Cat Fleas :(

[km9977]

Hey everyone,

I've been having a real issue with my cat Cleo and her fleas over the past month and a half. She had surgery early October for fecal impaction and when I went to go pick her up I was informed she had fleas. So we started her on Advantage II and I did the whole cleaning eradication process in my house (sprayed all furniture with IGR, vacuumed everywhere, etc).

Once I took her Elizabethan collar off from her surgery a couple weeks later, she started biting and scratching hysterically. After a day or so, she made a pretty sizable wound on the side of her body. Anyway, we gave her a Capstar after that to kill any remaining fleas (she had a few eggs and flea dirt at that time). This was about 3 weeks ago. He also gave her a shot for a suspected allergy to flea bites.

Well I started her on her second dosage of Advantage last week but I'm still seeing fleas . I comb her and vacuum everyday! Two days ago I found 5 live fleas on her (although I haven't found any over the last couple). She is still scratching and biting like crazy and looks terrible. I don't know what to do . The vet says there is nothing else he can do, only provide another Capstar. I don't see any fleas in the house anywhere, I'm not being bitten... I set up traps every night and in the morning there are none in the tray...

Can Advantage really not work? My vet says it's not possible... any advise? Thanks

 

[basscat]

1) Topicals just take more time than is advertised.
2) Picking up new fleas somewhere will make it appear that the topical isn't working.
3) Set your traps up where the cats hang out the most, OR, in corners of rooms, under furniture near walls.
4) Keep vacuuming paying special attention to the places above.
5) Bathe kitty to get rid of the flea dirt, eggs, and also most of the live fleas.

IF you do another Capstar, put a white sheet in a carrier or cage, give the Capstar and confine cat to the carrier on the white sheet.  For a couple hours.
If the sheet is loaded with dead fleas?   You have an environment flea problem somewhere.
If just a few fleas?  Your probably fine and what you are seeing is the last of them.

 

 

[km9977]

Thanks for the reply !

Am I safe to give her a bath? Wont that remove the Advantage? Should I perhaps wait two weeks and give her a bath then (then apply the advantage again 24 hours later)?

I will try putting the traps in different places tonight (like under furniture), although I usually put them near her 'hang-out' places. I hope I don't have to get an exterminator

 

[km9977]

So last week I did what you suggested. I gave her a capstar and kept in her carrier for a couple of hours (much to her dismay). When I took her out, I found no dead fleas on the sheet. So i thought, great it must be getting better! I still cleaned the house top to bottom, cleaned all sheets/beddings, sprayed everything with IGR etc. Couple of days later, I combed her and lo and behold, found two fleas on her. Found a couple on her every day until the weekend  (during this time I continually cleaned and sprayed).

So yesterday, right when I thought I had solved the issue, I found 4 fleas on her! So I did the best to comb her down and get all possible eggs/dirt off and then I started the cleaning process again.

She's still on advantage II but I can't seem to get rid of these fleas . Any other suggestions or do you think I should just wait it out?

 

[km9977]

Oh, also, haven't found any fleas in the environment and none of traps have caught anything over the course of this period : / (I have placed them literally everywhere everyday).

 

[basscat]

Does she go outside?
Our last problem consisted of one room.   I could put traps all around that room and, to begin with.  I would catch 50 per night in the traps on one wall.  None on the opposite wall. None in the rest of the house.
It took 3 months to get rid of them completely in that one room.  Spraying once a week and vacuuming every other day, and NO CATS in the house at all during those 3 months.

Right in the middle of that 3 months, I began finding some in the traps, in other rooms as well.  Usually one to three per night.  BUT, I had been spraying and vacuuming the entire house.   Best I could tell, they were migrating around the baseboards  (behind them, under the carpet, maybe even in between the wood flooring under the carpet).

To begin with, I couldn't rid the cats of fleas either.  Washing, advantage....and still fleas.
But, when I isolated the cats away from the house, and away from any fleas,  The fleas on them disappeared completely about a week later. Which means the fleas I was seeing on them after treatments, were new fleas.
It wasn't until I removed the cats from any possible new fleas that I figured out the Advantage was actually working.

I had all the furniture out of that one problem room.  (outside).
It was just a bare, empty room with fleas mostly along one wall.

And it took me 3 months of non-stop commitment to get rid of them.

Have had flea problems in the past. New houses, smaller houses.  Each time, was between two and three months be rid of them.

The easiest one was a small house.
We had an outside cat that we had been letting inside each evening.
We simply stopped letting her inside, and we would leave every other weekend and set off foggers. Vacuumed once a week.  Two months of that and no more fleas. 

 

[km9977]

Hmm... she's an indoor cat. I live in a smaller townhouse, and I haven't noticed any fleas along baseboards or anything like that but I'll try and take a closer look tonight.

I live in Canada so winter is upon us so I doubt they are coming from outside. I also cannot find foggers anywhere here, only flea spray (been to quite a few department stores). Only found them online from American retailers.

I guess I might have to get that exterminator, I can't stand to see her like this.

Thanks for your help.

 

[basscat]

IMO, Sprays are better than foggers.