Getting rid of fleas...please help!

My cat has never had fleas (well except for when we first got her) and she just got fleas. She is an indoor cat. We moved to a new home an the previous owners had a dog. We have lived here for 3 months and I just noticed the fleas, they weren't too bad. We gave her a flea bath and put an advantage drop on her and don't see any more fleas on her right now. The vet said we need to either spray our whole house or steam clean everything. (she said bombing doesn't work?) I then told her I have never seen a flea in my house or every gotten bit and we just noticed our cat's fleas, so I don't think the house is infested. The cat has escaped to the garage a few times and someone brought their dog here a couple weeks ago and it came thru the house for a minute.

Do you think we still need to take all the precautions for our house such as steam cleaning, spraying etc? If there were fleas all over the house wouldn't we notice them?

I read something about putting a candle in water over night and in the morning if there would be fleas in the water if we had them. I might try that but nervous to leave a burning candle all night with the cat running around.

What do you think??

Welcome!
You act like dogs automatically mean fleas. They don't. I have three sleeping on my couch right now and they don't have fleas. We rarely use chemicals either. They are cleaner than my single cat.

Apparently your cat is getting fleas somewhere and your cat is 100% inside. For me, I would treat my home and garage with a natural product and keep the topical on your pet each month for a bit until you get a handle on the fleas, they hatch and cycle in seasons, it can get out of hand rather quickly. Hopefully you don't have carpet. I would wash everything and steam clean. Good luck and hope you get this problem under control.

When you are using a topical, such as Advantage, do not give your pet a flea bath.

I've never treated the house, just the cats (though sometimes I sprinkle a bit of borax on the carpets before vacuuming, just in case). If you don't have an infestation, there's no reason to treat everything.

A easier way to test is put a plain white towel down in the middle of your room, place a lamp in the middle of the towel and turn the lamp on (take the shade off), wait and watch. If you have fleas they are going to jump towards the lamp and you'll see them on the white towel.

Steam cleaning isn't going to suffice if you have fleas.

Leslie

It's a possibility that your home isn't infested with them, but fleas are notorious for hitching a ride on clothes so you could be bringing them in unknowingly. I would wash all bedding and then wait and see. You can use Borax sprinkled on your carpets and under furniture and such to kill fleas.

Since they will be licking their paws each day how safe is borax for the cats? Any chance they might get poisoned?

I would use diatomaceous earth instead, safe and completely natural, plus it works. I get mine through Perma-Guard.

Keep in mind that you can *never* *ever* totally get rid of fleas. They always come back. As Stephanietx mentioned they piggy back into your house via your clothes. You have to treat your house on a daily basis.

Just google "flea life cycle" and you will learn what you need to know.

Originally Posted by Shanynne

Since they will be licking their paws each day how safe is borax for the cats? Any chance they might get poisoned?

I would use diatomaceous earth instead, safe and completely natural, plus it works. I get mine through Perma-Guard.

Keep in mind that you can *never* *ever* totally get rid of fleas. They always come back. As Stephanietx mentioned they piggy back into your house via your clothes. You have to treat your house on a daily basis.

Just google "flea life cycle" and you will learn what you need to know.

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I agree completely with using diatomaceous earth versus borax. It is much safer than the borax.

I disagree that you never get rid of fleas. You can get rid of fleas. If you live in a hot, muggy climate then the chances of bringing fleas in on your clothing are probably higher but not necessarily a certainty. We were treating Bijou and Mika with Revolution and Advantage, respectively, from May to November. We did not treat this summer and we've had no flea issue at all. I do keep a container of DE in the house at all time.

I just 'poofed' some around our tomato plants outside as something was leaving marks on the tomatoes. Since I put down the DE, no more marks. Interestingly enough, my hubby did not believe me about the powers of DE but when he saw the difference in his tomatoes, he's now a believer.