Stop regular flea treatment?

[WalkingAroundHere]

We normally treat DCat with Bravecto flea treatment on the back of the neck once every three months. He's an outdoor cat.
We've done it for years and never really questioned it, I presume the vet recommended it?

I've recently listened to the BBC podcast "Toxic!" about forever chemicals, and it talks about how these kind of flea treatments are very damaging to the environment and are hugely overused. It suggests you only need to be using flea treatment if your cat actually has fleas - otherwise you should stop the regular applications when the cat does not have fleas.

Has anyone else stopped regular flea treatment for this reason? Do cats really need continuous flea treatment for their whole lives?

What about similar worming treatment? I presume that is more important to do regularly for an outdoor cat?

I haven’t flea treated over the winter. I will now it’s warming up. By the time the cat has fleas they will be in the house and that’s a nightmare.

Yes you do need to treat regularly.

If you stop the treatment, you will start to see fleas, they will make your cat very uncomfortable and will be in your home environment and could be difficult to get rid of. You may also get bitten yourself, which you won't enjoy!

I used to work in cat rescue, and we once took in a female cat who had terrible tapeworm because her owners had not wormed her, which was very unpleasant for her. I worm my cats twice a year, some vets suggest more often but I find twice a year is fine.

When I was a child the flea treatments for cats were horrible - sprays or puffer bottles of powder which were frightening for the cat and hard to apply. I am very grateful it's just a simple drop-on now!

yes I have and lots of people I speak to have too. Cats and dogs. I regularly go over them with a flea comb to check and haven’t found anything for past two years. I do regularly worm them. I find late summer early autumn a hot spot for fleas and ticks so if they are adventurous I would give them a flea treatment around then. The chemicals are harsh to both pet and environment not to mention expensive!

I discussed this with my vet and stopped. I keep a close eye for fleas and only use if any signs. Once a cat has been treated any fleas in the house will starve pretty fast.

Well, I stopped treating our cats (all now departed apart from one) a long time ago. They didn't have fleas for the most part, occasionally one might find one flea, apart from the memorable occasion one decided to try to find some critter in a tunnel and came back with an infestation (which we cleared up by flea combing several times a day and drowning the fleas)! I should add all were outdoor kitties in the countryside.

I don't like putting chemicals on my cats, and honestly don't find it necessary at all. Just run a flea comb over them every so often or look out for excessive scratching.

As for worming, mine is a hunter so gets a regular worming tablet every 6 months.

I read an article saying the same thing, that pesticides from pets have a terrible effect on wildlife.
When i got my kitten he was crawling with fleas and the treatment worked really well, but my vet said I needed to keep it up. He goes outside and meets other cats.

i only used flea treatments over the summer as my elderly cat stayed in or sat on the deck only once the weather got changeable.

however a few years after she passed, i did this routine with my new cat but after a year she got fleas and omg the problems ive had getting rid of them. nightmare.

so i think if i get a new cat in a few years time i will likely continue to use the spot on type stuff. fleas are awful. the itching and jagging ive had. ouch. not fun. plus im scared one leaps off je onto a friend and i spread them - i dont even give clothes to charity now in case i infest someone) poor cats havimg those. plus the wormer is included in the back of the neck treatments so that’s good.

I understand the concerns about toxicity but after having a flea infestation in the house as a child I would never not use regular treatments. Once they’ve got hold it’s absolutely horrific. The whole house feels violated.

We do a monthly prescribed thing, but I am actually going to speak to the vet about it when he’s in for his jabs this month. I always think he’s a bit “off” for a couple of days after it, not eating as much as usual and slightly lethargic.

MrCat gets the full set oral and skin-drop de-beasting treatments at his yearly vet-checkup. That’s it. I have never seen the point in preventative poison. My childhood pets never had regular pesticides either. I groomed them regularly and treated if necessary. I do the same with MrCat. The one time I found a flea on him, I treated him immediately. As he is a hunter who eats his prey, it is very likely he picks up digestive parasites, so he gets de-wormed once a year.

The only situation I would regularly put poison on my pet is if they would not allow me to groom or flea-comb them. It’s not good for them and it’s not good for the environment.

I only treat my cat if he has fleas. Some places seem to have many more fleas than others. In our old house in the country our cats never had fleas in the 20+ years that we lived there. Harvest mites were a different story. When I lived in a town it was a constant battle to stay flea free. Present cat doesn’t hunt (successfully) so less of a chance of worms as well. He’s had fleas once in three years, very easy to spot in his pale fur.

Quite a range of differing opinions!

We have had fleas in the house with a previous cat and we had to deal with it by spraying every room with indorex spray - is that better or worse than a less regular cat flea treatment?!

With regards to the de worming treatment, I presume is the pipette on the back of the neck stuff is worse than a de worming pill?
The problem with the pill is getting the cat to actually eat it.

I'm also confused with the regularity of pps de worming. Someone on this thread said their cat gets wormed once a year at the vet, someone else said once every 6 months, I do neck spot treatment every 3 months... Does it depend on the specific treatment? Worming once a year at the vet sounds much better!

I am on a plan which offers year round flea and worming. But I don't treat monthly. I do flea treat regularly over the summer as one cat has a flea allergy and will be very uncomfortable if I didn't. Two of my cats I use a three monthly treatment on - but again skip the winter months.
Worming I do occasionally. They're all in good health and we don't have fleas in the house. Keep some indorex handy though just in case.

I don't use the flea treatments every month, it just seems a waste, my cat avoids other cats and shows no symptoms. I have a few months worth in case she does. I think she has been wormed at the vet at her yearly check ups, but she is not a hunter, so I never worm either.

I definitely would not want to get to the stage of treating my house with Indorex.

If I am late with flea treatments my cats start scratching and I start seeing a couple of fleas on my pale coloured cat, so I know I need to keep up with treatments regularly.

For worming I get the vet to give them a Drontal tablet at the annual vaccination visit. I don't want the stress of getting a Drontal down them myself, so for their second annual treatment I use a drop on, Dronspot, which you can buy online without prescription. My vet recommended it.

Worming we get a tablet from the vet every three months, I just checked my texts and it’s called Milpro.

PP saying their cat doesn’t interact with other cats, ours doesn’t really roam tbh, but I remember my mum’s dog getting fleas from a hedgehog.

I use Prinocate spot on monthly like clockwork as my cat is a fan of the outdoors and catching and eating vermin, the cat hates being done.

Any time I've gone lax with treatments the cat has got fleas every time and I've had to Indorex the house as the damn things love me (not the other family members weirdly) and I get bitten, a lot!

Also use a worm tablet in food every 3 months.

This is what the vet advised when we had the cat as a kitten.

I was told by my vet to stop treating regularly and to only treat if I see signs of fleas. She said that the fleas can become resistant to the treatment and it becomes less effective.

That was a year ago and I haven't had to treat them yet so far. One of my cats had developed a skin condition that she was constantly grooming and making worse, and that's cleared up since as well.

They're back for their annual check up next week so I can report back with the vets comments!

Penelope gets done once in a blue moon. But she’s an indoor cat.

I treat every month with the spot on, the last time my cat caught fleas from the neighbours cat she got so distressed she pulled all the fur around her back legs off. Also I'm allergic to the sprays for killing fleas in the house so overall that just wasn't a pleasant experience for anyone.

I dont constantly flea treat them it isnt necessary. I do it once or twice a year. Once in summer and when the central heating goes on. Thats enough and my house isn't a flea pit.
The toxic chemicals in that stuff is not good for cats long term.

The problem with the pill is getting the cat to actually eat it.

Oh you don't wait for that, grip cat's head, open his/her mouth and pop the pill in far back, close mouth and hope they swallow it not spit it out! Or get the vet to do it lol. 😂

I look after 7 mostly semi ferals and if I treated them all every month id be broke. Especially when we had 12 at one time.

I treat them when I see a flea or a tick. And worm them twice a year or if I see any signs. I keep a spreadsheet of each last treatment so they dont get over treated by mistake.

I treat from April to October monthly on the advice of my vet
My DP didnt believe in it and his house was infested and had to be flea bombed with chemicals
Not great

If only! The house will have a multi layer infestation of eggs, larvae and pupae. The egg can survive for almost two decades in a dormant state and hatch in the presence of warmth, movement and C02 (host). By the time you are aware of the adults on the cat, the house is already infested. They mate and blood feed from the host, hop on and off at will but the eggs roll off and go everywhere the cat goes. Fleas are a very determined life form.