- Joined
- Jan 4, 2017
- Messages
- 8
- Purraise
- 1
Hey all,
This is my first post on this website. It looks like a supportive and well-attended community, and I'm excited to get to meet everyone.
I wanted to preface this with the fact I'm in Week 6 of a Civil War vs. Cat Fleas in Tulsa, OK. I'm exhausted, downtrodden, and have had to resume my anti-anxiety medication due to experiencing such a fear of fleas. I'm hoping to hear positive support on how to beat these pesky fiends, as well as ways to get over my fear of fleas. My insectophobia is off the map, and it makes it hard to eat or sleep.
**TL;DR: I'm a naive cat owner. My little, sweet girl got fleas and I failed to notice for about a month. The result was a house of fleas that I've battled back against since the end of November 2016. I keep doing everything (cleaning, cat is medicated with Adv. II, washing, spraying), but am still noticing a few around the house each day. Am I winning, losing? Is that normal in Week 6. Also, losing my sanity as I am very phobic of any kind of insect.**
Long story short, my little cat Thelma somehow picked up fleas while I was away for Thanksgiving break. I believe I saw a few signs of what I know understand was "flea dirt" on her as early as October 2016, but I didn't do anything (because I was so naive). Nonetheless, they were everywhere when I got back on Nov. 29, 2016. I don't have too much carpet (only on my stairs up to an upstairs loft studio), so I noticed them endlessly lining the floorboards and baseboards. It was a nightmare.
I followed the directions of many brave fellow warriors on flea management, and immediately began a regimen of daily vacuuming for a week straight. This included every nook and cranny of my tiny studio. At the end of the week, I was exhausted and unable to keep up with the work given I'm a grad student with limited free time. I decided to try "bombing" my studio, and had a professional place 3 bombs around my home. I got my little cat out and into the vet for the weekend, where she began thankfully her first dose of Advantage II topical and was given a Capstar to eradicate any on her ASAP. I returned after the weekend and returned Thelma home- she wasn't picking up too many fleas, and any on her were either dead or dying (I was able to nab them easily with my fingers, something healthy ones can't do; aka, the Advantage was slowly killing the new ones).
What I stupidly neglected was that the bombs and all the sprays, even with Nylar, cannot eradicate caccooned fleas. Thus, while I had broken the cycle and created a finite amount of the buggers, the hatched ones were still around and needed to be dealt with. I returned for a few more days and vacuumed 1-2x a day, washing everything again. In the process I put powder down in my couch cushions and layered the entire home with Ortho. I kept poor Thelma safely away from these areas, and just watched and waited. While numbers were down (the first night I killed 3 alone on the couch by my hands, down to 0 on the couch for an entire weekend), I still kept finding living ones in corners and cracks. I got desperate, panicked, and decided it was time to let an expert take a shot. The weeks of vacuuming and cleaning wore me down, and I wimped out.
On 12/12 I got me and Thelma out, boarding her at our awesome vet for 3 weeks. In that time I left the studio and went to my home in CA. The apartment was sprayed by a professional 3 times over this period, and multiple sticky traps were laid down in "hot spots" along the baseboard. I figured that given my apartment was dropping to about 40-50F while I was gone, and there was no food source, new waves of hatched fleas that had safely been cacooned would perish quickly. I read several articles from actual medical journals which described that newly hatched fleas die within 10-14 days MAX without food. Thus me being gone, Thelma being treated + gone, and the apartment being turned into a poison stew of coldness and starvation would work.
This week, I returned home. I was happy to return to several dead fleas along the baseboard, and felt a fleeting sense of hope. Then, yesterday, all of it fell back. The world began to crumble again for me- given my phobia. I wasn't finding vast amounts, but did find here and there a flea or two. Is this normal? It has been 5 weeks off either vacuuming, cleaning, medicated cat (no food for them), and spraying with professional poison. Yet still, I'm seeing some here and there. Should I be traumatized? Are my efforts working?
Thankfully me and my fiance are not getting bit- YET. Despite this, I can't stop obsessively looking for them on my wood floor, under the couch, in the bathroom, even finding one somehow in my damn tiled shower?! I think I'm making progress, and am currently cleaning everything 1-2x a week (my vet said to stop doing it daily, it's not only burning me out but the flea cycle doesn't require daily vacuuming like I've been doing- the key is to keep it a routine).
Either way, should I expect them to continue to die? I've cut the flea cycle by medicating my cat (even had the vet apply the last dose). I've sprayed and been cleaning very often including washing bed sheets and powdering anything non-washable. Is seeing 5-10 live/day around the house worrisome now that I've cut the cycle. Thelma will be switching to the ultra-effective Comfortis next week- hoping that will protect her even more. She is an indoor cat, which is why this has been frustrating.
Thanks for any advice and for reading, seriously.
This is my first post on this website. It looks like a supportive and well-attended community, and I'm excited to get to meet everyone.
I wanted to preface this with the fact I'm in Week 6 of a Civil War vs. Cat Fleas in Tulsa, OK. I'm exhausted, downtrodden, and have had to resume my anti-anxiety medication due to experiencing such a fear of fleas. I'm hoping to hear positive support on how to beat these pesky fiends, as well as ways to get over my fear of fleas. My insectophobia is off the map, and it makes it hard to eat or sleep.
**TL;DR: I'm a naive cat owner. My little, sweet girl got fleas and I failed to notice for about a month. The result was a house of fleas that I've battled back against since the end of November 2016. I keep doing everything (cleaning, cat is medicated with Adv. II, washing, spraying), but am still noticing a few around the house each day. Am I winning, losing? Is that normal in Week 6. Also, losing my sanity as I am very phobic of any kind of insect.**
Long story short, my little cat Thelma somehow picked up fleas while I was away for Thanksgiving break. I believe I saw a few signs of what I know understand was "flea dirt" on her as early as October 2016, but I didn't do anything (because I was so naive). Nonetheless, they were everywhere when I got back on Nov. 29, 2016. I don't have too much carpet (only on my stairs up to an upstairs loft studio), so I noticed them endlessly lining the floorboards and baseboards. It was a nightmare.
I followed the directions of many brave fellow warriors on flea management, and immediately began a regimen of daily vacuuming for a week straight. This included every nook and cranny of my tiny studio. At the end of the week, I was exhausted and unable to keep up with the work given I'm a grad student with limited free time. I decided to try "bombing" my studio, and had a professional place 3 bombs around my home. I got my little cat out and into the vet for the weekend, where she began thankfully her first dose of Advantage II topical and was given a Capstar to eradicate any on her ASAP. I returned after the weekend and returned Thelma home- she wasn't picking up too many fleas, and any on her were either dead or dying (I was able to nab them easily with my fingers, something healthy ones can't do; aka, the Advantage was slowly killing the new ones).
What I stupidly neglected was that the bombs and all the sprays, even with Nylar, cannot eradicate caccooned fleas. Thus, while I had broken the cycle and created a finite amount of the buggers, the hatched ones were still around and needed to be dealt with. I returned for a few more days and vacuumed 1-2x a day, washing everything again. In the process I put powder down in my couch cushions and layered the entire home with Ortho. I kept poor Thelma safely away from these areas, and just watched and waited. While numbers were down (the first night I killed 3 alone on the couch by my hands, down to 0 on the couch for an entire weekend), I still kept finding living ones in corners and cracks. I got desperate, panicked, and decided it was time to let an expert take a shot. The weeks of vacuuming and cleaning wore me down, and I wimped out.
On 12/12 I got me and Thelma out, boarding her at our awesome vet for 3 weeks. In that time I left the studio and went to my home in CA. The apartment was sprayed by a professional 3 times over this period, and multiple sticky traps were laid down in "hot spots" along the baseboard. I figured that given my apartment was dropping to about 40-50F while I was gone, and there was no food source, new waves of hatched fleas that had safely been cacooned would perish quickly. I read several articles from actual medical journals which described that newly hatched fleas die within 10-14 days MAX without food. Thus me being gone, Thelma being treated + gone, and the apartment being turned into a poison stew of coldness and starvation would work.
This week, I returned home. I was happy to return to several dead fleas along the baseboard, and felt a fleeting sense of hope. Then, yesterday, all of it fell back. The world began to crumble again for me- given my phobia. I wasn't finding vast amounts, but did find here and there a flea or two. Is this normal? It has been 5 weeks off either vacuuming, cleaning, medicated cat (no food for them), and spraying with professional poison. Yet still, I'm seeing some here and there. Should I be traumatized? Are my efforts working?
Thankfully me and my fiance are not getting bit- YET. Despite this, I can't stop obsessively looking for them on my wood floor, under the couch, in the bathroom, even finding one somehow in my damn tiled shower?! I think I'm making progress, and am currently cleaning everything 1-2x a week (my vet said to stop doing it daily, it's not only burning me out but the flea cycle doesn't require daily vacuuming like I've been doing- the key is to keep it a routine).
Either way, should I expect them to continue to die? I've cut the flea cycle by medicating my cat (even had the vet apply the last dose). I've sprayed and been cleaning very often including washing bed sheets and powdering anything non-washable. Is seeing 5-10 live/day around the house worrisome now that I've cut the cycle. Thelma will be switching to the ultra-effective Comfortis next week- hoping that will protect her even more. She is an indoor cat, which is why this has been frustrating.
Thanks for any advice and for reading, seriously.
