my kitten has fleas!

Hello everyone. I adopted a kitten a little over a month ago from my cousin. She found a bag with kittens on the side of the road. There were 7 but sadly only 4 survived. She told me she treated him for fleas before I got him. A week later I decided to bath him. I noticed 2 red bugs on his head but was unable to grab them. They didn't look like fleas so I assumed it was an ant or something. I gave him a bath every week with flea and tick shampoo just to be safe. 2 weeks later my son and I were in a terrible car accident. While trying to miss a car that cut me off i lost control of the car, hit an embankment and rolled the car. My son was life flighted. We are both doing much better now and I decided to bath the kitten again. As I washed him I saw black spots in his fur and pulled them out. To my horror they were adult fleas! I completely covered him in the shampoo and rubbed it in the best I could. After he dried I took a fine tooth comb and continued to pull more (younger) fleas out. I kept a cup with a mixture of flea shampoo and water next to me to dip the comb in every time I ran it through his fur. I think between the bath and combing I got between 10-20 so far. We also have 3 large dogs. What do I do as far as cleaning the house? We are getting advantix for all of them tomorrow. Will that get any fleas and eggs left behind? HELP!

You sound like you've had quite a time of it, gunnarthecat!

Firstly, get all of the animals treated.  That may be enough.  Have you been bitten at all, away from your pets?

All the pet's are now treated with advantix after being washed with flea and tick shampoo. I dont think any of us have been bitten. I'm not 100% sure though.

Are you using K9 Advantix on the dogs? If so, please be VERY careful!!! It is extremely toxic to cats so if your kitty likes to lick the dogs he could be in danger. And of course it can never be used on cats (they only sell it for dogs wo that shouldn't be an issue). Advantage and Advantage Multi are safe but Advantix is very toxic to cats. . .

Willowy said:

Are you using K9 Advantix on the dogs? If so, please be VERY careful!!! It is extremely toxic to cats so if your kitty likes to lick the dogs he could be in danger. And of course it can never be used on cats (they only sell it for dogs wo that shouldn't be an issue). Advantage and Advantage Multi are safe but Advantix is very toxic to cats. . .

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Advantix was used on the dogs. The cat got something else.sorry. but OMG the vet didn't say anything about it being toxic to the cat! I dont think gunnar licks them but he does lay on diesel! What do I do?!

You can also use capstar to rid them of fleas quickly but it only last 24 hours . If they are kittens Dove dish soap does work very very well on Kittens . You need to flea bomb your house as well since you are going to have fleas in the house now . Fleas actually spend very little time on the pets . I have also found that using Frontline spray works very very well to kill fleas and keep working for a longer time then the topicals

Read labels. My meow meow had fleas and a lot of the products I found on the shelves contained permethrins, pyrethroids, or piperonyl butoxide which are harmful to cats. What worked for me was applying food grade diatomaceous earth to fabrics and vacuuming after a few hours, vacuuming regularly and throwing out the dust immediately, dawn baths, diatomaceous earth rub downs, and finally kitten revolution when she was 3 months.

gunnarthecat said:

Advantix was used on the dogs. The cat got something else.sorry. but OMG the vet didn't say anything about it being toxic to the cat! I dont think gunnar licks them but he does lay on diesel! What do I do?!

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Keep her away from the dogs until the Advantix is COMPLETELY dry, once it's dry it should be O.K. for her to be by them but I'd still discourage her licking them for a day or two just to be on the safe side.

toddypu said:

Read labels. My meow meow had fleas and a lot of the products I found on the shelves contained permethrins, pyrethroids, or piperonyl butoxide which are harmful to cats. What worked for me was applying food grade diatomaceous earth to fabrics and vacuuming after a few hours, vacuuming regularly and throwing out the dust immediately, dawn baths, diatomaceous earth rub downs, and finally kitten revolution when she was 3 months.

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If you don't want to have to empty the bag / canister every time try cutting up a flea collar and putting it in there. It will kill any fleas that get sucked up.

It's sounds like the fleas may have had time to infest the house so just treating the pets my not be enough.  I'm lucky enough to live where we don't have much of a flea problem but when I lived in California it was a constant battle.  You may want to remove your pets for a few hours and fog your home.  We had a lot of success with Zodiac foggers.  There may be better products on the market now so check around.

I didn't expect this at all. I'm a city girl and growing up my parents didnt have to worry about fleas. My husband is a country boy and we moved out where he grew up. He warned me! And i said,"I keep my pets clean and not once had any of them had fleas." Talk about putting my foot in my mouth. I asked my husband about flea bombing and he said because of the kind of heat source we have, we cant. He does heating/cooling and plumbing work so I'm taking his word on that. Is there a spray to do furniture? I did read online that for the carpets i should sprinkle BORAX on all the carpet area, rub it in with a push broom, wait 5-10 minutes and vacuum....

There are sprays for carpets and furniture. I believe Zodiac makes that also. If not, there are plenty of other brands. I also remember seeing powders.

We have been having quite a time with fleas this year. Nothing is working.
I live in the country and we knocked the fleas back some years ago using salt in the carpets. This year I have been off my feet most of the time so it is worse than it should be.
I need help.

I am having flea issues too!  I treated my cats with Advantage Multi three weeks ago. I ripped apart the beds and furniture in their room and vacuumed everywhere yesterday with a flea collar in the vacuum cleaner cup.  Then I emptied it outside in the trash and washed every part of my vacuum cleaner that I could get to.  Tonight while I was in the room, must have gotten two new flea bites because there are two welts on my arm!  I thought Advantage was supposed to kill fleas on the cat and in their surroundings.  Any advice?

It looks like most people posting here are from the States, so this may not apply.  I'm from the UK and we have a very useful medication called Frontline which  is a little phial of liquid you just dot on the back of the neck (where the cat doesn't reach to groom) and it protects the animal for 3 months from fleas and worms.

Its quite expensive, but widely available - try Amazon.

Incidentally, why do you bath your kitten?  I'd have thought it might reduce the amount of natural protective oil from the skin and I've never heard of anyone doing this before unless the animal had fallen into something toxic. 

Frontline is sold in the US. This year it just did not work for my house. I don't know why. I think it could be our temperatures this year. Fleas have been plentiful outdoors but they do not stay there.

Is there a problem for you if you use the flea bombs (foggers).  In my experience that is the surest way to get rid of fleas in the house.  Advantage or any topical flea treatment only works on the fleas on your pet.  You can use the sprays or powder in your house.  The only problem is if you miss a spot.  One other problem with powder is the possibility of transfer to your pet or children.  The foggers and sprays are pretty much harmless once they dry and the foggers eliminate the possibility of missing a spot.  Of course,you need to read the labels for the products you use. Allot may have changed since I had this type of trouble.

I have been defleaing for a few days now. I found a flea spray called "enforcer flea spray" and it worked well. It also took out the pesky flies in the house(bonus.lol) 3 cans did the upstairs (plus furniture), downstairs (plus furniture) and basment(Walmart for about 6 bucks each). After that dried I did use borax on the carpets. I also washed anything I was able to. My kitten had a bath with flea and tick shampoo and after he dried I applied the advantage for kittens 5 lbs and up. So far so good.

jcornman said:

Is there a problem for you if you use the flea bombs (foggers).  In my experience that is the surest way to get rid of fleas in the house.  Advantage or any topical flea treatment only works on the fleas on your pet.  You can use the sprays or powder in your house.  The only problem is if you miss a spot.  One other problem with powder is the possibility of transfer to your pet or children.  The foggers and sprays are pretty much harmless once they dry and the foggers eliminate the possibility of missing a spot.  Of course,you need to read the labels for the products you use. Allot may have changed since I had this type of trouble.

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My husband said since we have gas heat we couldn't use foggers. I really didn't understand why when he tried to explain it.lol

JCalla said:

I am having flea issues too!  I treated my cats with Advantage Multi three weeks ago. I ripped apart the beds and furniture in their room and vacuumed everywhere yesterday with a flea collar in the vacuum cleaner cup.  Then I emptied it outside in the trash and washed every part of my vacuum cleaner that I could get to.  Tonight while I was in the room, must have gotten two new flea bites because there are two welts on my arm!  I thought Advantage was supposed to kill fleas on the cat and in their surroundings.  Any advice?

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From what i have heard and read it can take a few treatments to get them all out of your house. Everytime I vacuum i sprinkle borax or baking soda on the carpets, rub it in with a broom or push broom, let it sit for about 5 minutes and vacuum. That dries out eggs and larva and loosens fleas. Then empty the bin outside. Flea spray worked well for hard to get areas like the furniture. It's recommend that I wait a week before using the spray again but i plan on doing that again just to be sure. Anything that is washable, wash it. Its time consuming and a bit if a pain but its worth it because if you miss just a few of the little buggers they breed like crazy.