Pet people help please

[Edensmum]

I have an entirely indoor cat and I just noticed him scratching so I checked and he has flees. What is the best thing to use? Do I need to treat the house too? I have not noticed anything in the house and we have only one small area rug in the whole house. I have been washing things for the baby like crazy and trying to get the house in order to leave it, the idea of setting off a bomb in here is enough to make me cry.

[DietCokeLover]

Go get something like Advantage from your vet and put that on your cat.

[Edensmum]

Does one of those work better than the others? Which is cheapest?

[DietCokeLover]

I can't think of the name of the other brand right now. But my friend who is a vet recommends Advantage. I think it's less than $15.

[bluestar2]

Frontline is another brand. I'd go with whatever is cheaper. I think I have used both and they worked well and are so easy to use.

[fedoragirl]

We had this experience with our (originally stray) cat. He brought in fleas and they were all over the house...we think. I washed everything possible in the hottest water. We used Revolution (which is expensive, but it did the trick) on him for 6 months. I bought one of those cheaper flea powders for the carpet area from Walmart and sprinkled it all over the furniture and carpet. We made sure no one could get inside that space. I left it overnight and vacuumed it and threw the vacuum bag away.
It was a lot of work but the results were terrific.

[crl]

When I was a teenager our indoor cat got fleas. I'm pretty sure mom did what fedoragirl describes. It was torture for me because apparently I am one of those people who gets flea bites (I can't remember if everyone gets bitten but only some people are allergic or if only some people get bitten.) Mom and Dad were fine, but I had about a thousand itchy little bites all over my legs. Ugh.

Catherine

[Penny's Pappa]

We have always used the liquid Frontline that you apply between the shoulder blades for our small (~15lbs) dog. That stuff is FANTASTIC. Kills fleas and flea eggs on your pet within days, and kills any fleas within the animal's immediate living areas. IIRC, it costs about $15-20 from the vet.

BTW, our vet STRONGLY recommended that we do NOT use any of the store-bought flea control solutions as they can cause neurological damage.

[brittone2]

You might want to check into diatomaceous earth. It kills the fleas by acting as a dessicant. It is chalky and just dehydrates the little buggers.

It works well on carpets, etc. too but it doesn't sound like you have a lot of those areas to treat.

[vejemom]

See if you can get Capstar from your vet. It's about $30. Administer it orally, and it kills all of the fleas currently on the cat. I would follow up with Advantix or Frontline or Revolution after that. Try not to stress about the house too much. It sounds like the fleas have stayed on or close to the cat. I'd only worry if someone was getting bitten.

[Nooknookmom]

Here's what we do (2 cats & 2 German Shep's):

Frontline for all!

Take Kosher Salt and sprinkle it over any and all carpeted areas, leave it for the day, vacuum it up in the evening. It removes any moisture from any eggs and they dry up.

DO NOT set off a bomb!!!

Works great over here.

[michellerw]

Agree with the PP about Frontline or Advantage. Do not use anything from the drugstore/pet store/grocery store or a Hartz flea collar. Those will kill your cat and are dangerous to your baby.

Fleas are weird. We have three indoor cats and we ended up with them once too. It's a mystery.

[gatorsmom]

See if you can get Capstar from your vet. It's about $30. Administer it orally, and it kills all of the fleas currently on the cat. I would follow up with Advantix or Frontline or Revolution after that. Try not to stress about the house too much. It sounds like the fleas have stayed on or close to the cat. I'd only worry if someone was getting bitten.

We had this problem with our dog about 5 years ago. I found fleas on him but no where else in the house and no one was complaining of getting bit. The vet told me to get Capstar and feed it to him in some food to make sure he swallowed it. It kills the fleas that are on the animal right now. Then we started giving him Frontline (because I THOUGHT DH had been treating him but turns out he wasn't :irked:) to prevent any other fleas that might be in the carpet from hopping on. Then I put flea powder down on the carpet and vacuumed it up. Although if I'd heard about that stuff Brittone2 was recommending, I'd have been all over that. But I really didn't do much else because I didn't think the house was infested with them. I didn't see any other fleas after that.

Sorry you have one more thing to deal with before leaving. When it rains, it pours, kwim?