I need step by step help to get rid of fleas.?

Question

I keep getting so many different answers. I have 4 cats, the new kitten had fleas that I did not see when I got her. I need a good flea medicine for them and one that will also help get rid of them in my home. Do Flea Bombs work? I've also heard of using Boric Acid and Salt sprinkled on carpets, couch...etc. HELP.

Answer 1

My Blog Entry for September 20, 2007 could be useful as your deflea program:

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

My first bit of advice based on experience would be don't try to tackle your flea problem alone! You need the expert's help, trust me! I had a flea problem years ago & also started noticing them in the house too. I tried all sorts of products but none ever really worked. Then I got Frontline Combo from my vet & have never had this problem since.

Laura's right - it's the best stuff there is & works on killing flea eggs in the home too. The ordinary Frontline Spot-On just doesn't cut the mustard if they're already infesting your house. So if I were you I'd enlist your vet's help a.s.a.p. - get some Combo & ask what house treatment your vet recommends. I found that once I treated my cats with the combo though I didn't even need to treat the house as it was only just beginning to be a problem & the combo stopped more eggs from hatching out.

You don't say how old your kitten is so I'm not sure what's safe to use directly on her but if your other 3 are adult cats you'll find treating them with FC will defintely help her too. To remove fleas from her safely until you know what's safe to use use a metal flea comb & go through her fur with that. To stop the fleas escaping off the comb & re-infesting your house have a bowl of soapy water by your side to throw the fleas in immediately - the water must be soapy or else they'll just swim to the sides & jump right back out!

Regular daily vacumming of all carpets & soft furnishings is very important - if you can spare one you could squeeze a Frontline treatment into your hoover bag to make sure nothing can hatch out in there!

Don't even waste your money on pet shop treatments - flea control is an area where it really does benefit you to spend the extra money. Just remember also that anything you treat your house with will end up on your cat's paws or in your cat's lungs too - so please please make sure you use something safe & follow the instructions to the letter.

Best of luck!

Answer 3

Yeah, you get loads of different advice on here, unfortunately a lot of it is well-meaning garbage.

Which flea treatment was that you got for the cats? Sounds like Frontline Plus, am I right? This is indeed good stuff - it does help treat the house in that it prevents further infestation by killing the flea eggs and pupae on the animal - but if there are already fleas in your house, you will need to spray.

Boric acid is not a good idea, it's supposed to be kept away from animals. Salt doesn't work. Get a proper spray from a vets for your home.

Chalice

Answer 4

I'm a veterinary nurse and what i suggest is that you buy some frontline COMBO which and apply to all cats which you will have to get from a veterinary surgery. This is better than normal frontline as it also helps to attack fleas in the environment. You then buy some Indorex from either pet shops or also from vets and spray this all around the house and will kill fleas. It can be difficult to get rid of them and you may need to do a couple of months applications to be sure.

Flea bombs, BORIC ACID??? do not work. If you have fleas you need to stop them multiplying asap as the home will become infested before long.

Answer 5

Be wary of over the counter flea products like Hartz and Seargents These have been known to cause severe reactions or death in cats. Not ever cat has these reactions, but too many do and it is not really worth the risk. Flea collars are little rings of pesticides you put around your cat's neck. They work to repel fleas, but not kill them. So they can stay in your house. Some cats can experience sores/hairloss around this site. Flea baths kill fleas that are on your cat at the time, but offer no protection against fleas. Any eggs that have fallen off your pet and are in your house can still hatch and jump onto your pet. The most effective method of treatment is a monthly preventative like Frontline Plus, Advantage, or Revolution. These are once a month applications that you put on your cat's skin between the shoulder blades/on the back of the neck. When using these products, do not bathe your pet for 48 hrs bofore or after treatment as that can make the product spread less evenly over the cat's body and be less effective. DO NOT buy Advantix, this is a product for dogs that can KILL cats. Monthly applications should be kept up for at least 6 months because the flea can stay in the pupa stage of it's lifecycle for that long. This stage is impenetrable to sprays/bombs/pesticides/etc. They can cost up to $20 a month depending on which product you use and where you are buying it, however are more likely to be found in the $12-17 range. How long have you been cat sitting? Is it possible that your friend's cat already had fleas? If this is the case, then you wouldn't have to worry about tracking the fleas back to her house because they are already there. Also, the monthly products are fairly effective so you shouldn't have to worry much about it if she keeps the cat up to date on them.

Answer 6

Frontline and Advantage are both great products. Advantage isn't labeled for very young kittens, but it is safe to use on them. Your vet can help you with either. Whatever you use, DO NOT use any product marked for use on dogs. This will kill or make your kitten/cats very ill. The ingredient in cat flea products is different from that in dog products and the one in dog products is toxic to cats. Don't bother with treatments for your carpet, the topical application to your pets (not store bought variety) will eventually kill all of the fleas. Vaccuum every day and keep your pets indoors. Reapply as necessary, depending on where you live this could be every month or only a couple of times a year.

Answer 7

The Frontline folks told me to treat the dog, and let him wander anywhere that had fleas in the house. I did that, and vacuumed, and within 24 hours our home was flea-free.

Here's how it works - the pet is a natural attractant for the fleas. He walks by and the fleas WANT to jump on. Once they're on, of course, they die.

Answer 8

Use Frontline PLUS. This powerful flea treatment is a God-send when it comes to eradicating fleas! I came to know about this product from the following website. Checkout the link:

Answer 9

frontline or stronghold which is a wormer as well,both from vets