Fleas?

[Cataria]

I have ten cats, all indoors-only, and I do not do regular flea treatments since they never go outside. Much to my dismay, I just discovered that Meko has fleas. :/ I have a lot of questions!

1. I had one dose of Frontline Plus on hand so I gave her a flea treatment, but I'm not sure how far I should go with this. So far, I have not found a single flea on any other cat, nor have I see any fleas in the carpet, on the furniture, or anywhere else. How obvious are fleas? I remember when I was younger we took in two stray kittens that caused a major flea infestation that was a nightmare to get rid of, but I see absolutely nothing like that. Should I flea-bomb the house?

2. How many times should I treat Meko? This dosage is good for a month, does it need to be repeated next month? Should I try any other treatment options like Capstar pills or baths, or is the Frontline enough?

3. Should I also treat the other nine cats, even though I haven't found a flea on them?

4. How long is Frontline spray good for? Someone gave me a bottle of Frontline spray awhile back that I know is at least seven years old. I haven't used it, but if I wanted to use it on the other cats, is it safe or should I just throw it out?

Thanks for your help and advice!

 

[Norachan]

Hi C Cataria

I'm sorry you haven't had a reply yet. Even if your cats are indoor only they can sometimes get fleas. Fleas can come in on your clothes or shoes, they're very good at hitching a ride.

I think if one cat has them there is a good chance the others will too. I suggest you give them all a dose of Frontline. Hopefully you caught them in time and there won't be any need to flea bomb the house. Treat them all again next month but don't worry about flea bombing unless you are still seeing fleas after that.

DON'T use the Frontline spray if it is out of date!

I've heard of cats having severe allergic reactions to flea meds that were past their sell-by date, I imagine the spray will be dangerous too.

 

[maggiedemi]

You could check under their chins. I knew that my cat had fleas because of the flea dirt on his chin. His chin is white, so it was really noticeable. On my black cat, it was hard to tell.

 

[Cataria]

Thanks!

So I thought for the past few days that the fleas were gone after treating just Meko, but I noticed today they were back.

Gonna have to go ahead and buy the flea stuff. Before I do, I wanted to ask -- I heard here and elsewhere that it was safe to use dog Frontline Plus and Advantage II on cats, as long as you measure the dosages appropriately. Advantage II supposedly has the exact same ingredients/concentration and Frontline Plus has an extra chemical in the cat version that isn't in the dog version, but should still be effective. Does anybody know if that is still the case?

 

[Pjg8r]

I would NEVER use anything for dogs on a cat. I don’t know what has been posted about this topic.

 

[himawari]

I wouldn't recommend using the dog version on your cats. I'm always iffy about that even though I have no experience seeing as I use Revolution on my cat & Capstar pills on my dog. It just doesn't seem right to me especially since I have read of Frontline/Advantage reviews.