My cat was on my lap and i was stroking him, when he had left my lap, i noticed lots of small black things which i assumed was dirt. When i later decided to look closer i noticed it was in fact fleas! There was about 100 of them, all dead, my cat does not normally suffer from fleas and is treated regularly, why did they all die at once?
I don’t know why they would all die at once but here is what I tell others to do about fleas:
First get Frontline, Advantage, or Revolution from the vet to treat the cats. These products are intended to be used once a month to keep fleas off the cat.
Then, if you need to treat the house – which is often the case – use a product which not only kills adult fleas but also prevents eggs from hatching.
When we have bad flea years (haven’t had one in along time – knock on wood 🙂 we use Raid products for the house.
They make a fogger called Raid ® : Flea Killer Plus Foggerhttp://www.killsbugsdead.com/fop_fkpf.as…
They also make an area spray called Raid ® : Flea Killer Plus Carpet & Room Sprayhttp://www.killsbugsdead.com/fop_fk_pc_r…
We have had very good results with those products.
Remember, you want a product that not only kills adult fleas but also prevents eggs from hatching. If you use something that does not prevent the eggs from hatching, when they hatch you are back where you started.
There is a product, Capstar which is a pill you give the cat. It kills all of the fleas on the cat within about 5 hours.http://www.capstar.novartis.us/
It does not provide long lasting protection – it merely kills all the fleas on the cat.
You can use it to kill all the fleas on the cat and then treat the cat with Frontline, Advantage, or Revolution, and then treat the cat.
Ask your vet about Capstar and using it in combination with other products.
Capstar is available only by prescription.
We have used it to kill all the fleas on feral cats who we could not handle to apply something else. We transfer them to another cage or carrier, move them out of the room, fog the room, give them the Capstar in food, and then put them back in the main cage.
Capstar is like magic – it really will kill all of the fleas on a cat very quickly and it is safe enough that you could use it every day, if need be – though that would be an expensive way to control fleas, day to day.
Indoor cats can get fleas that people carry in on their clothes. If you think that might be happening, get an insecticide you can spray on the yard to kill fleas.
You will probably need to get a sprayer. The ones that attach to the end of a hose might be the type you could use.
Ask the people at a garden store, Lowes, or Home Depot, or similar store for help picking an insecticide and a sprayer.
Is it still hot and humid where you are? Perhaps your cat picked these up on his tour of the backyard and your flea treatment is actually working. In my pets’ case, the fleas have to take a bite before they die.
A animal can pick up alot of fleas wandering through the grass or another yard.
they are probably still around… and from my last weeks experience, bad! give your cat a bath…. a VERY GOOD ONE! scrub her neck and get all the black dots out (they look like dirt but is actually flea poop). if you have a light counter, you’ll notice tiny red dots appear… that’s the fleas poop reacting to water/soap.
fleas mate like crazy. my vet told me that even if your cat doesn’t go into certain rooms, the flea eggs are probably still in the carpet/hardwood floor/any floor. although fleas don’t like human blood, they will stick to your socks/clothes and the eggs will get dropped off and buried into the floors to be hatched in 2-3 weeks. it’s SO important to go to your vet ASAP. they will give you frontline to apply each month to your cats neck in which kills the fleas. they will also give you stuff to spay your whole house with. VACUUM everything!! couches, chairs, anything you possibly can. wash everything you can- bed sheets, clothes, etc. and, when done…if you have a bag vacuum, THROW IT AWAY! if bag-less, clean the crap out of it and throw the dirt away and out of the house. my vet also recommended putting a flea collar into the vacuum because it will kill the fleas immediately when sucked into vacuum… if you don’t do this, they will find their way back out and into your home. fleas are something to take very seriously because it’s so easy to spread them and have a very badly infected house.