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daftcat75

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This is what Krista and I are using.

https://www.chewy.com/natural-chemi...heIEyraThAE2mD3TBnWplpCMABYdhqcUaAhYGEALw_wcB

It repels and kills fleas on contact. They don’t need to bite. It probably doesn’t do anything for larva or egg. For those, I don’t mind the extra laundry and cleaning as long as neither Krista or I are feeding them. We both scratched considerably less last night and I found a lot less flea dirt on the bed this morning.
 

daftcat75

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This is what Krista and I are using.

https://www.chewy.com/natural-chemistry-natural-flea-spray/dp/44511?utm_source=google-product&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=hg&utm_content=Natural Chemistry&utm_term=&gclid=Cj0KCQjwv8nqBRDGARIsAHfR9wARW5IgWS06HjBh37ySCpqheIEyraThAE2mD3TBnWplpCMABYdhqcUaAhYGEALw_wcB

It repels and kills fleas on contact. They don’t need to bite. It probably doesn’t do anything for larva or egg. For those, I don’t mind the extra laundry and cleaning as long as neither Krista or I are feeding them. We both scratched considerably less last night and I found a lot less flea dirt on the bed this morning.
Krista smells fantastic like cinnamon, clove, and cedar wood. It lasts seven days and you can spot test it to see how Feeby or you may react to it. And I’m sure it’s safe to mix with other approaches.
 

rubysmama

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Glad to hear Feeby's issues might be "just" caused by the fleas, and not anything more serious. Poor baby, though. :sigh: And poor you, now with the flea treatment confusion. :alright:
 
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FeebysOwner

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8/17/2019 4pm Day 42

Feeby still spends most of her time on the coffee table, but makes a few brief ventures away more frequently than she was. Her eating is about the same, but she will eat her canned food a tad bit more quickly now because I am adding some juice and chicken pieces from Sawnson's canned chicken in water. Dry food now is like her back up - a few pieces here and there to tide her over in between canned food feedings, which I hope to increase in volume and frequency over time.

I flea comb her daily and still find a few moving fleas on her - and we are still finding them about the house as well. But, from all that I have read, this is to be expected for next couple-three months - even with house cleaning and the Advantage II treatment.

Until the flea issue is resolved, we will have no way of knowing what next to do with her. So, that is where my focus will be for however long it takes to eradicate the fleas.

On that note, I am going to start a separate thread about Feeby's Flea Treatment 'debate', since this has now really become its own issue.
 

rubysmama

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I flea comb her daily and still find a few moving fleas on her - and we are still finding them about the house as well. But, from all that I have read, this is to be expected for next couple-three months - even with house cleaning and the Advantage II treatment.
How depressing/frustrating. :alright: :(
 

misty8723

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When we had a flea problem here, I combed the cats with a flea comb, dunked the comb in water that I had boiled and added dawn (to kill the fleas). If you do that repeatedly, you can get rid of the fleas and not have to put chemicals on your cat. Also, I read there have been studies done that vacuuming does kill fleas.
 
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FeebysOwner

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When we had a flea problem here, I combed the cats with a flea comb, dunked the comb in water that I had boiled and added dawn (to kill the fleas). If you do that repeatedly, you can get rid of the fleas and not have to put chemicals on your cat. Also, I read there have been studies done that vacuuming does kill fleas.
Doing the soapy water and flea comb thing - daily. Also, doing the vacuuming thing. And, my husband is doing the 'white sock' thing, since he is a 'flea magnet'. I am giving her 'chemicals' in the hopes of helping to escalate the flea eradication process, in order to get her past that so that we can determine if there are other issues going on with her.

This is a long thread, so I understand if some of you may not know all the details. She is 15+ and had a 1.5 pound weight loss in a matter of 3 months (she is not anemic or dehydrated). Since we can't confirm/rule out the weight loss had anything to do with the fleas, we need to get rid of the fleas in the most expedient manner in order to move on with our investigations.
 

daftcat75

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I was waiting for your flea thread. I picked up diatomaceous earth today. Krista will get a dust bath about the head and shoulders tonight. She may also tolerate a brief base of the tail scratch before she warns me otherwise.

DE shreds the exoskeleton causing them to dehydrate and die. Serves them right!

Tomorrow the apartment will get a DE dusting and vacuuming.
 
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I was waiting for your flea thread. I picked up diatomaceous earth today. Krista will get a dust bath about the head and shoulders tonight. She may also tolerate a brief base of the tail scratch before she warns me otherwise.
DE shreds the exoskeleton causing them to dehydrate and die. Serves them right!
Tomorrow the apartment will get a DE dusting and vacuuming.
I am not sure my other thread will be what you are looking for...

I may also get some food grade DE - but more likely for outside; I haven't decided. Be careful with it, as the fumes are very unhealthy for Krista - and you.

I am also using Adams Flea & Tick Spray (although it briefly stinks up a room with an rubbing alcohol smell) as it is supposed to help kill all flea stages, especially in hard to get to places like fabric furniture and carpeting. I just don't use it anywhere near Feeby, even though it can (supposedly) be used directly on a cat. It is not harmful to inhale, btw.

You can also use salt in the vacuum bag to help dry out the vermin as well. And, the soapy water/flea comb thing...
 

daftcat75

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The fumes are fine. Silicosis only occurs after nearly a human lifetime of exposure. And in any case, the harmful component has been regulated by OSHA for quite some time now.
 

daftcat75

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The fumes are fine. Silicosis only occurs after nearly a human lifetime of exposure. And in any case, the harmful component has been regulated by OSHA for quite some time now.
This, like menadione, I suspect, is a confusion or conflation of industrial exposure (MSDS) vs. consumer use. If you are a farmer who uses DE for pest control or a feed additive, you will see a much higher level of exposure over a longer period of time than a cat and her guardian will over a few uses per week over a couple of weeks.
 

misty8723

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The fumes are fine. Silicosis only occurs after nearly a human lifetime of exposure. And in any case, the harmful component has been regulated by OSHA for quite some time now.
I accidentally inhaled some of these fumes once and it was horrible. And I was trying to be careful. It might not kill you right off, but it is certainly unpleasant. I would NOT put this on my cats.
 

daftcat75

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I accidentally inhaled some of these fumes once and it was horrible. And I was trying to be careful. It might not kill you right off, but it is certainly unpleasant. I would NOT put this on my cats.
Water can be fatal if inhaled. I’m not going to bury either of us under a cloud of this stuff. I chalk up my fingers like gymnast chalk and work that into her coat down to the skin. As much as she’ll let me at a time. I also laid down a fine layer on the bed and under the bookcase where she likes to lay.

Hundreds of reviews have favorable experiences of using DE for flea control. I feel more comfortable with this than the various poisons on my sensitive geriatric.
 

misty8723

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Water can be fatal if inhaled. I’m not going to bury either of us under a cloud of this stuff. I chalk up my fingers like gymnast chalk and work that into her coat down to the skin. As much as she’ll let me at a time. I also laid down a fine layer on the bed and under the bookcase where she likes to lay.

Hundreds of reviews have favorable experiences of using DE for flea control. I feel more comfortable with this than the various poisons on my sensitive geriatric.
To each their own. I won't be using it again.
 
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8/20/2019 4pm Day 45

Feeby is still mostly staying on the coffee table, but making more effort to go other places - just not for long. She did spend 20 minutes on her beloved patio, and one other brief jaunt out there just to 'check things out' (?). She is still spending hours during the evening on my lap on the recliner, but will NOT hang out on the footrest part as she used to do every night before all this started.

Still finding some little fleas on her during flea combing sessions. She is also becoming 'tired' of the combings and is not at all as tolerant as she was a while back.

But, my poor 'flea magnet husband' just abandoned carrying around a bowl of soapy water everywhere he goes - so that is a good sign that he is experiencing less flea bites as well (he's like the cat, hard to tell what is going on in his head). He's still wearing his white socks!! LOL!

She has all but rejected dry food (you dry food haters will be applauding), and has now even come out to the kitchen a few times to declare she wants to eat - canned food, that is. This is a problem, because she treats the canned food as she did the dry - she wants to graze on it. A bite here and a bite there - she will eat a bit more when I add canned chicken in water, but she still can't manage to eat 1/12 (~1/2 oz) of a can in one sitting. I will buy a new bag of dry on the chance that what I have is too stale or 'contaminated".
 

daftcat75

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The slow appetite could be related to blood loss to fleas or flea anemia. Has the vet checked her blood recently and can you check her for pale gums?

When our vet couldn’t figure out Krista’s mouth and basically said I’m stumped let me get back to you about next steps, I put Krista on mirtazapine, an appetite stimulant. She’s been on it before and she tolerates it very well. If it keeps us out of the vet’s office, perhaps we’ll finish out the month on it. One less thing to worry about while we try to get our own flea problem sorted. I’m going to email the vet to see what he recommends based on his knowledge of Krista and her history. In the meantime, the DE dustings continue. I am pulling up less flea dirt with my lint roller (I roll where she’s left but it’d be a lot easier if i could give her a few laps with the roller.) A container of the DE now sits on my front step to give myself a dust off before I bring in any new fleas. I’m the only indoor-outdoor one in this household.
 
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FeebysOwner

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The slow appetite could be related to blood loss to fleas or flea anemia. Has the vet checked her blood recently and can you check her for pale gums?
Last blood work (about a month ago) showed no anemia. Gums were checked then as well. I've looked at her gums since, as best I can anyway, and don't see a problem.

She has very little flea dirt on her at this time - and hardly anything that shows any 'reddish' tint at all. I think thanks to the Advantage II, the Adams Flea Spray, and repeated vacuuming we have reduced the fleas by quite a bit. We're not done, I am sure, but we are getting there.
 
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8/23/2019 11am Day 48

No real change in the past few days. Feeby still spends most of her time on the coffee table, I am still finding a few fleas on her, and in and around the house as we walk through. It seems to happen mostly when no one has been in a particular room for a while and the fleas are pretty small. I guess we are waking up 'new generations' of fleas with the vibration and heat of our feet, as I have read is the case.

I know this is a process to get rid of the fleas, but I am already getting pretty tired of it. I can't imagine how Feeby feels! Nor, my husband, since he attracts them more than I do. Although, Feeby is much more relaxed behaviorally than she was a couple of weeks ago - I am sure that is because she has less fleas bugging her. I wish she (and we) had no fleas left!!
 
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