Has Revolution stopped working for anyone??

derelict

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
99
Purraise
55
Location
Fremont, CA
We have three cats; two are entirely indoor, one goes out in the back yard with us, a few times a year, and comes back in when we do (Fremont, CA).
We had gotten lax about flea treatment for awhile, because we went for months without her going out at all (typical in winter, when we don't go out back).
Recently, though, we noticed scratching, so checked for fleas and found that all three have a significant infestation. We had leftover Revolution from about one year ago, so we gave each of them a dose, but after three days we checked, and they still have active infestations.

So I thought maybe the Revolution was just old (it expires after one year), so I bought a brand new batch. This shows expiration date as next year, so it is fresh... gave each of them another tube each (5-15lb version), but after two more days, they are all still covered with fleas!! It appears that Revolution (*not* Revolution Plus) is not working here any more...

Has anyone else had a similar experience? What is going on?
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #2

derelict

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
99
Purraise
55
Location
Fremont, CA
There's another product called Cheristin, which has good user reviews on Amazon, and excellent reviews on various online sites; is anyone familiar with this product?
 

100keycats

TCS Member
Kitten
Joined
May 13, 2018
Messages
2
Purraise
0
Good grief don’t use anything else on your babies right now. If you used revolution and then applied it again With in days to less than a month you stand the chance of poisoning them, even if the first time seemed to be a flop. The best thing you can do right now is to hold off a month and use an alternative non insecticidal. Do not use the one you saw on amazon or any other kind of flea spray or application for at least 30 days!
I use Revolution for mine and by the way just applied it 3 days ago and it is working. After a few months I go to a spray by 2 crazy cat ladies called flea- ex. It is non- toxic to cats and it does kill fleas. I follow their directions and dilute it in water and spray the place with it. You would need to use a flea comb on them to know that it is working- it is working if there are no fleas and no flea dirt. You need to use the flea comb every other day while using the flea-ex. There is a video on Yu tube that shows it being sprayed on a scorpion and killing it. But completely non- toxic to cats.
 

100keycats

TCS Member
Kitten
Joined
May 13, 2018
Messages
2
Purraise
0
Good grief don’t use anything else on your babies right now. If you used revolution and then applied it again With in days to less than a month you stand the chance of poisoning them, even if the first time seemed to be a flop. The best thing you can do right now is to hold off a month and use an alternative non insecticidal. Do not use the one you saw on amazon or any other kind of flea spray or application for at least 30 days!
I use Revolution for mine and by the way just applied it 3 days ago and it is working. After a few months I go to a spray by 2 crazy cat ladies called flea- ex. It is non- toxic to cats and it does kill fleas. I follow their directions and dilute it in water and spray the place with it. You would need to use a flea comb on them to know that it is working- it is working if there are no fleas and no flea dirt. You need to use the flea comb every other day while using the flea-ex. There is a video on Yu tube that shows it being sprayed on a scorpion and killing it. But completely non- toxic to cats.
You can spray it full strength on the cat btw
 

Bobsk8

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Jan 12, 2020
Messages
124
Purraise
95
Location
Atlanta, Georgia
Fleas are in your home now. You will probably have to treat the house to get rid of them. Don't pile on more anti flea on your cat, overdosing is toxic.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #8

derelict

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
99
Purraise
55
Location
Fremont, CA
ITM, with regard to my original queston...
Has anyone experienced Revolution failing to work for their cats??
 

FeebysOwner

TCS Member
Staff Member
Forum Helper
Joined
Jun 13, 2018
Messages
22,429
Purraise
33,188
Location
Central FL (Born in OH)
Hi. Nearly every flea treatment product on the market will have someone in some part of the country/world tell you that it is not working for them. A vet will generally tell you if there are certain products that don't seem to be as effective in certain areas/regions - so, you could ask your vet about Revolution. I think if there is an ongoing source of fleas, it is possible none of the flea treatments will be 100% effective.

In my case, Advantage II does not appear to be effective, and my vet supports this conclusion. However, it is still one of the top rated flea treatments on the market. And, several reports/studies have indicated that there is no evidence of a resistance/immunity build up with fleas. So, is it because I am not eradicating the source of the fleas, or my cat is an exception, or both - or something else?

Treat your house, and outdoors as well, to see if that might make a difference before ruling out Revolution entirely. It is my understanding from what I have previously read, it could take more than one treatment to actually get rid of the fleas as any pupae that are in your carpeting/furniture/etc. will still be able to emerge into adults. Constant vacuuming is recommended, as is frequent cleaning of all bedding and other washable items that your cat uses/lays on. Revolution is one of the products that specifically states it should not be applied more frequently than once a month, so don't use it again until the next application is due.

FleaScience
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #10

derelict

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
99
Purraise
55
Location
Fremont, CA
Hi. Nearly every flea treatment product on the market will have someone in some part of the country/world tell you that it is not working for them. A vet will generally tell you if there are certain products that don't seem to be as effective in certain areas/regions - so, you could ask your vet about Revolution. I think if there is an ongoing source of fleas, it is possible none of the flea treatments will be 100% effective.

In my case, Advantage II does not appear to be effective, and my vet supports this conclusion. However, it is still one of the top rated flea treatments on the market. And, several reports/studies have indicated that there is no evidence of a resistance/immunity build up with fleas. So, is it because I am not eradicating the source of the fleas, or my cat is an exception, or both - or something else?

Treat your house, and outdoors as well, to see if that might make a difference before ruling out Revolution entirely. It is my understanding from what I have previously read, it could take more than one treatment to actually get rid of the fleas as any pupae that are in your carpeting/furniture/etc. will still be able to emerge into adults. Constant vacuuming is recommended, as is frequent cleaning of all bedding and other washable items that your cat uses/lays on. Revolution is one of the products that specifically states it should not be applied more frequently than once a month, so don't use it again until the next application is due.

FleaScience
Hi!! Thank you for your comments, FeebysOwner !!
We switched to Revolution a few years ago on our vet's recommendation, when Advantage II stopped working... he had commented that others of his clients also stated that Advantage II did not seem to be working any more. At that time, which was about 5 or 6 years ago, Revolution appeared to work superbly!!

Sadly, since our two beloved babes Yoda and Jasmine passed away in early 2019, we got lax about flea treatments... my bad...
The current situation is that we have three cats now; our older girl Alana still occasionally gets to go out back with us, but the two 1-year-old boys never go out at all... so after several months of Alana not going outside (because we weren't) we let her out a few times over a couple of months, during this past Winter.... but I had gotten out of the habit of flea treatments, and just forgot about it!! Now, as you and others have commented, we have a significant infestation indoors... unfortunately, most of the places where they hang out are inaccessible without major efforts (under the beds, behind the sofa, and a couple of places that we don't even know about... we would probably have to tent the house to get rid of them now, which I'm not going to do.

So I think, for now, I'm just going to switch to manual management; keeping a bowl of dish-soap water, and the flea comb, nearby, and gradually winnow down the population. That's what we had to do originally, when we gave up on flea collars and switch to the original Advantage... it took awhile to deplete the resident communities!! I've simply forgotten about that, because it's been so many years...

As for the back yard, we are in the middle of Fremont, CA, with an underground water system running right behind our house. The resulting alley provides a grassy runway that gives access to our yard for all kinds of wildlife!! I periodically set up a trail camera in our yard, and I've caught possums, skunks, raccoons and squirrels in our yard repeatedly, as well as feral cats. We *adore* our wildlife population, and have no desire to drive them away, so we'll just have to live with fleas being out there...
 

ArchyCat

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Nov 22, 2017
Messages
1,202
Purraise
1,801
Location
Texas
derelict --- Were you able to flea comb any dead fleas from your cats after using Revolution? If so, it is working, but as other posters have observed you maybe have a flea infestation in your house now, which are jumping onto your cats now. If you were ablate find dead fleas, keep using Revolution, and find something to treat your house. You will have fleas, larva, and eggs. So it can take several month to clean them out.

Keep us posted! And good luck!
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #12

derelict

TCS Member
Thread starter
Young Cat
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
99
Purraise
55
Location
Fremont, CA
derelict --- Were you able to flea comb any dead fleas from your cats after using Revolution? If so, it is working, but as other posters have observed you maybe have a flea infestation in your house now, which are jumping onto your cats now. If you were ablate find dead fleas, keep using Revolution, and find something to treat your house. You will have fleas, larva, and eggs. So it can take several month to clean them out.

Keep us posted! And good luck!
Actually, that's something I'm concerned about... no, I'm not seeing any dead fleas, even after two doses of Revolution... that is one reason why I believe it is not working, for some reason...
 
Top