When do you give them a flea bath?

Hello- we have having a wonderful time with a feral kitty e found last night- we have already named her! Her name is Mirabelle.

Since last night, we have held her, and she has allowed to pet her head and she was even kneading my husband. She still is heasitant about letting people pcik her up- but she is all over us, except we have to be careful ofcourse. We have her in our garage right now- and we want to start bringing her in the house. Our resident cat already suspects something is going on- he sees many cats around the neighborhood and has been running around trying to get a look at them.

My question is- when should we try to give her a flea bath? I saw something around her butt- im aussuming that it is either fleas or worms.

Do you think this could be do able in the next few days?

Don't give her a flea bath. Flea shampoos can, and have, killed cats or caused serious neurological problems.

Bring her to a vet, and have her checked over and tested. A cat who has been outside and stray this summer probably does have fleas, and so probably also has worms.

The vet can prescribe you a nice safe and actually effective flea med, as well as dewormer.

Until then, you can run her over with a flea comb, vaccuum often, and wash everything in hot water!

Good luck, I want pictures of your precious new addition!

I usually just end up repeating what Zissou's Mom says so I will just say no flea baths, meds from the vet only. Have the vet determine if the fleas are bad enough to need a bath and in that case bath her first and flea treat after. But only if the fleas are bad and only bath her in Dawn Dish Soap. Then only treat her with flea meds from the vet. Deworm her while you are at it and set up her spay appointment for as soon as possible.

I should have mentioned that we were prepared to use dawn dish soap for our new addition. Our resident cat, otis susspects something is up- ever since he has seen the cats of the neighborhood outside lately, he has been getting more aggressive. We have mirabelle in our garage right now, and he knows something is up because we keep bringing food down there- I want to get her into a safe room asap, but we have no money for the next 2 weeks because of a financial emergency. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Originally Posted by faganfamily1

I should have mentioned that we were prepared to use dawn dish soap for our new addition. Our resident cat, otis susspects something is up- ever since he has seen the cats of the neighborhood outside lately, he has been getting more aggressive. We have mirabelle in our garage right now, and he knows something is up because we keep bringing food down there- I want to get her into a safe room asap, but we have no money for the next 2 weeks because of a financial emergency. Does anyone have any suggestions?

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Can you get a hold of a large dog crate and keep her in the crate until you can work something else out.

Katie

If you cannot crate her, go around your garage and make sure there is nothing that can harm her. I assume the car is not in the garage. The main offenders in a garage are mothballs and antifreeze, neither of which should be anywhere near a cat. Other garage chemicals are dangerous as well, and also mulch made from cocoa shells. And anything sharp, including lawnmower blades and scissor-type tools. And remember cats can climb seemingly straight walls!

Just a quick update- mirabelle is doing very well. We gave her a bath last night- she was covered in fleas! We had to after the bath use a comb and get the rest of them out. I still found some black flecks- actually 2, Should i go over her again with the comb?
Other than that- she is in a safe room, sleeping- my other cat Otis has been acting rather normally since she has come as well- he just wants to know where we are most of the time. We are going to make their introduction a very slow one. Thanks everyone for the advice.

Yes, keep using the flea comb until you're sure there are no fleas. And if she's been in the house, it's best to by flea collars from the supermarket, cut them up, and drop them in your vacuum cleaner and vacuum once a day for the next week. DO NOT PUT THEM ON THE KITTEN OR YOUR CAT! Non-vet flea products really can (and do) kill cats. Don't have the same regulations for animal products as they do for people products.

Unfortunately, she really needs to see a vet before you make any introduction to your existing kitty. There's no way to know what infections or viruses she's carrying. And if she had fleas, she probably has worms, and if she shares a litterbox with your cat, he'll wind up with worms too. And, again, unfortunately, non-vet de-worming products simply don't work properly. They do not KILL the worms, they simply cause the cat to expel them alive. Only vet-obtained de-worming products kill the worms. And because of the worms' life cycle, the vet product will have to be administered again three weeks after the first doses. Even then, you really need to take a stool sample to the vet after another three weeks to make sure they're all gone.

http://www.hsus.org/pets/pet_care/wh...nary_care.html

This has some great ideas on how to afford the vet when you can't.

Thank you for rescuing this kitty!