Flea issue?

Ok, first off I need to state that both Sox and Beacon are indoor cats, but I live in an apartment complex with a lot of grad students that have dogs, in fact I know of at least 3 or 4 dogs on my side of the building and another 2 cats in the apartment right next to mine.

My two have been scratching themselves quite a bit more lately and I am getting concerned that it might be fleas, but am having some issues getting them to sit long enough for me to check for them; so I gave them both baths last night (not nearly as traumatic as the first time I game them a bath a few months ago) but I don't have a flea shampoo and I surely cant let off a flea bomb or spray to try and nuetralize the problem.

Anyone have any suggestions? I know I am going to have a very hard time seeing any fleas on Beacon with her being all black, and Sox's fur seems so think compared to what I am used to (since I had a dachshund growing up).

Best bet would be to kneel down on your knees and put the cat sort of between your legs (so that you have control of the back of their body) and check right around the neck area. You'll quickly be able to tell if the cat has fleas. Run your fingers the opposite direction the fur naturally falls. You'll either see fleas running or flea dirt if they have fleas.

Good luck, we are 5 almost 6 weeks into full on cat and house flea treatment.

Leslie

Confirmed - Beacon has at least one flea....

Couldn't get Sox to sit long enough, but the way he is scratching, he has to have them too...

Any recommendations on collars, or sprays, or drops (Advantix)?

Read this thread for some help.

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=174189

Please do not put a flea collar on your cats - the best place for a flea collar is cut up and put in your vaccum.

If you have carpeting you'll need to vacuum every day and empty (move outdoors) the bag after each vacuuming.

To bath the kitties, the most recommended soap is Dawn dishwashing liquid (original formula), over-the-counter flea shampoos are not always safe to use. Also pick up a flea comb and after the bath comb through the kitties fur and drop any fleas off the comb into a container with a solution of water and Dawn.

If you can get to a garden centre, pick up some diatomaceous earth (human/food grade ONLY) and sprinkle that into your carpeting, working it down into the fibres with a broom. DE is very safe for you and your cats.

I like advantage much better than frontline. If you buy through 1800petmeds do a google search for coupon codes first--I found a $5 off code for advantage.

Wash and vacuum over and over.

What I did was wash everything I could and kept it in trash bags until I knew we had the flea issue under control. Like all the throws in the living room, covers off the throw pillows, throw rugs stayed put away until we were done with the flea issue-otherwise I would have been washing and washing and washing. I washed our sheets and blankets once a week in hot water since the cats frequent our bedroom. Vacuum, make sure to get the baseboard area well and throw the bag away when done.

It doesn't sound like you have them bad, I would start with treating the cats and doing basic home cleaning and go from there.

Although you may want to check their feces and/or bums for tapeworms--they come with the fleas.

We had fleas bad, Jack had tapeworms very bad--were preventing him from putting on weight--I was covered in flea bites. But I can proudly say that we are 6 weeks now into treatment and flea free.

Update

I have found a total of at least 15 fleas off the two, went and got some OTC drops from Petsmart and the Diatomaceous Earth.

One of the gals at the garden center where I got the diatomaceous earth suggested using Sevin like a carpet powder, shake it into the carpet and let it sit for a few minutes and then vacuum it out. Sounds like a backup plan.

But I don't think the guy at Petsmart understood my problem too much, he wanted me to use a fogger, which is totally out of the question since I explained to him that there are multiple pets in my apartment building of 24 apartments, and fogger just won't work since I have two wonderful golden labs in the apartment above me, two more cats in the apartment on one side of me and a dog in an apartment behind mine.

This really couldn't have come at a worse time as my job is making me do overnites in Kokomo (about an hour a way) for about six weeks. Which means during the week I won't be home to keep up on things here, and I know the weekends I wont have a whole lot of time to keep up on it either.