Okay, this is my first time doing any of this so please bear with me!
Recently, my cat got pregnant. Now, I had no idea until suddenly there were kittens being had on my living room floor and I was holding mama cat surprised as heck that the whole thing was even happening. It's my mistake, honestly, I should have taken mama to the vet and gotten all the spayed stuff beforehand, but hadn't quite gotten to it and we live in such a secluded area I had no idea there were any other cats there were around aside from our neighbor's who, I was under the assumption, was fixed. I have no idea if he's the father or not, but it doesn't really matter now because I have three little babies on my hands and an anxious mind that sort of feels like a grandpa lmao. Mama cat will be getting fixed after the babies are all weaned and whenever they are ready for it, they will also be getting fixed! But that's not really the problem right now.
Basically, the kittens are doing alright. My problem is, I've noticed a few fleas on them recently and I'm not quite sure exactly what to do about it! I'm nervous about bathing them, I don't want to hurt them or for any of them to get sick, and since they're so young and their eyes just recently opened I'm really reluctant to get them anywhere near water until they are at least four weeks of age. We have a rabbit, he is our only other animal, and he too, has fleas. We bathed him with dawn dish soap the other day and he is due for another cleaning sometime this evening. We live in a one story house with a few rooms and only one of the rooms actually has carpet, which unfortunately, is where mama decided she would be staying with her babies. Now I can clean that room and the house no problem, I'm not sure exactly what to use but I want to avoid chemicals because again, I don't want anyone getting ill from them or reacting in a bad way, kittens, mama, and rabbit.
What I'm asking everyone here is,
-What can I use that is safe for all the animals to clean my house? We don't have a working washer as of right now and use our neighbors, so I'm not sure how to go about cleaning the sheets and what not every few days. I'm sort of close to just throwing everything out, lol. This is so stressful.
-How can I get the fleas off mom cat without hurting the kittens? I'm aware you can comb the babies easily, we can do that with our flea brush we used for our rabbit and do that very easily. Can mom have things like advantage or the topical medications you put between the shoulder blades? If so, do I need to keep mom from the kittens for awhile so it absorbs? They have the tendency of biting and nipping the back of mom's fur so I don't want them getting into their nose/mouth.
-Will these things ever be gone? I've been dealing with them forever now and I'm exhausted, grossed out, and generally stressed out by them. I would love to do all the expensive things to completely rid of them right off the bat but being twenty-one and mentally unable to work with only your partner's pay check can be very difficult to do that.
I know this is a mouthful but I'm so distraught and wiped out from these things, especially with a parasite phobia haha.
Thank you in advance for helping and I appreciate it so, so much.
Recently, my cat got pregnant. Now, I had no idea until suddenly there were kittens being had on my living room floor and I was holding mama cat surprised as heck that the whole thing was even happening. It's my mistake, honestly, I should have taken mama to the vet and gotten all the spayed stuff beforehand, but hadn't quite gotten to it and we live in such a secluded area I had no idea there were any other cats there were around aside from our neighbor's who, I was under the assumption, was fixed. I have no idea if he's the father or not, but it doesn't really matter now because I have three little babies on my hands and an anxious mind that sort of feels like a grandpa lmao. Mama cat will be getting fixed after the babies are all weaned and whenever they are ready for it, they will also be getting fixed! But that's not really the problem right now.
Basically, the kittens are doing alright. My problem is, I've noticed a few fleas on them recently and I'm not quite sure exactly what to do about it! I'm nervous about bathing them, I don't want to hurt them or for any of them to get sick, and since they're so young and their eyes just recently opened I'm really reluctant to get them anywhere near water until they are at least four weeks of age. We have a rabbit, he is our only other animal, and he too, has fleas. We bathed him with dawn dish soap the other day and he is due for another cleaning sometime this evening. We live in a one story house with a few rooms and only one of the rooms actually has carpet, which unfortunately, is where mama decided she would be staying with her babies. Now I can clean that room and the house no problem, I'm not sure exactly what to use but I want to avoid chemicals because again, I don't want anyone getting ill from them or reacting in a bad way, kittens, mama, and rabbit.
What I'm asking everyone here is,
-What can I use that is safe for all the animals to clean my house? We don't have a working washer as of right now and use our neighbors, so I'm not sure how to go about cleaning the sheets and what not every few days. I'm sort of close to just throwing everything out, lol. This is so stressful.
-How can I get the fleas off mom cat without hurting the kittens? I'm aware you can comb the babies easily, we can do that with our flea brush we used for our rabbit and do that very easily. Can mom have things like advantage or the topical medications you put between the shoulder blades? If so, do I need to keep mom from the kittens for awhile so it absorbs? They have the tendency of biting and nipping the back of mom's fur so I don't want them getting into their nose/mouth.
-Will these things ever be gone? I've been dealing with them forever now and I'm exhausted, grossed out, and generally stressed out by them. I would love to do all the expensive things to completely rid of them right off the bat but being twenty-one and mentally unable to work with only your partner's pay check can be very difficult to do that.
I know this is a mouthful but I'm so distraught and wiped out from these things, especially with a parasite phobia haha.
Thank you in advance for helping and I appreciate it so, so much.