool - how is everything now? Has it all settled?

@MotherHaryy OP here but I name changed recently. Bought a flea comb and Advantage, the comb really is the best thing I think. There were still live active fleas on day 10 of the Front line and loads of eggs 😩. Used Advantage and I'm combing every day and maybe get 1 or 2 only per day and eggs/faeces have really reduced. Threw my bed out (I'm moving so it was going to happen anyway) but I'm still getting bites around the ankles. Been spraying Indorex on dd's mattress every night but she still wakes up with bites every morning. Dcat is no longer allowed in her room so I'm hoping the fleas in her room will die off in a week without a host.
Apart from that, everything is great 😅.

I had flea infestation for about 6 weeks- it nearly drove me demented. I had no idea where the cat got them from. It was so bad then when we returned from a weekend away and walked through the front door, our legs were covered in them within 2 minutes. Use Indorex, delivered next by Popular on line delivery service. We used some sort of exploding ‘bombs’ and vacated the house for 10 hours- cart included.

I’ll never forget going to a meeting and one of the fuckers jumped off my arm onto the meeting table as I was talking!

Back in the day, I remember having great fun walking the cat and catching the fleas as they ran up the cats body towards the eyes, grabbing them and drowning them. White cat so quite easy.
Good, good luck.