New kitten with fleas after treatment

NewKitty18

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We just brought home a new kitten yesterday. He was in foster care previously and his health care has been thorough and well-documented. He was given Revolution three days ago (two days before we brought him home), but I'm finding fleas on him now. Any ideas why this would happen? We do have two adult cats already, but they're indoor only (with occasionally brief escapes) and are both on Revolution.

Would you expect the fleas to die off on their own since he has had Revolution, or do we need to be more aggressive with treatment? Ugh, I hate fleas so much.
 

stephanietx

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I would use a flea comb and a little bit of blue Dawn dish soap in water and comb them out, or you can give him a bath with Dawn water. You could also ask the vet for a pill such as Capstar. You'll have to treat for tapeworms as well.
 

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We just brought home a new kitten yesterday. He was in foster care previously and his health care has been thorough and well-documented. He was given Revolution three days ago (two days before we brought him home), but I'm finding fleas on him now. Any ideas why this would happen? We do have two adult cats already, but they're indoor only (with occasionally brief escapes) and are both on Revolution.

Would you expect the fleas to die off on their own since he has had Revolution, or do we need to be more aggressive with treatment? Ugh, I hate fleas so much.
I would contact where you adopted the kitten from. Sounds like there was a severe flea infestation or they didn't really use revolution which IMHO should have been used sooner.

I fear your other cats may be prone to flea bites despite there own flea treatment.

I personally don't recommend Dawn at this time because it will remove all the revolution residue. You are going to have fleas in carpeting etc and need to vacuum frequently and dump and remove bag or empty and clean the bagless vac if you have one. It will take time to kill the larvae and eggs and fleas.
 

FeebysOwner

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Hi. Are you sure that they actually gave him Revolution 3 days before he came home with you? When I was researching all the various flea treatments on the market, I documented that Revolution claimed "42 Hours to Zero Fleas". It also makes a difference if there were other cats with him in foster care that were not treated.

I would just flea comb him for the next couple of days and see what you find. You might just want to flea comb your other cats - at least once, just to see if you find any on them. And, if my notes are correct, Revolution doesn't kill flea eggs/larvae, so the vacuuming daily for the next several days is probably a good idea. You might even consider getting some premise flea treatment as an added 'precaution'.
 
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NewKitty18

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Thanks, everyone. This is a reputable cat rescue group in my area, so I trust them to have administered Revolution properly. And based on his paperwork this was actually his second dose of Revolution. I’m not sure what the issue was. Maybe, as you said, his litter had a much worse infestation than they realized. Im frustrated that this wasn’t identified before we took him home, but these things happen.

We ended up treating with capstar and doing a lot of combing. We’re no longer finding any fleas on him, alive or dead, and his energy level has definitely increased (which is really saying something).

We've laundered all linens and are vacuuming daily. From what I can tell we caught it early enough and were aggressive enough to get it under control. The rescue vet suggested treating with Revolution again two weeks after the previous treatment if we are still having issues, so we will wait and see.
 
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NewKitty18

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Oh, and we did order tapeworm meds. Vet says she thinks it’s probably overkill, but said it’s worth doing just to make sure.
 
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NewKitty18

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So far so good! We are doing frequent checks with a comb and have found nothing! Also set up a flea trap and nothing. I know we'll have to be careful for another two weeks or so because of the flea lifecycle, but I think there's a decent chance we have it managed.
 
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