Cat Chat Feline Forum

My 13 yo cat has been scratching her chin and ears for 10 days or so and on Saturday night it just dawned on me that she has fleas. I contacted the vet on Sunday morning who prescribed an ointment to put on the back of her neck. They offered me a spray for the house but the cat has to be out of the property as it is applied - I declined. I purchased a flea comb from the pet shop and spent over an hour combing - managed to get over 15 fleas from her coat. I had a glass with a bleach/water mix in which to dispose of the fleas and dung picked up by the comb. I couldn't believe the amount of flea dung in her coat and actually saw a flea come out of her ear. I took sadistic pleasure in disposing of them in the bleach mix.

She is mostly an indoor cat and she must have had them for months when I think of the scratching she was doing to her chin and the deposits of flea dung which I thought was dirt from where she was laying - I assumed it was the hot weather. She does occasionally vanish for up to an hour and does not socialise with other cats so can assume she picked them up from the grass or something. I washed all the bed sheets and hoovered the whole house and areas she sleeps in. She is still scratching this morning and will have another groom when I get home from work. The vet did say it can take a few days for the ointment to work as the fleas eventually die off.

This is the first time she has had fleas and it seems to be causing her some distress with all the scratching she is doing. She has no bald patches or bite wounds but will take her to the vet in a few days if there is no improvement. Will definitely use flea treatment on a monthly basis now.

I believe that it is worth defleaing your cat regularly even if it is always kept indoors, you never know what you might bring in on shoes, coats etc. While they are more expensive I would always advise using a vet prescribe treatment rather than something bought from a pet shop, you might also want to consider one of the more complex spot on ointments that can help with worms, ticks or mites as well.

As far as I know it can take up to two weeks for a flea egg to go from being laid to hatching, so there will probably still be some about for a few days yet, however as the spot on treatments are systemic and will stay in your cats system for a month or more then any flea that does bite her is dead.

One piece of advice I have come across you might want to think about is getting a flea collar from the pet shop, cutting it in two and putting it in hoover bag or cylinder, that way any flea eggs that do hatch in there will be killed off as well. Its the only real use for a flea collar but it is quite a good idea.

Hope your girl will be feeling better and less itchy soon.

Thanks Ruth - I will do another hoover tonight and gave the crevices of the settee etc a good clean. I did read when a cat has fleas it will sleep in unusual places as it associates its normal place with the itching - my cat has been sleeping in the wardrobe or in a chest of drawers - I have to pull the bottom drawer out and she sleeps in the empty space.

Good point about the flea collar - will give the vacuum a good rinse out and wash the filter as well. Am annoyed I didn't sense that it was fleas as soon as she started scratching. My hand got mauled by her when I started using the flea comb as she probably thought she was being brushed - which she hates - but think she realised I was trying to help as she let me investigate her ears and pick the flea dung out of the opening of the ear - obviously I was careful not to go to far in.

I was looking at flea treatment and Advantage 80 for large cats at £9.58 for 4 treatments seems to be the best treatment from VetUK.

I don't know about Advantage, others might be able to advise for or against that particular one, I splash out on Stronghold, probably the most expensive but even with 3 cats that are allowed out, and one that does roam and hunt I can normally get away with only applying it every 6 - 8 weeks. I've tried Frontline and Broadline and both seem to be less effective.

I've had good results with Advantage and would recommend it.

I'd suggest spraying with Indorex (cheapest online) to kill the eggs which are likely to be in carpets, upholstered furniture, etc. If you do one room at a time, keeping the door closed and the cats out as advised on the can, until it's safe to let them back in there shouldn't be a problem. Flea eggs can lie dormant for quite a time in soft furnishings, so it's best to get rid of them before they hatch.

The dreaded fleas... My Miley who sadly grew her wings june 16, brought fleas home from a visit to a cattery.... omg it was awful my boys were quite young
and were covered in bites.... it cost me a forture on different treatment as went for the cheapest options first!!!! Big mistake..... ended up going to vets and after using the spray cleaning the carpets and combing Miley she was very long haired too we finally got rid.... My girl now Puddle again a indoor kitty i use advocate as frontline is not as good now so ive been informed...
hope you get sorted as i know its not nice for either you or your cat xx

If I have to send my cats to a cattery, just after they have gone away is a good time to spray the carpets, because the stuff will have a week or thereabouts to dry and settle before the cats come back. Mine are not at high risk of fleas; indoor, with access to a garden enclosure which other cats can't get into. But I do treat them if they're going to a cattery, to reduce the risk of them bringing home passengers.

I spent 3 hours cleaning the house last night and then tackled the cat with the dreaded flea comb - managed to get another 10 -15 fleas. I gave the crevices of the leather settees a good clean and did get a lot of flea dung as the cat has been sleeping on the settees the past few days. This morning she hasn't been scratching so hopefully she is over the worst and will get a good rest rather than scratching every 5 mins but I will give her another comb this evening. She had me up at 05.30 being sick with 2 big hairballs which is not surprising given the amount of grooming she has been doing from the annoyance of the fleas. Thanks for the advice and she will now get regularly treated.

MarySkater wrote:If I have to send my cats to a cattery, just after they have gone away is a good time to spray the carpets, because the stuff will have a week or thereabouts to dry and settle before the cats come back. Mine are not at high risk of fleas; indoor, with access to a garden enclosure which other cats can't get into. But I do treat them if they're going to a cattery, to reduce the risk of them bringing home passengers.

She was always treated... the cattery was a last minute thing as sitterclet me down.... but wasnt using a good flea treatment, so maybe that was the problem
I'd never use that cattery again, cattery Puddle goes too, checks her booklet to check she is up to date with all worming flea treatment, x

After adopting our kitty a couple of weeks ago, we're undecided about what to use going forward for flea treatment ourselves. We have 1 pipette of Stronghold that the rescue centre gave us, which is going on her in a week or so, but we need to be making a decision on what to buy for the next doses.

don1976 wrote:After adopting our kitty a couple of weeks ago, we're undecided about what to use going forward for flea treatment ourselves. We have 1 pipette of Stronghold that the rescue centre gave us, which is going on her in a week or so, but we need to be making a decision on what to buy for the next doses.

Advocate, unsure if you can buy it off the shelf or online as i get mine straight from vet..... good stuff thou

We use Stronghold, we did try Broadline for a while but after a few months went back to Stronghold as the cats were noticeably scratching more.

I've had good results with Advantage - available online without a vet's prescription, alongside Indorex spray around the house.

shazxx50 wrote:

don1976 wrote:After adopting our kitty a couple of weeks ago, we're undecided about what to use going forward for flea treatment ourselves. We have 1 pipette of Stronghold that the rescue centre gave us, which is going on her in a week or so, but we need to be making a decision on what to buy for the next doses.

Advocate, unsure if you can buy it off the shelf or online as i get mine straight from vet..... good stuff thou

I believe our local vets promote Advocate, yet I also hear very good things about Stronghold. It sounds like they're both good products so I'll probably plump for one and see how we get on for a while.

I contacted my vet and Jet was prescribed Effipro Cat - she explained as she had not examined my cat it was a generic/neutral one to give. Not sure myself which flea treatment to get for the cat going forward. The above has been effective in killing the fleas and online I can get 4 pipettes for under £10.00

My Coco was treated for fleas 28 days before I noticed her face was covered in flea bites one day in august. She had scratched the fur off the bites.