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Anyone know a good flea treatment???

post #1 of 6
5/10/10 at 11:46pm
Thread Starter 
I have this major problem with fleas. I had them in my carpet last week, so I got a bunch of chemicals to get rid of them. At the same tim I got some pills from my vet that were supposed to kill all fleas within a few hours. Some died, some fell off and I did my best to kill them with chemicals. I then treated all cats with frontline (Thursday). I got back today and they all have fleas AGAIN!!! Anyone know what I need to do?
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post #2 of 6
5/11/10 at 10:43am
It can take a while to break the cycle. What chemicals did you get? Did you vacuum afterward? When I had a flea problem a few years ago, my vet recommended KnockOut ES (extra strength), which she sold (Amazon sells it too). I vacuumed, sprayed the chemical, let it dry, and vacuumed again. That, along with Capstar (probably the pill you gave your kitties) and Frontline worked, but you may have to spray a couple of times to kill all the fleas. The first time kills the existing adults disrupts part of the lifecycle, but it may not destroy all of the eggs or all the pupae.
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post #3 of 6
5/11/10 at 12:40pm
One of the best thing you can do is use the vacum cleaner every day. Keep at it, you will overcome.
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post #4 of 6
5/11/10 at 1:05pm
If the house is badly infested you may want to consider using foggers ("bug bombs"), leaving till it airs out, then bring the cats back after you've had a chance to clean. Depending on the type you get, some don't leave dangerous residue (such as vapona types - those are used to fumigate both human and pet food warehouses). Or you could call in a professional.
While not extremely common, any insect bite - including fleas, can get infected with a serious infection (from bacteria that naturally lives on your skin). So you don't want to be covered with bites.

This would be a safer route than repeatedly spraying down chemicals that will stay on your carpet and items in the home. Combine that with other methods - diatomaceous earth in the carpet, vacuuming, and keeping pets treated and you should be able to knock the fleas out pretty quickly. Unless your yard and neighboring yards are infested, too, then it's a bigger job.
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post #5 of 6
5/11/10 at 2:35pm
Foggers are completely useless, and chemicals can harm your pets. I had a dog poisoned one time by a chemical spray that I purchased from a vet that was supposedly safe to use directly on your pets. I sprayed his bed with it. He laid in that bed 2 hours later and started to convulse. He was rushed to the ER to save his life.

The best product that I've ever found for carpets is food grade diatomaceous earth (also called DE). You sprinkle it on your carpet and rub it deep into it with a broom. You can vacuum after about a week. People use it to deworm their livestock, so it is safe if ingested. I put a link to one site that sells it, but you can google it and find it all over. Do NOT use regular DE which is not pet safe. DE is also mixed with chemicals for things like pool filters. Don't mix up regular DE with food grade DE - you want to look for food grade.

I had a severe flea infestation one year and the vet suggested this product to me. It was so bad that I would pick up dozens of fleas on my legs just walking 10 feet across my carpet. Within 2 days of application they were gone, and gone for that entire season. It's fine enough particles that it gets deep into the padding and most vacuums don't take all of it out for a while. Not to worry, you don't see it.

Then use a topical deflea product like Advantage or Frontline on the cats. Wash all bedding and things where fleas may have laid their eggs.
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post #6 of 6
5/11/10 at 6:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Momofmany View Post
Foggers are completely useless, and chemicals can harm your pets.
You and the pets don't stay in the home while using them. As I said some types are used in petfood warehouses - where the food is kept. In fact probably a third to half the bags of food you open up have been through a vapona fumigation.
As for being useless, foggers were the only thing that helped when my whole neighborhood was infested.
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