I've fought the fleas - and think I've won!

[lucky83]

My cat has had problems with fleas for 6 years now.... a nightmare and it has cost a fortune... She had a flea collar from the supermarket and was fine...then she started getting fleas on and off...so I got frontline from the vet - it was fantastic - no more fleas... for 18 months - 2 years - then for some reason it stopped working and I only realised when she had loads (with flea collar I would comb her every month and look for dirt - ready to change the collar but frontline was 'so good' I didn't ! and none of us humans get bitten - or if we do we don't react so don't realise) -even got the vet to apply the drops but still we had a problem...(and yes they were in the house and I didn't treat with sprays etc cos I had a baby, but did steam and hoover regularly ) - eventually got fed up - it was costing a fortune and not working...we were infested - I switched back to a flea collar - one type worked for about 9 months (kept levels down at least) then didn't - so I swapped to one with a different pesticide - worked then didn't ...Last summer I took the flea collar off and decided to try a different approach...a flea comb (I have a long tooth one - IME the short ones are rubbish - my sister didn't think her cat had fleas until I persuaded her to get a longer tooth one) and NO pesticides.First I flea combed her every day - made it a routine and didn't necessarily groom every bit of her but did spend at least 10 mins - live fleas I dropped into boiling water with dish soap in it... I did this for a month - maybe missed one or two days..I vacuumed her bed sleeping areas every few days and area where I combed her - did a quick vacuum of main areas. I thought about buying a flea attractor/trap but then realised I already had the best one you could get - a cat! After that I flea combed her every two days and once a week I vacuumed her sleeping areas, inside her cat flap and the door mats. I used an electric floor sweeper - the type with rotating brushes with a pan you can empty - every other day on the carpets - just main areas (not worrying about cracks and crevices) took about 5 mins. Then moved onto to weekly combs...And when I steam mopped the hard floors (once a week) ran it over her bed/ door mats etc too...At the start it was so bad that I could see flea larvae under her cushion etc ...recently I've been finding fewer and fewer fleas and dirt on her... Now I haven't found any fleas or dirt on her (or on her bed) for the last 6 weeks ...I really think I've finally won...I am going to carry on flea combing her and cleaning the areas she frequents (bed, cat flap, under window sills) once a week. And weekly hoovering.It isn't as hard as it seems - if you stroke your cat every day you can flea comb them...and if you don't worry too much about 'thorough' vacuuming it isn't hard...the way I look at it it you miss one flea one week you'll get it the next, you are cleaning up the flea eggs and larvae weekly and even if they mature you'll get them with vacuum (some research that you collect 90+% of mature fleas when you vacuum...)I will never go back to pesticides now ...it isn't as hard as I would have thought it would be - the flea comb method is free (once flea comb is bought!) and safe. And if you don't have a problem now - you can just do the weekly comb and vacuum and you won't get a problem - unlike relying on chemicals that stop working...I really recommend every one tries it and ignores the horror stories the pesticide manufacturers put around...

 

[Willowy]

Ugh, fleas are awful. I've never had it that bad but I know people who have. There's a new medication called Comfortis that isn't a traditional pesticide (anything that kills pests is a pesticide, technically :tongue2, it's an oral pill that will kill every flea that bites the cat for an entire month. . .it's what I recommend to people who are having serious flea problems. But Frontline/Advantage/Revolution plus Capstar plus vacuuming has always worked for me. It's great you got rid of them without chemicals, though!

 

[lucky83]

I think I got passed being grossed out by fleas...(I do remember being on the verge of tears about it once though)I really think the pesticides weren't working as effectively as the regular flea combing did...and the problem last much longer than it needed to because I kept relying on them to get rid of the ones on her ...and they weren't - I couldn't break the cycle...I did think about giving her one of the tablets that that kill all the fleas on her but pretty sure the next day she would just have picked up more -so I would have had to treat her weekly at least...I think I would have tried ones that last a month...(she is an outdoor cat and we have had hedgehogs so I'm sure she brings them in as well)And I am happy that the problem can't ever get as bad as it did with the frontline - first comb I must have found 30+ fleas on her- poor thing - and it was the one that was supposed to break the life cycle (Ha!) ...and then with the flea collars I'd get down to one or two fleas a week then it would go up again ...and I'd change collar ..then I realsied that a daily comb for a while wouldn't be too great a task...(BTW I worm her by tablet because now I don't trust the drops...don't know if was the method or the fleas became immune but something really did go very wrong)

 

[nabs]

I also have flea problem with my cat!
I can take them out with hands but mah cat always run away.
What to do n I cant do any medication or collar stuff :'(