Treating non trusting feral for fleas?

[msaimee]

The way I get Frontline on my feral is I sit next to him while he's eating one of his favorite foods (chicken), and while he's preoccupied with eating, I drizzle the Frontline between his shoulder blades. He sometimes will hiss, but is not so bothered that he leaves his food bowl. I believe I get most of it on him. He's never foamed at the mouth or gotten sick from it. I've been doing this during Spring and Summer for 3 years. You can buy Frontline at Amazon for about a third of the price anywhere else.

Capstar will kill fleas on contact, but will only work for 24 hours. Frontline Plus will work for 30 days. Also, I've had negative experiences with Castar. My cats go nuts for a half hour after I give it to them, jumping around like nuts while the fleas are panicking on them. I don't give it to them anymore, and I'd never give it to a feral.

As others have said, please don't leave any pill or liquid flea medication on the porch. These things are pesticides and can kill if ingested.   

 

[kenneth haley]

Well thank you all for the great advice so far. I've never treated my indoor cats with flea medicine, I'm too afraid of a reaction.

Somehow, after taking in strays, caring for ferals, even a  orphaned raccoon, I've avoided an infestation. But, I do go crazy worrying about it!

Fortunately the Chicago weather has turned cold and rainy. I don't see fleas all over my car anymore.

I think I'll leave the feral alone, the only option that would work for me is capster and I don't like the idea of treating him every day.

I'll be honest, I went to Walmart and sprayed the heck out of the yard and home baseboard.

My feral is a smart guy. If anything is off kilter, he heads for the hills. I did not see him for a day after I sprayed and he's none the worse for wear now.

Moving forward, I'm going to try a high dose of these nematodes I think.  http://www.arbico-organics.com/category/beneficial-nematodes

I imagine these little worms will be right at home under my porch, where I really can't reach.

I could treat the feral but I'd still have every squirrel , bird, possum etc.

Maybe get some of that Precor for my indoor carpeted areas.

 

[feralvr]

 
@Feralvr
  Your post redirected to over-the-counter medicines like tylenol and aspirin. Was that supposed to happen?   With any pesticide product you run the risk of side effects, which will vary, if any, from cat to cat. I know this as recently, a community kitty I have named Flint, had a nasty reaction to Advantage. I've used it for years on cats,dogs and even rabbits. Yet on him, it was too much. Thankfully he is well now, his fur is growing back as he ended up with a nasty sore on his shoulder blades which was odd as I applied it to the base of his head as he is one of the more friendly ones. I was able to bathe him and not get scratched badly.

I believe she is linking to a page warning of the danger of OTC meds.

Yes. Just wanted to add in this thread to caution against the use of any OTC FLEA products.

I'm not sure as her post mentioned collars and sprays.

Flea sprays, powders and flea collars, to me, are considered OTC flea control for cats and should be avoided. Brands that sell in stores that vets approve of and sell at their clinics such as Advantage/Frontline would be, IMO, safe to buy OTC at a store. Any cat can have a reaction to a flea product even if you buy it from your vet and it is a brand well known and considered safe.

 

[feralvr]

I'll be honest, I went to Walmart and sprayed the heck out of the yard and home baseboard.
My feral is a smart guy. If anything is off kilter, he heads for the hills. I did not see him for a day after I sprayed and he's none the worse for wear now.

Moving forward, I'm going to try a high dose of these nematodes I think.  http://www.arbico-organics.com/category/beneficial-nematodes
I imagine these little worms will be right at home under my porch, where I really can't reach.

I have also treated our yard periodically to help with fleas on my feral cats. The use of the Nematodes is something we used as well. Nematodes are a natural, non-toxic defense against fleas. These microscopic worms are harmless to humans and pets, and will not cause damage to trees, grass, bushes or plants. They feed on flea larvae and attack other pests in your yard as well. Nematodes typically come in spray form and I really do think these little buggers helped!!! Although - have to say - I still think the ferals had fleas. They lived in the woods behind my house. But - certainly it helped keep fleas from our yard and off the dogs.

 

[stephenq]

 
Moving forward, I'm going to try a high dose of these nematodes I think.  http://www.arbico-organics.com/category/beneficial-nematodes

I imagine these little worms will be right at home under my porch, where I really can't reach.

I've used those exact same nematodes from the same company against weevils, worked great!

 

[pilotom]

Get Comfortis.  It's a pill but it's a large pill so the cat won't eat it as is.  What you do is take a paper towel, put the pill in there near the center about two inches from the edges and roll the edge of the paper towel over to cover the pill.  Then take a hammer and smash the pill by tapping it gently with the hammer a few times - don't smash too hard or the powder will escape the paper towel and the hammer will tear the paper towel.  When most of it has disintegrated into powder form, carefully open the paper towel.  You'll find that some of the powder is now in "caked" forms clumped together.  Take a knife and bring the edge down over the caked parts to fully disintegrate the powder.   When everything has been turned into lose powder, bring the edge of the paper towel on either side of the powder up to capture all the powder in the center and then drop this over wet food, tapping the paper towel to get as much of the loose powder in there as possible.  Use really tasty food - something like tuna intended for humans like Bumble Bee or perhaps lemon pepper chicken from the deli diced up into tiny pieces (this usually does the trick for my felines). Fancy Feast makes one can called Fish and Shrimp which most cats adore.  It comes in a small blue can.  You want to try to make sure he eats the food because one dosage of Comfortis is about $15-18 so you don't want to waste it.  Also, don't put TOO much food.  The amount in a small can of tuna or Fancy Feast is about right.

Comfortis is pretty effective against fleas and even against lice which causes discoloration and fur loss from the constant licking.  They don't even have to eat all the food but you want them to get as much as possible.  When you put it in the food, stir the food a LITTLE so that the powder isn't all over the top because Comfortis does have a pesticide type of smell and that might discourage the cat.

One thing with the fleas though is that medications like Comfortis will kill any fleas that get on the cat so the cat will be healthier and more comfortable.  However, if they're outside cats they'll still have fleas jumping on them every once in a while.  If they suffer from flea allergies which cause hair loss or crusty spots, they may continue to have these though to a lesser extent.  Good luck!

 

[nansiludie]

I don't like comfortis as I know of several dogs that had seizures while on it and they went blind. I do not like feeding pesticides to animals as I think they have an even higher risk of having an adverse reaction to it. I am hoping that @Kenneth Haley  will be able to  keep the fleas under control without having to feed anything like that. Especially Comfortis and Trifexis, as I've seen several dogs, so far no cats have some bad reactions to it. Capstar and Program are two of the safer ones but I've not ever used the Program only Capstar. It could be becasue cats aren't treated for fleas as much as dogs are, especially indoor cats. 

 

[pilotom]

I agree with you about pesticides.  I don't like them either and don't use oral ones on cats I can handle but when you can't get near enough to treat, oral may be your only solution.  I don't think Program is available in the U.S. anymore.  Capstar is excellent at getting rid of all the fleas on a cat but it only lasts for 24 hrs.  The thing with Comfortis is that it lasts for a month and acts not only on fleas but flea eggs.  I've tried it on a few cats and so far, no bad reactions.  Interestingly, I HAVE had adverse reactions with Capstar - though not serious ones.  A couple of cats I've given Capstar too started panting heavily in the hour afterwards which is unusual in cats who don't typically pant.  They were fine in a while and the circular warned about this possible reaction but it was scary to see.

With regards to fleas - of course the ideal thing is to try to keep fleas from a cat.  However, if you have an outside cat that is healthy, and is grooming himself appropriately, and you don't have a flea infestation in the surrounding area, some fleas aren't too much of a problem.  If you see hair loss or the cat is a kitten or older or missing a lot of teeth (which might impede their ability to remove fleas from their coat), then you need to try to help them out with the fleas.  

 

[Hawaiikrissy]

My feral is in my “guest room” lol. She had babies in my dog kennel after I trapped her from my colony bc she was very sick. If you can get close during feeding time it would be the time. Last night we treated all four of our pet cats, I bathed all the babies in Dawn, now for the culprit that brought the critters in!!! My bf decided that he would “get her”. Needless to say, after 10 minuets of torture for both her AND myself, I made him quit. She climbed the walls, hissed, swatted, spit!!! I let her calm down over night, then when she was really hungry this morning, I sat quietly near a bowl full of smelly, yummy expensive foodie fishy cat food... I put some of the sauce leading up to the bowl, and pretended I wasn’t watching. When she came and started eating , I was ready with the Meds, I reached right out of her sight and quickly squeezed it on her neck. One drop didn’t get on but I am hoping it will work!!! Build trust with food, he will come near when he’s huuuungry!!