Hi everybody!
I just welcomed home 2 new male kittens who are 8 & 10 weeks old. When I adopted them, both previous owners told me that my boys were completely healthy (no shots and not dewormed, or neutered yet) and flea free. Unfortunately, this morning I noticed some things coming out of my 10 week old's bottom. They looked like maggots so I'm assuming tapeworm. With further investigation I found out both of them indeed do have fleas. They've only been in my home for about a week so I'm hopeful it hasn't gotten too bad.
When I was way younger I had a horrible investation with head lice and I have a lot of really bad memories with my family spending months and months trying to rid myself and my house of the lice regardless of how much we kept up on the cleaning. So my first question is... are fleas typically as bad as the experience that I had with head lice when I was younger?
Moving on, today I purchased some apple cider vinegar for my kittens to drink (highly diluted in water), a flea comb and in-home flea spray. I gave both of my boys a flea bath using dawn dishsoap (as I was told to do by an animal rescuer I know personally) and combed them out. I got about 8-12 off of my 10 week old and only 3 off of my 8 week old. They were mostly dead but I did find a handful that were still crawling around. I have put most of the blankets and pillows the boys have been sleeping on in garbage bags (also sprayed down with in-home flea spray) to suffocate the fleas. But honestly I haven't noticed fleas around my house at all. I live in a 1 bedroom apartment with all hard wood floors, and the boy's have spent the majority of their time here in my bedroom.
So all in all these are my questions:
1.) How are fleas compared to lice?
2.) What's the best way to deworm my kittens at home? Or is it a better idea to go to the vet?
3.) How long does it usually take to rid an apartment of fleas?
4.) Are fleas common in kittens?
5.) Can fleas be transferred to humans? (Aka, should I be worried about having guests over?)
6.) How do I know when my kitten is free of tapeworm?
This is my first time dealing with fleas/tapeworm, so I'm very inexperienced as to how to deal with this. Any other advice or tips anybody can think of would also be very helpful. Thanks!
I just welcomed home 2 new male kittens who are 8 & 10 weeks old. When I adopted them, both previous owners told me that my boys were completely healthy (no shots and not dewormed, or neutered yet) and flea free. Unfortunately, this morning I noticed some things coming out of my 10 week old's bottom. They looked like maggots so I'm assuming tapeworm. With further investigation I found out both of them indeed do have fleas. They've only been in my home for about a week so I'm hopeful it hasn't gotten too bad.
When I was way younger I had a horrible investation with head lice and I have a lot of really bad memories with my family spending months and months trying to rid myself and my house of the lice regardless of how much we kept up on the cleaning. So my first question is... are fleas typically as bad as the experience that I had with head lice when I was younger?
Moving on, today I purchased some apple cider vinegar for my kittens to drink (highly diluted in water), a flea comb and in-home flea spray. I gave both of my boys a flea bath using dawn dishsoap (as I was told to do by an animal rescuer I know personally) and combed them out. I got about 8-12 off of my 10 week old and only 3 off of my 8 week old. They were mostly dead but I did find a handful that were still crawling around. I have put most of the blankets and pillows the boys have been sleeping on in garbage bags (also sprayed down with in-home flea spray) to suffocate the fleas. But honestly I haven't noticed fleas around my house at all. I live in a 1 bedroom apartment with all hard wood floors, and the boy's have spent the majority of their time here in my bedroom.
So all in all these are my questions:
1.) How are fleas compared to lice?
2.) What's the best way to deworm my kittens at home? Or is it a better idea to go to the vet?
3.) How long does it usually take to rid an apartment of fleas?
4.) Are fleas common in kittens?
5.) Can fleas be transferred to humans? (Aka, should I be worried about having guests over?)
6.) How do I know when my kitten is free of tapeworm?
This is my first time dealing with fleas/tapeworm, so I'm very inexperienced as to how to deal with this. Any other advice or tips anybody can think of would also be very helpful. Thanks!