The Big Flea Battle, or why cats should be kept indoors

I thought I'd share about my Big Flea Adventure that I just went through. First of all, I have three cats, they are all strictly indoor cats, and always have been. They've never had fleas in their lives. I live in a basement apartment, the owners upstairs are an old European couple who take in stray cats all the time, but they don't look after them very well, no shots, they don't get them fixed, etc. and their cats wander in and out all the time (even in the dead of winter). Their food is dumped outside on the back porch, where it's usually crawling with flies, or freezes solid in winter. Needless to say, my landlords go through a lot of cats that disappear or get hit by cars or killed in fights, then more strays or kittens come along to replace them. One day I noticed my black and white cat scratching at his back, and his back had dandruff all over it, so I looked in his fur to see if he had a skin rash or something, and found flea dirt, and a couple of fleas right away! Normally bugs don't really bother me, but I am absolutely disgusted by fleas! So of course I rushed to check the other two, the Siamese, and sure enough, they each had signs of a few fleas as well (not nearly as many as the black cat though). I was between paycheques, and knew the best remedy to start with would be Advantage from the vet's office (the drops you put on the back of their neck that kill the fleas for a month) but I couldn't afford that right away. Off I went to the pet shop to see what they had. All they had was some drops that wouldn't kill adult fleas, they just had an "insect growth regulator" to break the life cycle. They also had a spray you could use on the cat's fur. Some junior salesman fresh out of elementary school wandered over, and tried to tell me that I could put a dog flea collar on my cats. Luckily I knew more than he did, and that his advice could have killed my cats! So I complained to his manager, who almost had a heart attack when she heard what I'd been told. I got the drops and the spray and rushed home to douse the cats in spray (which was supposed to kill the fleas and last a week between applications). Well, first of all, the two Siamese got sick from the spray, and acted stoned and shakey for over a day after I applied the spray. The vet's office was closed, and they were still eating and drinking, but I was worried. Luckily they got better on their own. The fleas weren't killed at all, though. They were probably less sick than the cats! The only result was that the cats smelled awful, and tasted awful too, judging by the faces they made when trying to groom themselves! A couple of days later, I tried putting the drops between their shoulder blades as directed. No effect either of course. In the meantime, both my daughter and I were scratching at ourselves out of pure paranoia at the thought of fleas in the house, and I was running around cleaning everything with disinfectant and bleach, and vaccuuming like mad. When my next paycheque came in, I was right at the vet's the same day buying the Advantage. Within a day all the fleas were gone, and they haven't been back since. I will still have to keep an eye on them though, and the cats still may come down with tapeworms, which are often carried by fleas. That will cost me another trip to the vet's for deworming medication. This week, we noticed more "dandruff" on the black cat, this time between his shoulders and in much larger pieces. I took a look at him, and a layer of his skin was peeling off in sheets, right where I had put those "insect growth regulator" drops from the pet store! (We had put the Advantage on the back of their heads as the instructions directed). Now he has a big bald spot where the skin peeled off. Moral to the story: 1. Don't waste time and money on flea products from the pet store! Go straight to the vet's and get Advantage, or there are a couple of other similar products available. A sad postscript to this tale - a few days before I first noticed the fleas on my cats, my landlord told us that one of his cats (a kitten about 8 months old) had just had four kittens. A couple of days after I used the Advantage on my cats, I happened to be talking to the landlord and asked him how the kittens were. "Kittens?" he replied. "I show you kittens!" He opened a closet in his rec room, where there was a cardboard box lined with towels. There in the box was one tiny tabby kitten. The other three had died. "I don't know why they all die", said my landlord, shrugging. I picked up the kitten and parted its fur. It was hopping with fleas. The other kittens probably died a slow death of anemia from blood loss due to the heavy infestation of fleas. Too bad that little surviving kitten was too young to treat for fleas, and too young to leave its mother, or I'd have taken it right then and there. I tried to explain to the landlord why the kittens died, but he refused to believe that such tiny insects could kill a cat or kitten. I suspect he didn't want to spend the money to do anything about it either. Some people shouldn't be allowed to own pets. Moral #2: If cats aren't allowed to roam outside, they don't disappear, they don't get hit by cars, they don't bring in fleas or worms to pass to other animals, and they don't have unwanted litters that end up suffering and dying. They should also be spayed or neutered too, of course. Sorry for the long-winded post, but I felt the need to rant!

Patti, I'm so sorry about the wee ones. I remember an episode of Vets in Practice that really showed the danger of fleas in kittens. My cats love to go outside. I'm usually supervising when they are out. However, this morning I have discovered a tiny traveler on my Harley. This is the 2nd time in his life he's had fleas. The first was when I first got him. Both cats have been itching more than normal, and I've been itching all day. Unfortunately, I can't afford right now to go to the vet until payday or after. I only moved 2 month ago. There are a lot of other animals around, but I thought they were getting the flea treatments as a precaution.

Yes I think I saw that episode of Vets in Practise too. We've got another show in Canada on the Life network, about a vet college in Alberta, it's pretty interesting as they show the large and small animals - last week they showed a vet trying to pull a bad tooth out of a muskox! I know cats love to go outside, and once they get a taste of it, it's very hard to get their minds off going out again. One of my cats got outside by accident once at night months ago, luckily she froze on the spot while outside, and I grabbed her and brought her right back in. Now, at night she still sometimes goes to the door and scratches, or sits in the window nearest the door and peers out hopefully. I've got lots of reasons why I'm against cats roaming outdoors, but I think I'll post that separately. When cats outside get fleas, it's mainly from hunting. The fleas jump off their prey (birds or mice) and on to the cat. Or, they can pick fleas and ticks up in long grass. Ticks can transfer Lyme disease to humans, and they will bite any creature with blood (even reptiles get certain types of ticks) so they are more dangerous to humans. Fleas won't usually bite humans unless there's nothing else around with warm blood to feast on. But, I always find that if I know fleas are around, it gives me the heebie-jeebies and I can't help but scratch. When I was in high school I worked for a summer in a dog grooming shop. My job was bathing and blow-drying the dogs. Sometimes we got dogs in who were loaded with fleas. Usually the boss would do a "rough clip" on the dogs before I bathed them. One dog was so full of fleas, that the fleas and flea dirt (feces) actually clogged the clipper blades and the clipper overheated! We used a concentrated flea shampoo that we'd dilute with water before using on the dogs, with this dog the boss told me to use it straight. When I went home that day my clothes were still speckled with dead fleas. Hence my heebie-jeebies! I've found Advantage to be the quickest and best flea killer out there, it doesn't stink or seem to have any adverse effect on the cats, and it works for at least a month with one application. Once it's dry, it's safe for your pets to be handled by kids, or anyone. You can't even tell it's there. It seems expensive, but that's because it's sold by the manufacturer in packages of 6 doses at a time. Many vets will open the packs and sell the vials individually, and I got a vial for each of my three cats for $7 CDN (that's about $5 US) each. So, maybe you should call a few vets around your area and see if they will sell it to you. Also many vets will sell it over the counter, you don't have to bring your cats in and pay for an appointment on top of the cost of the Advantage. You can also order Advantage directly from the Internet, but that's in the multi-dose packages. Anyway, if you want more info on Advantage, there's a website www.advantage.com I think. Good luck, and I hope you can get rid of your flea problem a lot more easily than I did! Patti

When you take your kitties to be dipped, get some Borax and treat the carpet while they're gone. When you pack your kitties up to go, take them outside and then go spread Borax all over your carpets like carpet fresh powder. Leave it there while you're gone. When you get home, vacuum it up and in a few days, do it again. Borax removes moisture from the carpets and makes it impossible for the fleas to live there. Good Luck! Stef

The only trouble I've read about with Borax is that if the cats happen to get it on their feet and lick it off, it's poisonous, so you'd have to make really sure that you get all of it out of the carpets. Another form of Borax you can use is called "****roach chalk". You generally can find this stuff cheap in Chinese grocery stores. It looks exactly like blackboard chalk except it's got Borax mixed in, you draw lines around floorboards, in cupboards etc., and when the bugs cross the lines, they pick up the borax dust and it kills them eventually. I've tried this stuff in the past, and it actually works. Other remedies I've heard of include sprinkling moth crystals around the baseboards, leaving them for a while, then vaccuuming them up (supposedly the scent repels fleas and any other bugs) and using something called "diatomaceous earth". This last thing is a powder composed of the tiny microscopic fossilized skeletons of one-celled plants called "diatoms". It's non-poisonous to plants, pets and humans, but it works because these little skeletons act like tiny, sharp knives to insects, and basically they slice the shells of the insects to ribbons on contact. They are too tiny to do any harm to larger organisms, though. I've occasionally seen this stuff sold at garden centres for use in organic gardening, not sure how good it would be indoors. One other remedy I've heard of is "flea traps", these things are a light that attracts adult fleas, then when the fleas enter, they're stuck inside the device, sort of like a roach motel. Doesn't work on eggs and larvae, though.

Yes, those medications can be very expensive and there is usually a vet office call involved! I learned that if you look in the directory there is usually a veterinary supply store in most major cities. This is my heaven! I can buy all of my vaccines, most meds (tapeworm pills included) and my first aid supplies at these places. a good one to check out on-line is petmeds.com they offer most of the standard meds at a lower price. you may have to get a prescription from your vet to get started on some of them but the savings could be worth it! Just one word about heartworm prevenatives..(my pet peeve) If you give your dog heartworm medication (heartguard) and you dog has heartworm you can make them very ill. Always have a blood test done first!

I should look and see if there is a veterinary supply store here, in a city like Toronto I'm sure there is. Not sure if they'd sell to the public though. Re heartworm meds. I don't have a dog, however I have heard cats can get heartworm as well. There is one internal flea medication for cats that is supposed to prevent heartworm and kill intestinal parasites too, you give them one pill per month, as with dogs, during the summer months (after having them tested for heartworm first). But, I've heard it's not quite as quick or effective at killing fleas as the Advantage is, and I'm less comfortable with giving a cat something internally that they may not need. I think that cats are more sensitive overall to pesticides and medications than dogs are. At least with Advantage, very little is ingested if it's applied properly (on the back of the head where they can't lick it off).

Patti, Im not sure if you know but you dont have to keep purchasing Advantage for the rest of your cats lives. I have 2 cats and they are Indoor only. I asked my vet why I would have to keep buying (frontline for me) if it really killed the fleas. She said you didnt... after about 3 months just to make sure. She also mentioned that you need to be careful when you are around OTHER pets or people who have pets come over. Hope this was helpful!

Unfortunately the reason I have to keep buying Advantage, is because of the fleas that my landlord's ****reated) animals keep bringing into the house. Also, I live in the basement apartment, I can spray and treat my own space as much as I want, but as long as upstairs doesn't bother treating their part, the fleas will keep on coming back down here. Thankfully I'm moving out of here at the beginning of December. I'm planning on either spraying or putting mothballs in with everything I bring with me, just to avoid bringing fleas eggs/larvae etc along for the ride. Even if a few do make it along, I will continue to buy Advantage once a month, if and only if I find fleas on my cats again. If the month ends and no fleas, then no Advantage. The last time this happened to me (fleas coming in from a neighbouring home after the neighbours and their flea-ridden animals moved out) I only had to use Advantage for one month, the fleas never came back after that. Unfortunately this time the neighbour's animals keep bringing more back in.

I have found Zodiac's brand of flea repellent. Stinks to high heaven, but used the same way as Advantage at a fraction of the cost. I haven't seen or felt a flea since about 2 days after I put the stuff on them. I haven't bombed the apartment yet, but may do that this weekend, putting the cats in the garage. I've been using RAID, and it seems to be working. I'm also attempting to prevent the cats from going outside, but they love it so much they get pretty darned defiant.