No Luck With Serious Flea Problem

[lumenue]

After months of bathing, vacuuming, collars and sprays and even some topicals, my poor man still has a TERRIBLE flea situation! I'm at my wits end. Seeing him in so much discomfort kills me, but I feel like I've tried everything at this point.

Some things about my fellow: very large rescue cat, indoor only (he hasn't been outside in the four years that I've had him), dry diet with wet food 'treats', only pet. We live in a second floor apartment, and our neighbors across the hall DO have a dog, but none of my family interacts with it. Windows are all closed, we wash and vacuum regularly...I just don't get it.

Is there something I'm missing? I just want him to feel relief finally.

 

[kittypa]

Have you tried Advantage or Frontline Gold on him ? You can have a tech at your vet do it if you’re not comfortable with it. That stuff is very effective.

 

[kittypa]

This one is helpful for rugs and wut not inside.

 

[Jewl of the Nile]

I,ve tried the revolution flea and tick killer on my cats I've been using it for 2 months now treated my car bid my furniture everything but my two fur guys are still scratching, the revolution advantage and all the rest of those flea and tick treatments are very expensive especially for two cats for it not to be working or be effective as it supposed to be I want to try me and advantage, but what I seen a horrible horrible incident on YouTube ,a guy use advantage on his cat & his cat died & that's what I'm afraid of. I've been bathing them with baby shampoo and putting coconut oil on them,even that's not even effective, does anybody know what's safe for our fur babies now & days?

 

[Willowy]

Ask the vet for some Comfortis (oral flea medication). There can be side effects, but if the flea problem is bad it may be worth the risk. That should really get rid of the nasty critters. Some diatomaceous earth in the carpets should help too.

 

[catalinacat]

Maybe the longer fur makes it harder to get them all out even when you bathe them? Because even with my short hair kitten that was the case where they will manage to find somewhere to hide since their fur is dense.

I’ve heard of a trick where you place a ring of soap around their necks before putting them in water. Making sure to kind of foam it to the skin, and not just on top of the fur. That way the fleas will die in the soap as they try to run up to their head/face as the body is submerged in the water.

Do you use a flea comb? I manually removed a ton of fleas that way when I found my stray kitten. I sat on some clean hard surface while she was relaxed, and combed every inch. It’s kind of gross but it’s weird to see how so many of them can be hiding deep in the fur. If there’s flea in the comb put the comb into a disposable container with hot water to kill it.

Or you can use the flea comb while bathing your cat, too. That may help you get a lot of it out as well. Also make sure to get in between their toes and beans when washing too, as well as around the butt and their tails, and just every inch! And when their body is done combing make sure to check behind ears, around the face (they can even hide within the short fur area of the base of the whiskers and forehead too), and just all around their little noggin. I would also assume you’d probably have to change the water multiple times even in one bathing.


Like for my kitten it was like this:
-bath at vets with a topical wrap
-flea combing
-cap star administered by my vet (edit: I initially wrote dontral but that’s a dewormer and not what I meant)
-flea combing
-revolution
-flea combing
-2nd bath at vets
Over like a period of maybe two months?

All the while vacuuming the crap out of the house.

I don’t know if any of this is helpful but I do hope you find something that works for your poor cat!