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?

Yes I stopped using flea and worm treatment about five years ago after noticing cat was off food for several days after applying. Now I groom cat regularly and check for signs of fleas and check poo for worms. No sign of either. Has saved me a fortune.

Vets will tell you that you NEED to continue with both (since it is a good monthly revenue for them) but I would assess the risks yourself. Do you have small children that could be at risk from worms? Is your cat a big hunter? Do they have a flea allergy? If the risks are low, and you have the time to check the coat and poo regularly (particularly with fleas, once you have a problem, it can be difficult to get on top of), I personally wouldn’t bother.

My cat has a tablet once a month to prevent fleas and a worming tablet every three months on the vet’s recommendation. They are included with the pet health plan so no extra cost. Once you get fleas brought into your house you’ll struggle to get rid of them.

I've only ever treated our four outdoor cats (for fleas and worms) as a cure rather than as a preventative.
No idea why, but our cats have had absolutely no fleas at all since just before Covid. So we've avoided the cost (and environmental damage) of the treatments for about 6 years so far.

I honestly think you don't need to do it in winter. There just aren't many fleas etc about.

I don't know if this is the norm, but I only treat reactively. As soon as I see them scratching. Or I see a flea. But in spring I do spray indorex all around the house as a precautionary measure.

This is mainly because my cats are absolutely terrified of the sodding treatment. Even though it doesn't hurt.

Just the snap of the thing opening and they will try and run like mad. It's a two man job that frequently goes wrong and they don't speak to me afterwards for a good couple of weeks.

Bloody bastards.

Before we had cats, we moved into our current house. A few days after we moved in, we noticed the fleas - infestation from previous occupants (they had cats/dogs and didn’t treat them). It took about three months to sort and was bloody awful (and expensive!). A combination of hoovering multiple times a day, laundering everything’s much as possible, Indorex spray, flea bombs, flea traps and diatomaceous earth.

I have three cats now and they get the spot on stuff from the vet every month, along with worming stuff every 3 months. I indorex spray the house twice a year as a preventative and do a monthly flea comb/check on them. I’ve also bought nematodes for the garden. The only time we had a flea problem was when the dose for my MC hadn’t been titrated up for his weight. Luckily I spotted it quick and got started on sorting it. My cats do go outside (they have catios) so there’s a risk for them getting fleas. Luckily they all don’t mind me flea combing them (to check)!

We switched to pills because of the toxicity.

I think they need to put warnings on the packets.

My cat is nearly nine and has never had fleas. I don’t treat her. My previous cat didn’t have fleas until he was over ten. Actually I found once I started treating him he had fleas more often. They are incredibly toxic chemicals and when fur is shed those chemicals are in the fur. It’s very unhealthy.

We had a flea infestation once. Never again! We had to rip out carpets, throw away mattresses. It was awful. It took months to get on top of it.

We now just have a dog and we give him the nexguard stuff which gets awful reviews for causing neurological issues but ultimately, I've got young DC so I don't want the dog having worms and fleas and every other method of controlling them seems not so great for the DC, like spot on treatments that come off when they stroke the dog, collars that leech chemicals all months, diacemtous earth which causes lung problems if inhaled etc.

I'm a vet nurse with dogs ,no cats and i don't treat my dogs ,cat's are a different matter i think in that they tend to roam freely and don't alert you to a flea problem the way a dog does and so often by the time you notice the fleas on your cat there is an infestation to tackle.
Cats are more tolerant to a flea burden but dogs will scratch often at the onset.
I would always treat a cat from Spring up to/ through Autumn , particularly if Autumn is warm and damp , there often seems to be a demand for treatment more so at this time, treat every 4th week otherwise efficacy of product drops off.
The flea is a host to tapeworm and so any cats that hunt and eat their prey should be wormed regularly ie aprox 3 months.
I cannot recommend any product other than a POMV as over the counter just aren't efficient anymore and you can end up wasting your money, as long as the cat has seen a vet within 12months and the vet as written an authorisation note in their history get a written prescription and buy online.
I have been in a house with a severe flea infestation and i wouldn't have believed how bad it can get had i have not witnessed it myself , absolute horror and i can't imagine how long it would have taken to get rid of.

Thank you. When you say POMV, do you mean a spot on the back of the neck is the only effective treatment?
Or are there alternative POMVs that are equally effective with fleas? Like pills? And so presumably they can then be given as a preventative without the same kind of worries?

That’s not true at all. We had a horrific infestation and it lasted months and that was after the cat had gone. I always treat mine. Indoor cat too.

I don’t worm as he doesn’t hunt
flea treat every few months, he barely goes outside

I have 2 cats, I haven't used any flea treatment in about 5 years (Covid), and they're both fine (outdoor cats during the day time, we live rurally). Boycat always went a bit odd after his flea treatment, and came in sporting a tick 1 week after a combined treatment more than once, so it clearly wasn't working for that anyway.

They don't eat wildlife (they're floofy idiots, and the wildlife sees them coming), or socialise with other cats, so I expect that's how we've survived so far - that and hard floors throughout downstairs.

The flea treatment you get from the vets seems so strong and toxic, it used to worry me too. I only used it when the dogs actually got fleas (about every 3-4 years). I do the same with my cat now.

Worming is a different matter and regular use is more important, especially with an outdoor cat.

My parents cat was a hunter, and he seemed to continuously have fleas despite similarly continuous treatments both to him and the house. He didn't seem to care, although my parents were frequently at the end of their tether over it!

I don't use it anymore. I'm not a fan of overuse of chemicals, and I also read it was very bad for wildlife. I do spend a lot of time grooming them with a flea comb, especially in warmer months, and I make sure I vacuum a lot and wash their bedding a lot, just in case.

Yes, I stopped (or rather, reduced) because of the danger to wildlife. Dogs playing in streams or lakes pollute the water with the chemicals which are so toxic, and cat and dog fur with flea treatment has been found in most nests where the eggs didn't hatch in a study the other year.

I use a flea treatment every 6 months or so - I hate using them as I know they’re so bad for the environment so I minimise it but don’t want to stop altogether. Worming I do whenever they have worms (I have a fluffy cat and when he has tapeworms it’s obvious as he has grains of rice round his bum, so I assume they both have worms at that point and treat them both). Mine are mousers so I assume they get worms that way.

I do think flea treatments are hugely overused and it is illogical to me that the ingredients in them are banned in farming pesticides but legal for domestic use.

POMV - prescription only medicine veterinary.

From many years experience i have no faith at all in any product other than a POMV product, i have had so many conversations with owners desperate to get rid of fleas who say they have 'tried everything' then when you ask what they have tried it is pretty much always a off the shelf ,pet shop, supermarket product, they are always annoyed at yet more forking out at the vets but had they have come to a vet in the first instance the problem would have been so much easier to sort out , anybody in my job will have had the same conversations with owners numerous times.
Actually i am never ceased to be amazed at how the pet companies get away with selling their literally useless products - there are two in particular beginning with B on sale at pet shops etc.
There are lots available in POMV category , think about how you wish to treat ,ie spot on or tablet then ask what your vet /practice advises .
If you get the product directly from your vet and dosing/application is difficult for you ask if a vet /vet nurse will do it for you , we happily oblige in our practice.
I don't think there is much difference in efficacy whether spot on/ tablet just what you find easier and how cat reacts ,most are absolutely fine with a spot on others get very upset.

Thank you. So a decent POMV tablet is just as effective as a spot on treatment?

So since this whole thread is about the dangerous forever chemicals in spot on treatments, surely it's a no brainier to simply move to a tablet?! As they don't have the dangerous forever chemicals?

I'll ask my vet about what tablet to use. Assuming my cat takes them, it should be a simple swap from the spot on treatment right?

Our vet doesn’t recommend routinely treating for fleas, she said to just check regularly and only treat if he actually has fleas.

My cat gets fleas (and ticks) the minute it gets warmer around March. I don’t like toxic chemicals but I also don’t like an infested house or finding enormous ticks on my carpet. That said, I usually only treat my cat when I see fleas as I dislike doing it and the cat hates it too.

My cat gets fleas (and ticks) the minute it gets warmer around March. I don’t like toxic chemicals but I also don’t like an infested house or finding enormous ticks on my carpet. That said, I usually only treat my cat when I see fleas as I dislike doing it and the cat hates it too.

Having dealt with the utter misery of fleas in the home, there is no way I would discontinue the spot on treatment…

Yes a straight swap 4 weeks after whatever you are currently using.
However even a tablet will still have some effect on the environment as it is excreted through cats waste.
Though spot on's are the ones that contaminate water ways.
I don't think you will find a product out there that doesn't have some effect on the environment.