How do you..... tackle flea control?

[smokytopaz]

Obviously from my last coupla posts I am not doing so well.:cry:

They don't have fleas, but having once in my life had a flea infestation its not a place I want to revisit.

So once a month they get Spot on'd. It prob works, but it makes their coats look greasy for two or three days later.

Collars failed. Big time.

Now my cats go out for a hour or so in the morning and that is probably it in a day..... but thats long enough to encounter the nasty hopping things.

I want to be confident they won't pick up fleas, but they so enjoy their hour or out to play......

What do you do?

[John]

I use Frontline..and the vet said keep the vacuum going..

[smokytopaz]

Oh yes, I had totally forgotten about Front Line.... Vet only isn't it?

[farthing]

I just use a spot on, wash bedding regularly and if I see any fleas, I spray the house with indorex. When we moved into this house, we discovered it was crawling with fleas- but we treated all the animals and sprayed the house and we've never had a problem again.
I was horrible though.

[smudgley]

Oh yes, I had totally forgotten about Front Line.... Vet only isn't it?

not anymore, you can pick frontline up at lots of places now.

The main thing with fleas is to watch out for them. We comb our cats regularly with a flea comb, just so that we can catch any crawlies and be one step ahead of them, but to be honest we hardly ever see any. We don't use any flea control in the winter months and use frontline spray in the summer.

Flea collars and petshop type sprays are a waste of money.

[dandysmom]

Vacuuming is not an ideal solution; when I had my one and only flea infestation quite a few years back, my breeder friends told me to put down flea powder first and vacuum it up, and then again just before I finished. Supposedly they multiply in the bag otherwise. Don't know how true that is, but it worked for me. They were so bad that you got jumped on as soon as you came home! I don't use anything now as Leia isn't harness trained so no fleas.

[niki71uk]

smokey see if the vet does the 6mnthly flea injections,my younger cat gets them as she wont let me near her with stuff to put on her kneck,saves the hassel and stress for us both

[angieh]

I had a flea problem in summer 2008 and felt that the vet let me down badly. I took Merlin twice to the vet, but being a dark cat they said he had no fleas. I knew he had. Frontline was not working. I had to use a Capstar tablet and then comb every day and use that sticky tape roller to get rid of the eggs and larvae. Treated every room in the house with Acclaim. The vet must have had several complaints about Frontline and is now recommending Stronghold or Advantage spot-on. Kizzy has Stronghold and Pip Advantage. I have had no further flea problems thankfully. It is horrible and so distressing for Merlin. I am sure his anaemia was as a result of the fleas.

[kado]

I had the same problem last year has well. Though i got rid of them but they came back with avengence this year. I used frontline combo on all the cats as the ordinary one isnt enough for guinness with him being over 6kg. I also sprayed the house with indirex and inderixed it again around 2 wks later. My vets reccomend it done every 4 -5 wks. I also started putting a cheap flea collar in the hoover as well too kill of any of the litter blighters. I never buy shop products now they just dont work in my oppinion.

[John]

I never thought of putting a flea collar in the vaccum ..will have to give it a try..

[kado]

We did it a couple of months ago due too a realy bad flea problem we had. I d ont know if it works but i will try anything to get rid of the little blighters

[dandysmom]

Same principle as vacuuming up flea powder; keeps the little b******s from multiplying in there.

[pcspik]

I apply Frontline. I check my cat regularly, especially Tigger (she has had a flea allergy in the past so if there was any fleas about she would get them first).

I vaccum every other day anyway mainly due to the fact that Tigger sheds a lot of fur (despite being short haired). I have a Dyson which doesnt hold much dirt so each time I use it I have to empty each time anyway. My last hoover however I used to put a flea collar in the canister which did help.

I agree with whoever said that pet shop/supermarket brands (Wilkinsons, Bob Martin, Armitage etc) dont work, and the same goes for their worming solutions as well. We had a cat once in our branch of the Cats Protection who had a nasty weeping sore around his neck. It smelt terribly of rotting flesh. Despite tons of different antibiotics etc the cat had to pts. Our vet said that the most likely cause was one of those flea collars.

[smokytopaz]

Right..... found Frontline in Pets at Home, locked away in cabinet, cost three times as much but decided to buy anyway. Interestingly, when I used Spot on both cats leapt to attention when treated and knew something had struck them. With frontline niether really reacted...... Oh I hate fleas having had to deal with an infestation that was my fault........ not treating for fleas and combing cat on carpet in living room...... eeeeeek!! :oops: Ah well we live and learn!

I also abandoned the collars, both hated them, they were just unhappy even after a couple of days.

You Can Get Fleas in the winter!!:shock: Honest....... just turn on your central heating and they are away if you have eggs in the carpet!

[angieh]

Absolutely ST! Fleas all year round in modern houses with heating.

Hope you find that you've solved your problem.

[smokytopaz]

I think I am trying to prevent a problem before it arrives, trying to deal with it later is such an expensive pain!

Frontline doesn't seem so greasy as SpotOn either!

[Catkin]

We have been using Front Line for the last year now and its been great. The cats and our dog actually prefer it compared to what we used to use (Stronghold). It doesn't have such a smell behind and so therefor they don't really notice which is great.

Its great value as well and its not vet only so you can get some great deals online.l I found a great place to buy ours and you get it much cheaper than a lot of other places as well as getting a discount if you buy more than one packet - perfect.

This is all we do apart from normal cleaning and we've never had a problem, even when we used our previous brand we never had a problem.

Best of luck at keeping it under control. Oh yeah its spot on we use and we also use spot on worming treatment every 3 months also.

[angieh]

I think there must be a geographical element to the flea problem. Frontline no longer seems to work in this area according to my vet's website - and certainly didn't work in Spring this year. Kizzy has Stronghold and Pip Advantage, so now they are being attacked on two fronts. I suspect that flea poplulations become immune to certain chemicals after a while.

[pcspik]

Its great value as well and its not vet only so you can get some great deals online.l I found a great place to buy ours and you get it much cheaper than a lot of other places as well as getting a discount if you buy more than one packet - perfect.

I agree - definitely check out online. I buy the Spot on online, and it is £5 cheaper than Pets at Home. I buy other stuff at the same time (usually food or Drontal) so most of the time the postage is free.

On my parents cat I used to use Bob Martin (before I learnt how ineffective it was) and it used to get a nasty horrid sore. Like something had burnt her. Since using Frontine she has not had that problem, plus she is happier (though she is very difficult anyway) with having it on.