I can’t get rid of the fleas!!?
ByI realized about a month ago that my cat has fleas. I had treated him with a topical and the next morning my son’s socks were covered with fleas. Anyway, I spent that day cleaning up then went to the vet and bought spray and Capstar pills. I gave my cat a pill then I sprayed all my carpets and under everything in the house. I then brought my cat home and washed him. I was told not to put more topical on him. I waited a week to vacuum as advised. I was still finding fleas so the next weekend I bombed my home. It didn’t seem to help either so I went to the vet. I was told I could wash my cat again and use another topical treatment since I washed the first off 48 hours after application (and there being zero relief from fleas). Its been two weeks and I am still finding up to ten fleas on my cat per day. I have vacuumed every day (I have put a piece of flea collar in it, or sprayed it with the stuff I used to treat my home. I also throw the bag away every couple days), used a flea comb on my cat at least once a day. I have even used borax on my carpets and around the edges of the carpeting and linoleum. Nothing seems to be working. He got worms(I treated those two weeks ago). Now he has a sore that appears to be getting worse. He keeps licking it. I put a veterinary grade neosporine on it, but he licked it off. I hope it isn’t ring worm. I have spent about $200 dollars on this and I literally have nothing left to spend. Any advice? I’m exhausted…and broke!! Will getting rid of the cat help or will the bugs just bite me and my son (I’ve only gotten a couple of what I think may have been bites and he hasn’t gotten any).
Alyssa E- I know getting rid of him would be terrible…I don’t want to and I figure the buggers will just turn on my son and me. My freezer is too small so I’ve bought lots of vacuum bags. I’ve never heard of seven dust but will look it up for sure. I have considered the exterminator. They Want $125 dollars that I don’t have right now and they said that what I have already done should get rid of the problem. They also said vacuuming along with it would get rid of the bugs…As for ring worm, I’m going to keep an eye on it for a couple days, I think it may be irritation from the fleas, but I just don’t know. I never thought of the vet keeping him, my guess is that it would cost money, but I may ask. As for me and my son, I don’t have anywhere to stay, we just leave the apartment with the cat each time we treat the home. We don’t have a yard and are on the second floor, but he is strictly an indoor cat. I did treat my car, may do it again too.
Wow, I didn’t expect this many responses. Thanks to all!!
MandaBear-I did wash everything in the apartment that I could remove. $30 bucks at the laundromat. I treated his bedding a couple extra times. I wash his perch weekly as well. I also vacuum the couch…not daily because it takes me about 20-30 minutes to run the vacuum hose over every cushion and the couch itself.
I don’t really want to get rid of the cat he’s such a good boy. I lost my job last April, have been on unemployment, and going to college instead of work, this flea infestation has really hurt my funds, and I can’t afford to take him to the vet. I am a foster for the local animal shelter but they are closing it down so I don’t know if they are going to be able to help me right now.
Cptokay- my vet suggested calling the manufacturers of the products I used and ask why they aren’t working. I have to wait until Monday since they are closed. He couldn’t tell me anything else…I’m doing all the things they told me and more
Sticki Chick-Yeah I don’t let him outside. We had a racoon problem in the wooded area next to the apartment, I can’t imagine him getting into it with one of those guys. I’m not supposed to wash the cat because I treated him recently, but before the next treatment, I will definitely wash him as you suggest. I’ve thought about the water bowls, but I think my son would forget about them and make a mess. Never heard of the oral treatment, will check into that. As for the topical, it goes on the scruff of his neck, I’m not sure he could reach it while it was wet.
Miranda-no we can’t figure out where the bugs came from. We’re on the second floor. Maybe the maintenance man who works outside a lot. No other people or animals in the apartment recently. I’ve heard of the diatomaceous earth…may try that too.
Lotstquestions…-All the product I bought except the collar and shampoo I got from my vet ( I also tried dawn), I heard the department store stuff has a high concentration of the chemicals that kill fleas, but it tends to be too much for the animal.
This was my first question…thanks to all for your advice, I really appreciate it!!
7 Comments
April 4th, 2010 at 8:24 pm
When you treated the cat and the carpets, did you wash everything your cat sleeps on? Fleas also lay their eggs on the animals bedding, and as long as there are live eggs they will keep breeding.
When you treat the cat you need to vacuum all the carpets and if you have material couches vacuum them, and wash any blankets, beds, sheets etc your cat sleeps on.
The fleas will eventually die if you got rid of the cat, but do you really want to?
April 4th, 2010 at 8:27 pm
No simple answer, you may need to use more than one product at a time. Your veterinarian would be the best one to advise on what to do next. Sounds like you need an insect growth regulator to prevent the hatching of the flea eggs or development into larva. There are products that have these as a topical placed on the pet and those you spray or sprinkle into the carpet where the eggs and larva hide out. Just contact your veterinarian and ask for further advice.
April 4th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
Nope, getting rid of the cat is mean! And it will not help with the fleas, as you can tell they can still bite you so they get what they need and hop off into the carpet and hatch eggs. Get sevin dust and use it like carpet powder, just be sure to not breathe the dust (wear a mask) and keep the pets and kid out of the room. Wash every piece of cloth in the house, with hot water if possible. Throw the vacuum bag away every session that you use it, or wrap it in several trash bags and stuff it in the freezer for several days. Any other things that you cannot wash wrap in plastic bags and stuff in the freezer. Vacuum every day with the sevin dust. Keep using the bug bombs too as the eggs that were laid in the carpet will keep hatching. If these do not work call an exterminator.
If the cat has ringworm, it needs to see a vet. You and your son can catch it too so you need to take it to the vet to know if that is what it is. Ask a local animal rescue or shelter if they can help you out with taking it to the vet as you have already spent so much because of the fleas. You might also see if the vet can keep the cat for a few days just to get it out of the house. See if you and your son can stay with someone, set the bug bombs and make sure that any clothes you wear or take with you are freshly washed and carry them in plastic bags as there may be fleas or flea eggs on any suitcases or bags. Then visit the house only to vacuum then reset more bug bombs.
Also treat your car and your yard for fleas.
April 4th, 2010 at 9:33 pm
Gawd, I remember that happening to me. I’ve since changed my mind, and I don’t let my cats out anymore (I don’t want to deal with worms from them eating other peoples rotten meat garbage and I don’t want to scoop them up, dead off the road ).
When you wash the cat, wash twice in a row. The first time doesn’t lather up much at all. Rince the cat off, then lather up a 2nd time, and rub, rub, rub down at the skin, in between all that fine downy hair. Make sure you get in good around the neck, and on the lower tummy, where the fleas tend to congregate. Watch where you cat sleeps, and treat those areas… that’s mostly where fleas live (they only go on the cat to feed).
Another thing that worked for me was to put a bowl of water on the floor, then shine one of those bendy neck lamps down onto it. The fleas jump to the light, and bounce off into the water. Oh, yes, and this is important… make sure you put some dish soap in the water to break the water tension so that the fleas sink and drown, otherwise, they will float at the top and kick their way out.
Is there not some treatment you can feed your cat that causes the fleas to become sterile, so they can’t reproduce and will eventually die off??? I thought I heard about something like that many years ago.
EDIT / ADD: He may have a sore throat from licking all that topical crap off when he cleans himself. I used the topical stuff — was just supposed to mist the cat — but I didn’t understand how the fleas (down inside against the skin) would get killed by a mist on top, and I saturated him with it. I basically poisoned my cat, who visciously hissed (from under the sofa) at anything that moved for the next 3 days (he was normally a big, loving suck who’d never hissed in his life). Your cat’s throat may be a result of topical. So, shampoo only, and put the money into taking care of the areas where the pet sleeps / getting an exterminator.
EDIT / ADD MORE: I heard that putting brewers yeast into the cat’s food helps. Apparantly, fleas don’t like the taste of cat’s blood with brewers yeast in it. I haven’t tried this myself, though. It’s just something I’d heard.
April 4th, 2010 at 10:12 pm
Do you know how the cat got fleas to begin with? Did he get out? Or is it possible someone is bringing in fleas?
I’m pretty sure that when I lived in a 3rd floor apt I bought in fleas and gave them to my cat (I visited friends who had cats which apparently had fleas).
If the cat goes outside then he’ll just keep bringing in new fleas. All the treatments you’re doing would generally work if you aren’t dealing with new fleas. Hopefully you can track down the source and find a way to stop new fleas from coming in.
Getting rid of the cat won’t help. They will bite people without the cat to feast on.
It’s not like the cat wanted to bring in fleas. He’s probably suffering a lot. The sore may simply be a reaction to being overcome by fleas.
You can get diatomaceous earth (food grade) to kill the fleas. info: http://wolfcreekranch1.tripod.com/diatomaceous_earth_fleas.html
If you think fleas may be coming in from the yard you could look into buying nematodes.
Both of those options are perfectly safe for your cat and the human members of your family. You can put the DE almost anywhere.
April 4th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
First off pretty much everything they sell in stores is obsolete now-a-days b/c the fleas have built immunities. Flea collars r crap, I had a HUGE infestation to where the fleas ended up in OUR hair, (not a ton just a couple here and there but still EWWW) so we spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on store crap and nothing worked, we finally hired a exterminator that guaranteed no fleas for like 30-60 days and we used dawn dish soap on our dog. No fleas for four months, unfortunately we didnt treat our yard and now our dog is getting them again so we have to repeat the process but this time we r goign straight to the vet b/c you end up paying more if you try to do it yourself. so my advice, 1: vet treatment 2: exterminator 3: some sort of lawn treatment if you have a yard and your cat goes outside.
April 4th, 2010 at 11:09 pm
The biggest problem here is simply your expectation of how soon you CAN get rid of the fleas. If your son’s socks are covered by them in a morning then you have a serious flea infestion in the environment not just on your cat. And it takes more than a few treatments a week or two apart to get rid of fleas in the environment because of their life cycle. Adult fleas spend the vast majority of their time on your pet but a female flea lays thousands of eggs in the environment (not on your pet) daily. 3 out of 4 life stages of the flea occur in the environment–not on your pet–so flea collars and bath do very little to actually deal with a flea infestation. Topical treatments that kill fleas continually and environmental treatments are what you need to focus on. But even with treating he environment you will see adult fleas again after treating because the pupa stage (which coccoons in the environment) is pretty much impregnable—nothing we have will kill them. So they will start hatching out in a matter of days to weeks after you treat the environment. If you have a topical flea product on your cats then when those pupa come out of their coccoons and go immediately to get on your pet to get a meal they will die without laying new eggs to continue the environmental contamination. But to completely clear and infestation is going to take a month or more.
Stop with the baths and instead allow the topical flea treatments to remain on your pet. They work through the oils in the skin so bathing cuts down on their effectiveness. If you are going to treat the house, you need to do it every 10-12 days. Bombing the house and then vacuuming regularly and then throwing out the vacuum bag will help cut down on the adults until the topical product has time to break the life cycle completely.
The sore on your cat is very likely from the flea infestation–this is common. They will lick and chew on the itchy areas to the point of causing sores and topical skin infections. So getting rid of the fleas needs to be your first priority. Topical antibiotics aren’t going to help the issue much–it’s really a matter of getting rid of the primary problem.
But you really need to understand that this infestation didn’t occur overnight and it’s not going to go away overnight. Use a good quality topical product like advantage and vacuum regularly. (Throw a flea collar in your vaccum bag if you have a model that you simply empty out the cannister after vaccuuming.) And just be patient because you can spend an arm and a leg with different types of treatments but you are still going to see fleas for weeks or months after you start treating because those cocooned immature fleas in the environment can remain safe in their “shells” for weeks to months and then hatch out and go looking for a meal so that they can lay their own eggs.