Vicious cycle

jme012

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My mom has two cats, Silver and Clyde. I just moved back for a few months before school starts and brought my kitten, Jasper. Silver has been infected with fleas for a while now and we've been treating her as best we can, and consequently Clyde became infected with them as well. Due to my grandmother being on oxygen 24/7 we cannot flea-bomb the house because she cannot leave her bed. So it's been a constant cycle.

Jasper has, inevitably, picked up the fleas as well and I've been doing all I can to treat the three of them while I've been here. I've been noticing fleas more frequently and am becoming concerned with the amount. Then, today, I noticed a small white worm coming out of Jasper's anus. Tapeworms.

So now not only do I have three cats with fleas but I also have, likely, three cats with tapeworms. I know that cats gets tapeworms by ingesting fleas. How do I end this vicious cycle?
 

catbehaviors

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I've heard good things about Revolution, but luckily, Wessie has never had fleas himself. Hopefully a person experienced with these things will come over and help you out. Just remember, flea collars are dangerous for cats, so I wouldn't recommend them.
 

Willowy

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Go to the vet and ask for Revolution and Drontal. If you have a relationship with a vet, they should be willing to sell you some without seeing the cats. If they won't, get some Advantage (Frontline seems to not be working in a lot of places). . .but really there's no substitute for Drontal. OTC de-wormers are pretty iffy. Ask for 2 doses of each, and treat the cats 2 months in a row. If there are a lot of fleas, ask for some Capstar, too. That should take care of everything.

Doing anything else will just be a waste of time and money.
 

stephanietx

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You'll have to have a 3-pronged attack. First, go to the vet and get a topical flea treatment. Second, also get a tablet treatment for tapeworms. (If they've got fleas, they WILL have tapeworms.) Tapeworms are not treated by Revolution either. Third, work on eradicating the fleas from your home. You can use food grade Diatomaceous Earth or use a perimeter spray in your house, which may not work if your mom is on oxygen. You can also sprinkle Borax (found in the laundry soap aisle of the store) on the floors and brush with a broom into carpets. Let set overnight and then vacuum up the next morning. Be sure to keep your kitties off/out of the areas you're treating until the stuff has been vacuumed up. Also, get a flea collar and place in your vacuum cleaner bag. Discard the bag when you finish vacuum and replace.
 

jinxywinx

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When I first got my second cat, she was full of fleas. She also had tapeworms. I could not afford the flea medication and my cats are both indoors all the time, so if I could just get rid of them, I knew they would be ok.
What I did was, I bought a flea bath shampoo and a flea comb. I also purchased tapeworm medication from petdirect, I believe.
I vaccuumed and ran our carpet cleaner with the steam heat setting, washed ALL clothing, bedding, curtains, etc in hot water and with bleach if possible. Then, I combed every inch of both cats with the flea comb, dipping the caught fleas in a glass of rubbing alcohol to kill them. I vaccuumed every day for three days and continued to comb the cats with the flea comb twice a day. I also bathed them with the flea bath. Once the comb came out clean, I worked on the tapeworms with the medication.
The whole thing cleared up within a week or two, I think, and they have not had problems since.
 

my4llma

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Talk to your vet. Revolution is also available for kittens. That's what I use on my cats. Had 2 flea out breaks once with
Lynxx
when we boarded him, he came home covered in fleas. Once with Luna when we 1st got her, she had fleas upon fleas upon fleas. We put Revolution on them, haven't seen a flea since. I don't know how old your kitten is, the vet gave it to Midnight when he was 3 weeks old, he no trouble with it. The worm the vet can give your cats medicine for as well.
 
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