Flea Shots?

Does anyone here have the vet give their cats a shot for the fleas? I was just wondering how good it works. I was thinking about trying it on Stinkie. He is allergic to fleas. He has feline miliary dermatitis and the fleas cause him to itch really bad and causes sores. His skin gets hot and he washes a lot more often than a normal, healthy cat would and all of the scratching and washing is causing him to lose fur. And it always gets bad in the summer and not much of a problem in the winter. I guess it's because the fleas are worse in summer. The hotter the weather is, the worse he gets. I just want to help him somehow. Does the shot work better than the frontline and is it cheaper or more expensive? Any information or experiences anyone?

Originally Posted by georgiagirl8

Does anyone here have the vet give their cats a shot for the fleas? I was just wondering how good it works. I was thinking about trying it on Stinkie. He is allergic to fleas. He has feline miliary dermatitis and the fleas cause him to itch really bad and causes sores. His skin gets hot and he washes a lot more often than a normal, healthy cat would and all of the scratching and washing is causing him to lose fur. And it always gets bad in the summer and not much of a problem in the winter. I guess it's because the fleas are worse in summer. The hotter the weather is, the worse he gets. I just want to help him somehow. Does the shot work better than the frontline and is it cheaper or more expensive? Any information or experiences anyone?

Click to expand...

I've never heard of a shot for fleas...

I personally love Frontline Plus.

Alternatively you could just get into the habit of bathing him frequently. The fleas can't survive in the water, though eggs are activated by water. Just make sure you are using a good soap, if any, to keep from making the skin problem worse.

Have you also ruled out allergies to either diet or environment?

Spotz

I really don't know about the shots how save they are .
I personal would get Fronline Plus over any shots , or advantage . If you have not a lot of money , you always can buy a moth only dose and buy it every month at pay day .

One thing to add to my above comment.

Remember bathing will basically nullify any kind of flea control you have on him. So if you start using Frontline Plus, Advantage...etc Just remember that if you are going to bath him, do it just before he is scheduled for his next treatment.

Also, NEVER USE FLEA COLLARS on cats, and don't buy flea shampoo. Most flea control products that are sold off the shelf, do more harm to cats than they do good.

Spotz

We tried putting the Frontline on him a couple weeks ago and it doesn't seem to be helping much. But, after we put it on him, we had to give him an antibiotic that the vet gave us and we had to hold him down and wrap him up tight in a towel in order to get it down him. (He is a little feisty and very strong!) So I'm thinking that during all of his twisting, it might have gotten wiped off. We might try it again in a couple weeks. I don't want to do it now, in case any of it did stay on him. I'm not so sure about the whole bath thing. He'd try to kill me in the process. We've only given him one bath and he was a kitten then. I don't know if I could handle him enough to do that. Is there an easy way to do it? A way that wouldn't leave me bleeding from head to toe - lol?

If you have rug in your house as floor coverings , the fleas also will hide in there or in wood floors and lay their eggs in there . So vacuuming every day for at least a week will help to get rid off them , also remember to through the bag every day away or emty the vacuum cleaner . You also can place only in the vacuum cleaner bag some flea powder ( do not use this on your cat it is not save ) . Fleas are known to get back out of the vacuum cleaner . So your cat may have protection with frontline , but the fleas will still attack your cat when in they are in the house and so you will see still fleas on your cat . 13 years ago I had that problem in my appartment and it took me a long time to get rid off them , well maybe b/c it took me a long time to learn all that .

That's a good idea! I've never thought of putting flea powder in the vacuum cleaner bag. I think I might try that too. Wouldn't it be nice if fleas just did not exist?

Thanks for all the help y'all are giving me.

Give the Frontline Plus another chance, when it's time.

Bathing is something that the kitty has to get used to. They sell Kitty bathing bags at pet stores, these sometimes make it easier to handle the cat until he gets used to the idea.

If you can get him used to baths, and give him one once a month or so, it will help him out.

Also, I would strongly suggest getting in the habit of trimming his claws, if you aren't already. This has a few benefits, number one being that he won't be as likely to scratch you badly. But it also encourages good nail health.

Spotz

I've been going through a learning process about fleas this weekend, as I just Friday night discovered that Red Cat has them. I've read, for example, that only about 1% of the fleas in one's house are in the adult stage. I'd suggest that you read up more about them, too, so you know what you are up against with an allergy. Here is a fact page from this website:

http://www.thecatsite.com/cat_care/care.php?a=fleas

Here are a couple more I found helpful:

http://www.purinaone.com/dogcare_con...leNumber=30035

http://dermatology.cdlib.org/DOJvol3...eas/fleas.html

Here is the link to my thread about my flea problem where people offered a couple more suggestions:
http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37709

And here is a search result that will give you many more choices of articles, from which you might want to select a few more:
http://www.google.com/search?as_q=fl...h=&safe=images

When I first got Red Cat as a three-year-old, he had been an outdoor cat and had a lot of fleas. I took him to the vet's office who at that time had an assistant who would bathe cats and give them some type of flea dip. Red Cat is a highly anxious cat, a strong 15-pounder, and I would be torn limb from limb if I tried to bathe him myself. The vet's office had to give him a tranquillizer to bathe him. I'm not sure if my current vet has an assistant who does that. I'll check tomorrow. But I have Red Cat on Advantage, gave it to him about two weeks ago last time, and obviously he has developed an immunity to it. I've tried Frontline in the past and found that it wasn't that effective for Red Cat at the time. So I'll see what the vet has to suggest tomorrow.