Fleas and Ticks???

CW………Also check out Drsfostersmith.com…A 4 pack of Advantage(purple) for $40.99, plus free shipping ’til June 3rd. Entirelypets.com has the same for $39.99 for the 4 treatments.Did not look up what their shipping chgs were.

Advantage worked great for me, with a flea problem……..even the fleas in the carpeting were gone shortly after just one treatment on the kitties.

See my post on the other thread, and GET THAT FLEA COLLAR OFF ASAP!

In 2005 we had an absolute nightmare infestation of fleas in the county. I had some work done on the house, and the workmen were tramping through the place from the back yard to the front yard for the entire day. Two days later, both cats were full of fleas. And Ruggles and Rotley are both indoor cats who NEVER go outside.

The next day I got Advantage from my vet and applied it to the backs of their necks. The fleas dropped dead and I was combing them out of their coats.

I had to reapply the stuff for two more applications, but since that time the fleas have been completely gone and never returned. It took two months and a lot of vacuuming and scrubbing, but we’ve been free of the little buggers for three years.

Get the Advantage for cats stuff. It works. It takes time, but the results are immediate, and neither cat showed any side effects or reactions at all.

Catwoman, you’re sure to get many different suggestions. I’m glad you caught your kitties in time! Bad reactions to flea products can kill cats, or cause permanent liver damage and/or brain damage.

I’ve had best luck with food-grade diatomaceous earth, in terms of flea control. Dusty for a week or two, but definitely got rid of fleas forever. Completely non toxic and no resistance to the product; cheaper than many other ways of controlling fleas. Safe to apply to cat and household. You do NOT want swimming-pool grade, but only food grade or horticultural grade DE.

More info at: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/all-around-non-toxic-flea-control.html

To order, I’d look up fossil shell flour at dirtworks, or look elsewhere online for diatomaceous earth (food grade or horticultural grade), no other additives.

Susie, it can be a bit drying to the skin; you probably wouldn’t want to use it for more than a couple weeks on a cat that’s already got dry skin problems. But it also usually won’t make such a condition any worse.

You can use it outdoors, too; the trick is, it becomes ineffective when wet. So if you sprinkle it throughout the yard, fine; but it would need to be reapplied after every rain. On my front porch, I use it on the welcome mat (where the cats like to lie) and in the cat beds, to help cut down on fleas. If I can get it on the cats, and if they’ll let me touch them, I pet them to work the powder down to the skin.

Indoors, it’s really best used on floors, carpets, under baseboards, on any upholstered furniture such as a couch, cat bed, cat castle, and so forth. And on the cats themselves, of course. I don’t worry about applying on the cat’s head; I focus on the neck and rest of the body. The fleas crawl all over the cat, so eventually they’re going to wander through territory dusted with DE, and it’ll start to work.

It requires 2 weeks to kill the flea life cycle. The house can look like it’s been lightly floured all over, but I tell ya what, I’ve seen such damage to cats from most toxin-based flea control products that I’ll gladly put up with a small bit of messiness rather than use toxic products on my cats.

That’s why I prefer powdered products. I will sometimes sprinkle the carpetpoder on the rugs coming into the house & i’ll sprinkle the decks to insure not carrying the fleas in. We have sand all under this whole park & come summer time,if you’ve got cats that are even outdoors only you have to get smart fast about flea problems. I don’t like the chemical sprays you get in the stores & there’s no way I’m going to spray something in side that the cats walk on,then lick their feet & end up sick or dead from reaction. I early on experienced all the allergy systems mention in the above post.

The tube flea meds (Advantage) I hear about all the time. Like anything else,there’s a risk factor. That’s why I won’t put the full dose ,even of the cheap stuff,on any of the cats. A few drops rather than the whole tube works as well. And sometimes I’ll just sprinkle a bunch of flea powder on a dry cloth & rub doen the belly & legs & all of the cats outside & it really does work well. I do worry about the bigger yuck bugs like ticks tho.

I’ll have to check into the stuff your talking about. Now if I could only learn how to pronounce it. lol

Cato is hypersensitive to fleas. He overgrooms and makes himself bloody, so I have to keep the fleas to zero. I have a whole arsenal of chemicals I use. I will recommend one. Program, it is a six-month injectable. It makes it impossible for fleas to reproduce. It has made my life and Cato’s much easier. I do not like using chemicals with animals at all. And, I try to put off using Advantage, Capstar and other chemical-type flea remedies, but these are the only things that work with him. Here is a link:

http://www.program.novartis.us/cat/en/faq_injectable.shtml

Happy scratching 🙂 Elizabeth