my cat was acting grumpy all thursday and then last night i got bit twice while i was asleep.
he has been scratching all day today so im sure he has got fleas. not sure how he got them tho as he never goes out.
what is a quick cheap (under £10 as i am skint and that is all i can afford) way to get rid of them?
The only real way to get rid of them is to hoover your house from top to bottom, more often and where he or she sleeps.
You really need to get some spot on , to put on the back of his or her neck if a cat that is. If not and is a kitten then you must use Front line.
Sorry but if you want to get rid of them then you must pay for good treatment.
Otherwise if you pay for cheap ways out , they just don’t work!
They come back in packs (they breed like rabbits) my husband says they are worse then rabbits!
I have 2 cats and 4 kittens.
My cats are on spot on and kittens are on front line and and have flea collers as well.
Sorry that is the best that I can do.
well, i suggest, before you go throu’ all that (getting rid of fleas that might not be there) take a large white piece of paper, place ‘lil kitty in it and comb its fur. if theres small crumbs falling on the paper, wet’em and if those crumbs/drops turn red (flea poo with blood from kitty)…..well, then unfortunately, you have to go though the cleaning-the-house-&-kitty- thing…
if not….. then maybe kitty has a rash, or is allergic to some, or just has dry skin….. good luck
Hi Sarah…fleas have a lifecycle which makes battling them frustration, however there are some inexpensive and alternative solutions, however none are as effective as using either Frontline or Advantage directly on the pets which are ideally the best solution. You can purchase these directly through 1800 Pet Meds http://www.1800petmeds.com/cat.asp?LV=10… I don’t know if this company can ship overseas, but they may be able to recommend someone who can sell locally in the UK.
For some inexpensive treatments consider over the counter solutions consider sponge bathing a cat by using a damp washcloth with Pert Plus Shampoo (not plain Pert) daily for a week or if the UK doesn’t carry this particular brand, a chemist can recommend which shampoo contains the ingredient pyrethrins…The human shampoo Pert Plus kills fleas but has little or no residual effect. In general, if a product contains pyrethrins and the label states that it is safe for cats and kittens. http://greyhound.marinar.com/html/faq.sh… (See article section Special Medical Issues – 3rd paragraph).http://www.k9web.com/dog-faqs/breeds/gre… (see fourth paragraph)
Products containing Pyrethrins are generally safe to use… Additionally, the human shampoo Pert Plus kills fleas on the cats, although it has little or no residual effect. Lather, wait a few minutes, and then rinse.
Be sure to thoroughly rinse all shampoo residues so that the kittens do not ingest as it may still be upsetting for their sensitive systems.
For around the home use Borax (boric acid–approx £2) on the flooring found at any at common store…kills fleas both by causing dehydration and by acting as a stomach poison in a matter of minutes. In laboratory tests boric acid damaged sperm and caused miscarriages. Just sprinkle…leave for a couple hours … vacuum up and repeat two weeks later and if necessary a week later for added insurance. http://www.pesticide.org/fleas.html (See section Less Toxic Chemical Controls)
over the counter cheap collars and sprays are useless and a waste of money. Only sure way i found was advantage injections every 6 months if cat goes out if its a stay at home then one injection should do it, costs around £20 in the uk and is very effective. However you will also need a carpet upholstry spray to get rid of the ones that are biting you now. Again one from the vet round about £8. Good luck love cats hate flees.
use frontline and a spray on the carpets
ask your vet.
fumigate the house and take the cat to the VET
There is no cheap way to get rid of them. If you try going to a local store and buying some flea treatment, it wont get rid of them. My indoor cats got fleas as well, which in turn game them worms. My husband and I use Frontline Spray Treatment for our cats, it comes in a spray bottle and you spray the cats a spray or 2 for every pound of body weight. And you do this once a month. It is the best stuff ever. It cost a little bit. $34.00 for a bottle, but it last us 3 months with 2 cats, so if you only have one it should last atleast 6 months, depending on how big the cat is. The spray is great because you don’t have to do any special cleaning to your house. You just spray it on the cat and when the cat sheds its hair, it still has treatment on it, and it will get down in to you carpet and floors and kill the fleas and eggs that are in their favorite places. And when a flea jumps on the cat it will immediately kill the flea. You have to just the stuff from your vet and if your cat has fleas I also recommend getting some dewormer for the cat, because she will get worms, the fleas give them worms. We get our dewormer from the vet too, Drontel, 5 dollars a pill. Great stuff too.. Good luck with your cat.
you can try a flea collar , but you also need to bomb your house…for fleas
i know of a website that sells the frontline drops for 9.90 for 3 months worth
and my god it clears em up like within hours!
Don’t waste your money on collars, dips, shampoos, etc… they aren’t effective.
Don’t buy an over-the-counter topical either, they too are not effective.
Buy Frontline or Advantage. They cost a little bit more but are well worth it…..they last for a month while the other products(assuming that they will work, which is unlikely) will only last a week if you are lucky.
Also you may want to invest in some flea bombs to rid your house of the fleas….after a while, you wont need to treat your cat for fleas.
Hope this helps
have you ever heard of flea poweder here?/ never heard of it hhmm its been around for a long time, get a life idiot! poor mr kityy!
Ten dollars or less will not get you an effective cure. Flea collars and shampoos are not 100% effective. The fleas will not be wholly removed, and the eggs will be there and will hatch later. Buy some Frontline or Advantage. You can get it at the vet, and some pet stores sell it by the dose for as little as 12 dollars a dose. Good luck!
Serve an eviction notice to the fleas and get one for the cat while ur at it. lol, either that or just buy a dog lol, the cat will leave within the hour and so will the fleas, failing that go down to wilkinsons and buy there clipper kit (bout a tenner i think) and give it a bloody grade 1 ….lol….soz only jokin 🙂 Seriously, go to ur vets there are many many treatments available
Hi Sarah, well I unfortunately have lots of experience with fleas. so i will do by best to help you
Firstly £10 will not really be enough I’m afraid.
Beating the fleas can be expensive to start with until you get them under control.
2 things you can do that don’t cost anything though is HOOVER alot, say as often as possible cos the flea eggs and some fleas live in your carpets too. so keep hoovering alot.
2nd is to use a flea comb and comb them out and squash them before they jump away.
Go to a pet shop and buy some flea tablets, I used some that were amazingly good. I think they are made by Johnson (cant remember for sure) that was about £10 within 15min of the cat eating a tablet the cat will start scratching like mad then after another 15min the fleas will quite literally drop off the cat.
Frontline is good but expensive unless you go to the PDSA where you wont have to pay full price but pay what you can afford if you are not working.
use a flea powder on your carpets.
I have 3 indoor cats and once had a mad flea infestation but after spending a small fortune and lots of hard work we have broken the cycle and are flealess !!
Goodluck
hello
there isn’t anything you can het that will be effective that is under £10. stuff you get from pet shops is not as strong as things you can get from a vet so they are a waste of money. you are best going to a vets and geting whats called a spot on flea treatment either frontline or stronghold are the best the stronghold also does the main kind of worm roundworm. they are around £16 for 3 treatments, you put one on a month, if you have a bad infestation in your house you may need to also get a flea spray from your vets, im a vet nurse and we sell sprays called R.I.P and Staykill. that will DEFFINATLY do the strick. but dont waste your time on pet shop products they dont totally cure the problem and will waste your money even though vet products are expensive its better to but something a bit more expensive that you know will work. hope this helps! xxxx
Well, Revolution’s really the best – see link below – but it’s pricey.
And here’s the problem:
“Under optimal conditions, the flea can complete its entire life cycle in just fourteen days. Just think of the tens of thousands of the little rascals that could result when conditions are optimal!
Knowing this life cycle allows us to understand why it has always been important to treat both the host animal and the indoor and outdoor environment in order to fully control flea numbers. Simply sprinkling some flea powder on your pet will not work; simply vacuuming the home vigorously will not work, simply placing a flea collar on your pet will not work. There are a wide variety of flea products on the market today, but the newer prescription products are finally taking the frustration out of flea control. In some cases it is even possible to gain control by treating only the pet. One of these products is called Program. It is given orally once per month for dogs and cats, or by injection every six months for cats. The adult flea is not harmed but the eggs she lays will not hatch, thus breaking the life cycle of the flea; with no reproduction the flea population eventually dissipates as long as the pet isn’t coming in contact with new fleas continually. In warm climates, this treatment is typically year round, but in other climates treatment should begin in early spring before the flea season starts. This may not be the product of choice for animals that are allergic to flea saliva (have flea bite hypersensitivity) since the adult fleas are not killed and are still able to bite the animal.
or effective control, adult fleas on the cat must be killed and reinfestation from the environment prevented.
Killing adult fleas
A wide range of products is available to kill adult fleas on the cat. These vary in their formulation, speed, efficacy, duration of action, ease of use and cost. For an animal allergic to flea bites, where the aim is to prevent any bites, an agent which kills fleas rapidly should be chosen.
Removing fleas in the environment
Frequent vacuuming can help to reduce, but not eliminate, environmental infestation. Vacuum bags should be disposed of to prevent collected immature flea stages continuing to develop in the house. Anything that is heavily infested, such as pet bedding, should be disposed of. Treatments can be used to prevent reinfestation in a number of ways:
Using a long acting treatment to kill adults on the infested animal and all other animals in the household thereby preventing egg laying.
Treating the house to kill the various flea stages. This approach suffers several problems. The larvae and pre-emerged fleas lie at the bottom of the carpet pile and other such places that are difficult to reach. Treatment of the whole house is essential – this can be expensive and time consuming. All soft furnishings should be treated. All nooks and crannies should be included, such as gaps between floorboards and skirting boards. Vacuuming before treatment is advised as this stimulates adults to emerge from cocoons. Manufacturers’ guidelines must be followed carefully to avoid the potential toxicity associated with environmental sprays.
Insect development inhibitors can be used to eliminate immature flea stages from the environment. These are given to, or used on, cats to prevent fleas from hatching into larvae (chitin synthesis inhibitors) or to prevent flea larvae developing into adults (juvenile hormone analogues). To be effective these products must be given to all cats and dogs in the household. These products do not kill adult fleas.
To be effective all treatment guidelines should be followed. For some treatments there may be a lag of weeks to months in which fleas in the environment continue to develop.
Long term flea control
Once the adult fleas have been removed from all the animals in the house and the environmental stages have been eliminated, treatment can be reappraised. In a completely indoor household where none of the pets go out, no further treatment may be necessary. However, where pets go outside further treatment will be needed, probably in the form of a single agent. This could be residual treatment that kills adult fleas on the animals or one that provides environmental control by interrupting the flea’s life cycle. An on-off approach to flea control is not recommended as this provides ideal conditions for the development of flea allergy in animals.
What products are available?
Flea control products can be purchased from the veterinary surgery, chemists and elsewhere. However, the new, safe and very effective generation of flea control products are only available from veterinary surgeries where advice on their use is provided.
Flea control products come in many forms: collars, shampoos, sprays, foams, powders, tablets and spot-ons. A product that is difficult to apply is unlikely to succeed. Shampoos have a very short duration of action. Rinsing out the shampoo also removes the insecticide that kills the fleas and so there is no residual effect. Likewise powders are only effective while on the coat – a few days at most. Collars are not recommended because the agent they contain does not spread over all the coat, making them considerably less effective.
Traditional preparations
Traditional flea preparations contain organophosphate, carbamate, pyrethroid or pyrethrum insecticides. These are potentially toxic to cats. When used on cats, dosing frequency is determined more by the consideration of safety for the cat than efficacy. Thus less than 100 per cent efficacy can be expected. Pyrethrum and pyrethroids can give very rapid killing of fleas over a short period. Many environmental sprays include traditional insecticides either alone or in combination with an insect growth regulator.
Suggested precautions include removing pets and children before using the spray and covering food preparation areas and fish tanks to protect them.
Traditional flea products can be used safely provided instructions are followed carefully. It is usually necessary to use other flea control products simultaneously. These should be chosen carefully to avoid potentiating toxicity. If in doubt seek veterinary advice.
New products
A number of new products are available that are very safe because they act at receptors that are not present in mammals, only in insects. These products show a high level of efficacy that remains over a prolonged period permitting dosing frequencies of up to a month or longer. They have excellent safety profiles enabling the treatment of kittens from a young age.
Frontline (Merial) kills adult fleas and is available as a pump or spot-on. The pump is licensed for use from the age of two days, the spot-on from 12 weeks. Very rare toxicity problems have been reported associated with the alcohol base where cats have been placed in confined containers immediately after application of a spray.
Advantage (Bayer) kills adult fleas and is available as a spot-on.
Program (Novartis) contains a chitin synthesis inhibitor that prevents the flea eggs from hatching. It is given to the cat as a liquid once a month or by injection every six months. Fleas imbibe the treatment when they drink the cat’s blood. This treatment does not kill adult fleas.
Staykil (Novartis) spray contains cyromazine, another chitin synthesis inhibitor for use directly in the environment. It prevents larvae developing into adults by inhibiting the formation of the adult’s chitinous exoskeleton.
Juvenile hormone analogues such as methoprene (used in Acclaim 2000, made by Sanofi) and pyriproxifen (used in Indorex, made by Virbac) act by preventing flea larvae developing into adults. A single application of the spray to the environment can last for six months to a year, depending on the product used. These products also kill flea eggs and have also been used on animals as sprays and in collars.
Other products
Sodium polyborate applied to carpets kills environmental flea stages by desiccation. It is available as a powder for DIY application or by specialist application that lasts for a year. Contact your vet for details.
Natural botanical products that have been suggested to have insecticidal or insect repellant quality include: eucalyptus oil, pennyroyal oil, tea tree oil, citrus oil and D-limonene. These products have not been through the rigorous safety and efficacy evaluation required for veterinary licensed products. All the agents listed are aromatic oils that are potentially neurotoxic to cats. Often the exact concentration of the active ingredient is unknown so they do represent a potential hazard.
Safety advice
Cats are particularly susceptible to developing toxic reactions to flea control products containing traditional insecticides. Some products for use on dogs are toxic to cats. The use of several products containing similar active ingredients or interacting agents on the cat, animals it comes into contact with or in the environment, can lead to toxicity. Products that contain insecticides similar to those used in flea control include wood treatments and garden, household and agricultural insecticides. If in doubt seek veterinary advice. Tell your vet about any flea treatments you have used if he/she is prescribing flea control products, other medication or contemplating sedation or anaesthesia of your cat.
What you do is, you go into the garrage and you get some pins and then you stab each and every flea on the cat only them are too afriad land on the cat.
Bathe cat with flea soap and use a fine tooth comb to remove them. You need to squish them to kill them. You’ll have to wash all of your linens, fog bomb the house and vaccuum then throw out the vaccuum bag. Put flea powder in the places where the cat sleeps…under furniture, in her bed, etc. Also treat the cat with Frontline. Every night, put a pie plate full of water and shine a desk lamp on it on the floor. Do this for about 6 weeks. When you get up in the morning and you no longer have any fleas in the water, then you know they’re gone. They hatch is cycles so you have to be very vigilant in doing all the steps.
flea bath or flea collar for cats… check it out at your local pet store…
Give Garfield a flea removal bath.
use a spot on there great.
unfortuantely you will need some frontline it gets rid of them and also you will have to give him a bath, but not necessarily in that order, good luck, I had that happen once, it was hell, but what can you do, cats are our babies, big hugs
Shave him bald.
Hi there i had this problem myself years ago.
Best way to sort prob out is to remove anything material from your home covers blankets etc put into out house.
Get onto pest control at your council and as them to fumigate.
Also treat cat with a decnt flea shampoo etc.
Then bring your stuff back in bit by bit and wash it in machine and all should be fine.
How on earth did you cat get fleas if it dosnt get out.someone must have brought them in so be more choosy of you friends with animals that come into your house, or maybe you picked them up when visiting friends ? best get some frontl;ine from the vet ,it’s gaurnteed to sort the problem,It will kill the fleas also the eggs they lay before the die.Wine fly
Just get rid of the cat and get a dog there so much better!!!!
shoot the cat
Throw the cat outside. The fleas will follow.