Fleas will not go away.

Ok so a month or two ago i posted a thread asking if a certain kind of flea shampoo was ok to use. i was told to use dawn instead. i bought the dawn and gave him SEVERAL baths since trying to rid him of the fleas. i try to brush him with the flea comb afterwards and it doesnt even pick up the fleas. they have to be in a certain position for the flea to get caught in the comb. and when u have a highly upset kitten squirming to get away, it isnt easy. i just gave him ANOTHER bath in the dawn. it isnt even killing the fleas. they were trying to get away as i was combing him. and they were jumpin everywhere. this is starting to become a huge problem. i am getting eaten alive and i can only begin to imagine how he feels bc there are ALOT of them. he has scabs on the side of his face from scratching them so much. and im afraid that he may become anemic from them all. i am ordering him frontline tomorrow. (i had to wait to get paid) but i just read a post a couple of days ago about that not working.. what can i do im starting to believe that im not going to be able to stop this. please help!

It sounds like the kitten needs to see a vet, and if big enough, get frontlined. The infestation sounds pretty bad, so you most likely have them in your house as well. Maybe others can tell you what would be involved in eradicating them...flea bombing the house maybe? I'm not sure.

What I am sure about is your kitten needs help to get rid of the fleas. He can become anemic from so much blood loss, and that can be dangerous. Please take him to the vet.

I cant take him to the vet for at least a week, as i am working all week long with no day off. during the week days the Humane Society opens really late, by that time im already at work and my bf works too. i dont think its so bad he needs a vet anyway, all they will do is put frontline on him, which is going to cost me a fortune. i can get it ALOT cheaper online. i am going to wait a few days, and bathe him in the flea shampoo. then buy the crap u put into your carpet and crap to kill them. theyre not all over the place bc we checked the dog and he has none.

The problem with fleas is that they are not easy to get rid of. The will jump off your pet into the carpet or elsewhere. Once in your house they can live for months without food. The can multiply quickly and if your pet's coat is no longer a good home or source of food for them, they will begin to look elsewhere......you. You have to treat your pet and house simultaneously, including throwing out your vacuum bag. I replied to another post today regarding fleas citing my experiences. Not a fun thing to deal with. Good luck and come back and report how the problem is coming.

You post has confirmed my fear that there is much confusion around the use of Dawn. Dawn is NOT a flea shampoo - it's just a safe shampoo for cats.

On-line purchases of flea treatment are not always the same as what you get from the vet - they may be "knock-offs" and/or much weaker in strength which won't work.

This is just my opinion (I've been through all the do-it-yourself fixes for fleas until my problem got so bad I had to get professional exterminators) but the best thing you can do for both you and the kitty is go to the vet, get the Revolution or Advantage and then treat your house. Even if you don't see fleas on your dog, if your cat has them that bad, then they are there. Fleas don't live on your animal - they jump on for a meal and jump off.

By the sounds of it your little kitten could well be on his way to anemia if he has so many on him.

Well we have an exterminator come like once a month or so cuz we have a problem with ants, he treats for all pests, & the stuff he uses is pet safe. so the next time he comes i will ask him to get the carpet really well, plus im going out to buy that crap u sprinkle into your carpet. im going to bathe him with the flea shampoo, but i am concerned since i was told NOT to use it. when the Advantage comes (i already ordered it) & it is really advantage dont worry, i will use it. my bfs mom is ordeering some for the dog too just in case so we will treat them both at the same time. we cant really bomb the house cuz that would mean we would have to take the birds outside and its too cold for them to be outside. and we dont have anywhere we could take them for the day. if this problem doesnt go away by the time his appointment for neutering comes around, then i will ask the vet to step in and assist with the fleas. money is extremely tight right now, i just spent the last of my money buying him food and litter last night. and i have to take todays pay when i leave work tonight just to pay for the flea meds. thanks for you advice guys i really value it, but as i said i just cant afford to take him to the vet until his neutering.

Your kitty might just need a vet regardless if you can afford it. If you just flea-treat a kitten with store-bought advantage you could really do more harm then good. Flea treatment on kittens is given by weight, as well as by the health of the kitten. Dawn will NOT kill fleas, whoever told you this was wrong. It stuns the fleas temporarily allowing you to remove the fleas with a flea comb. If you have so many fleas that you can't remove them all, your kitty may be well on its way to being anemic. Please drop this kitten off at a vet or a shelter and ask them to work it in for an exam and make arrangements to pick it up later that day. Fleas can kill kittens quick, even before you know it is happening. The crap you are talking about buying is just that- talk to the vet about what he recommends for safe flea treatment of the home. My vet sells flea bombs for $13.00 but you have to follow the directions carefully.

I have had many a kitten in my home come here riddled with fleas. I consider fleas very dangerous to young kittens- they not only take their blood and leave disease but they also cause tapeworms. Please get your kitty seen as soon as possible and leave the flea shampoos and stuff on the grocery shelf for the safety of your kitty

Is monster neutered yet? If not, I suggest you have it scheduled and bomb the house while he's away. There is a strong possibility that your kitty has tapeworms, or even Bartonella so a visit to the vet really is in order.

Advantage is what we carry at my job and most of our clients are happy with it.

Forgot to mention, to cover all your bases your dog needs to be given a dose of frontline or advantix as well.

Hissy- the advantage I ordered is NOT store bought. I ordered it. And the person who told me to use dawn instead of the shampoo I bought was someone from TCS. I posted to ask if the shampoo I bought was ok, and several people replied and said to use dawn. As stated above I CAN'T bomb the house unless it is safe to bomb with the birds in the house. I will see if they will approve me to make payments but if they won't then I can't take him to the vet until it is time for him to be neutered. Normally money isn't a factor but lately I haven't been working as much and I am just getting put back on my normal schedule so my finances will be back in order soon.

If monster's 6 months old now you can neuter him any time. You can find a vet in your area that accepts friends of animal certificates for a better price on the surgery. http://friendsofanimals.org/programs...ter/index.html

Or you can look for free/low cost mobile clinics in your area. Your local spca can help you.

It often takes 3+ months of flea preventative to get rid of the fleas. I highly suggest a vet visit ASAP, because anemia will take him down fast.

I treated for 5 months straight on all animals, then I also locked all animals away & sprinkled borax into the carpet & vacuumed it up.

Friday night I bathed an outside kitty (kept inside to dry) with dawn and afterward every flea I saw was dead. You need to make sure you lather the cat up real good and do not rinse for 5 minutes. The fleas suffocate.

But it does sound like you have a severe flea problem and will need to use Frontline or Revolution for 3 months to stop the flea cycle.

Ok so here's whats going on. I called my boss and talked to her. The earliest day I can get off is thursday. I'm going to take my pay for today to pay for the advantage I already ordered. Tomorrow when I work I'm going to take my pay for tomorrow and take him to the humane society first thing thursday to get him dipped and tested for worms and whatnot. Tonight I will go out and buy flea podwer for the carpets. I would like to bomb but as I said before unless they have a petfriendly bomb then that is not an option. I'm going to vacuum all of the furniture and throw the bag away. Besides that and treating him and the dog with advantage, is there anything else to do?

Be careful how much flea product you use on him, too much can kill. Pick one thing & stick with it. My suggestion is to use the Advantage only. Don't use any other product on him. I do suggest sprinkling borax on the carpet & vacuuming it up about 15 mins later. Just don't let the pets walk across the borax before it's vacuumed.

I agree with White Cat Lover 100%. Use Borax for the carpets though. It is safer than the flea killer type because it is not as toxic for them or for you. You need to get 20 Mule Team Borax. You will find it in the laundry isle of your grocery store. When we used it we needed 3 boxes to completly cover the area of our apartment, about 800 square feet, to give you an idea of how much you will need. Do one area at a time, keeping all animals away while you do it. We did the living area first and locked Karma in th bedroom. It took both of us, me and my DH. He put it on the carpet and I used a broom to fully sweep it into the carpet. Fleas live and lay eggs at the base of the carpet so you will need to get the borax to the base of it. Once we did that we waited 30 inutes and vacummed it up. Flea eggs hatch with vibration only so the vacumm made the eggs hatch but the first breath the baby fleas got was a breath full of borax and the sufficate to death. It also does the same for adults. After the living area was done we moved in to the bed room. and repeated the entire thing. It took awhile but it did work. We use Dawn but as a prevenitive measure to help remove any fleas that survived the borax. Also get a flea coller and cut it up into peices and put the peices in to your vacumm bag to help kill any that get sucked up but do ont die. Remember to toss out each bag after every vacumm. Do not keep the bags in the vacum, even if you only use it the one time, any survivers can come back through the hose so you want to get it out of the house. Wash everything in hot water to kill any survivors.

When you use the borax make sure to get the areas your pets sleep in extra well. This is where most of the fleas will be. Remember fleas only spend about 10% of theire time on the host the rest of the time they are laying eggs and living in the carpets and apolstry.

The borax treatment will last about a year if done right. So you will only need to go through it once a year. Flea eggs can last a long time, it could be years before anouther outbreak.

Also get to a vet, anemia can set in fast. Also you need a dewormer. One of the only ways a cat gets tapeworm is from eating fleas.

the advantage is the only thing i will be u sing on the cat, i bought stuff for the carpets. its not borax, they didnt have that when i went to the store. when he goes to the vet and gets dipped and tested, im going to ask him how long after the treatment i should wait before applying the advantage. i am of course going to ask them for something for the tapeworm and for something for anemia if he in fact has it which im really afraid he might. im going first thing thursday morning, my friend and i are taking him. when i get home the first thing im going to do is get the carpet on the front room in the house, and then im going to keep him, the dog and the birds locked out there so i can get the rest of the house. i am washing EVERYTHING. and i mean everybodys comforter, he sleeps in everyones bed at some point during the day. everyone was ordedered to wash their clothes, im going to get the furniture. whats going to suck is having to move all the furniture, i was told that the spots in the carpet with the least amount of traffic is where they flourish and that means underneath the carpets.

My cat is recovering now from fleas.

I took him to the vet, got him a shot and the frontline gel. I think the shot was advantage. They gave me antibiotics to give him twice a day.

The whole ordeal cost me 80 dollars. I told the vet how he was feral and I rescued him and they fell in love with Mr. Kitty.

All you gotta do is tell them he is a rescue and you are a college student. They gave me a 60% discount because of that.

The bomb I got was frontline too I think, cost me 18 dollars.

Fleas seem to be gone, but I am going to set off another set of them soon just to be sure. The injection he got will last for months, so he will be comfortable until then.

Get your cat to the vet, I am sure he is really suffering right now.

My cat had scratches on his face too, and they said they could have gotten infected. So if you cat is allergic to fleas like mine, and taking a substantial blood-loss he will become anemic and eventually die depending on his health and age.

Get him to the Vet ASAP or you are being cruel. I know you work, but I took 3 hours off to get it done, and that is on top of taking 5 classes in college. 25 hour a week job and 5 classes is difficult, but I made the time.

Get it done...

i took off tomorrow so i can take him to the vet first thing in the morning, i kno he is suffering, and i dont want him to suffer. im going to do whatever it takes to fix this problem.

Good luck at the vet. Let us know how you make out.

Another simple way to get rid of fleas:

Put a tray of water out with a little dishsoap in it, and hang a light above it. The fleas jump to the light and fall in the water. Make sure the light can't fall into the water.

I remember my parents doing this when I was a kid. We had fleas living in a shag carpet. Every morning we found lots of fleas in the tray. Make sure to squish them, since they can still be alive.