Our cat Athena is a fluffy girl and we just found a flea on her, we removed it and crushed it but now my girlfriend is freaking out and her skin is squirming thinking the whole house could be infested. I’m of the opinion that we’ve caught it early and we should just check her usual sleeping spots as well as get a flea comb but my girl is damn near ready to buy a steam cleaner for the rug.
Idk, what do you guys think? How should we handle this?
Please, don’t nuke your cat.
You have a ton of comments so I’ll keep it short. Fleas are very, very, very extremely hard to get rid of once they reach critical mass. Their eggs can remain dormant for up to two years, and they’re immune to pest control methods including bombs.
My suggestion: get a pill based flea treatment, read the dosage instructions and keep it going for at least 3 months. Clean and vacuum regularly. You don’t need to buy a steam cleaner but other than that your girl is spot on.
Not sure about pill treatments but I had tried a bunch of ineffective things before a friend recommended me one of these Seresto collars.
They’re just magic man, I don’t know. My dog and cat used to consistently get fleas, but a couple of weeks after I got them one of those, every freaking bug just vanished. Nothing ever since, as far as I can tell (I still check them often).
If anyone knows how these works, I’d love to be enlightened!
I read somewhere that nuclear weapons were potentially bad for cats.
Unless that was the specimen 0 (and even then it could have already laid eggs), go full nuclear.
Anti flea necklaces, insectice (make sure it says it kills fleas) all over any textile in the house (since i asume ur cat is the same as mine and goes everywhere) remember they can jump up to 3 meters, so even if kitty kiter didn’t sleept over them, they could be there, if necessary burn his bed and buy a new one (if u see lots of little white “dusty” stuff, its to late, u wont get rid of those eggs, burn it), etc, etc, etc.
Conclusion? the level of treath u feelt, react two levels above that.
Just buy some Frontline Plus, apply it to your cat’s neck in a spot she can’t lick, and done.
It’s a topical poison, harmless to animals, but it kills of parasites very effectively. I’ve used it initially to treat an acute infection (found 2 fleas), and now use it as a preventive measure.
Per instructions you should use it monthly, but every 3-4 months seems to work just fine for me.
This cleared out a flea infestation in our dog. We use it preventatively because ticks, as well.
Fleas tend to linger because their eggs shed all over the place. As I recall, frontline had some double action going on by both killing fleas and causing their eggs to hatch into nymphs that never evolve into breeding maturity.
Fleas don’t really like biting humans, so any occurrence is a one+off.
