fostering new kittens...WITH FLEAS!! help!

i am fostering 3 four wk ould kittens and they have fleas. what can i do?? i know that when i fostered a 6 wk old kitten from the spca they used the advantix. can i use this on them or are they too young?? i want to do something asap as there are other animals in the house and i don't want this getting much further. HELP!!!!

MK

First, treat the other animals in the house with the appropriate prescription flea meds (advantage, frontline, revolution for cats, dunno about dogs). Then, begin washing everything you can in hot water and vaccuuming daily. You can also treat carpets and upholstery with borax or food-grade diatomaceuos earth.

Then fill a little pan with soapy water, run the flea comb through each kittens fur in turn, dipping the flea comb in the soapy water, then rinsing an drying it each time.

You can also ask your vet if any prescription meds are safe on one-month old kittens. I believe the youngest is 12 weeks, but I may be wrong.

Whatever you do, do not buy OTC meds at the drugstore or pet store. The only thing any of them are good for is if you buy a flea collar to put in your vaccuum. And that's it. They are generally unsafe, by which I mean they can kill cats.

No! No! Not Advantix!
That is for dogs only!

I think Revolution can be used on 8 week old kittens, (maybe 6 weeks), better to check with a vet.

Zissou'sMom gave you the best advice.
Good luck with your little babies!

thank you all! i will be calling the vet today. i did some research and found that there is a spray that vets use safely on kittens as young as 2 days old. but it's only available through your vet. these kittens are 4 wks, but they are sooo small in my opinion. i wieghed one last night and it was barely half a pound! is that normal weight? they seem active and they are eating ok. but i have read of horror stories and seen on that animal cops show how deadly fleas can be to kittens and puppies. so i don't want to take a chance.i will go get the spray today and i will also get a flea comb and that soap.

oh, and didn't mean to scare you with the advantix thing. i don't rememeber what the name was. i just know it was one of those that they put on thier backs.

so thank you again!!

MK

I know that Frontline can be used on kittens older than 8 weeks and heavier than 1 kg. It's probably the same with other ampules, made for fleas and ticks (different for Stronghold etc)

Try to get some kind of a spray that deactivates in contact with saliva, that's apropriate for nursing cats and kittens. You usually have to literally soak them in that spray so make sure you keep them warm before it dries out, so they don't catch a cold.

Good luck!

Hi Mama Kitty! I'm glad you are going to the vet! I have never heard of this spray, what exactly is it?

The soap I am talking about is just dish soap, typically Dawn. You don't need to go buy any special soap. The only point of the soap is that the bubbles in the water trap the fleas when you dip the comb in. It doesn't matter what kind of soap though, since you are rinsing and drying the comb, the soap never touches the kittens.

Good luck! With perserverance fleas can be completely eliminated pretty easily.

ok, well, appearantly this spray is not in my area. i called 3 vets and noone had haerd of it. they all reccomended bathing the kittens in a non kitten soap (either a human soap/shampoo or Dawn) and combing the fleas out. i did this last night and surprisingly only one had them really bad. i think i got them all off!!they had alot of the flea poop on them tho .i will check them again today. the vet said i may have to do this for 2-3 days. they all seemed to enjoy the bath/combing/blowdrying attention. so it's all good. thanks for all the help. i am just starting this journey of being a foster/rescue mom so i may be coming here often with questions.

thanks so much and hugs to all!

MK

Hi,

I watched a British vet program in which they had terribly flea infested babies brought in.. only a few days old. The vet said that its oi to go ahead a use product on them.. that its a mistkae most owners make thinking they are too young. Anyway i dont know what the vet used in the program but something is better then nothing! Two of the babies died because the fleas had literally sucked them dry! They were REALLY flea infested though..

Anjya, Tipper and Proffesorn's mum