Goddamn fleas

[BarenakedLady]

I haven't had fleas in this house EVER! We built 11 years ago. One of my dogs had to spend the day at the vet last month for teeth issues and came home with fleas evidentally. Now we all have them. Grrrrrrr. I just put some powder down on the rugs and put the drops on the dogs' backs. Now my nose is itchy and I have a headache. They are both punishing me by laying right next to my chair, so I can suffer with them.

I shall be spending the rest of my day off vaccuuming the whole house. I need to figure out how the vaccuum the cats. Hmmmmmm... If I don't return, you know that they took me out.

[MissMillie]

1. "Advantage" will kill the ones on your dog

washing all your linens and vacuuming your rugs and furniture will get rid of the rest.

[BarenakedLady]

3. Thanks

I forgot about the sheets and comforters.

[Shakespeare]

2. The Adams brand flea sprays/treatments work REALLY well.

They make flea baths as well as house treatments (sprays and bombs, but the spray was sufficient the one time I needed it after fleas expanded their territory from a neighbor's apartment). They're awful to deal with--hope you get rid of them quickly.

[BarenakedLady]

4. I hope so too

I remember my parents battling with fleas back in the day. It was awful. We bombed the house a few times. That was back before flea drops.

[LeftyMom]

5. Advantage for everybody. Maybe some Capstar for immediate relief.

You can get both from your vet, or order them cheaply off of ebay if you don't mind waiting and want to save a few bucks.

Don't use the supermarket flea stuff, it generally doesn't work real well and some of it is dangerous.

[BarenakedLady]

7. I got some stuff from PetCo

Called Natural Defense. It seems to be made up mostly of herb oils. It says safe to use around kids and animals, but I'm not taking too many chances. The powder is down on the rugs upstairs while the rugrats are in school and I'm keeping the dogs away (though they seem to be avoiding it anyway). I'll vaccuum it all up before they get home.

I'll definately go the vet route if it doesn't work.

[redwitch]

6. My late grandfather had a cat that liked to be vaccuumed.

Pogo would lay back with belly exposed and my grandfather would use one of the attachments to vaccuum him. Series. My cats run like mad when the evil machine comes out and I have never even tried to vaccuum them.

[BarenakedLady]

8. LoL. I doubt I could get in the same room with them

and the vaccuum. They are both so skittish. I was just kidding about that. I wish I could though.

[redwitch]

9. Me too. A little flea powder in the vaccuum and voila! no more fleas!

:-)

[marzipanni]

10. Do you have a metal flea comb for the cats?

The comb builds up static electricity that temporarily stuns the fleas as they are pulled off the fur in its fine teeth. Then you can pluck them off the comb and stick them in a little blob of vaseline or dish detergent in a jar lid.
I told a woman about this after she complained of fleas jumping on her white socks as she walked in her house.
She reported back that the first time she used a flea comb she removed 80 fleas from the cat!

[BarenakedLady]

11. I do indeed

I was brushing the cat with it last night and saw the tell tale flea excrement. I remember years ago my mother sitting with the dog/cat and a bowl of hot water picking off fleas while watching TV. LoL.

I will attempt to do that. Both my cats are the type that it has to be their idea to cuddle.

[hippywife]

12. I feel your pain!

We brought home two rescue kitties and sure enough! Fleas! I'm going to the vet today to pick up a round of Frontline for all of them, including my older cat. They go to the vet for boarding this weekend so we can sweep boric acid around the place. That worked very well last time.

The others won't tolerate it but I've been sitting with Lina for a little while each day, running a q-tip with rubbing alcohol around her face. That drives the fleas out of their hiding places so I can pick them off drop them into the cup of alcohol to kill them. It's tedious but it works until I can get everyone treated.

My poor older cat has been literally running through the house to try to get away from them and hiding places she normally wouldn't, like behind the washer, and yesterday it was the stove.

Good luck to you! :hug:

[BarenakedLady]

13. Thanks

I'll see how it goes over the weekend. I'll call the vet next week if I can't get them under control on my own.

I hate fleas!

[Inchworm]

14. 20 Mule Team for the carpets

and Advantage from vet for the critters.

The 20 Mule Team is an old timey laundry detergent that is 100% borax. Don't get a different detergent with "borax added." It's safe enough to wash your hands with it. You probably shouldn't eat it though. You just sprinkle it on floor, behind furniture, on cloth-type furniture, etc. The stuff is so fine that it will settle into places you can't vacuum.

I don't have cats but have to deal with them often. If you don't want to do the Advantage, you can wash the cats in regular green Palmolive. Suds up the kittys and let it stay on them for 5 minutes before rinsing.

I am obsessed with my hate for fleas and this stuff worked in less than a week to fix the outbreak. Oh yea, I also vacuumed every day for that time.

G'luck!

:hi:

[BarenakedLady]

15. Wash the cats?

:rofl:

You obviously don't have cats or just really really hate me.


:rofl:

[Inchworm]

17. LoL

I don't have cats and I don't hate ya :D

I said the same thing about washing them until I saw it done. The "cat people" where I work are magic or something. They wash 4-5 cats a week.

After a few secs the cats go all limp. I joke that they probably strangle them enough to cause faint.

:)

[demmiblue]

16. We used garlic pills for our dogs...

and Skin So Soft (Avon) on ourselves. Personally, I hated the smell.

Also, we put out a shallow dish of soapy water under a bright lamp. The fleas jumped in, but never jumped out!

Good luck!

[rbnyc]

18. Sucks!

We got them first summer in our new house. We bombed about 6 times, washed everything a million times, treated cats, carpet, spent probably $1000 before we got rid of them. It took weeks. I have scars! Evil! Evil creatures!

Good luck!

[Resuscitated Ethics]

19. Pay to play. Use Advantage, Frontline, or Revolution

I personally use Advantage about once or twice a season in four cats. By the time you see a telltale sign of the little excrements (red dots near the water dish? rehydrated bloody flea poop!) you are usually in need of chemical intervention. The last time I used Advantage (the Bayer product) it didn't work. I next used Frontline (which also works for ticks)combined with the metal flea comb (the thirteen dollar NICE one). I use a blob of foamy hand soap to grab the flea-ridden clump of hair from the comb: the soap becalms them 'til they drown. One dose of Frontline knocked the beginnings of an infestation back for the summer. Nothing more embarrassing than having the vet find flea poop on your kitty!

Fleas must all die! The wonderful thing about the above products is they stay in the lipid layer of skin and so the results aren't instantaneous but they are wholly effective on the population. Each time a flea feeds they are drinking their own death but it doesn't harm the cat. Throw away vacuum cleaner bags far from the house and other common sensibles all apply.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2081.html

[billyskank]

20. Well, bollocks.

:(

:hug:

[applegrove]

21. LOL. The drops on the back of the neck worked great for me when

I had fleas on my cats. I cleaned but really those fleas go away when they no longer have a food source.