Attack of the killer super-fleas
Discussion
Afternoon all,
Three weeks ago, I took my wife's cat to the vet for what we were expecting to be a "terminal cancer" type explanation of her weight loss.
As it turned out, she has hyperthyroid disease, exacerbated by a bad tooth which doesn't help her eat. She also had a significant dose of fleas.
Normally, I am the early warning device for fleas. The little f
kers bite me within seconds of the cat contracting them, so at that point we go to the vet for some Frontline, and spray the carpets for good measure. We've been doing this for 14 years so far, and only had 3 flea outbreaks in that time. Given that we had two cats for most of that time, this approach has saved us a staggering £2k or more compared to religiously applying Frontline every month, so I'm not about to change our approach now.
Thing is, every time this has happened in the past, this approach has worked perfectly. A few more bites for a few more days whilst the last remaining fleas peg it, then absolutely nothing for the next 2-3 years until the next attack. This time, however, the little fkers don't seem to be dying! Three weeks after the Frontline was applied, and we're still finding them on the cat.
Has anyone else had this?
Is there an alternative treatment which will kill the little bds?
Are these Cyborg fleas?
Three weeks ago, I took my wife's cat to the vet for what we were expecting to be a "terminal cancer" type explanation of her weight loss.
As it turned out, she has hyperthyroid disease, exacerbated by a bad tooth which doesn't help her eat. She also had a significant dose of fleas.
Normally, I am the early warning device for fleas. The little f
kers bite me within seconds of the cat contracting them, so at that point we go to the vet for some Frontline, and spray the carpets for good measure. We've been doing this for 14 years so far, and only had 3 flea outbreaks in that time. Given that we had two cats for most of that time, this approach has saved us a staggering £2k or more compared to religiously applying Frontline every month, so I'm not about to change our approach now.Thing is, every time this has happened in the past, this approach has worked perfectly. A few more bites for a few more days whilst the last remaining fleas peg it, then absolutely nothing for the next 2-3 years until the next attack. This time, however, the little f
kers don't seem to be dying! Three weeks after the Frontline was applied, and we're still finding them on the cat. Has anyone else had this?
Is there an alternative treatment which will kill the little b
ds?Are these Cyborg fleas?
Get the council out to spray your house, combined with another front line attack on the cats.
When I moved into my house the whole place was infested. I tried all the over the counter stuff, sprays, smoke bombs, traps, nothing worked.
Amazes me that a family with a toddler and a 5month old baby had been living there seemingly happy to share a house with their insect lodgers
When I moved into my house the whole place was infested. I tried all the over the counter stuff, sprays, smoke bombs, traps, nothing worked.
Amazes me that a family with a toddler and a 5month old baby had been living there seemingly happy to share a house with their insect lodgers
There are a number of potential problems....
1. You need to do more than a cursory spaying of carpets to kill all the eggs, you need to spray soft furnishings and anything else in the rooms where the fleas might be hiding out - we found a steam cleaner great for this, we then sprayed each room and shut it up for two days.
2. Fleas are becoming increasingly resistant to chemical treatments
3. When we had a flea problem with our dog, we discovered that animals with compromised immune systems seem to attract fleas - so fleas aren't as attracted to healthy animals but they are attracted to poorly ones. That might explain why things are different this time around? We feed our dog a small amount of garlic with her food to help to ward off the nasties but we had to use a chemical treatment when her auto immune problems were at their worst.
1. You need to do more than a cursory spaying of carpets to kill all the eggs, you need to spray soft furnishings and anything else in the rooms where the fleas might be hiding out - we found a steam cleaner great for this, we then sprayed each room and shut it up for two days.
2. Fleas are becoming increasingly resistant to chemical treatments
3. When we had a flea problem with our dog, we discovered that animals with compromised immune systems seem to attract fleas - so fleas aren't as attracted to healthy animals but they are attracted to poorly ones. That might explain why things are different this time around? We feed our dog a small amount of garlic with her food to help to ward off the nasties but we had to use a chemical treatment when her auto immune problems were at their worst.
V8A*ndy said:
hyperthyroid disease
Our wee kitty has this.....
Be careful of the tablets they give for this as there is a handling issue for humans.
Something our vet forgot to tell us.
Hmm.... our vet equally made no such mention. Could you provide some more detail?Our wee kitty has this.....
Be careful of the tablets they give for this as there is a handling issue for humans.
Something our vet forgot to tell us.
I assume they're the same pills. Tiny little pink things?
Piglet said:
We feed our dog a small amount of garlic with her food to help to ward off the nasties but we had to use a chemical treatment when her auto immune problems were at their worst.
Careful, Cats & Dogs are (Cats especially) sensitive to garlic. Garlic use in pets is misunderstood. Garlic can be beneficial and it can be harmful, even fatal. When garlic is harmful, it causes a severe anemia.
Cats are more susceptible to garlic-induced anemia than are dogs because the cat's hemoglobin is different than the dogs.
Frontline is still working fine for my 3 cats and 1 dog. However if you are not getting the response oyu used to it's time to change to eg advocate.
Just as a note Prevention is far better than cure. an animal should not need to get fleas before you treat.
HOpe you get on top of the flea issue soon and the thyroid is controlled.
The main concern with felimazole is for pregnant women. We have this on the labels automatically and that either gloves should be worn or hands washed immediately after use.
Just as a note Prevention is far better than cure. an animal should not need to get fleas before you treat.
HOpe you get on top of the flea issue soon and the thyroid is controlled.
The main concern with felimazole is for pregnant women. We have this on the labels automatically and that either gloves should be worn or hands washed immediately after use.
bexVN said:
Just as a note Prevention is far better than cure. an animal should not need to get fleas before you treat.
You may well be right, but prevention is insanely expensive! Our cats have had 3 cases of fleas in 14 years. When they do get fleas, we've treated it promptly, and it has cost us a few itchy bites and maybe £50 in flea treatments.Prevention, on the other hand, with monthly dose of Frontline costing about £8 per cat, would've set us back just under £2,700 over the years!
How anyone can justify spending that sort of money on prevention is a mystery!Our cat used to suffer with rabbit fleas in his ears as he like to snack on them, Frontline was as useful as a fart in a sieve, changed to Advocate very early on and didn't have a problem. We could do him regularly each month as something in the liquid irritated his skin by the third month but we dobbed it on as soon as we spotted the black spots in his ears and within 24 hrs he was flea free again and we didn't have a problem in the house either luckily.
Never found a good anti-tick treatment though, tried all sorts but nothing worked, good job he was so soppy he didn't worry about us going us going over him with the twisty tick remover. Got ours for free from the vet and wasn't convince by the blurb but it got the buggers out whole without making a mess, at least til we squished them!
As for human fleas....we have had to burn clothes before going in home to stop the b'stards! Really, we work in some nice places.
Never found a good anti-tick treatment though, tried all sorts but nothing worked, good job he was so soppy he didn't worry about us going us going over him with the twisty tick remover. Got ours for free from the vet and wasn't convince by the blurb but it got the buggers out whole without making a mess, at least til we squished them!
As for human fleas....we have had to burn clothes before going in home to stop the b'stards! Really, we work in some nice places.
Prevention can be as easy as a good house spray done once a year for about £25.
It can cost far more to get rid of them for some people in the end than prevention in the first place, esp if the animals react to flea bites which then entails medical tx.
Everything adds up if you analyse it over years!
It can cost far more to get rid of them for some people in the end than prevention in the first place, esp if the animals react to flea bites which then entails medical tx.
Everything adds up if you analyse it over years!
bexVN said:
Prevention can be as easy as a good house spray done once a year for about £25.
It can cost far more to get rid of them for some people in the end than prevention in the first place, esp if the animals react to flea bites which then entails medical tx.
Everything adds up if you analyse it over years!
Really? Why does anyone spend money on monthly treatments like Frontline then?It can cost far more to get rid of them for some people in the end than prevention in the first place, esp if the animals react to flea bites which then entails medical tx.
Everything adds up if you analyse it over years!
ali_kat said:
Careful, Cats & Dogs are (Cats especially) sensitive to garlic.
Garlic use in pets is misunderstood. Garlic can be beneficial and it can be harmful, even fatal. When garlic is harmful, it causes a severe anemia.
Cats are more susceptible to garlic-induced anemia than are dogs because the cat's hemoglobin is different than the dogs.
I'm aware of the issues in dogs, a fatal dose is fairly huge.Garlic use in pets is misunderstood. Garlic can be beneficial and it can be harmful, even fatal. When garlic is harmful, it causes a severe anemia.
Cats are more susceptible to garlic-induced anemia than are dogs because the cat's hemoglobin is different than the dogs.
Our dog has an auto immune condition that is almost certainly triggered by chemical treatments, the risk just isn't worth it.
Piglet said:
I'm aware of the issues in dogs, a fatal dose is fairly huge.
Our dog has an auto immune condition that is almost certainly triggered by chemical treatments, the risk just isn't worth it
That's okay then Our dog has an auto immune condition that is almost certainly triggered by chemical treatments, the risk just isn't worth it
But the fatal dose is tiny in a cat, which is what is being discussed, hence my warning.
Kermit power said:
V8A*ndy said:
hyperthyroid disease
Our wee kitty has this.....
Be careful of the tablets they give for this as there is a handling issue for humans.
Something our vet forgot to tell us.
Hmm.... our vet equally made no such mention. Could you provide some more detail?Our wee kitty has this.....
Be careful of the tablets they give for this as there is a handling issue for humans.
Something our vet forgot to tell us.
I assume they're the same pills. Tiny little pink things?
Look here.
http://news.vin.com/VINNews.aspx?articleId=14933
Kermit power said:
bexVN said:
Prevention can be as easy as a good house spray done once a year for about £25.
It can cost far more to get rid of them for some people in the end than prevention in the first place, esp if the animals react to flea bites which then entails medical tx.
Everything adds up if you analyse it over years!
Really? Why does anyone spend money on monthly treatments like Frontline then?It can cost far more to get rid of them for some people in the end than prevention in the first place, esp if the animals react to flea bites which then entails medical tx.
Everything adds up if you analyse it over years!
However my feeling is the least you should do to try and keep the problem under control is at least spray your house once a year. Wouldn't recommend it as a gold standard approach though.
Our dog hasn't been flea treated on a regular basis for over two years, we had one episode of fleas where we had to resort to chemical treatment but that was at a point where she was still immune compromised. Since then and before then we'd had nothing. Our dog would have had an awful lot of unnecessary chemical treatment if we'd treated her on a monthly basis.
Hindsight is a great thing, it's difficult to know who will get flea issues and who won't. Spend some time at the RSPCA/PDSA to see flea burden at its best due to lack of prevention, I'm pretty sure those animals would love some regular chemical intervention! Instead they end up needing steroids, antibiotics, suffer intense misery and still need flea tx.
We see enough flea related problems every day to know that advising prevention is appropriate and correct.
We see enough flea related problems every day to know that advising prevention is appropriate and correct.
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