HELP!!! Flea problems . . .

I'm looking for any suggestions to help me control our flea problem.

Our cats love to go outside so we generally let them out from time to time during the day. The fleas are horrible here. I have not found any way to keep them off our cats. The best product I've tried so far is Frontline plus. It drives the fleas crazy and for the most part seems to kill them all. But it fails to keep new fleas from moving in. It will keep them at bay for maybe a week and then I notice them coming back. Since the cats love to go outside and will often race for the door whenever it is opened I find it hard to keep them indoors at all times and really dont want to. Are there any other products and/or home remedies I could try to eliminate or atleast keep the flea problem at a minimum without forcing the cats to never go outside? I am willing to try anything at this point. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
David

Hi David,

If you are like me, living in the country, the fleas here are pretty bad this time of year. You have to put Frontline or Advantage on every month without fail. If you have fleas in your home, then you need to treat your home as well. I use an area spray that I get from my vet. This year the fleas got so bad in the house that the fleas entered the larvae stage! That is the first time in my cat-owning life that I saw the larvae of a flea.

I would urge you to not use an over the counter product, but instead get what you need from your vet's office and make sure that you read all the instructions prior to using it. Steer clear of flea collars, they are more harm than good. Especially certain brands, some are even lethal to Persian cats (not that you have Persians) If the flea product has premethrin, be sure it is for cats only, and not cats and dogs.

I agree with hissy that you need to treat your house. IMO proffesional exterminators are the best. This usually means that you and your pets need to vacate the house for a day or two.

All the adults that have made it into your house have laid eggs. (thousands of them!) The frontline only kills the adults (I assume we don't have it in Canada) so over time new fleas are hatching and you are noticing "waves" of new "soldiers".

To combat this you may want to consider using a combination of products. An adulticide like Advantage/Revolution/Frontline will take care of any adults and an Insect Growth Regulator like Program will sterilize any adults that get a chance to reproduce and also inhibit the larvae from reaching maturity. After a few months of using both products you could discontinue one but initially it sound like you should use a combo.

Only buy pruducts from your vet. Pet store products and internet knock-offs can be dangerous and/or ineffective.

Since my cats go outside It seems that treating the inside of my house would not do much good because new fleas would just enter on a daily basis. Have you ever had to treat your yard.. or atleast the yard near the house?

I switch each month, I use frontline, then advantage. The only time I have ever had to treat my home was last year, when I took in a rescue that was riddled with fleas. If you keep your cats protected from fleas, the fleas don't live long enough on your cats to come in your home. Fleas can jump 13 feet, they are coming in on you- not your cats

I would ask a proffesional extermination company if they can do that. An adulticide flea prevention applied every month will work because adult fleas will jump on but will be killed before they can lay eggs in your house. I would probably try Advantage first. IME it kills fleas faster than revolution. An Insect growth inhibitor type of prevention should work as well as adult fleas would not be able to reproduce in your home. They would lay eggs but the eggs would not be viable. Adult fleas could still bite until they died though.

the last time i gave him frontline.. I noticed him beginning to scratch a lot after only about a week.. It seemed as if it was wearing off.. even tho it is supposed to last a full month.

do you find one of the products to be better than the other ?? (frontline vs. advantage)

I find the fleas build a resistance if one product is used to much. Smart little pests that they are. Did you know there are over 2,572 types of fleas in the world? That's a lot of fleas. One thing about fleas is they bring in tapeworms so if your cats haven't been wormed lately, you probably need to run fecals in and get them tested.