Rescue Kittens have fleas!

merlinsmom

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Sorry, I'm cross posting this. Hope its ok. I'm just beside myself: Read below

Hey there! Long time no post. I have four of my own babies, two rescued, and two adopted. They stay inside, so I don't do the monthly flea prevention with them. Well, I brought in 5 kittens last week from a mother stray. I am getting them adopted at our local shelter, but I have to foster until there is room. I am super attached and I cuddle them often. They had some loose bowels past what I thought was normal after being wormed so I took them to the vet last night. Ugh, they have fleas! Its pretty cold here so it didn't occur to me that they would still be on them. I normally would have given them capstar right away, as I did with my other two, but I didn't. They got advantage last night and all four of my others got revolution.

My issue is that I let them out of my bathroom/laundry room, where they have been living on Saturday and Sunday to play a bit in my family room. We "live" in our family room so there was stuff everywhere. Not only that I have probably been carrying stuff around after holding them.

There was a live flea on one of the kittens, but I dont know how many more there are at this point. I'm scared to death to have an infestation. I've NEVER had flea issues in my house. I have a pretty large ranch with just carpet in one room and tile and wood in the rest. I work full time and commute so coming home to clean everywhere each night is just something i can't face. I have the kittens for at least another week, so I know I need to keep up on it. I washed all their bedding and vaccumed as much as could last night. Going to clean more tonight.

My question is: Will the topical be enough, or do I need to go old testament and get some flea spray or bombs? I know I probably need to vaccum other places, since my other cats may have given lifts to the other blood suckers. They have only had limited ( a few minutes) access to the kittens, but they have been in my family room plenty and that is where the kittens played. There are back in the bathroom now and won't be coming out again.

Can you give me any encouragement? I have been so busy trying to care for them and make them feel loved that I didn't even think about the fleas this time. I'm not a rookie at this either, so not sure what I was thinking.
 

Furballsmom

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Hi, I would check all the cats again, and hopefully the topical did the job 🙏🤞


To check for fleas get a flea comb and run it through your cat's coat. Then take a sheet of kitchen paper and moisten it. Clean the flea comb onto it. If the paper towel starts turning red, your cat has fleas as this is flea droppings which is made up primarily of your cat's blood.
 

di and bob

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I would get some flea spray and use it in every room they were in, just to be safe. Keep cats out until it is dry. Another good way to deal with it is vacuum every possible area you can, empty the dust cup outside in the trash and spray the cup lightly with flea spray. that works very well to get rid of any eggs that may hatch later. A week isn't very long for the fleas to build up, I would comb them, if you don't find any fleas, they are good to go in your house. I found fleas on my cats, treated them, vacuumed everything, washed all their bedding, sprayed the furniture, and never saw another. Fleas usually stay on the cats until they build up to an unmanageable number.
 
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merlinsmom

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Thank you! I will comb the kittens when I get home. I need to comb my other cats too, but more than likely they don't have fleas yet
 

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I'm in the UK so what we get here might be different to what you get there but I use Indorex. You can get it from your vet or online. You will probably have something similar. Spray it on carpets, soft furnishings (particularly where cats like to sleep), round the edges of the room - a favourite hiding place for fleas, stairs, especially if they're carpeted. With Indorex you only have to do this twice a year and I can vouch that it works very well. Of course, the fleas' worst enemy - the vacuum cleaner. If you are at work, consider getting a robot vacuum cleaner. They're on special with Amazon's Black Friday at the moment. I've just ordered a new one which should arrive tomorrow. A basic model (Eufy) is around $180 and the one I've ordered is $473 (I've converted from £GBP to $USD). These are brilliant especially if you are working. Just make sure you get one of the models you can stop from going into certain areas - like near the litter box for obvious reasons. They work both on carpet and hard floors.

You will win the war against fleas.
 
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merlinsmom

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I am just super paranoid. You read all sorts of horror stories on the internet about stuff. They were in my family room probably twice a total of about half an hour or so each time. I vaccumed there last night, but I know I could do a better job. Im more worried about the eggs at this point. Thanks for your answer
 
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merlinsmom

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I'm in the UK so what we get here might be different to what you get there but I use Indorex. You can get it from your vet or online. You will probably have something similar. Spray it on carpets, soft furnishings (particularly where cats like to sleep), round the edges of the room - a favourite hiding place for fleas, stairs, especially if they're carpeted. With Indorex you only have to do this twice a year and I can vouch that it works very well. Of course, the fleas' worst enemy - the vacuum cleaner. If you are at work, consider getting a robot vacuum cleaner. They're on special with Amazon's Black Friday at the moment. I've just ordered a new one which should arrive tomorrow. A basic model (Eufy) is around $180 and the one I've ordered is $473 (I've converted from £GBP to $USD). These are brilliant especially if you are working. Just make sure you get one of the models you can stop from going into certain areas - like near the litter box for obvious reasons. They work both on carpet and hard floors.

You will win the war against fleas.
I have a robot vac. Its locked in the laundry room right now because that is where the kittens played. But I will let "her" loose when I get home. I bought HOt shot, which is probably similar to what you have. Its safe enough to spray right on dogs, but not cats. So I plan to use it around the base boards and on the soft furnishings in that room. I will vaccum first. I plan to put the kittens in their carrier and vaccum around in there too. They have been wormed but still have worms so I will be giving them worm meds again tonight. They are so sweet and I love them, but it will be nice to get them back to their shelter to get them homed. I am a little attached though.
 
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merlinsmom

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I got home and used the flea comb on the kittens. I found one live one on one kitten and one in another. Lots of dirt. It’s not been 24 hours since their advantage treatment. Is this normal?
 

danteshuman

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The fleas might be resistant to advantage in your area (it happened to me years ago!) If the kitten still has fleas 24 hours later I would call your vet to see if you have advantage resistant fleas in your area and what she recommends.
 
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merlinsmom

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Good morning everyone. Flea situation much better. I combed two of the kittens this morning and no dirt or live fleas. Unfortunately I didn't have time to do all four as we have a pretty serious diarrhea situation going on. I had to give them a second dose of worm meds last night because they still had diarrhea and it wasn't getting better. Plus the vet found worms still in their stool But it almost seems their stools have gotten worse since day one instead of better. To my shock, this morning there as blood in one of the stool "piles". It was a fresh one and hadn't been covered up yet. The vet said that is them trying to expel the worms from their system. I am to up their stool firming meds to three times a day. I also am taking more time giving them their meds so they get a full dose and don't spit it up or try to shake it out of their mouth. I love these babies, but they are fosters and not my kittens. Its been financially and mentally/physically exhausting. I was going to maybe adopt one and add to my herd, but I forgot how much work kittens are. I'm just not in a place where I can do that. Any thoughts on the diarrhea?
 

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I usually pop bedding through the dryer as well, just to be safe.

I haven't used flea spray on the carpet or furniture before, but my mother has and says it works well.
 
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