i've had my cat for almost two years and i have rarely seen a flea on her. i have always put the flea drops on her neck and never had a problem. two months ago i forgot to put the drops on her neck and boom, fleas galore! this cat is a 100% inside cat, never been outside. i've continued the flea drops and the cat doesn't have fleas on her. in fact i haven't seen a flea on her in two weeks but they are all over my house.
I've bombed the house with the fogger thing and i vaccum every other day but there are still fleas that jump on my feet when i'm sitting on the couch.
what can i do to get rid of them for good? in two years i never had this problem until now.
Thank you.
Ok, you need to remember that the majority of the fleas spend the majority of their time OFF your pet. What you see on your cat are female fleas getting a blood meal to lay eggs or a male chasing a female. This is what I've recommended to may clients with good success....
1) if you have a severe flea infestation, you need to use a flea preventative... I personally prefer Frontline (because its not absorbed across the animals skin and its waterproof) but Advantage or Revolution (which I'm not a big fan of) will also work. STAY AWAY from petstore (ie Hartz) brands. These things used to be prescription, they didn't work, so the companies reduced the concentration of the drugs in them and started selling them over the counter. They don't work. They make huge amounts of money for the company because they don't work. I've literally seen a dog with fleas on its nose, none on the middle of its back where the owner put on the petstore spot on and fleas on its back. Also, these can be very, very dangerous for cats. They can cause seizures or even kill your cat if you put the dog formula on a cat.
You need to use this flea preventative for at least 3 life cycles of the flea---which is roughly 2 1/2 to 3 months. This will prevent any residual eggs that you miss from hatching and getting on your pets.
2) Vacuum tables, furniture, carpets. Then take the vacuum bag out and put it in your freezer or freeze the canister out of your vacuum. If you just vacuum, you will suck up the fleas, but then they are in the vacuum, free to crawl back out how they like. After you've frozen the canister overnight, dump it in a trashbag, tightly tie the bag and take it immediately to your dumpster.
3) wash your pets bedding and beds in HOT water. This will kill any residual fleas and flea eggs. If you can't wash the bedding, throw it out and get something new.
4) Flea bombs don't work. What they do is put a large amount of potentially harmful chemicals in the air to settle on all horizontal surfaces but they don't' do crap to kill the fleas. Remember, fleas are in the carpeting under the table, not on top of the table where the chemicals from a bomb settle. If you have a severe, severe infestation, you can consider spot treating areas where the pets spend a large amount of time with an appropriate topical spray. I don't' recommend using diatomacious earth because I've seen cats develop severe ocular irritation when they rubbed on carpeting treated and got the granules in their eyes. I've also seen cats with severe irritation between their toe pads from diatomacious earth.
5) Remember to treat all "hidden hosts". Fleas will move freely from cats to dogs to guinea pigs to ferrets (Fleas love ferrets) to rabbits. You must treat all potential flea hosts in your house to eliminate the fleas. You can safely use revolution or advantage on most exotic species. Don't use Frontline on rabbits---the carrier is toxic.
6) look for a latant infestation source----ie if you live in an apartment building, ask your neighbors if they are having a flea problem. Fleas will freely travel from one apartment to the other under the doors. You can treat your place until you are blue in the face and you won't be successful if your neighbor has a flea factory putting out fleas in their apartment. Other things to consider are stray dogs or cats in your area. I've seen one case where I swear the indoor cat got fleas from an outdoor cat through an open window across a screen.
