Silver my Cat Has Fleas!

[brewens]

Now how the heck did that happen? She is indoors all the time and I never had a problem before. She does bolt for the door and manages very brief escapes occasionally. It amounts to me walking a few steps to pick her up from rolling on the concrete outside or grass. We also aren't in an area where pets easily pick up fleas from being outdoors, in fact I think that is very uncommon.

I any case the vet reccommended Advantage and she's already had her first treatment. I had noticed her scratching and grooming too much, then once walking and flipping around to bite at the middle of her back. That caught my attention. I know that as a sure sign and grabbed her to see if I could see any sign of fleas. More easily said than done though, they are illusive as is she. She is such a squirmer, it's hard to keep ahold of her to check.

I also brushed her a few times hoping to find evidence or confirm she didn't have fleas. She's now just about two years old and at times willing to relax and enjoy a brushing briefly, but quickly gets frisky and attacks the brush! I sill never came up with a flea but ended up with a random tiny little ant on me. So I wondered if she just managed to get in the way of a few ants that were bugging her. If I'm not careful, I'll have a have a few in here carting off crumbs or whatever they have found. The scratching seemed to die down and I thought maybe it was a false alarm.

Then yesterday, it was back to constant scratching and grooming. I really tried to pin her down and get a good look at the fur on her belly where it's lighter, poked and spread it to see if I could find any fleas. No luck again. I had noticed her water dish in my bedroom being about half empty and intended to dump and refill it for her. I'm sure I looked at it close enough to notice any fleas in it. A little while later I went in and grabbed it and there they were, four of them floating in the water. I got one on my finger to take a closer look and it was still alive. I quickly dunked it back in the water and flushed them.

I ended up making an immediate trip to the store to get the Advantage and give her the first treatment. I had her in my lap for awhile, only scratching her ears a little to avoid touching the medication that you squirt on the back of their shoulders right below their neck. It's working. When I kicked her off my lap I had one dying flea on me.

Now I hope it's just not too much of a pain in the ass getting rid of all the fleas. I have four months worth of the Advantage. If that keeps them off of her and kills all of the ones that hatch out and get on her, I should be in pretty good shape. I plan on washing everything and vaccuuming constantly. By November, I wouldn't think I could bring any in very easily. I have three buddies with cats and I'll warn them too. It could be one of them brought them in. I've had no other pets in here since March when my girlfriend had her dog with her. I wonder if that could have been it? They sure took a long time to get to be a problem if that was the case.

Since the water dish confirmed the fleas, I wonder if water traps like that can be a good indicator of when I have it licked? The one has been full and right where it was last night when I found the fleas. It's right near my dresser under my bedroom window. I have a blanket folded on top of it to make a bed for her since that is her favorite perch. No more fleas in it so far. I plan to fill a few baking pans with water and set them in likely places to see if I catch any more of them. I wonder if she had to be scratching right by her water to have those four end up in there?

[njlib]

1. I think they're attracted to light and the color white

If you could plug in a little night light, then put the bowl of water on a paper plate near the light, I think you'll be able to see if they're still around. Also, the original blue Dawn dish soap kills them. You could swish a little bit of it in the water and see what you get in the morning.

Good luck!!

[brewens]

2. Thanks. For now it's just the cat treatment, laundry and vaccuuming. I'll start trying to

see if I think I'm in the clear after a couple of months other than a couple water traps. I'd want any water I have out to be safe to drink though I think she'd leave to dish soap water alone. The blue Dawn just happens to be what I use too. Just the plain water seemed to have them trapped well enough though.

[notemason]

3. Light traps work well

Will catch many fleas. I use a small gooseneck lamp with 60 w. equiv. over a shallow pan of water. Only need a couple drops of Dawn or any dishwashing liquid as it works to break the surface tension of the water so the fleas can't jump out. They will sink like a stone and drown.

[Paper Roses]

4. All you need is one egg laying flee...the rest is history.

The flea can come in on a shoe, grocery bag, whatever.
We had a kitty who never left the house. The fleas found her.. We combed her with a flea comb every day and finally resorted to having an exterminator come. At the same time, we gave her a flea bath-that was fun! We all had to leave the house for the day. Pain in the pa-toot!
Problem was finally solved but I don't know who suffered more, the cat or me. The flea bites on my legs were fearsome and itched like the dickens.
Cortisone cream helped.
When the fleas were gone, no more poor kitty itchies, me either. Advantage and other products were not yet available when this was going on. Lucky they are now.

Good luck.

[Curmudgeoness]

5. Put a pair of white socks on.

Walk around the house in areas where you think there may be fleas. Watch for fleas jumping onto the socks. They will be easy to see on the white socks. This gives you a good idea of where to focus your attention. Then you can use the pan of water with a light over it and Dawn in it.

I also used a flea comb on the cat, especially in areas where the cat cannot get to easily and the fleas like to hide---under the chin, behind the ears, the face. I would sit with the flea comb and a cup of water with Dawn in it, and as soon as I saw a flea on the comb, I would stick it in the cup of water and the flea would be dead right away.

Make sure that you clean around where your cat sleeps really well. I think that the Advantage will help a great deal.

[shenmue]

6. Awww

First, treatment.

Then, lots of cuddles.

[brewens]

7. No! Never touching that miserable fleabag again!

Just kidding. She gets pets, lap time and cuddles whenever she wants

[brewens]

8. I got home and of five pans and bowls of water I had out, not one flea to be

seen. I wasn't going to let that fool me of course but that's not a bad sign from everything I've read. One bowl was under my feet near my computer chair, a place my cat likes to hang out. I moved it so I wouldn't accidentally kick it. Then got up to vacuum after awhile. Working my way out into the liveing room, there was one flea in that one I moved. Must have just pole vaulted into it.

Silver doesn't seem to be scratching and biting at herself as much. That Advantage treatment was supposd to have killed all the fleas on her by now. I would imagine she still has some pretty itchy bites on her though so I won't expect to see her stop reacting to that for a few days at least.

I see this growth regulator product recommended that sounds safe. I can't see why not to get some of that and spray the carpet everywhere.

It really sucks that the last ten days or so, I was alternatly looking hard to try and confirm it was fleas, then talking myself into thinking it couldn't be when she calmed down and didn't seem to be bothered. I just had a three day weekend and didn't go anywhere anyway! If I would have just found one of the little bastards before last weekend, I would have had all kinds of time to deal with it.

It seem weird that I got four of them in that one water dish in my bedroom all of a sudden. Maybe it was luck. She may have been in there drinking and then went on a scratching tear right by it and knocked a bunch off of her right there. Otherwise I still might be brushing and poking at her trying to find out if that's what it really was?