Fleas , fleas and more fleas?

Question

My dogs and cats have never really had fleas, if I found 3 a year that was a lot. The do get advantage drops. However, the winter has been unseasonably warm this year in Florida, and my cat accidentally got out and hid under the porch for 3 days, coming in flea infested. I was my bedding , the doggie blankets , run a pet hair roller over the furniture to get up the eggs daily. No evidence of them in the house, but on the poor animals it is terrible. One little bite and they are pulling their hair out. I do not want to use a chemical spray as their skin is already irritated. I have read a lot about lemons and water and applying it to the skin, but that might sting with the irritation. Any other suggestions, and can I use lemon on the cat, as her skin is not irritated?

Answer 1

Try washing your cats and dogs in Irish Spring body soap.
It works, I swear by it. Also, wash bedding in hot water,vaccum the furniture and rugs daily, and empty the vaccum immediately.

Answer 2

Frontline, Advantage, Advantix, all those and a few more won't kill and control fleas and flea eggs as well as Revolution does. Revolution kills and controls adult fleas, flea eggs, prevents them from getting back on, prevents, ticks, ear mites, ringworms, roundworms, and a few other little buggies. It works miracles! I tried using all those other brands on my cats ear mite/flea infestation and nothing worked for 3 years! I tried home remedies(including lemons, but lemon will burn and sting the flea bites, causing yet more irritation) and none worked, and I finally talked to my boss and he said get Revolution, and apply it once a month. Get it at the vets office and 3 tubes shouldn't cost any more than $30, which is really great depending all the stuff it does! I would also consider bug bombing your house just to be safe, take your cats to the vets office and leave them for however long the bomb says, tell your vets office you are bombing your house and would like to leave the cats there, and take your dogs to the dog park or something. It will be great fun and should get rid of any fleas

Answer 3

I agree with using Frontline on your cats and dogs. Continue to vacuum daily and dispose of the bags each time outside in the trash or at least put a flea color in the bag if you don't want to change it each time.

I would also suggest some salicylic acid around the house. This is a powder that you can pick up at major hardware stores. You can sprinkle it around the outside perimeter of your home and under your deck, along with inside your home. Just test for color fastness on carpets and furniture. Salicylic acid is a desiccant and it dehydrates invertebrates (bugs). These steps should help the flea problem. Remember that the life cycle of the flea has four stages it goes through and the eggs and pupae are the hardest to get rid of.

While you are treating for fleas, keep your eyes peeled for tapeworms. These will show up mainly in the feces of your pets as small grains of rice but they can also end up in their bedding. Pets get them from ingesting fleas and these can be treated with a prescription from your vet.

I hope this information will help and you are able to rid your home of those pesky, irritating creatures.

Answer 4

i had the same problem. i got several things. i bought flea comb, flea shampoo, flea carpet cleaner, frontline and apolestry spary. you also might want to take your animals to the vet, they probably have worms from the fleas then buy a bottle of liquid dewormer and a suringe for prevention. after about 3 months the disappered with the execption of a couple here and there. i would flea comb them as often as i could and washed the stuff off the comb down the sink. i also bathed them everyday with or without flea shampoo. i vaccumed the carpet several times a day with the carpet flea powder and immedately threw the bag outside full or not. i also sprayed and washed all fabrics in the room that the animal was in that day. it's a lot of work but it helps.

Answer 5

If the cat is pulling it's fur out it may be having an allergy to fleas, my cate did the same thing,, take it to the vet to get a shot for the allergy and advantix is the best flea control that i have found, after a couple of days the fleas will be gone.

Answer 6

I say just go and get some Frontline for cats. It won't take long and the fleas will be gone.

Keep vacuuming your home and keep the bedding where the cats sleep.

Good Luck! I know I get freaked when I see fleas.. and in NC it's been warm too so we need to Frontline the dog so she doesn't bring the fleas inside to jump on the cats too

Answer 7

If it's only your cat having the fleas, you could bath her. That's why I often bathe my cat. Just showered by water and the fleas are gone, or use alcohol. Don't spray it, but use cotton and when you saw a flea, quickly rub the flea with the cotton. Vets usually do so, if they do not want to be busy. I suggest not to use lemons. Cats hate it, the smell is too strong for them.

Answer 8

You might want to try an outdoor flea remedy that you can put on your lawn, such as Diazonon. You can pick it up generally at a K Mart, Walmart, Target, or anywhere plants are sold. As for the house, you may want to wash everything after you bomb your house. You'd have to repeat the bomb in three to four days since the bomb does not affect the eggs.

Answer 9

i have heard if you put a little garlic in the food they eat it helps get rid of fleas you need to wash the pets bedding also Stanley home products sells end a bug a great product to spray on the bedding air out and they usually are gone hope these will help we have flea collars on both are dog and cat

Answer 10

Cats hate citrous smells, so to make them smell of it would be cruel since they can't get away from themselves.

I tried Frontline and everything else modern and expensive, but my cat still had a bare stripe down her back - until I went to the good old cheap flea collar - bingo. Fur grew back in couple of weeks.