How aggressive with fleas... am I crunchy and delusional?

[orangeblossom]

I'm a pretty crunchy person in general...my boy and girl eat an all-raw diet, we use a holistic vet, etc. But, my husband and I both work in healthcare so we're all aware that sometimes conventional medicine is the answer.

We moved from our apartment to a house in a borderline rural/suburban (literally at the dividing point) area and after two months of being here, I noticed flea dirt on my Maine Coon mix's belly. He's one year old, my girl is closer to two, and neither has had fleas before. I had just groomed him the day prior and hadn't found anything.

We went to high alert and they've been getting flea combing twice a day with aggressive vacuuming of EVERYTHING and I'm about to treat our yard with beneficial nematodes. I'm getting around 5 fleas each or less when combing. No fleas on socks when doing the carpet shuffle (we only have one rug, the rest hardwood). I grew up through an awful flea summer and remember my parents bombing the house, fleas on my socks, everything always stinking of flea spray...I don't want that. This was before advantage and such!

But I hate the thought of using pesticides on my kitties if not necessary. They groom each other and I'm REALLY worried about them licking advantage or frontline off each other. We don't have a new vet in the area yet, either, so if they have a reaction I'm left to the kitty ER, I guess.

Thoughts? Can they be managed with continued vacuuming and flea combing, yard management, and possibly brewers yeast supplements or am I totally deluding myself and those few fleas I'm getting are actually representative of a looming full scale infestation.

 

[betsygee]

I'm not familiar with the term 'crunchy person' but I don't blame you for wanting to go more natural if you can with your cat care.  I have used this on my indoor/outdoor cats:  http://www.chewy.com/dog/naturvet-h...ign=hg&utm_source=shopping.com&utm_medium=cse  

Having said that, it doesn't always work!  Some years it's all they need, other years, like this one, we have had a lot of fleas AND ticks and I've been putting Revolution on them.  And each cat is different as well.  You mentioned that you see a holistic vet--what do they recommend?

 

[orangeblossom]

Crunchy is like... Granola (crunchy) eating hippie. Lol. I thought about using something like that, glad to hear it works (sometimes)! My vet back before we moved has gone to rehab care only and doesn't provide primary care anymore... I was hoping to take my time finding a good one in our new area, but now I'm scrambling. I heard revolution dries quickly, so my thought was if I absolutely needed a topical I'd go with that so they can't lick it off each other... Do you find that be the case?

 

[betsygee]

 
Crunchy is like... Granola (crunchy) eating hippie. Lol. 

I've actually been called a tree-hugging hippie--just because I'm a vegetarian--but I've never heard the term 'crunchy person'.  I like it, that's funny. 

I didn't know that Revolution is particularly quick-drying, but that may be the case.  I've never had a problem with any of my cats trying to lick the topical flea treatment off of each other.

I used to see a holistic vet, too, with my older kitty who had kidney disease.  I really liked her, but when I got new kittens, it didn't work out because she did mostly rehab care as well.  She didn't give vaccines, for example, that I wanted for my new cats' care, so I had to switch.  I hope you find a vet you can work with.