Yes, It's Another Flea Thread

Ugh.

So, for the first time our 2 indoor cats have fleas. Vet says most likely Casper picked it up from their office since he's there 2x a week. And, many of the dog owners are not very polite about keeping their dogs firmly leashed nearby; many let them bum rush his carrier and it's possible a flea or more could have made the easy leap over to him. Or could have been some other method; I mean our cat sitters have a cat and a dog so it's probably not worth speculating. Done is done.

I think we caught it fairly fast though, Casper was only itching for less than 2 weeks. I thought it seemed out of character for him and he seemed kind of "down", more so than usual (he's elderly and has several diseases he's dealing with). Glad I brought him in fast because sure enough the vet found a flea, and some dirt on him which meant of course Cocoa also would have them. We personally have not experienced any itching - never noticed a single bug anywhere at all.

She gave him Revolution, and gave me a vial for Cocoa also plus another 2 more months worth for each of them. Told us what to do at home more or less also and we also looked online but wow, how daunting.

So, thus far we've done the following and I'm hoping it's enough:

12 loads of laundry - hot water, dryer - all the bedding, blankets, throws, clothing, etc.

Threw out all the cat beds and bought new ones which are all machine washable now.

Threw out the small cat tree which had carpet on it, bought a new one. The other one is made out of wood so we felt it would be ok

Washed the covers of the window perches in the washer/dryer

Vacuumed the few area rugs we have, bundled them up for storage.

We do NOT have any carpet in the house. Just hardwood and tile. Vacuumed all floors.

We have a professional cleaning service coming tomorrow to go over the entire house with a super duper vacuum system and wash everything down.

Put the ripple rug into the freezer - this, at the suggestion of the creator who has been just lovely to deal with. The rug is made from recycled plastic so actually nothing should live in it but to be safe, he said freezing it for 5 days would kill anything that might be in it (eggs/larve). Then we'll give it a quick rinse.

We've been flea combing the cats 2x a day. By the 3rd day we weren't finding any fleas on them at all. Zero, no flea dirt, no eggs, nada. I'll keep that up daily though since they enjoy it. Cocoa is difficult though as she's long haired. Getting the flea comb through all of her is a chore. Good thing she really enjoys the attention.

Come spring I'll probably hire an exterminator to do the yard just to be sure we don't track any bugs into the house inadvertently.

So far, I'm feeling kind of cautiously confident that we caught this early before a severe infestation took hold; but I'm well aware they have a life cycle and that there probably are eggs/larve still in the house which will have to make their way through that cycle hence the cats needing to be on the Revolution for several months and, I've now decided, for life.

We'll be stepping up our laundry too - we tend to be a bit lazy about doing the bedding weekly but I made it clear to my husband that for now, at minimum the sheets have to be changed (we have plenty of sets thankfully) and the blankets washed weekly.

My husband is no fan of bombing the house which I suggested, so I guess we're at a wait and see and keep our fingers crossed phase. I don't believe any of those natural methods really work after doing research - for me, better living through chemicals. Hoping that this goes better than everything I've read everywhere because it really seems incredibly difficult to eradicate.

You have been awesome!!
I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you

Furballsmom said:

You have been awesome!!
I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you

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Hahaha! Thanks!

So far so good tonight also. Combed both out when I got home and nothing to note again. We happen to keep a blanket on the couch for Casper to sit on between us which is white, and we've never seen anything on it so I really do think we got on top of it really fast.

Casper seems SO much happier than he's been over the past couple of weeks. He must have been really miserable because of it. I don't think Cocoa had been quite as affected yet but then again her immune system isn't compromised like his is. I read fleas gravitate more to animals that aren't as healthy so so he certainly was an easy target.

I'm so glad Casper's better, that's terrific news.
Hang in there

Wow! You really turned the house inside out! I can't believe there's a flea within a mile from your house.

It's interesting to me that Casper was the one who got them first, and he's older and has some diseases.
The only time we've ever had a problem with fleas is when we have a pet that is debilitated, by age or disease or both.
A vet once said that fleas don't "make" weak hosts, but are much more attracted to them. Growing up we had an ancient, sickly dog and other dogs that were younger and robust, and the old dog could have a thousand fleas while the others had none...yet they lived in the same house, hung out on the same property, etc. It's weird!
One year we had a litter of foster kittens, an old sick dog, a new puppy...and you can imagine what happened. Flea chaos.
I would hold off on bombing too, unless you're pulling off 30 or more fleas per session, and those sessions happen at least once a day.
It sounds like you're the poster child for flea eradication. I think you'll get this under control.
(As a dog owner, I apologize for the nut jobs that think letting a dog stand/touch a carrier containing a cat, that might not know what a dog is, is already stressed from being at the vets, and are generally just acting too stupid to reel their dogs in and apologize. We're not all like that, I promise.)

DreamerRose said:

Wow! You really turned the house inside out! I can't believe there's a flea within a mile from your house.

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That's what I was thinking. that flea bombing won't be necessary. Not having rugs will certainly help.

1 bruce 1 said:

It's interesting to me that Casper was the one who got them first, and he's older and has some diseases.
The only time we've ever had a problem with fleas is when we have a pet that is debilitated, by age or disease or both.
A vet once said that fleas don't "make" weak hosts, but are much more attracted to them. Growing up we had an ancient, sickly dog and other dogs that were younger and robust, and the old dog could have a thousand fleas while the others had none...yet they lived in the same house, hung out on the same property, etc. It's weird!
One year we had a litter of foster kittens, an old sick dog, a new puppy...and you can imagine what happened. Flea chaos.
I would hold off on bombing too, unless you're pulling off 30 or more fleas per session, and those sessions happen at least once a day.
It sounds like you're the poster child for flea eradication. I think you'll get this under control.
(As a dog owner, I apologize for the nut jobs that think letting a dog stand/touch a carrier containing a cat, that might not know what a dog is, is already stressed from being at the vets, and are generally just acting too stupid to reel their dogs in and apologize. We're not all like that, I promise.)

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All of this is exactly what I read too. Which is why perhaps kittens tend to get infested so easily also.

All in all, we found less than 10, if that, on Casper. About the same on Cocoabean.

Cleaning crew were there this morning and my husband made sure they went over everything on my list. He also did more laundry again - all the blankets/coverlets the kitties like to lay on around the house since he's going to be gone part of the weekend.

As for dog owners, most are respectful at the vet. I can usually tell the moment someone walks in the door if the don't have control over the dog and will move the carrier if need be but sometimes the waiting area is just too crowded to do so. Thankfully, Casper isn't intimidated by dogs as he grew up around them (we adopted him when he was already an older adult from a friend). He's more annoyed by other cats around him

sivyaleah said:

All of this is exactly what I read too. Which is why perhaps kittens tend to get infested so easily also.

All in all, we found less than 10, if that, on Casper. About the same on Cocoabean.

Cleaning crew were there this morning and my husband made sure they went over everything on my list. He also did more laundry again - all the blankets/coverlets the kitties like to lay on around the house since he's going to be gone part of the weekend.

As for dog owners, most are respectful at the vet. I can usually tell the moment someone walks in the door if the don't have control over the dog and will move the carrier if need be but sometimes the waiting area is just too crowded to do so. Thankfully, Casper isn't intimidated by dogs as he grew up around them (we adopted him when he was already an older adult from a friend). He's more annoyed by other cats around him

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It sounds like you've got this under control! If you keep this diligence up they'll pack their bags and head for greener pastures because they know you're not messing around.
We had a kitten come into rescue and we agreed to foster him. A foundling by a Good Samaritan, he came in so weak, we thought he was just hungry. Then noticed his gums were gray! He arrived sleeping, barely woke up to look around and eat a big meal, then slept some more. We immediately gave him a bath when we saw fleas, and he was so lethargic he didn't care about the bath.
And that bathwater....
...now I've seen flea infestations, and that a cat or dog with hundreds of fleas can run blood from the flea excreta and it's gross but not bothersome when it comes to their welfare (you're removing the fleas!), but this was enough to make me want to vomit. This tiny little kitten that couldn't have been 7 weeks if I were being generous ran 2 baths like it was a Freddy vs. Jason flick. I can handle blood, but seeing it come off this tiny, skin and bones body in such huge quantities made me sick. The kitten had hundreds of fleas, and we did baths often and got him fixed up at the vet for his anemia. He went to a very nice home and is spoiled rotten....and healthy as a horse, and fat and sassy as they come.

wow, you are MORE than thorough!

btw, not only did you do a great job, but revolution keeps flea eggs from hatching, so you may well not need an exterminator.

basschick said:

wow, you are MORE than thorough!

btw, not only did you do a great job, but revolution keeps flea eggs from hatching, so you may well not need an exterminator.

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I had no intention of getting one for inside the house. My husband nixed the idea. I was, however, thinking that come the spring that we might have the outside of the home done as a precautionary step. But perhaps not needed as you mention since we intend to now keep the cats on Revolution permanently. We learned our lesson - way better safe than sorry!