Indoor cat fleas advice/indorex

[TheStuffalo]

Our beautiful indoor cat has been lethargic recently and I've noticed she seems to be leaving black specks everywhere. A quick google seems to suggest she's got fleas! It didn't even occur to me this could be it as she's an indoor cat. We've given her a flea treatment (drop to put on the scruff of the neck) and we are going to take her to the vet this week just to get her checked out but is there anything else we should do?

i've read about indorex- should we used this at home and is it ok to use with an indoor cat and small children? Do I spray the beds with it or just the carpet and sofa? Never had this in the 8 years we've had her so not sure what to do! Thanks!

Indorex can be used on anything - carpets, curtains, mattresses, fabrics, skirting boards. Spray thoroughly. It’s very effective.

The vet can tell for sure about fleas but in the meantime, look very closely at the black specks. Do they kind of curl? If so yes it is flea poo. You might also see white specks, the eggs. You won’t see fleas until there are a lot.

Indorex is a fantastic product and to get rid of an infestation you’ll probably need to use it as well as the neck drops. But, Indorex is a very strong chemical and if breathed in while spraying can cause serious health issues. Be aware it kills fish/birds/insects so if you have any of those don’t use it near them.

Wear a proper face mask while using and ventilate the room afterwards for several hours before using the room again. Don’t let the cat in there for several hours after the spray. I’d recommend…

Wear the best face mask you can and long sleeves. Spray inside your vaccum cleaner pipe and bag. Vacuum everywhere. Then Pick a room, spray the carpet, seal off the room for an hr, then come back, open all windows, leave it for at least 2 more hrs then shut the windows but don’t use that room for a day or two. Then repeat this with a different room until you’ve done them all except perhaps the kitchen (no way was I using Indorex in my kitchen).

No need to spray bedding (washing machine / tumble dryer works better). No need to spray hard floors unless you have lots of gaps.

Yes to spraying sofa and cat bedding but make sure it has dried before sitting on it.

Shower and wash your hair after you’ve finished with the Indorex.

Do laundry constantly.

Thank you both for your replies. @Leyenda yes they do curl a bit so that must be what it is. Thank you for the info about indorex. I think we need to do it tomorrow after the vet visit as I think I found one flea on the kitchen work top 😫

We put the drop on tonight on the scruff of her neck and she's been incredibly distressed ever since. Is this normal? Going to the vet first thing

What flea treatment did you use as many of the OTC ones don’t work effectively , speak to the vet about prescribing something moving forward . Our indoor cats have the Program injection but they have access to a catio so could potentially pick something up .

After using Indorex you need to vacuum every day to encourage the eggs to hatch where they will die in the chemicals 🤢

Indoor cats must be dewormed and defleaed because you bring fleas in on your clothes. One of the worm types is carried by fleas.

Once you have treated DCat, let her roam freely throughout the house. Her presence will trigger the flea pupae to emerge as adults and hop into her for their first and only meal before the fleacide kills them.

Seconding what PPs say about OTC treatments sucking. I had the fleapocalyse whilst still treating DCat with Frontline. He's now on Bravecto from the vet.

Thank you all for your advice. I've been vacuuming upstairs and indorex'd and am now waiting before I can ventilate. I've done all of the upstairs as I unfortunately found about 5 dead fleas in one of the rooms. I'm not sure what this means about the level of infestation.

i feel so bad for our poor cat. The vet can't see her until next week so we might try and see if we can take her elsewhere in the mean time and I'm freaking out about the kids being bitten 😩

What flea product did you use? If it is from a pet shop (e.g. Bob Martin) it may not be effective and may also be the reason for the distress your cat is experiencing.

If your cat seems to be having a bad reaction, please get her to a vet asap.

Once you have sorted that out, if you regularly use an effective flea treatment (again ask your vet) you will not need to worry about using Indorex again.

The fleas will prefer DCat to DCs. Our blood is the wrong kind and not nutritious in the right way for fleas to breed. Again, let the treated cat roam freely through the house.

A vet won't treat your cat as a non-emergency (and this is a non-emergency) unless you register with them. It's to do with who is responsible legally for the animal's care. Wait for the appointment that's already booked.

The pyriproxifen in Indorex will stop larval fleas from pupating into adults that will hop onto DCat, so by treating the house you are already helping her. Her definitive treatment will be Bravecto or similar from the vet.

When I had fleamageddon, I joined my vet's preventive care scheme before I took DCat in to see them. The scheme covered that visit and his flea treatment straight away and it covers his ongoing flea and worm treatments, boosters, and six-monthly health checks. It's worth checking whether your vet offers such a scheme.

If you've used a spot on treatment then your vet is very unlikely to want to use a stronger prescription one such as Bravecto for some weeks. I think officially it's 2 months.

What do you mean by "incredibly distressed"? Of course that's not normal. But some cats can have a neurological or allergic reaction to the spot on products.

An incredibly distressed cat after treating would mean at least a phone call with vet, surely?

I agree WristCandy, I would be getting a very distressed cat seen by a vet today.

Re time between treatments, years ago I used to treat my cats with Frontline but it became ineffective, I saw my vet and he said I needed to wait two weeks before re-treating with another product (I think at that time we switched to Advocate).

When my cat first had fleas a few months back, it was a combination of indorex, feeling like I was running a launderette for weeks, bravecto spot on slightly earlier than usual treatment time and Nitenpryam tablets for the cat for a couple of days that got rid of them for good.

The tablets, the vet tried to get us to buy capstar tablets from them, very expensive and a brand name, but I got exactly the same thing which is Nitenpryam same dose, under the Johnson's 4fleas tablets for a few quid on Amazon. A bit like buying generic ibuprofen instead of nurofen. The tablets sent the fleas mad and then they all drop dead.

Thank you for all your advice.

by incredibly distressed I meant she was miaowing very loudly and constantly in a forlorn sad sort of way and grooming herself aggressively which is very unlike her. She's a quiet, gentle cat and her behaviour was so out of character. To me at 1am it seemed incredibly distressed but I accept I might have been over dramatising in my sleep deprived worried state!

I sat up with her until she calmed down and we called the vet in the morning and explained everything and they gave us an appointment for next week. She had calmed down by yesterday morning and has just slept in the same spot ever since only getting up to go use her tray or have something to eat and drink. Lots of dead fleas have been dropping off her so hopefully the treatment is working!

I'm going to spray the downstairs of the house including the sofa and chairs this morning so hopefully that will help 🤞 we have hardwood downstairs so I was just going to spray round the skirting boards and hoover like mad for the next few days!

A bit gross but I also found wiggly things in my work keyboard then I remembered the cat had been sitting on it last week 🤢 I've dettolled the keyboard and may give it a quick spray with the indorex but not sure if that's a good idea!

Flea treatments can make fleas more active than usual which can irritate the cat

hyperdrug.co.uk/blog/why-do-i-still-see-fleas-after-my-animal-has-been-treated-for-them/

One of the most effective ways to get rid of fleas is a soapy bath - if you don't mind being scratched to pieces. I also used the kids' nitt comb on mine when they were really bad.

We had the same unpleasant surprise as you and treated the whole house with indorex. Ended up essentially deep cleaning the whole house washing all soft furnishings once a room was treated and increased the amount of vacuuming I did for a few weeks.

I also found wiggly things in my work keyboard

Larvae.

I would honestly ask your work IT people for another keyboard. Don't worry about returning that one, they won't want it back. 🤮 ☣️☣️☣️☣️

I used flea fogger in each room bar the kitchen as well as vacuuming and hot washing the sheets and treating DCat. If you move the furniture out from the walls by half a metre, flea fogger gets all the skirting boards.

I did the kitchen floor with bleach solution and pulled all the kick boards off to spray indorex under the units.

Have you actually seen a live flea? It seems a lot to be getting worked up over if not. Check the back of the neck, near the tail etc. since you've treated, have you found any dead fleas on the floor?
I have seven cats and had a real flea infestation in Summer 2020 due to the heatwave. The council had to spray the whole house twice over a couple of months, not allowed to hoover or mop for a month each time.
If you check your floors (I recommend walking the floors inch by inch using torch on iPhone and having a sellotape dispenser handy, once trapped in sellotape use the top corner of your phone to push down and roll over them, makes a satisfying click and you know they're dead) and your socks and find them jumping then you're in trouble. Ideally at least if you can find a live one on a cat you'd know it's time to take action.
If you do find real evidence of actual live fleas then indorex alone won't cut it. You'll have to wash every bit of soft furnishings at a high temperature. All bedding, all blankets, towels, clothes that have been on the floor. Hoover daily with indorex sprayed in the barrel amd empty into outdoor bin every time. Steam mop to kill them too.
Can you tell how neurotic bloody fleas make me?

@VitoCorleoneOfMNMafia 🤮🤮🤮 I really can't ask for a new one as I've literally just got this one and I've only just started so don't want to make a bad impression

@homezookeeper i haven't seen any live fleas, only about 10 dead ones that seem to have dropped off Dcat since treated her.

all bedding has been washed at 90 and now we are moving onto towels. I can't wash some of the clothes at 90 otherwise they will shrink but have indorexed everywhere in the house now apart from the front hallway which is next on the list when the kids are out! I've indorexed inside the hoover and the pipe too. Fingers crossed this works.

if we are still getting bites next week I might consider getting the professionals in FML

What did you treat the cat with? Indorex will kill any in the house. But if you’re using something like frontline (or even worse Bob Martin) you won’t kill all what’s on the cat.

Vet prescribed Stronghold Plus for my cat. He said it’s a new treatment that the fleas haven’t become immune to yet x