Flea help please.

[Justanopinion]

I know, first time poster, but I've been lurking.

We have a problem with fleas. We have 3 indoor cats.
We have no carpet, actually mainly plywood floors right now. Tore out the carpet and can't decided what to put down yet. Actually I have learned from this that I may not want hardwood floors, shows the dust too much. Anyway, back on topic. How do I get rid of the fleas. Couch is leather. What do I do? TIA

 

[tink85]

There is no quick answer. Have you thought about flea bombing? It is effective but not easy. The animals have to be taken out of the house for a long period of time and I'm not sure how quickly humans can go back in either to be honest. I know for my long-haired cat, we gave her a lot of flea baths, put her on medication to get rid of the fleas immediately and then kept her on a once-a-month pill. With her protected, the fleas have no environment to live on and they'll die off eventually but it's a long process. I would either call your vet or visit a local PetMart or its equivalent to get the best and safest suggestions for your family and your pets.

 

[JB111107]

As much as your cats HATE water...we had a similar trouble over the summer and here is what we did (and we have carpet and cloth sofas)

First we confined the cats to one room in the house while we deep cleaned all the carpets and upholstery, dusted/wiped down pretty much everything in the rest of the house just to get them as clean as possible. We used a pet solvent in the steam cleaner. The room they were confined in was tiled floor and little else, so there was not alot to clean, but we cleaned the floor and such daily as well so that we could catch any eggs that might be anywhere else.

For about 2 weeks, until we saw no more fleas, we gave the cats DAILY baths in the sink with dawn dish soap. I wasn't about to drop lots of $$ on those fancy shampoos, and my vet assured me Dawn will work just as well, plus it is not abrasive to their skin if they should have any sores or bites. Obviously the cats hated it, but they sure did like getting cuddled up in towels afterwards, and I'm sure they felt better after it was all said and done. We followed that up with additional baths once every 4-7 days just to make sure no more fleas had popped up and we haven't seen a single one since.

We have 2 adult indoor cats, and one of them had kittens just before this happened so we had 2 kittens in the mix with this as well...)

 

[OrlandoMike]

1. Bomb the house, yes the cats have to leave for a few hours, not sure if you have a place to put them, but you have to get rid of the fleas in the house. You can use regular bug bombs from the grocery store or Home Depot.

2. Get the drops from the Vet, NOT the supermarket. I've had great luck with Frontline Plus. It's kind of expensive, and the cats will act stoned for a day or two, but it works!

Good luck!

 

[jmpurdy]

Get the monthly flea product your vet has that you put ON the cat. It is superior to bombing and WILL work. The product kills all fleas that bite the cat. To be sure, apply the product in one month. One application may or may not solve the problem, so two or three is advisable.

The very same day, vacuum all surfaces the cat sits/sleeps on. Do this every day, twice if you feel you need to. Keep vacuuming. Throw away the bag/or empty the container and put them OUTSIDE.

Unfortunately, with fleas, they hatch eggs, so you MAY see more fleas after the eggs have hatched, BUT you will be killing them before those fleas can complete their cycle because once they bite the cat (necessary to procreate), they will die.

I work for a feline only veterinarian and this method should work for you. Bombing is old-school and we don't even sell those products anymore. This method really only works with a near-empty room, not one filled with things.

Best of luck and if any other questions, don't hesitate to ask!

 

[paigeandmorgansmom]

we had this problem last year. It took me 6 weeks to get rid of them. I had to vacum our house ( 5,000 sq feet) 3 times a day, we also treated our yard, and had a pro spary around the house and in the basement( where the cats stayed). I then gave the cats capstar for 3 days. The last thing i did was give them a dose of advantage. I had to wait a 6 weeks after we first saw fleas to try this method, due to the face i had given them frontline( which did not help my cats due to they had built up tolerance). We were then finally flea free!!! just keep trying. It talks a long time but did work.