Fleas on my kitten

katrina4409

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Friday night, 11/18/16, a black kitten showed up on our porch. He was eating the cat food we put out for our old neighbors cat that they abandoned. When we opened the door he took off. So we trapped him, kept him in the trap for a few days until he warmed up to us(at first he was hissing, screaming, and clawing at us), and now he has free range of my room. But the first few nights we noticed a bunch or even hundreds of "white dots". Then yesterday, 11/21 i saw a flea. I did some research and found out that those white dots were flea eggs. He loves sleeping on my bed and i noticed he left some on my bed. I got a tissue and squished them and now I'm a little grossed out. I heard salt kills them so I completely covered my rugs, his bed, and my bed in salt. I havent actually seen any fleas on him, just 1 larvae, and flea dirt. I soaked him yesterday in water and shampooed him but he wouldnt allow my to get the other side. He was just on my lap and I was looking and saw tons of flea fecies on his belly & between his back legs. I had my room covered in salt since last night around 11pm ish. Before I put salt down I vaccuumed and cleaned my room later that day. We have foggers/bombs that we got awhile ago to kill little annoying spiders I would always find. If I vacuum my room, clean the salt up, use the fogger, vacuum again, and wipe stuff down do you think theyll all die? We are getting him some flea stuff today sometime around 4. But i dont want to kill all of them in my room and then him still have it and then the cycle start over again. Any help or advice? 
 
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katrina4409

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He's around 3 months old I would say.
 

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You have caught this in time.  
Vacuum everything.  Go get a can or two of spray. Spray works better than foggers.
Spray everything after you vacuum.  
Then vacuum once a day for a week, and spray again.

Since you caught this early, that "should" take care of it.

Bathe your kitten (warm water and dawn).   Face kitty away from you, hands around shoulders, and have somebody else do the wetting, lathering, rinsing. 
Your hands around the shoulders will sort of act as a soap collar, keeping the soap and most of the fleas off the cats head.   But, a little head and ears lathering will need to be done.
Let cat stay lathered up as long as you can stand it.
Rinse, and dry.
  Note the color of the water. If it's brown or burgundy?  That's dissolved flea dirt and means the bath was NEEDED.
  The next day, get some Advantage and apply to cat.

Your too deep in this already for any other course of action.   Getting rid of kitty won't solve this, so, if you're thinking that helping out a kitty might have been a bad idea?  Well, don't think that because what's done is done....Time to fix it and move on with a new family member.  And consider yourself somewhat lucky because you caught this so quick. 

With advantage on the kitty and him being free of flea eggs and dirt?  He is now a walking "flea attracting bomb".  If there are any fleas around, they will prefer to get on him, and the advantage will kill them.
 
 
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katrina4409

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We bought him sentry spot on flea gel and adams flea & tick carpet spray. tomorrow im planning on giving him a bath and combing him so i can get the fleas and flea dirt off. I dont have Dawn but is it save to use Palm Olive dish soap?

When I put the spot on gel i immediately saw a few fleas come out. After I got all of the gel on I let it soakin for a little and kept him in my room since thats where i saw the fleas, put him in a different room, and soaked my rug and bed in the carpet spray.

I only put the gel on him  around 7pm tonight so I dont know if ill give him a bath tomorrow, I shouldve given him one first and then the gel. 

If I do give him a bath I'll  get the flea comb and comb him while hes in, vacuum my room, & wipe my room down with disinfectant wipes.

When I sprayed I spray my rugs, his bed, my bed, under his litter box pad, around my door/at the bottom/edges of my walls. The can says protection up to 7 months but there were some good and bad reviews about it so I'm nervous.

The spot on gel only came with 3 gel packs which is supposed to last up to 3 months. I dont want to wash the all the gel that i put on, off and if he still has fleas then have to redo it. I'll only have one left and that'd be wasting the one I just put on him.
 
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katrina4409

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I also washed my sheets, blankets, pillow cases, etc. So it's just my mattress, I soaked that in the spray. I went over everything 2-3 times and is soaking in at the moment. 

We named him Kyro and he loves sleeping with me and night and loves to snuggle up. I don't want to bring all my stuff downstairs and then fleas get all over them because he still has them.
 

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That 7 month thing works like this:  Once you get rid of all of them, it will prevent any future fleas from starting an infestation.

If there are fleas on your cat, they will not jump off of the cat into you carpet.  They are happy where they are and will not leave the cat.
BUT, they will lay eggs on your cat, and those eggs will fall off into your carpet, hatch, and multiply.
(the IGR spray in your house will prevent that from getting out of control).

The bad reviews are due.."I had fleas, sprayed this stuff, and still have fleas, it didn't work".  
NOTHING works that way with fleas.
You spray on Friday, vacuum every other day like you have never vacuumed before, and repeat your spraying the next Friday.
And you do this for a solid month if you think you have a few fleas.
If you think you have an infestation?  You do this for 3 months.  (and it's horrible!)

Get a few white plates/dishes.  Put some water in them and a drop of dishwashing soap.  Place them in the corners of rooms and under furniture near the walls.
Check them every morning.  This is a good way to check for fleas and to pinpoint problem areas.
If no fleas for a few days?  Move them to another corner or another room.

Palm Olive should work fine.
 
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katrina4409

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After I put the gel on i saw some come out right away. but they didnt jump off him. I saw one crawling around his paw and then one making its way down between his legs. should i give him a bath, wash the gel off, & then re apply more gel afterwards?
 
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katrina4409

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I can see where he has laid on my comforter because i see flea dirt everywhere
 
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katrina4409

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I tried the dish & soap thing but i didnt catch anything. i only saw one in his water bowl, one on my floor, & 1-2 on him plus a larvae. i dont want it to turn into a infestation
 

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get flea treatment from your vet. Don't put topicals on skin after bathing until 48 hours have passed. once you put the ointment/flea stuff (Advantage 2 or Revolution) on their back of neck=don't bath for 48 hours otherwise you will wash off said medicine.

yes vacuum everything. If you use a fogger be sure to WASH all surfaces after=dishes/counters/no food left out make sure it's enclosed in the cabinets. Don't forget cats lick=we don't want them to get that stuff on their paws and lick it. It's a major pain to wash floors/counters=smooth surfaces after bombing but it's necessary. don't leave any live animals in the room=fish/pets/etc.
 
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katrina4409

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He has flea medicine on right now but im giving him a bath soon. While he'll be drying from the bath im going to vacuum my room, wipe everything down, clean his litter box & bed , & try some flea traps. then ill out more medicine on him in a few days if i can. He has Sentry spot on medicine but i heard that it can cause skin infections. but for now im going to give him a bath and see how it goes
 

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too bad you didn't do the bath first...maybe it will still work.

you can google DE food grade-I can't spell it. Diametriousis or something Earth. The farmers have used it for a long time. you can use that on the floors/along cracks in the couch and places you can't reach. it's non toxic but is very powdery so don't breathe it. make sure cat is out of the room when you put it down..put your hands in the bag and let the powder drop off your fingers=don't pour it out of the bag otherwise a cloud of dust...but it's very effective on fleas.
 

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don't add more topical medicine until the allotted days go by=never heard of that one (sentry). I only use revolution and advantage 2. you don't want to poison the cat. they can't process those toxins that fast. so it should be ok.
 
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katrina4409

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I just gave him a bath but I didnt have a flea comb to comb them out. After we took him out and had him drying my sister and I found them crawling on him still. I don't know what to do because I dont want to give him another bath and dry his skin out & I dont want to take him to the shelter and re-home him but I also just want him to be flea free and happy. I just vacuumed and wiped everything down so I think my room's flea free, but he is not. The only Dawn I had was the platinum kind and I didnt use it becuase I thought it'd be too rough on his skin. We picked multiple off but we dont know if the eggs even came off. we rinsed him multiple times and rubbed/scrubbed so we thought we got them all but we didnt. only a few came out in the tub.
 
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katrina4409

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& I feel so terrible and bad because I just want him to get better and I feel like he's not. I looked up reviews for Sentry and I'm horrified. I don't ever want to use it again but if I don't my dad will be pissed because then he bought it for nothing. Can I bathe him tomorrow with Dawn Platinum or no? That's all I have & we dont have many stores in our area/close to us.
 

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Comfortis pill is the best thing that I've used. I'm not a fan of the topical ointments. You need to get Comfortis from a vet and it would be a good idea to have a vet tech give it to the kitty...otherwise you might need to dilute it in a tiny bit of water and give it to the kitty orally through a syringe. Good luck! I don't think that you have to keep bathing your kitty everyday--that is stressing him out and drying out his skin.
 
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