So I found out that my cats have lice, put frontline gold on them 3 weeks ago, I am seeing improvement but still itchy. Anyone have experience with lice, and using frontline for lice? My vet recommends a second dose which I plan on doing, just wondering how long it take to completely get rid of the lice.
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Cat lice and Frontline
- Thread starter shaggyzr2
- Start Date
It might take another application before you get better results. In the meantime, make sure all of your cats' bedding is washed frequently in hot soapy water and treated with an antiparasitic spray - I believe Frontline has one as well. It probably wouldn't hurt to use a flea comb to remove the lice too. Both of these efforts should help speed up the eradication process.
And you need to see if you can remove the source of the lice. If your cats go outside, you might have to spray the area if they are confined to your yard. Otherwise, you might not be able to get rid of them entirely.
And you need to see if you can remove the source of the lice. If your cats go outside, you might have to spray the area if they are confined to your yard. Otherwise, you might not be able to get rid of them entirely.
When products like Frontline and Advantage are used for other conditions besides the usual, they have to be applied on a different schedule. You have already moved the usual application up by a week so, if you don't see more improvement let the vet know and ask if it is safe to apply again in a week or two...but ask the vet first so that you don't over apply it.
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- #4
Right on the frontline box it says it kills chewing lice, and I called frontline this morning and they do not recommend giving it to them for any less than a month apart.
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- #5
I've been washing and vacuuming everything, and combing them with a flea comb once, sometimes twice a day. I honestly do not know how they got them, I take them outside for walks but on a leash so they have no contact with other cats, and this all started over the winter when they werent going outside. I'm wondering if one of them picked it up one of the times they were at the vet. They say lice can only live off of a host for a few days and the eggs don't survive at all if not on a host.
Some recommend shampooing the cat with a special shampoo recommended by the vet. This may or may not be possible for you.
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- #7
I thought about that but....I have one cat that would be ok with a bath, the other one would probably hate me for it, and the other guy totally hates water and he's old so I'd hate to stress him out like that.
While it is true that lice don't go through a life cycle the way that fleas do, it is my understanding that the nits (eggs) can take 3-4 weeks to cycle through to adults - and the nits are not affected by flea/tick treatments. So, I think you should keep doing what you are doing and wait to see if you find an improvement after the next Frontline treatment.
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- #9
Yeah.....they seemed to be getting better, then got a little itchier, I'm guessing more hatched recently. I took the fist two cats to the vet, they didn't find anything on them besides a few little sores on their skin, they even did a skin scraping and skin biopsy and found nothing. then I took my oldest cat in and we found two lice on him after minimal combing, he was covered in little scabs, he probably had more on him because of his age and not being able to groom as well as the two younger ones. The sores have been starting to clear up. Another thing I noticed about my oldest cat is, at the start of this itching a couple months ago, he had been licking the concrete in the basement, I've had anemic cats do that, now he stopped licking the concrete, I'm wondering if he was becoming slightly anemic from all of the bites on him? He also started eating less, losing weight and wasn't very vocal or energetic the past 2 months, now he is eating better and seems to be feeling better.
LIce bite/suck blood too, and I suppose an older cat could be more affected than younger ones. In the matter of fleas, I was told by my vet that for them to cause anemia in a cat, there has to be 'one hell of an infestation' - don't know if that is true with lice, but with multiple cats, they could have been passing them on to one another for a while now. I sure hope your older one - and all the others for that matter - show great improvement soon!
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- #11
Thanks! I sure hope so too, this has been a rough winter trying to figure out why my cats were so itchy!
