I have 4 indoor cats and I have fleas from our kitten.?

Question

Whichs Flea medicine is best to get rid of the fleas on them and in the house. I used Frontline Plus awhile back and now the fleas are back. HELP. Also I heard of putting Borax and Salt sprinkled on the carpet, does that work?

Answer 1

My Blog Entry for September 20, 2007
What to do for Itchy and Scratchy !

My very long and thorough blurb about fleas. This can work for both cats and dogs.


PART ONE - Treat your pets:
Advantage and Frontline spot treatments both work well, but each works only on a certain type of flea. All the other flea collars out there are useless or dangerous. Call your vet to find out which of these two works best in your area.

You need to bathe your pet first. Shampoo her (him) with Dawn dishwashing liquid and leave the soapy lather on for 5-7 minutes. Be careful not to get any of it in your pets' eyes. Rinse them thoroughly. Only when they are completely dry can you apply the drops. Never use flea sprays or powders or any other insecticidal products on your animals.

Even after you have treated your home (PART TWO below), you'll have to comb your pets out every day with a flea comb (these are cheap), as new fleas will continue to hatch out for a month from your carpet. Your set-up will be: the flea comb, a zip lock baggie, a lint roller. As you comb out each dog or cat, stick the hair, dirt and fleas to sheets of the lint roller. When you catch a flea, quickly behead him with the flea comb, so he cannot wiggle free. Dispose of the lint sheets in the ziplock bag, and to be safe put it into a second ziplock baggie. Go on to the next animal. You'll know it when your pets are becoming cleaner. At the worst phase you'll need to do this every day or twice a day for each pet. After the fleas are gone, you should still groom your pet on a regular basis, so take out that flea comb twice a month and see if fleas are returning.

PART TWO - Treat your home: Do not call a pest control service. They put down some dangerous chemicals, and spray some, mostly without any consideration for the safety of you and your pets (birds are especially vulnerable to all kinds of chemicals). You do not want any chemical residue left in your home, do you?
Go to Home Depot, Lowes or your neighborhood hardware store and get "foggers" or "fog bombs" of the strongest type you can. (This absolutely needs to be done by a responsible adult who can read English the instructions well). You're going to have to fog your home at least twice. But one fogger for each 1000 square feet of your home - for each session. So if you have 3000 square feet, buy 6 foggers. Be prepared to evacuate all animals and people from the house for the duration of the fogger plus 2 hours. Prepare carefully, according to instructions (cover food prep areas, put food away, turn off electricity and pilot lights, etc.) Everyone and al animals (including fish) must leave. Then set up your foggers and set them off according to a plan, which will leave the door you exit from last. When the time is up, you'll need to come back in the house to open all the windows, and put on the fan, to let the air out of the house. Ventillate for 1-2 hours this way. Don't let anyone in before this has finished. Fog again in 2 weeks. (You are lucky if you can do this during the summer months!)



PART THREE - more house preparation: If you have a fair amount of carpet, this is not going to be enough to get rid of your fleas if they have started to occupy your home. All carpet must be washed thoroughly and vacuumed. If you have orientals, send them out for cleaning. (Don't forget the cat tree and doggie beds!)

This is the worst part: Even after the carpets have been washed thoroughly and professionally, fleas may still hatch out. You'll need to vacuum the entire carpeted area of the house every day. Each day, immediately after the vacuuming is finished - remove your vacuum bag, seal it in double layer of plastic ziplock bags, and put in a new bag.

If you can buy (either on the Internet or at your vet) some spray Frontline or Advantage, put a tiny bit on a sponge and lightly rub it into some problem carpet areas. Also, you can treat a room that is isolated with carpet, by rubbing a mixture of table salt and Borax (1:1) into it, waiting 7-10 days, then vacuuming it up thoroughly.

I'm sorry to tell you all this, but you'll probably have excellent controll of all fleas within a month. You're going to think "My life is fleas!" But, this will pass and your pets will be flea-free and healthy.

PART FOUR - avoiding reinfestation: Make sure your animals get their treatment every month. We use Frontline and it is very expensive, but if we had 5 cats or dogs I would definitely use the spray which can be ordered over the Internet (one squirt to the back of the neck skin) to save money. Comb them at least once a week after the fleas have passed, and keep a close eye on the situation. For long haired cats and dogs, you can get them trimmed to a shorted more maneagable hair length while you are going through this.

Answer 2

It's not borax- it's Boric acid.

You can get a good product called Flea Go at onlynaturalpet.com and it is heavy enough to actually go into
your carpet. Some are so light they don't work.

You should use advantage because lots of people report problems with frontline. Advantage "sterilizes" existing fleas, also kills eggs.

If frontline isn't killing the eggs, you'll have fleas about 2 weeks after you thought they were gone. Vibration causes the eggs to hatch, so you'll notice the fleas even more after vacuuming.

BTW, Boric Acid is COMPLETELY safe, and can even be used on kitten (don't overdo, of course- follow directions) and on cat's bedding.

It works by drying out the flea.

Answer 3

You need to use the Frontline Plus at least every 6 weeks, it only lasts this long. You also need to make sure it gets on the animal's skin, not fur.

You also need to treat your house properly - Borax and salt are not appropriate flea treatments for a house. Get a proper spray from a vets.

Chalice

Answer 4

Yup as everyone has suggested, you will have to treat both your pets and the home... we had an infestation this year (3 cats and dog), the sheer horror of it... of course I ended up with flea bites... tssss
It did take a while, I think its a bit unrealistic regardless what the different flea products tell you, to expect fleas to be gone in 24 hours...
Comb and treat the cats... also remove all of their bedding or wash it, you will see those horrible black flecks, you dont want to know what that is :)
And then vacuum everything, wash your bedding... I have tried with salt on carpets and it did work...
Good luck :)

Answer 5

fronline usually needs doing each month,get a carpet flee spray from vets as still might be in carpets laying there eggsdont think much of flee bombs

Answer 6

I use something called Accurate, for ticks fleas and mites, and have not needed to use it again.

Answer 7

flea bomb the house, comb and wash the cats and vacum daily, clean the carpets wtih hot water.

Answer 8

Euthanasia