Help-2wk kittens with a flea problem!!

[xheena]

Hi all! I'm new to the site thou I've been getting the daily cat 'toon for awhile.
I've been researching to find safe ways to deal with fleas on my 2 week old kittens. We change their bedding every day and we're relentless with the flea comb but we just can't seem to permanently reduce the number of fleas we see on them. The only safe thing that seems to help is to give them an 'ash bath'. We save the ashes from the fireplace and coat their little bodies with the ash being careful not to let them inhale the dust, the ash smothers the fleas and they drop off. But this still has risks if they inhale too much ash. Please if anyone has any safe ways to deal with fleas on tiny kittens please post here or drop me an email.
Just as a note of introduction-my hubby and I have 3-whoops now 5-pet kitties and we also care for many, many ferals. I'll post some cool pics of our kitty family as soon as I get them developed. We have a momma cat(a russian blue) and her 2 male kittens(1 black & 1 red tabby) that are almost a year old(june 19) and her 2 new kittens-1 boy(grey&white) & 1 girl(russian blue)-that are 2 wks. Any help anyone can give me with conquering my flea problem will be a GREAT help!!

[Sandie]

You know, thats a tough one. Most of the flea products are made for older cats. I can't say that I have found a natural remedy that works like a charm. The only product I know of that treats at an early age is capstar. You can use it when they are 4 weeks and 2lbs. The only thing I can think of is to make sure and treat the enviroment. Get all of the fleas in the area so that there are none to eat up the baby.

[suzerq98]

My kitten was 4 weeks with fleas and the vet gave me Revolution. She said it's for kittens, also controls ear mites and worms (which we didn't have a problem with). Have you talked with your vet? Maybe he/she could give you some ideas.

[Anne]

I would just get a dense comb and get the fleas out manually. It's a bit but it is the safest way. Get a bowl of warm soap water next to you and as you comb out a flea, dip the comb ib the water immidiately to kill the it. It may be difficut at first but like with practice you can really master this art

p.s. moving the thread to care and grooming

[xheena]

Thankx for all your replies. We do use a flea comb on the babies all the time-my hubby even keeps a count of how many fleas we remove(LOL).
They are just too young yet for any kind of chemical treatment. I'll keep up with clean bedding constantly and the 'ash bath' every couple of days. My 2 older boys are being neutered today so I'll be keeping them in for awhile--maybe that will help to reduce the numbers of fleas being carried in by them. If anyone can think of anything else-just let me know!! Thankx all!!

[dawnt91]

I just found a flea on one of my 4 day old kittens, and the vet recommended treating the momma cat with Advantage. She said that since it's a topical treatment, the kittens would pick up enough of it by crawling around on mom to help with the fleas, but not too much to hurt them. Also, it will then travel to them safely through her milk. We'll see how well it works. So far I've seen only one flea, but the kittens are very dark so they're hard to see. Very frustrating, especially since the momma cat doesn't have fleas as far as I can tell.

Dawn

[Ttapestry1]

There are several ways you can do this. Advantage is good if you have the mother cat. Not only will it do what was said above but mainly the fleas will jump off the babies and get on the mother and die. You can also get flea wipes at a petstore. They are kind of like wet naps and they work really well.

[Sandie]

If there is 1 flea, there are more. They multiply so fast that its best to get it when first noticed. The advantage works really well. It will give you results in a short time.

[HattKatts]

Before you treat the kittens with anything (wipes, etc) please remember that Momma grooms and cleans her kittens daily, cleans their poop, etc. Anything you apply to the kittens Mom is going to ingest. That is why so many products say not to use on kittens under 6 - 8 weeks old. If you want to get the flea situation under control put Mom and babies in a carrier or cage and steam clean the room. Wash all blankets, bedding, etc in hot water and spray the room with a pyrethrin based insecticide. Thoroughly comb Mom and kids before putting them back in their room. You are never going to completely eradicate the fleas until you are able to treat Mom and babies as well as their environment at the same time but that will be several more weeks down the road. In the future you need to plan ahead and get the situation under control BEFORE the babies arrive. Of course, hindsight is ALWAYS 20/20!

Pete