Does my kitten have fleas?

[the catsage]

Hello,

I am raising 3 kittens who today became 5 weeks old. I picked one up and saw something long and black on her belly, I tried to touch it, but it didn't move. then it started to crawl! Scary! I am insectophobic so I got scared to hell, put the kitten on the floor, immediately took a pair of gloves, picked the kitten up...the insect was no longer there. I have absolutely no idea where it is. I am worried, is it a flea? I've never seen any flea on any of the cats in our neighborhood.

What can I do with this situation? The kitten has been living inside all her life so if its a flea she must have picked it up inside. If it's another insect then she also has picked it inside. It ran quite fast, at first I was like its ok fleas can only jump...but then after some googling I realized they can run as well

How can I treat it? Should I wash the kitten? Will the mother recognize the kittens if I wash all 3 of them? What kind of shampoo should I use, do all shampoos work? What about the house, is there a possibility that my house is full of fleas now? Or do they like to stay in cat hosts? 

Also most importantly, how do I check all 3 kittens for fleas? Will they be visible if I just comb their fur on opposite side of growth, or are they good at hiding? The kittens are tabby so their belly is white but their back can be pretty hard to be checked. 

Again, I'm not sure it's fleas but I can tell it was a tiny long insect running below her. Length to width ratio was say 20 to 1 and it was tiny. What if it was lice? 

Another thing worth mentioning is that the feral cats in the neighborhood are bald behind their ears, could that be a sign that the area is lice infected? If there is lice, is it easier to control than fleas? Can normal shampoo kill lice?

Could the mother reject the kittens if I washed them because of the smell? Wouldn't like that to happen, they are still young.

Thanks for the info.

 

[SeventhHeaven]

Diluted dish soap works fine.

Flea combs are very inexpensive work great. Have a warm new nest area to place the kittens after bath. If you can place the mom in a different room just while you wash the babies they will cry out mom could get frantic -it's only for a few minutes she will be fine. Wash the babies in diluted dish soap, place bath mat or towel if you have none in sink fill with warm water first few inches...place kitten on counter gently dabble water on face slowly just to get the idea then over the head with your hand paws and so forth very gently then introduce to sink. You don't want to take up to much time they're young will get cold fast. Do mom first or last I find last works best for me. Mom most likely in bath tub-trim nails first!  Then reunite her with babies at the end in new bed/area until all your cleaning is done. If you have a crate with toasty warm towel or blankets that works great.

You need to wash clean all the bedding that they were using vacuum everywhere fleas have eggs these drop off the cat an egg can lie dormant for a long period of time hatching months later when the temperature is right. Because she is nursing sometimes it's hard to find products that are toxic free and safe, combing cleaning works well if you only have a few fleas not a massive infestation. *Mom will not have problems accepting the kittens at all no worries just make sure they're all dry warm ears to.

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/how-to-bathe-small-kittens-the-safe-way

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/cat-fleas

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/homemade-flea-remedies      <---Cat bath

 

[the catsage]

Can anyone identify this insect, or do I need better pictures?

Ok so in short, I washed the kittens after making this post, the problem seemed to disappear and today they again had insects crawling on them, saw at least 1 on each kitten so washed them again, this time however I managed to capture one of the insects, alive! I put him on a glass of water and poured some dish soap on it to make sure he dies and doesn't manage to jump out. He died, but I managed to take some pictures, there is also a picture of the glass from above to see its size compared to the glass. 

By the way the insect looks darker on the upper part of the body and more brown-ish on the bottom part.

[Mod note: See the next post for the best picture]

 

[the catsage]

Here's a better picture, I think it can be identified now. (Click to zoom in)

It's a flea, correct?

flea.jpg

• the catsage
• Jun 13, 2016

 

[sirentist]

I hate to say it, but yeah, that sure does look like a flea to me!

Disclaimer: I'm not an official flea-identifier or flea-related professional of any sort. But that's my layperson opinion

 

[the catsage]

Ok...so now need some tips on how to deal with them if anyone already has any experience.

So during my online research I've found out their favorite temperature is between 3 and 35 degrees celcius (37F to 95F), also found out that it takes 30 days for an egg to become an adult, and that vacuuming takes about 50% of eggs away if done properly, they dislike vinegar etc etc...

Because the mother cat (spayed now) goes in and out, she is a source of fleas so until the kittens gain their independence I have no choice but to allow her to come in and out all the time and spend the night inside. She is feral but the kittens are staying inside, she will still bring fleas inside. I tried to give her a bath today, I'm going to need weeks to recover from the wounds...

My plan is to wean them off in the next month or 2 so until then I can only reduce the number of flea population, not completely destroy them.

What do you guys think of the below strategy:

1. I am going to bathe the kittens every 2 or 3 days, or more often maybe? Or is that bad? For some reason they enjoy bathing and blow drying after (yay me)

2. I am going to vacuum every day, and going to wash all clothes that were out of the closet in the potentially infested room. Including kitten beds etc.

3. After each vacuuming I will spray a mix of 50% white vinegar and 50% water all around the room.

4. I will buy a steam cleaner and use it for carpets etc, the heat it produces should be above 70 degrees celcius (158F) and the one I am looking at also has a detergent dispenser and an option for deep cleaning the carpets. Hopefully that will help.

5. In 1 and a half month or so when the weaning process is over I will lock the mother outside, the time will be to give the kittens away so I will send them to the vet for thorough treatment to make sure the new owners don't get infested. 

6. As the mother will no longer be coming inside, the flea source will be gone from outside and then I will check options to completely kill the fleas off. The sole kitten I will keep will stay inside for the rest of his life so he should not be able to pick up any fleas.  I will completely change the litter he uses every week or so for the time being, until I'm sure all the eggs and stuff are out. My main idea is to kill them with environment friendly things like heat or cold or something else that doesn't cause any harm, for example dry ice (cold and stops them from breathing) or super hot steam, or even potentially iron what can be ironed, you know...I want to use natural stuff like temperature etc. If it doesn't work I will check for pet friendly pesticides.

7. Potentially I will see if there is any flea repellent for cats and us humans that actually works, if they don't drink blood for a few days they die of starvation according to the stuff I've read, so if we can cut their food source it will help.

8. If all else fails I am calling professionals, but going to try to avoid that at all costs.

Is there anything you would add/remove from the above steps? All suggestions and tips will be welcome

Thank you.