Okay, this might be OT, I don't know.
But my cat is an indoor cat, and now he has FLEAS!!! He has never been outside before, and he somehow got fleas. I got him this herbal flea spray, and sprayed it all over him. And he licked it off in 10 minutes! (thank god it was herbal!) And I bought him a flea collar and the thing does not work AT ALL! The fleas actually hide under it when I am flea brushing him!!!


So how do I get rid of the fleas? HELP!

Do you live in an apartment? Fleas can travel from one apt to another. You might need prescription flea drops from your vet. They really work

Advantage or Frontline Plus is really the only way to completely get rid of them. At least in my experience. You buy it from your vet or a feed supply place. Just don't buy the cheap off-brands from other stores. They can be really harmful to your pet.

Also, if you don't get rid of them soon you'll more then likely need to de-worm your cat as well.

We had this problem with our indoor only cat too. It happened shortly after we moved into a new place. They were all over the grounds of the complex and would come in under the door jam. Big huge fleas that you could actually see jumping around. Ick! This was when we lived in California on the coast. Our vet here in Washington said it's not as much of a problem here.

If you have carpet in your house you might want to try sprinkling borax on your carpets, letting it sit for awhile, then vacuum. The borax kills them.

you can bring flea and flea eggs in on your shoes believe it or not. You can either use an exterminator to rid the house of fleas (you will need to retreat 1-2 times every 3 - 4 wks due to the lifecycle of the flea egg.). OR I recommend using Flea busters on your carpet (its not a pesticide) and treating your pet with a good flea product from your vet such as Revolution, advantage or frontline. These products can be obtained from your vet...please make sure you pet is healthy. You will need to treat you cat a few time due to the lifecycle of the flea. If you see one flea, you are only seeing a small portion of the population of fleas in the home.

here's some info from frontline to get you a better idea of the flea lifecycle and understand how they work... personally preferr revolution or advantage multi for cats over frontline because they also get heartworm prevention
(although frontline does a GREAT job on fleas and ticks..it just doesn't do the heartworm prevention)...and cats can get heartworm disseae (even strict indoor cats)...and the new info shows that heartworm dz in cats is causing long term lung issues that they can die from.
http://frontline.us.merial.com/fleas...alifecycle.asp

good luck!

FYI...take the flea collar off...they DONT work (well they keep the fleas off from the collar to about the ear tips)...and some cat are very sensitive to flea collars and can cause skin issues. Do not waste your money on OTC flea products (ie hartz)...i have seen some major issues from these products (FYI..i'm a vet). I keep my pet on year round flea control even though my cats are indoor...but i have a sensitivity to fleas...one flea bite will itch me for weeks...therefore i hate fleas and keep them out of my house

really this is a nasty problem i had a few years ago. after trying many things, we finally used flea shampoo, and there was nothing herbal about it.
they fleas would jump off and die and there were tons of dead fleas in the bathtub when were done, of course the *******s all ran up by her face when we did it. After weekly shampoos, they finally went away. I would say it took about 6 months to get rid of them.

I also recommend borax ( not boraxo) . I sprinkled it all over the carpet anywhere my dog would go, left it in awhile and vacuumed it up. It works!I got the tip from a pet forum.

Hi
I was wondering about the Borax you were talking about. Is it the kind you find where the laundry stuff is in the stores.
Would like to try it. But need to find out for sure to find it.
And I am sure it is safer than some of the other products out there.
Thanks for the information.
coco

Yeah, it's the laundry borax. I think the brand I used was 100 mules or something like that?

Zenor77
Thank you for the info.
I thought maybe it was that. But just wanted to make sure.
I use to use that a long time ago. When we had well water.
So will pick some up this weekend.
Again thank you.
coco

for sure the only thing to wipeout fleas completely is "advantage frontiline plus". I agree totally with zenor77 don't buy an off brand, you'll just be waisting your money. i have 2 dogs and 3 cats, arrrrghhh. trust me this stuff works. you'll notice improvement in 24 hours. i promise

sorry its just "frontline plus" looked on the box to be sure

Hi
Thanks for the replys. I am going to go to town tomorrow. So will try and pick up some borax.
Wonder if it would work on a cement floor also.
Again thanks for the info.
coco

I'd like to second the recommendation for Revolution every month because it's a heartwork preventative as well as great flea control. We have an indoor cat who somehow got a heartworm infestation and survived, but has serious heart and lung damage for life (and she's only two years old ).

I thought we didn't need to worry about heartworms because all of the cats (5) are strictly indoors but I was very wrong. Apparently heartworm disease is much more prevalent in cats than previously thought and indoor cats can and do contract the disease. In fact, much of what was previously thought of as asthma in cats is now turning out to be lung damage from heartworms (Gatorgal, please correct me if I'm wrong on any of this! )

Per the kitty cardiologist, all five of the cats now get Revolution every month. It's expensive but so worth preventing such a devastating cat disease.

Meg, not sure what you're paying for your meds, but you might check out Omaha Vaccine Company. I don't think they're the cheapest out there, but I've always gotten great service from them. They've been around a long time, and seem to have a good reputation. Their prices are half what MY vet charges, though I can't speak for what prices are like in other parts of the US. I've only used Advantage or Frontline, so I'm not sure of the price or availability of Revolution, but it might be worth a look, if you're buying for that many animals. Their online catalog is a little glitchy. If you do order from them, I'd suggest requesting a free catalog in the mail, then ordering by phone...never had a problem doing things that way.

I hate all the chemicals although once I had to spray the carpets with something (years ago, don't remember). Make sure you are also picking the fleas by hand from your cat's fur; nothing is more efficient than that. A dead flea is a good flea.

As a kid, I spent hours picking up fleas from our collie's coat. (I grew up in Eastern Europe and we did not have all those products that are available here). If I had kept a track of the fleas I killed, I may have made it into the Guiness' Book of Records.