sleeping with fur kids and their.... fleas

[smilingcat]

Hi mimitabby,

You've applied frontline only two weeks ago and you see flea dirt, right?

Well I am very much involved with rescue groups and with my vet. So I see things and notice things that others may miss. The rescue groups and the vets have been noticing that the Advantage, and Frontline are becoming less effective against fleas. Fleas are developing tolerance to the two products. This DOES NOT allow you to use more Advantage or Frontline. "More is good" doesn not work.

The recommendation from the vets and from the rescue groups is to flea comb your pets more often and switch over to a different product. That is if you have been using Frontline for several years, you should try Advantage. Or if you have been using Advantage then try Frontline. If this does not help, you should try the newest of these drugs called Revolution. Revolution is good for fleas and it also works against heartworms.

As for the house itself with carpets, lot of good suggestion has been made. We don't really care for "toxic" chemicals so we use borax weekly on our carpet. Sprinkle the borax onto the carpet, leave it on for hour or two and vacume up. We empty our vacume canister after we vacume up. And we haven't had flea infestation on our carpet. Borax can be had at a grocery store in the laundry section.

We flea comb our cats minimum of twice per day. easiest way to do is have a bowl, non-tipping kind, filled with hot water with dishwater liquid. And when we pick up the fleas on the comb we just drop the fleas into the bowl. The detergent allows the fleas to sink into the water (less surface tension) and the soap also strips them of their protective waxy coat. And if the comb has cat hair on it, we throw the hair into the bowl of water too. so the whole process is faster. Just don't dunk the comb itself into the water. Our cats have learned that its a good thing and wait in line to be brushed.

I hope this helps.
Smilingcat

[mimitabby]

hi smilingcat, thanks for the informative post.
I do comb cats, but have not found a single flea on a cat this season.

this is what i figured out:

before i went on vacation i changed the sheets (and slept on them the night before we left) then i made the bed and put two more sheets on top.

I think i sealed the nasty little varmints into the bed!! so when i climbed back into the bed after my vacation, they were famished!!

the day after we returned, of course, i washed all the bedding but now there were fleas prob. around the bed.
combed all cats again. (heck, they like it)

I sprayed some Raid for Fleas under the bed but did not want to poison myself or the cats so i stripped the bed again and

i ironed the mattress
then put the bottom sheet on.
ironed it.
put the top sheet on
ironed it
put the blanket on
ironed it.

and last night i slept for 5 hours straight.

even fleas can't survive an iron set on HIGH.

[onimity]

Luckily fleas don't survive through the winter here, but FWIW, I bathe my (two feisty) cats weekly and they mind a lot less than you'd imagine. The key is that *you* stay calm, say things like 'GOOD cat', etc.; mine actually seem to like the warm water, a good deal warmer than I like it.

I sit in the tub with the target cat between my knees, don't hold them down but let them know that I am in charge. I've washed a lot of other people's cats too & have never had one so much as scratch me. Most people are surprised to see that a cat that will attempt to remove your arm upon a belly-scratching actually purring in a bathtub.

Anne

[mimitabby]

Luckily fleas don't survive through the winter here, but FWIW, I bathe my (two feisty) cats weekly and they mind a lot less than you'd imagine. The key is that *you* stay calm, say things like 'GOOD cat', etc.; mine actually seem to like the warm water, a good deal warmer than I like it.

I sit in the tub with the target cat between my knees, don't hold them down but let them know that I am in charge. I've washed a lot of other people's cats too & have never had one so much as scratch me. Most people are surprised to see that a cat that will attempt to remove your arm upon a belly-scratching actually purring in a bathtub.

Anne

You sit in the tub with the cat you are bathing??!?!?!?!?!?!
wow!

[Tuckervill]

We had a flea problem this summer that just exploded. It seemed to center around the dog and one cat. We use Frontline. I've heard on the news and at my vet's to put it on every 3 weeks because it does seem like the fleas are getting used to it. Once a month in winter is fine, though.

I did some research because I really wanted to stop the cycle of fleas. I don't like to use chemicals either, but this was desperate. We went to the feed store and bought a product with Nylar in it, which is an insect growth retardant. It kills the larvae and the eggs. We also used a product called Viper which kills adult fleas. We vacuumed first, then we used the Viper on all parts of the inside of our house. Then we used both the Viper and the Nylar on the yard where the animals mostly go. There was one particular place under the azaleas that the dog and one cat liked to dig a hole and sleep. We sprayed it and then covered it with a lot of mulch that they don't like to dig in.

Then we dipped both cats and the dog in a flea dip that ALSO contained the insect growth retardant, and then they all got Frontlined again. While I was spraying the house, I moved the cats to an outbuilding and sent the dog packing to my Dad's. When the came back, I knew they were flea free and the yard was flea free.

The cats did not suffer from being dipped and having the Frontline reapplied. Well, they THOUGHT they were suffering, judging from the looks on their faces! I dipped them outside in the kiddie pool so they could run away when it was over and not trash the house.

Also, Frontline will eat the finish off of leather upholstery (I found out the hard way on my new leather sofa). A month or two later and we're flea free, but we did apply the chemicals twice in order to catch all the eggs/larvae. (The IGR is supposed to be good for about 7 months.)

Here's the link to the information I found.
http://www.tulsamastergardeners.org/...as_ticks.shtml
http://insects.tamu.edu/extension/bu...uc/uc-034.html

Karen