Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with fleas

Ugh, what kind of bugs do I have?

liketitanic — Tue, 07 May 2013 21:35:30 -0800

I have some sort of bug infestation in my house and am getting many little bites. What could it be? Here are some things, with a kitty picture. 1. Pretty confident it's not bed bugs: the bite patterns aren't characteristic or in characteristic places; I don't see blood anywhere; I am not seeing the bugs anywhere, including in the mattress seams.

2. It may or may not be fleas. I treat my cat with Advantage every month, and while he does not have fleas on him I'm wondering if a) there were eggs somewhere in the house that hatched and are feeding on me and not the cat, or b) if the fleas are becoming resistant to the Advantage. I have not SEEN any fleas, either. Cat is supposed to get another flea treatment in . . . 10 days? May give it in 5.

3. What else could it be? What can I do? It's itchy.

Apartment-dweller in Chicago.

What's the best way to treat a mild flea infestation with complications?

feets — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 17:53:12 -0800

If I can only see the fleas on one cat, what is my best anti-flea protocol? Complications: apartment building full of pets, possible interaction with pregnant lady. One of my two (strictly indoor) cats has fleas -- or at least, I saw little bugs crawling on her and they look just like the fleas on Google Image Search. I don't think the flea infestation could be very far along, because I swell up when I get bug bites, and I haven't noticed any.

So my questions are:
1. What is the best way to treat a mild flea infestation? Will flea collars and vacuuming be enough, or ... ?
2. Considering that the fleas likely came in with a neighbor's pet (we have carpeted hallways and some indoor-outdoor cats and dogs in the building), how can we avoid bringing them in in the future?
3. There might be a pregnant lady in my house in the near future. Is there a pregnant-lady-friendly protocol we could do?
4. The cats don't go in our bedroom, though they snuck in there once this week when the door was open. Should I treat the bedroom too?

Thanks for your help, AskMe!

Please help me get this flea problem solved

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 06:29:03 -0800

How would you handle this? I need to get my roommate to: 1) accept there are fleas in the house and that his dog has a really bad case of them; 2) accept that if there are fleas, that it's a problem that we need to try to fix; 3) treat his own room. Two months ago I moved into this house. My two roommates have lived together and been friends a long time (but not a couple). I am a few years past college and they are in their 40's or 50's. I'm female and they are a man and a woman.

My dog is on two flea preventatives: Program and Frontline. Shortly after I moved in, I noticed my dog itching a lot. I found a flea on him, figured he picked it up somewhere random, and just gave him a bath, figuring the preventatives would take care of the rest. I have now gone through 3 or four cycles of finding fleas on him, bathing him, vacuuming and treating my room and the public areas of the house, giving him his flea medications on schedule or sometimes a bit early... then finding ever more fleas on him.

By the second time this happened though, my dog had been chewing his skin, creating wounds. He's allergic to fleas. That is the point where I brought this up with the male roommate. I said to him: "I just wanted to let you know that I've been finding fleas on my dog. He has a flea allergy, so that's why he's been chewing his skin." He emphatically replied: "No, your dog doesn't have fleas and he doesn't have a flea allergy."

I was not expecting that answer at all so I didn't know what to say. I was confused and said, "Well, I keep finding fleas on him and his flea allergy was diagnosed by his vet." My roommate said: "Dogs always have fleas. And maybe your vet said that, but I know why he chews his skin, it's because he doesn't like to be alone." I said I didn't think that was why since in the last place we lived he was alone the same amount of time and this didn't happen. But I didn't know what else to say, so I dropped the topic.

Since then I have brought up finding more fleas on my dog, and his skin chewing, several more times, and my roommate keeps saying, "Yup, he's been alone a lot today, he only chews when he's alone, I've never seen him chew in front of me." I find it a bit intimidating and hard to respond to when he makes statements like this. I don't think he's trying to be intimidating on purpose at all though.

My roommate has a dog, and his dog has been scratching like CRAZY, way more than my dog. I think that my dog is continuing to pick up fleas from this dog, and possibly from the carpet in my roommate's room. I do think that this dog is on a flea preventative, but it might not be effective enough by itself. And if the fleas are in the carpet they will just keep reproducing. The female roommate also has a dog, and her dog is scratching a lot more than usual now too. I asked her if she had seen any fleas on him, and she said no; she also said he just got a dose of Frontline.

How would you handle this? What more can I say? This flea problem is really, really bothering me and making me very uncomfortable, and it's making my dog continually uncomfortable too. I was woken up multiple times in the night last night by crazy amounts of scratching, and I am exhausted at the idea of another round of baths, at the idea of spending hours combing him with the flea comb, and so on...

What remedies exist for a cat beflea'd?

sarastro — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 14:13:15 -0800

What remedies exist for a cat beflea'd? My most faithful feline associate
while I, at length, was absent
has, it seems, become woefully beset
by fleas or lice
or something that bites and leaves
her in a most agitated and sorry state.

What is worse, in her noble fight with claw
and tooth and paw against the ravages of the louse
she savages only her own poor hide
like the shattered villages of your enemies countryside

Pray tell me then, O hive'd mind, in
whatever way can I contrive to expel the curse
from out her fur, to soothe and nurse her skin to health
and thus in truth, above all else
repair her temperament

I thank you for your time, my friends, and know
however polish'd be your two cents -- you are of course
before god and the courts, NMV. whom I would counsult, could I afford

Can I over-medicate my itchy kitty?

Thorzdad — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 11:23:39 -0800

Quick question about big kitties and flea topical drops... So, Luke, has somehow gotten fleas. We got an off-brand of topical medication at PetSmart (because we really didn't have the spare cash for the absurdly expensive name brands) and applied an ampule last Saturday. We also thoroughly swept and sprayed/dusted the carpets, rugs, upholstery, etc.

A week later, we're still seeing roughly the same amount of fleas, droppings and eggs on (and off) Luke. Everyone I've spoken with has said that the fleas should've started dying within a day of treatment.

Here's the question...The box for the treatment says "For cats and kittens 5 lbs. and up". Luke is a 16 lb cat, and it seems to us that a medication that can adequately and safely treat a 5-lb cat would be as effective on a 16-lb cat. We're wondering if it would be ok to give him another treatment, even though it hasn't been 30 days? I know the instructions say not to, but I'm wondering if a big cat like Luke might be a special case?

My gut says 'no', but I'd like to get some wiser opinions.

If you see a few fleas does that mean there are 100's on the way?

abirdinthehand — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 10:32:51 -0800

I have seen 3 fleas, but not noticed any bites on myself. Is this an indication of some infestation that is about to explode? Been in a new place for a month, I do not have pets though the previous tenant had cats and there are strays in the neighborhood.

All the times that I have seen fleas, they've been jumping onto me from the floor. Does this mean they are breeding inside the apartment? Or could they be coming in from outside?

I'm not a big fan of spraying chemicals all over the place and I certainly don't want to do anything if there's not a real problem here.

So- should I treat for fleas?

My dog has fleas

kamikazegopher — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 21:23:31 -0800

My dog has fleas. Please help me get rid of them. I live in Hawai'i, where the fleas and other bugs are plentiful. In the past few days, she has been shampooed with Hartz Ultraguard, then treated with Frontline Plus. She still has fleas. She is a terrier that weighs about 18 lbs. We don't know what to do next.

Was it a bad idea to put Advantage II in the refrigerator?

Scientist — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 19:59:17 -0800

What is the best place to store my pets' flea medication. I had it in the fridge for the last few weeks. Is it ruined? So I had the dog's and the cat's Advantage II flea meds in the fridge for a few weeks because I've heard that sometimes it can break down and I just sort of figured that it would last longer if I kept it refrigerated. My SO thinks that this could have been bad for it and that it may now be ineffective, and a few other places on the internet seem to support this. Do we need to buy new flea medication for our pets, or are we good to use the stuff that was stored in the fridge? Should we continue storing it in the fridge, or should we keep it somewhere else? What's the ideal location for this stuff?

Fleas got into my sewing stuff--do I need to throw it all out?

supercoollady — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 09:12:55 -0800

Alrighty. We were about to move into a new house, and found AFTER I'd moved several plastic tubs of sewing stuff (LOTS OF CLOTH) into the house that it was terribly infested with fleas. Do I just need to throw it out, or is there something I can do? We moved the stuff into the garage (along with some other things that are either about to be cleaned with bleach or get thrown out). We're not moving into that house now, and we don't ever have to go in there again, BUT the fleas came out, and when my husband was moving the stuff out of the garage this morning he ended up with many fleas on him.

Clearly, the cloth is possibly infested (probably infested, I'd wager--the plastic tubs weren't air tight). I'm going to have to go through the tubs to get my scissors, etc., anyway, and I'm wondering if when I do that if I should just put ALL the cloth in the big garbage bag and throw it away, or if the stuff that's washable at a high temperature is salvageable? I'm already saying goodbye to the patterns, velvet, etc.

The cash value of this stuff isn't that much (although some of it's new which is frustrating), but if it's possible I'd like to salvage what I can. That said, if I can't eradicate the possibility of fleas to a reasonable certainty, I don't want the stuff in the house and will (possibly while weeping) absolutely throw it out.

But here's my basic question: I want to take no chances with fleas. Will the hot-water wash and dry kill the fleas and their eggs? Can I be sure of this? WILL I EVER FEEL CLEAN AGAIN?

Staying Flea-Free, Cats And Home

hippybear — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 18:23:12 -0800

What is the best strategy to keep my cats and apartment flea-free? I live in a stacked duplex connected through a stairwell and a shared laundry room. There is very little cross traffic between the apartments, indoor or out. My downstairs neighbor has three indoor cats, and the apartment (which in the nearly 10 years we've lived here before he moved in has not had this problem) has become infested with fleas. I have two cats who are mostly indoor but who go outside on leads. One of my cats likes to be in the backyard, which is the downstairs apartment's front yard.

I'm worried that fleas may make it into my life instead of just being downstairs.

This is a multi-pronged question.

1) What is the best strategy for protecting my cats against picking up fleas? Collars? Drops (like Advantage or other such)? Any brand recommendations?

2) Do I need to worry about the fleas finding their way up to my apartment without a carrier animal?

3) Do I need to get the yard sprayed? Will the 4-times-a-season spraying which the exterminator does outside to fend off malicious pests also kill the fleas, or does something special need to be applied?

4) What is the best method to rid the downstairs apartment of fleas? The guy living there has tried some kind of carpet powder, twice now, but it doesn't seem to be effective.

I'd appreciate any guidance which will help keep my dwelling and pets flea-free, and help get the entire building free of these new-to-the-property pests.

Help me get through a flea bombing

DMelanogaster — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 05:19:28 -0800

Help me prep for setting off flea bombs. My cat has fleas. She's now on Frontline, having been treated with a flea wash and an oral capsule (forgot the name) by the vet. It's time to set off the bombs, but I'm freaking out.

Do I remove all the bedding? Do I cover the kitchen counters? The package says that the stove's pilot light should be turned off and I should contact my gas utility provider to find out how to shut off the gas! REALLY? this seems insane.

We have two floors, so I'm planning to put the cat on one floor while I bomb the other and wait the three hours (one hour for the bombing to occur and then two before we return), and then do the same for the other floor. We'll put plastic on computers, printers, etc.

We are messy people and putting EVERYTHING away before we bomb seems like an impossible task. I assume every bit of clothing needs to be put away.

Last night I sprayed around with a spray made by the same company, but then in bed a live flea said hello to me on my leg, so I can see that just spraying isn't enough.

Please give me any tips to survive this bombing. and tell me it's necessary (I've read prior posts that assert the necessity of this to really rid ourselves of these pests.)

Please help my girlfriend before bloodsuckers drive her completely crazy.

SpicyMustard — Mon, 14 May 2012 06:41:24 -0800

Can you help me identify/fight back the bloodsuckers in our apartment? In August of 2011, my girlfriend and I moved into a 1BR apartment from where we had been living. About 1-2 months after we moved in, she started noticing medium-sized welts and bumps that itched and behaved like bug bites.

Initially, we feared bed bugs. I had recently replaced my creaky box springs with one that was gently used. But a close inspection of the box springs and mattress (in the folds and crevices) revealed none of the telltale signs of bedbug detritus, let alone the scoundrels themselves. The box spring was immaculate when we picked it up.

Regardless, I purchased diatomaceous earth, created traps around the bed legs, etc., but the bites continued.

A short time later, I caught a flea in the apartment. Thinking we had pinpointed the culprit (heheh), we gave the go ahead for the landlord to "bomb" the apartment for bedbugs and fleas.

The bites seemed to subside for a few weeks, but then they returned. My girlfriend has caught a flea herself, but other than that, we've never caught them in the act.

One important point i forgot to mention: If I am being bitten, I am showing no signs. I assume that I am and that I'm just not allergic, but she is the only one suffering.

Because the bombing seemed to provide a temporary respite, we ended up bombing three more times, despite my reservations.

Now she sleeps with two pairs of socks on, long underwear, and a fleece hoodie pulled up over her head. I desperately want to fix the problem, but I don't know what else to do.

A few things to know:

We have no pets.
We've never had an infestation like this before at any previous dwelling.
We have wood floors, no carpet

I guess my question is: where do we go from here? Is it worthwhile to call a professional exterminator? Would one be able to diagnose this, or do they just use the same chemicals, hoping for a different result?

Thanks!

eponysterical i know

insectosaurus — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 09:19:29 -0800

I'm getting mysterious bug bites while I'm sleeping - can you help me figure out what's biting me? Here is all the information I have:

The bites appear all over my body, arms, legs, hands, neck - they are isolated bites, not in the bedbug line pattern. I usually get about 3 every night, and a couple if i take a nap.

They seem to be pretty small bites, but I am allergic to them so they occasionally appear giant (1-2 inches across) - but if I take benadryl, the swelling goes down, and they are actually small bites.

They itch really badly for 2-3 days, then they stop itching and go away. Again, this seems to imply not-bedbugs.

My girlfriend sleeps in the bed with me, and she hasn't had a single bite. (We are both women, if that matters). She says mosquitos rarely bite her (these are almost certainly not mosquito bites).

We put an anti-bedbug mattress cover on the mattress, and didn't see any bedbugs or fleas or anything at all.

In fact, we haven't seen a single bug of any type this whole time.

This has been going on for about two weeks - it started very suddenly.

I went to my parents house for 4 days over Thanksgiving. I got bites the first night I was at their house, but none the remaining 3 nights. My girlfriend got no bites when I was at their house. I got bites as soon as I came back home.

We have a dog, and she takes flea medicine. She recently switched to a new type, but we're going to switch her back to the old kind in a few days in case it's flea bits (but, we haven't seen any fleas).

I can easily go to the doctor, if that would be helpful - but I am reluctant to go if all my doctor would say is "you have unidentified bug bites."

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON AND HOW DO I FIX IT???

Cat's fine, I'm the one who's a mess.

lydhre — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:13:16 -0800

I just figured out that our 5 month old kitten Hubble has fleas. Or, at least, I think she has fleas. Please help me curb my inner stress ball, because I am having a real hard time dealing with this. Hubble has recently discovered the magic of sinks and water and, while getting soaking wet, had started leaving tiny blood stains on the porcelain. These corresponded to her paw prints, mostly, and I incorrectly assumed that she had some issue with the pads of her paws or similar. Took her to the vet to have her claws trimmed last week, mentioned the tiny blood flecks to the vet, and he reassured me by telling me she looked perfectly healthy and her paws were fine. Red specks on sinks persisted.

She is an indoor cat, so fleas had (wrongly!) never crossed my mind. Hubbsy has, since we got her in July, shed little black bits which look like dandruff. They are most obvious when she's napping on a white surface, like our sheets. You really have to go looking for one to see any on her coat. I'd never had a Russian Blue before, and my partner had never had a cat before, so we incorrectly assumed (sense a pattern?) that this was normal. This afternoon, I finally googled "black cat dandruff" and found out this was most likely flea dust. One way to check for flea dust is to apparently wet it and see if it looks like... little specks of blood. Oh.

So I called our vet, in a bit of a state, and the vet tech confirmed that it was probably fleas and told me to dose her with some Frontline Plus, which I picked up at the vet's office right away. She also told me to clean and vacuum and not to worry because fleas don't really like to snack on humans. I applied the Frontline to her scruff, but she was having none of it and wriggled while I was doing it so it mostly ended up on her fur rather than her skin. I called the vet again, asked if this was okay or if I should wipe down her fur and reapply and the tech said it would just "trickle down" and be fine. Everything I read online tells me that it's really not nearly as effective if it's applied to the fur rather than the skin.

Now, I don't normally panic. I had a moment of madness in which I considered not telling my (neat freak, almost OCD cleaner) partner that the cat had fleas because I didn't want him to freak out. Turns out, he's perfectly reasonable and reassuring and I'm the one who is freaking out. This is devolving entirely into paranoia and my partner is working late all week, so he won't be much help in dealing with cleaning and laundry and calming me down as he normally would be.

I'm itching all over, it's obviously psychosomatic, but I can't help it. The cat sleeps with us, mostly on top of me, and it's causing me almost physical stress to think about it. I've washed the duvet, I'm washing the duvet cover and sheets, and I'm about to vacuum the mattress (which has an anti allergen cover) and our bedroom. All the clothes she could have gotten on will be washed. Our house gets cleaned and vacuumed once a week, but I've gone over the rugs and the couches, though I can't wash either. All the stuffed animals in the house will take a spin in the washer too.

Tell me it'll be fine. I haven't seen fleas anywhere, except a glimpse of what could have been, in hindsight, one on the cat's haunch last week. There are no fleas jumping around that I can see. She doesn't scratch or groom herself excessively. She seems perfectly happy and as boisterous as ever. I'm going to ask the vet to check her for tapeworms next month when she goes in for her spaying, so she should be covered. She'll receive monthly doses of flea stuff from now on, if the vet okays it. I don't think I have fleas either, necessarily.

What can I do to feel like this will be okay? That we'll get rid of the fleas and we won't have parasites crawling all over us OMG? Should I ask my doctor to check me for tapeworms? Should I be calling the exterminators? Would that help just my sanity rather than the actual situation? What am I missing? Is this really just a "relax and wait it out, it's not that bad" situation? Vet tech almost laughed at me for being concerned. It's just fleas, after all. Help me regain a similar perspective.

I want to be okay and not so freaked out when Hubble will inevitably crawl into bed with me tonight and I'm going to want to do nothing but cuddle her and have her sleep in the crook of my arm but oh. jesus. little. nasty. bugs. potentially. everywhere! /shudder

I thought this was why we had an indoor cat!

dayintoday — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 05:48:55 -0800

It seems we have fleas. We've started the treatment and process recommended by our vet, but is our problem getting worse or better? What should we expect next? Our cat Nick has fleas. (He's our only pet, and indoor-only.)

Tl;dr version: Applied Advantage II, vacuumed and cleaned thoroughly, flea combing frequently... what to expect/look for next?

Full version: We discovered the fleas by seeing a bunch of flea dirt on his usual hangouts. Only saw one or two live fleas at that time.

Yesterday, we applied Advantage II (from the vet), which is supposed to kill all the live fleas in 12 hours. 24 hours later, we're still seeing live ones (about 20-25 this morning), but they're falling off of him and sort of slow and half dead. That's good? Should we expect more of this? For how long? (Or if this isn't good enough and they should have all been dead much sooner, what next? Could I have applied the Advantage wrong? Nick's fur is extremely dense, but I parted it to get it on the skin. A lot still got on the fur, but I tried to poke it back into the skin really well with the tip of the applicator and a Q-tip.)

We also vacuumed the house like supercrazy (and disposed of the spoils outside in plastic bags), and washed all bedding, curtains, pillows, etc in hot water/hot dryer. Assuming we "got" all the eggs, do we need to do this over and over again until we stop seeing fleas? Or is their near-deadness a sign that they're not laying eggs anymore?

We're not really sure what to expect next and we're (well, mostly I'm) really freaked out about the whole thing (as evidenced by this mishmash of questions). Hope, please!

Kill the fleas, not our baby.

Towelie — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 17:01:33 -0800

Cats, fleas, prevention, difficulty +11 weeks pregnant. How do I keep the fleas away but not endanger my wife (or future child)? Three cats, and we had fleas last summer. Quite a bit of work to make them leave; including some drops on the cats and (eventually) flea bombing most of the house.

The problem? The Mrs. is 11 weeks pregnant; we're going into summer and there are quite a bit of rabbits/moles in the area (which we like); along with mice (who have occasionally gotten into the house.) As much as we can, we've tried to find any exterior small holes, but mice are good at getting into places, aren't they?

BTW, we're catch and release people, not mouse killers.

Any idea of how to stay flea free and not endanger our progeny?

And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so, ad infinitum

ShooBoo — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 17:27:35 -0800

After my six-year-old read What's Eating You?, a kid's book about parasites, we had the question: Which animal has the most recursive number of parasites, and how many levels deep can it go?

fleas in my apartment from cat

cerebral — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 19:42:24 -0800

Cannot get rid of fleas in my apartment from my cat who is now sequestered on the patio My cat WAS an outdoor cat until we realized she had brought home fleas...suddenly they were everywhere. We live in a carpeted apartment. I very much didnt and dont want to turn to poisons and pesticides such as bombs and sprays to get rid of the fleas due to many reasons so we have tried Borax twice which didnt really do much. We then vacummed 100 times and that didnt do much. Lastly we have steam cleaned all carpets, washed everything that is material and could be put in a washing machine, however all this time the cat was still on the patio with some fleas on her (the medicine we put on the back of her neck didnt seem to kill all the fleas). Anyhow there are still a very few fleas here and there in the apartment probably just from going out to the patio once or twice to care for the cat. what can I do to the cat, the patio and the apartment once and for all? I really really dont want to bomb with pesticide! Thank you.

Are These Eggs or Something Else?

The ____ of Justice — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 13:18:40 -0800

What the HECK keeps appearing above my dog's butthole? I don't now if these are flea eggs or what, but almost every day when I groom my dog, I see a two or three of these small, hard yellow things that look like rice grains hanging next to my dog's butt, clinging to his fur.

We're currently treating the dog and house for fleas, but its an ongoing battle.

Are these eggs or something else? It's so weird how they keep reappearing...BLEAGH...

Apologies for no photos...I'll try to snap a few next time. But really, imagine grains of rice that are yellow, two or three of them that appear every other day.

My poor kitty!

amycup — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 20:07:21 -0800

My cat's hair is thinning near his ears and I see what look like small red bites. What could this be? pic and more info inside. I just got back from a 10 day trip and noticed while petting my cat that he appears to have some bites near his ears and hair thinning. Before I left, I took him to the vet and we discovered he had fleas. Could that be the cause? I gave him a dose of advantage before I left, but perhaps that didn't do the trick. Any ideas as to what may be responsible for this? My cat sitter didn't flag anything and he seems to be in otherwise fine health.

Pic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amyskillz/5325510901/

To get away from you damned pests!

MrVisible — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 21:59:57 -0800

I'm moving. How do I make sure I don't take the fleas, mice, cockroaches, stinkbugs, and ants with me? My landlord has been promising to deal with the issues that my quaint little house has developed for some time now. It's a great house, in an amazing location, and it's cheap, so I've held on to hope that the issues would be fixed for way too long. He's committed to the idea that hiring a stoner friend for cheap is going to do the job just as well as professional exterminators, though, and he's let the house fall apart far enough that there's no way to keep the critters out anymore. Especially not with a house full of hoarders about twenty feet from my front door.

None of the infestations were severe, and as they ramped up, I got used to them; I see a roach every now and then, ants by the sink now and then, a stinkbug from time to time, and the mice were theoretical until my cat caught one. Recently, though, my (indoor) cat has developed fleas, and the only place she could have gotten them is from the mice. That, plus the fact that camping out in a tent this past weekend made me feel more at ease than sleeping in my own bed made me realize that it's time to get the hell out.

I have to give 30 days' notice, of course.

The cat is now on Frontline and Prevent, both designed to keep her flea-free, so she should be okay now. Though I have a house full of fleas searching for a new host.

I have abovementioned cat, clothes books, furniture... the usual assortment of stuff in a two-bedroom house. So, how do I move without taking the critters with me? I have no problem with killer chemicals, as long as the cat and I stay safe. What procedures should I put in place before, during, and after the move to make sure my (as-of-yet theoretical) new place doesn't get infested?

Help, we're breeding super-fleas!

slow graffiti — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:48:00 -0800

Frontline applications seem to have suddenly stopped working on our cats. Help, before I'm eaten alive by fleas! We started using Frontline with great success about six months ago. We missed one application by about two weeks, fleas came back with a vengeance and now they won't go away. It's been over eight weeks since the missed application, so there have been two on-time applications since then. I find several large adults every time I inspect the cats and I see eggs on the cat's bedding. Bedding is being washed every three days, Roomba does the floors daily and I follow up with the nozzle attachment on a regular vacuum around the baseboards a couple times a week. We are seeing even more fleas despite these measures, probably because the weather is humid.

Questions:
1) I see alot of hearsay on the internets about fleas developing a resistance to Frontline. Is it really possible, or is it user error? They say that Frontline kills adults before they can lay eggs, but I'm finding new eggs every day so that can't be true if we did it right and the stuff works.
2) Could we be tracking in new fleas from outside? There is grass outside our apartment that we rarely walk through. We're on the second floor and cats are indoor only.
3) Are the cats ruining the Frontline by trying to lick? They seem to get at some of it every time, but not all. We're applying between the shoulders as directed. Do we need to get head cones or something?

No More Dogs on the Bed?

The ____ of Justice — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 02:26:18 -0800

Applying Frontline to our dogs: concerns about toxicity to humans. So we've decided, after research and the very helpful answers to this question to get Frontline for our dogs. My question is, once we apply it, whether we should stop letting the dogs sleep on our bed.

Currently they sleep on a sheet that lies on top of our comforter. (Yeah, I'm sure we are going against what at least one school of dog training would recommend, but we are fine with their presence on the bed.)

Unfortunately, once we apply the flea medication, we're wondering if the medication's toxicity should require us to stop this practice, and have them sleep elsewhere.

Also, if they've got flea medication, does that mean we should be petting them less?

I don't know how bad this stuff is for humans, so if anybody's got feedback, I'd really appreciate it! Thanks!

Pest Control That Doesn't Require a Pricey Flea/Tick Collar

The ____ of Justice — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 02:06:38 -0800

Is there a routine for keeping my new dogs (and myself) free from ticks and fleas? Bonus points if there's no flea/tick collar or expensive treatment involved. I live in California. The other day I emerged from our local woods feeling quite relaxed from a long walk, until I found about a dozen ticks combined on me and my two dogs. ARGH!!!

I really, really hate dealing with ticks. My dogs are both pretty hairy so it takes some time to be able to find the little suckers. Also, ew.

I'm hoping to find a way to take care of ticks (and fleas) without having to get an expensive treatment like Frontline. Anybody here have a routine with their dogs/selves/homes to keep everything pest-free? Spraying them with rubbing alcohol (I don't even know if this is safe?) Or simply inspecting the dogs after a walk, bathing X times a month, etc? Maybe just avoid the woods altogether for the summer and stick with the beach? I hear diatomaceous earth might work, but I also hear that it can be bad stuff for human lungs if it's in the air.

Your suggestions for keeping everybody and our humble home tick/flea free are appreciated. If I absolutely need to bite the bullet and get something like Frontline, I will. Thanks!

Help me find cheap flea medicine!

jenfu — Sat, 29 May 2010 16:32:23 -0800

Cheapest online source for Advantage Multi or Frontline Feline. And yes, I do have a prescription from my vet. Anyone know of the best place to buy these? 1-800-PetMeds seemed a bit pricey to me.

Follow up questions:

My vet recommended the Advantage Multi for my cats, but I'm wondering if regular Advantage would be okay, b/c it's so much cheaper.

Is the Advantage you can buy off Amazon without a prescription legit?