Need Major Advice - Chewing, Fleas, Meowing! HELP!

Hello-

My cat Kind has recently had a huge chage in behavior, we are in the midst of moving our home around to accomodate an infant and we have displaced Kind a little bit as far as where she used to be comfotable sleeping and such, the last thing we did was move the litter box and the food only having moved it once hoping not to disturb her too much, she handled the box and food move fine but it seems like the chaos of the house is making her angry, she is beginning to tear her skin up to the point of bald spots and bleeding sores, she recently was discovered to also have fleas in which we bathed her and placed a flea collar on her, the flea population is now limited to only seeing 2-3 on her and she is no way infested...however I am awaiting a 3 month supply of frontline plus to arrive as to really squash the issue. Lastly, Kind has become very verbal, constantly yelling and meowing whenever she is in the same room with me...she was a very quiet Cat up until 2 weeks ago. Here are my questions:

1. Is Kind tearing herself up over 2-3 fleas or the house move?
2. Why is she all of the sudden becoming so verbal?
3. How should I go about placing the frontline on her as far as too many chemicals are concerned...Is it okay to remove her flea collar, bath her with the flea bath and administer the frontline 2 days after her bath(2 days after a bath per frontline instructions) I do not want to overwhelm her with flea chemicals going from the collar to the bath to the oinment?

Any suggestions on how to handle any of this is very welcomed!!!!!!

Thanks so much!

Many times cats are allergic to fleas and it causes skin issues. This sounds like what is probably going on with your cat. Flea collars aren't good either for cats. Its like wearing poison around your neck. I would remove that. One flea bath is plenty. if your getting the Frontline very soon. Then remove the flea collar and toss it in the trash. Apply the frontline and that will kill all the fleas withing 24 hours.
If she has open bleeding sores then something is going on with her skin. She should see a vet. The sores maybe infected . A vet will also prescribe something to help calm the skin inflamtion that sounds like is going on. Her Yeowing more then she used to. Probably is due to her not feeling well. A vet will check her out and see if anything else health wise is going on with her.

Im not fond of the collar either, is it okay to apply the frontline after the bath with flea shampoo and will it be okay for the sores on her skin to bath her? Im kinda scared however to leave the collar off of her while I await the arrival of the frontline, will she still have some resistence in her skin to the fleas for a few days until it gets here? Thank again for you help!!!

Remove the flea collar, cut it up and place it in your vacuum cleaner bag.
Those things are downright dangerous and can in fact be so bad as to kill the animal you are trying to help, all over the counter products for flea control are bad.

Don't bathe her, go over her a couple times a day with a flea comb or a lice comb and dip any fleas that come off into warm, soapy water.

You've all ready bathed her? if so then that is enough. I still would take off the flea collar she might be having a reaction to that causing her to pull out her fur.

If you feel she may be feeling upset about the changes in the home try using Comfort Zone with Feliway. I use this and it does work. I have used the plug in and the spray. It relaxes the cat. My boy seems to like the smell.

She has not been bathed yet but my husband wants to bath her with the flea shampoo a few days before we put on the frontline, Im just not sure if it's all that safe to go from the collar (which is defintely in the trash now!) to the flea shampoo and then 2 days later the frontline, I dont wanna over-do it to her already beat up skin and should I even bath her over the beat up skin and how safe will she be in between bath and frontline for 2 days? Also a concern now is that my husband wants to flea fog our apartemtn but we have a baby due next Thursday, is it safe to fog around all the stuff...he says it's a air chemical and will not affect anything but the air while we are gone from the house, he assures me that there is no residue or such left over...not that I don't believe him but it's kinda scary!

Last time I remember, the fogger left a waxy film all over everything not covered as well as fumes that had permiated the upholstery.

Do the flea comb bit with her until she gets the frontline from the vet.
I would not advise the bath with open sores, and unless the flea shampoo came from the vet's office, it can be dangerous.
Not to mention that if the enflamed skin is from the collar, the very same toxin could be in the shampoo as well.

What is my best option at this point aside from the comb...her sores are severe and Im afraid to hurt her, Im defintely not going to fog now that's for sure but Im worried about her becoming infested while I wait for the frontline to arrive if she doesnt have a collar on or some form of protection against them. The main chewing is going on around the backside by her "poopies" so I can only assume the fleas are running for cover as far from the neck as possible. Im so confused, I don't wanna hurt her while trying to help her and she look so pitiful with a bald butt area!

She won't become infested in so short a time.
The frontline will kill everything, fleas, eggs, and flea larvae.
You could call a vet in your area and see if there is a shampoo they would recommend, or see if they have a shampoo you can buy from them to safely bathe her.

I would recommend she see a vet though as what you are describing around her bum is classic of an allergic reaction to fleas and it may require an antihistamine or steriod treatment.

I think because of the open sores you do not want to give a bath with flea medicine however, this may help. We just finished world war flea in our house. We had made the mistake using Hartz flea repelant(we now know it is horable, it went to the trash, karma's fine too). We are trying to handle it relativly chemical free. Heres what we did and it has worked so far.
I started to reaserch natural flea killers on line and found that Dawn dish soap is non toxic to cats and kills fleas on contact. So it was bath time. The Dawn removed all fleas with no chemical reaction, plus she smells great and has soft fur. After that we did apply advantage to turn her into a walking flea killer. I also found out that Borax(the laundry booster) kills fleas on contact. I was concerned that it may be toxic to Karma but after some searching on the web I found out that for it to be toxic she would have to eat pounds of it. It is also safe for kids to be around. What you do is spinkle it all over your carpets and use a broom to brush it into the fibers. Wait 24 hours and vacume it up.
Fleas live in your carpet and lay eggs so what happens is the borax gets to their level and kills adults and eggs. It is suppose to last for a year. We did it about a week ago and so far nothing. We have an aprtment that is about 600 square feet and it took 2 boxes to fully cover the floor.
Before we started it was so bad we were all being eaten alive, mu poor husband found out he is allergic to flea bites and now has some scares from it.

You might want to have a stool sample checked. Fleas can transfer worms to cats when they are eaten. That could be the deal with the recent bum licking. I'm using revolution to deal with fleas on my kitties but I don't like how it sometimes leaves a bald patch.

IMO you've overdosed her on flea medication. A cat doesn't need a flea bath AND collor AND Frontline. You'll kill her with too much of the poison.

And fleas only spend 10% of the time on the animal - the other 90% is spent in the carpet/furniture to lay eggs. So if you have fleas on the cat, you have fleas IN the house too.

She's probably reacting to both the move AND the flea treatment. You should decide which treatment to use (probably Frontline the best) and get rid of all the other treatments. You'll have to probably bomb the house too - take everything out (people and cats) to get rid of those in the carpet.

Wash all the flea treatments off your cat and then talk to your vet on the best treatment for her.

Since the collar removal the fleas have tripled, Im seeing way more on her and myself (they flippin love me for some reason)so I had to bath her, I chose to use baby shampoo as to not irritate her sores...it knocked down the fleas on her considerable only as a temporary fix Im sure and tonight we are going to borax our rugs hoping to keep population down until frontline arrives...pray for me that it arrives soon!

Thanks greatly for the borax idea, I was petrified to think I may have to bomb so close to the babys arrival, thankfully we have not set up anything for him as far as cribs, bassinets and such because we were afraid that the fleas may lay thier eggs in the crack and creases of the warm crib and such so as soon as Kind gets her frontline we will set up shop for baby and I feel really comfotable knowing the borax treatment is a safe one!

Do you live too far from your vet to buy the flea treatment from them? They all sell some sort, either Frontline, Revolution or Advantage. It only costs 10 or 15 bucks and, with a baby coming so soon, perhaps you'd find it worthwhile to make the trip to the vet and buy the stuff and put it on your cat that day rather than waiting for your shipment. However tomorrow's Sunday so this plan would be delayed till your vet is open.... but it's just a thought.

I was unaware that I could buy it straight from my vet without precription or a vet visit, to be honest I don't have the money for a vet visit unless she is dying, Ive checked her stool and there are no visible signs of any kind of worms so that's good. If I call them on Monday will they just sell me frontline without asking a million questions?

In my experience, once the vet has seen the cat ever in his/her life, they'll sell the flea med without another appointment or anything. If you have a vet that your cat has ever been established with (i.e. a visit or two to get your file started there), I would expect you could get the flea meds from them easily. I've never had a vet refuse to sell me the flea med when I ran out of my current supply, but my cats have always seen a vet annually. If you haven't been able to do annual appointments, I don't know if your vet would give you any push-back. It's worth a try - Good luck!

In animals with flea allergen dermatitis (FAD), which it sounds like your cat has (and mine does), it only takes one flea bite to start the cycle. You needed to frontline her asap. I know you are worried about $$$ but you really need to see a vet. The biggest problem FAD is it leaves them very susceptible to infection and ringworm. You do not want her getting ringworm with a new baby coming into the house. Last time I treated Liberty it cost me less then $70. This included a vet visit, testing for ringworm, steriod shot (only $8.69!) and antibotics ($25 but they have much cheaper ones that would do the job). Liberty is allergic to Advantage so I don't use anything on her. Instead, I aggressively treat the house for fleas but I do not like flea bombs (they do not work). By the way, fleas are one of the most common allergies in cat and who would ever guess that. Good Luck -LB