Revolution - Ineffective?

[neco720]

Hey everyone, help me out here, I'll try to keep it brief. I adopted another cat, Smudge (#3), and the previous owner who could no longer keep her let her (accidentally) get outside about a week before I took her in. Needless to say, she came to me infested with fleas (ick). I can say with absolute 100% certainty, that my house was completely flea-free before Smudge came here. She was given Revolution on Feb 11th. I acquired her on March 2nd, and she was covered with fleas and immediately sent to isolation in my house (she has her own room until she gets to the vet and gets the all clear) and dosed with Revolution again.

Here's been my plan of attack for the fleas:
She has been getting combed with the flea comb 5-6x per day, I've vacuumed the room and the entire house 3x per day (now down to 2x). It is a bagged vacuum that i have been keeping closed & secure in a plastic bag to ensure no fleas get out of the bag. I have put DE (food grade) down on the carpet and the bed and let it sit overnight, before vacuuming it up the next day and putting it down again afterwards. Anything that can be washed, has been washed and dried on the highest setting. We're now at March 6th, 4 days since putting on the Revolution, and I still found one flea on her this morning, alive and kicking. I have not bathed her, I probably should have done that first thing, but you know, hindsight and all that.

Here's my question - is Revolution ineffective?? She had her dose, and I gave her another one, and she came to me with (no joke, I'm not exaggerating here), at least 100 fleas on her that I've combed off and drowned, and I still found one today. Do you think that the fleas on her were able to lay eggs that will soon hatch? Why/how did she have so many fleas on her if she had Revolution applied? Does it just not work? I thought that was supposed to be the best. Help me out here, I also have 2 young kids (2 & 5 months), plus my other fur babies. I can't have an infestation here. I'm also slightly neurotic and a clean freak. Any other pointers would be helpful, thanks everyone.

 

[Kieka]

Fleas in my area are unaffected by Frontline, it's possible those in your area are not affected by Revolution. Part of the problem with pesticides, flea treatments and even antibiotics is the target becoming immune. That's part of the reason why there is always some new treatment coming out, to try to stay ahead. Check with your vets office and see if they've heard about Revolution not being effective. My vet was the one to tell me Frontline wasn't a good option in our area.

For your situation, since you've treated her already. I would stick with a bath every few days (so you don't dry out her fur) and flea comb for at least four weeks before another treatment. Even if the fleas didn't die, she still had the chemicals out on her. I'd also get DE and dust the cracks and corners of your house to make sure the eggs arent hiding in corners. Dust the DE liberally (with Windows open). If it's someplace you are okay with it sitting for a few days I would wait until I clean up the powder to make sure no fleas are missed.

 

[neco720]

Fleas in my area are unaffected by Frontline, it's possible those in your area are not affected by Revolution. Part of the problem with pesticides, flea treatments and even antibiotics is the target becoming immune. That's part of the reason why there is always some new treatment coming out, to try to stay ahead. Check with your vets office and see if they've heard about Revolution not being effective. My vet was the one to tell me Frontline wasn't a good option in our area.

For your situation, since you've treated her already. I would stick with a bath every few days (so you don't dry out her fur) and flea comb for at least four weeks before another treatment. Even if the fleas didn't die, she still had the chemicals out on her. I'd also get DE and dust the cracks and corners of your house to make sure the eggs arent hiding in corners. Dust the DE liberally (with Windows open). If it's someplace you are okay with it sitting for a few days I would wait until I clean up the powder to make sure no fleas are missed.

Thank you, I don't know if they'll know about the resistance, she came from SC and I'm in VA. She goes to the vet tomorrow. I'll ask about other options, but they recommended Revolution when I called them Monday and made sure my other fur babies were up to date on their meds (they are).

Is there anything in particular you recommend bathing her with? Baby shampoo? I can't remember the last time I had to give a cat a bath, I don't want to give her a heart attack (she's 13), maybe the vet can do it when I take her in.

I have a "Pest Pistol" to dust the room with, I'll make sure to go along the walls of the entire room and leave it down for a few days. I just want to stay ahead of the issue before it gets out of control, and see if there was anything I'm not doing that I should be. Thank you.

 

[Willowy]

Get some Capstar too. It's only effective for 24 hours, but it knocks the flea population down so the spot-ons have time to work. You can get it at Walmart. If you give that to her every 3 days until the pack is gone, that should get rid of most of those darn fleas.

 

[Kieka]

Thank you, I don't know if they'll know about the resistance, she came from SC and I'm in VA. She goes to the vet tomorrow. I'll ask about other options, but they recommended Revolution when I called them Monday and made sure my other fur babies were up to date on their meds (they are).

Is there anything in particular you recommend bathing her with? Baby shampoo? I can't remember the last time I had to give a cat a bath, I don't want to give her a heart attack (she's 13), maybe the vet can do it when I take her in.

I have a "Pest Pistol" to dust the room with, I'll make sure to go along the walls of the entire room and leave it down for a few days. I just want to stay ahead of the issue before it gets out of control, and see if there was anything I'm not doing that I should be. Thank you.

If she came from elsewhere, maybe the fleas there aren't impacted by Revolution. The CapStar along with everything else should work. For bath, dawn dawn soap (the original blue formula unscented) is a good option. It's what they use for animals in oil spills so it is safe and a little goes a very long way

 

[Kflowers]

I thought you had to use the Revolution for a couple of months as it only killed the adult fleas. Meaning you have to wait for the eggs to hatch and become killable for it to work. If you don't do it for a couple of months it would appear to not be working even if it was.

If you change to another flea medicine remember the other things revolution does and be sure you are getting something to do those things or not over lapping in a way that might be too strong for the cat.

 

[jen]

I thought you had to use the Revolution for a couple of months as it only killed the adult fleas. Meaning you have to wait for the eggs to hatch and become killable for it to work. If you don't do it for a couple of months it would appear to not be working even if it was.

If you change to another flea medicine remember the other things revolution does and be sure you are getting something to do those things or not over lapping in a way that might be too strong for the cat.

That is correct about Revolution. I thought what she was saying is that the cat was already on Revolution when she escaped and then still came back covered in fleas. Maybe I misread.

Remember too that flea larvae/eggs can lay dormant in the carpet and any nook and cranny in your home for a ridiculously long time.

 

[neco720]

Smudge was already on Revolution when she escaped. I guess it's quite possible my friend that I took her from had a flea problem at her place and (maybe?) didn't realize it (how????). She said Smudge was "flea-free" when she took her to the vet in Feb. and got her on the Revolution, and then the great escape happened. Which is why I'm wondering what the effectiveness is of Revolution. In theory, the fleas should have all died, unless Smudge was getting re-infested due to her environment. I don't know how long she was consistently on it for.

I'm wondering if based on how Revolution works, if I'm going to have to worry about more fleas popping up because of eggs, since she's been on it since Feb, and again Mar 2. The environment Smudge is in now was flea-free, and the fleas only came in off of her this weekend. I thought Revolution stops the cycle by not letting those eggs that fall of become viable?

Thank you for the Capstar suggestion, I did not know about that. I'll ask the vet about that tomorrow and pick some up if they deem it acceptable. The last thing I want to do is overdose her on flea meds.

I appreciate everyone's input.

 

[david68]

When it comes to quick knock-down of fleas, I like Advantage II because it contains two ingredients, one to kill adult fleas and a second to prevent flea larvae from developing into adult fleas.

Revolution is good for keeping cats without fleas from getting infested, but it's not the best choice for a cat that's already covered with fleas. A flea has to bite a cat and feed to be killed by Revolution, so if a cat came from a flea-infested environment, all those fleas would have to bite the cat to get a fatal dose.

Advantage II is much faster at breaking the whole flea life cycle.

 

[ArchyCat]

According to the Revolution package labeling, it kills adult fleas, larva, and eggs. Plus lice. I used Revolution three days ago on my two cats. One day latter, I flea combed both cats. I found nothing but dead fleas.

I live in Texas, and I tried both Advantage II and another topical, (Borders?). Neither seemed to work, so I ordered Revolution from Australia (prescription not required).

Years past I rescued a large, beautiful solid yellow female cat from a neighbor's patio. Pregnant. And no visible fleas. At the time, I don't think there were any topicals that were considered safe for pregnant cats. When she had kittens, they developed a bad case of fleas by the time their eye opened. The best information I could find, said that the only safe method of treating kittens with fleas, was to bath them, using Johnson & Johnson unscented baby shampoo. It worked like a champ. And it only required a drop or two on each cat. The soapy water kills the fleas because it reduces the water surface tension. So then the water can enter the fleas spiracles which it uses too breath, and drowns the fleas. It also probably kills the flea lava (they have to breath too). But not the eggs. So you will have to perodically wash your cat, until the fleas do not reoccurr.

As for your vacuum cleaner, I've read that the way to treat the fleas that get vacuumed up, was to put a handful of mothballs in the bag. If you can find moth balls now a days.

That's probably much more than you wanted to know.

 

[jen]

Or you can place cat flea collars in the vacuum bag/canister as well.