End of my tether... Fleas

[highhopes19]

Hi everyone

We moved into this place in may, its a HA property and the people doing it up after the last tenant said the carpet on the stairs and landing was in good condition and would we like them to leave it at the time money was extremely tight with moving and the flat with its dodgy heating draining us of £300 a month!! That we said yes it was the only carpet that could be saved the rest were in poor condition...

We have a cat at the flat she never went out so never had fleas.. She was only a kitten so hadn't been given the chance to go out .

We moved in the 4th of may the week later Isabelle went to stay at my mums and dads so we could paint her room whilst in there I noticed kitty was scratching I thought at first like we do she has an itch .. It was only when she started biting at her tail I picked her up and noticed a flea crawling on her belly .

The past tenants here had 3 big dogs!! More like horses the sizes of the shit left in the garden errghhh

Tom ripped the carpet up there and then vacuumed and cleaned the Hoover after... We went out and spent an absolute fortune on flea treatments for the cat and the house...

This was nearly 3 months ago and we just can't get rid of them we've had the smoke bombs go off to kill them, god knows how much front line we've paid out for Aswell but their not going .

I could cope with it and just keep treating her untill they go but we have no carpets down and don't see the point in doing so untill the flea problem has gone and this morning is the final straw Isabelle has what I'm pretty sure is 2 flea bites on her ankle

I love my cat but I love Isabelle more and I don't want her being bit obviously I've tried everything I feel evil as I'm seriously thinking of giving up on the cat and taking her to cat home .

But I can't afford some months up to £150 a month on flea stuff that just isn't working

I'm at a complete loss

Money's now even tighter as me and Tom aren't together

 

[luci and bump]

I used RIP fleas, and smoke bombs. Hoover everywhere, then literally go to town with the spray. Then light/activate the bombs, close all doors and windows and leave the house for as long as you can. Spray some of the spray in the hoover too, otherwise the little buggers just climb back out!! Fleas can also live in gaps in lino/floorboards and in gaps under skirting boards, so you literally need to spray every single millimeter of the house.
I completely understand how you're feeling, we had a bad flea infestation, it made me so miserable. I remember stepping out of bed one morning and just being jumped on by dozens of fleas!!
we were advised to let the cat go anywhere, as long as it was treated, as then any fleas that jumped on the cat would die.
Hope that helps!!

 

[Bex84]

I would highly recomend comfort is which you can get from vets. Its a pill which give cat. It kills any fleas on them starting on first half hour and then as soon as fleas jump on cat and bite them it paralises pill and kills them. It literally got rid of fleas over night for us including on carpet as it kills them before they go through life cycle. Putting salt on carpet and then hoovering next day is supposed to work as dehydrates eggs. You have to go through several cycles of treatments just to make sure all eggs gone

 

[katherinegrey]

I really sympathise with you, my mom has 5 cats, only one of them goes out but she bought fleas back and it was an absolute nightmare for her. She used the frontline from the chemist, and then had to go to the vet for a flea spray off them, nothing else worked. Absolutely everything has to be sprayed though, even places you wouldn't think of, like curtains, down the backs of sofas, in the corners of your rooms, bedding etc. She combed the cats every night with a flea comb for weeks to make sure they'd gone, which considering there are five must have taken her forever!

 

[MrsT&Ben]

We had fleas and we tried everything! It was horrible.
The only thing that worked was calling in an exterminator! He had to come back 3 times but it worked in the end.
Good luck!

 

[BabyMamma93]

it might not be but. my grandad has a dog and she once had just one single fox flea, after assuming it was just fleas they treated it, and treated it, and they never got better, infact, they got worse, they took her to the vets and said she had fox fleas which are impossible to get rid of using normal flea treatments, u need special stuff given by vets. maybe, just maybe, this is what they are? my grandad was asked if he had a cat bcos they can also affect them too..

 

[jd83]

It may not just be the cat keeping the problem going, either. As pp mentioned, they can be in some crazy places, like curtains, backs of furniture, etc. Dh and my first apartment when we got married had a bad flea infestation, and we didn't have ANY pets. We had exterminators out several times, and the fleas just kept coming back. It was really beyond frustrating when we didn't even have a pet that would have been a source bringing them in. Don't really have any further advice beyond just making sure you spray EVERYTHING really well, don't skip anything. Spray things you wouldn't even think of normally.

 

[JumpingIn]

I totally understand how horrible this is as we're going through it at the moment, but please don't rehome your kitty! As others said the fleas have such a long life cycle and can even go into hibernation in your carpets and on your furniture or down cracks, so they can still come back even without animals in the property.

We're using Frontline and rigorous vacuuming as well as sprays and making sure we spray inside the vacuum. They've really reduced. Still around but I think we're winning. We have 3 cats that go out and I know they got them from the neighbour's kitty because the neighbour told us and apologised!

 

[Natalie Flynn]

We moved into a house which was infested with fleas and we never had any pets. We ripped up the carpets because there were only 2 and the rest was laminate. We went out and spent a fortune on treatments but none of them worked. We complained to the landlord about it and he got the exterminater to come out (rang the local council who arent to expensive about £40) they had to come out twice before it worked. The exterminter found them behind skirting boards, inbetweem floorboards and in the underlay under the laminate. It was an awful time while we had them even now almost a year on I am constantly on the look out for them. Keep hoovering! A few times a day and empty the hoover after everytime tie up the bag and straight outside! Hope you manage to get rid of them!

 

[Quackquack99]

I feel your pain. I had this exact problem last year before i invested in some indorex spray and advantage spot on was the only thing that worked!

 

[Rainbow82]

This brings back memories, we had similar issue 18 months ago when our indoor kitty got them from her cattery. We had to swap cat déjà treatment from frontline to effipro, same active ingredient but worked better for us for some reason. Immediately after treating the cat we kept him in the bathroom for a couple hours and sprayed the carpets, sofa, curtains, cushions and mattresses with a spray from pets at home (£6 a bottle and we used 2). All bedding etc was washed on high temperature and everything was hoovered up after a couple hours so the treatment could work. We repeated this 3 days later and touch wood we didn't get them again. We also washed the cats bedding every three days for a couple weeks in a high temperature.

 

[shellideaks]

I posted a thread just like this last year! A lady on here recommended I buy a flea treatment called Advantage. You can get it from this website https://www.vetuk.co.uk/advantage-flea-control-advantage-for-cats-c-3_660_873

It's brilliant stuff, one application on each cat and I stopped seeing fleas all together after a week.

I got some fleas in May this year and treated the cats with it again, also used a spray called Indorex (amazing stuff and can also be bought on the same website https://www.vetuk.co.uk/flea-treatm...ys-c-3_419/indorex-flea-spray-500ml-can-p-677) and no issues since. I do keep finding dead woodlice though, the spray has eliminated most bugs from my house lol.

I ordered from that website and my delivery came really quick. There's also a 10% off code of VETUK10 if it's a first order

 

[Vesta]

Oh I remember this feeling. You have my sympathy. Another vote for 'Advantage' here. I was at my wits end and someone recommend 'Advantage' to me. I'd already tried loads of different stuff but Advantage was the only thing that worked.

 

[Zenypenny]

Another vote for the Indorex and Advantage here , we changed from frontline to Advantage as it wasn't working as well as it used to! The Indorex spray is brilliant we treated the whole house (all nooks and crannies) and it last for a year

 

[Quackquack99]

But advantage on amazon is much cheaper than frontline!

 

[Lauraxamy]

I really feel for you. I moved into a flat a few years ago and it was riddled with fleas, took us a while to find out because only I reacted to the flea bites so I didn't think it could be fleas until we started actually seeing them! At the time we didn't have any pets, so like you we knew it was from previous tenants. We tried a powder, put it on all the sofas the carpets, left it over night and even stayed elsewhere, hoovered it up - didn't work.. landlord said to try it again, didn't work, so she got in touch with pest control through our local council and thankfully it worked. I'm scarred from how many times I got bitten because I had so many and they were all SO itchy We only stayed in there 6 months altogether I couldn't wait to get out after that

Really hope you manage to sort yours

 

[Wobbles]

After a couple of unsuccessful attempts last year just using spray I went a bit mad and did the whole lot ...

Tablets for the cat
Bombs
Powder
Spray

It was better spending out on it all in one go than battling it every couple of days. It worked!!!

Make sure you clean the hoover or change the bag (or both depending on hoover) they will live in your hoover. I changed the bag at the same time I used all the products and added powder into the second bag for when I hoovered up after to suck up the dead ones.

 

[Ceejay123]

Rogue had this when she was tiny - She came from her home with fleas!

We spent so much on flea treatments, none of it worked!

Sounds stupid.. Best thing we did was, we bought Two tubs of salt... And some flea shampoo. My other half bathed her using the shampoo, and combed her after in the bathroom to make sure she had none. (She was only little so it was easy enough). The night before, we'd put salt down on every carpet as the vet suggested. . Then He put Advantage treatment on her straight out of the bath (no others worked, store bought do not work). He kept her in the bathroom for 20-25 minutes doing all this.

In that time while she was out of the way, I hoovered every carpet... I hoovered the sofa cushions. I took ALL the bedding off the beds upstairs, and put them outside (washed one at a time through the day). And as soon as I hoovered each room, I emptied the hoover in the dustbin.. as it doesnt kill them and theyre known to crawl out.

The FrontLine/Advantage should protect the cat for 30 days - They'll just die when they jump back on her. However it's the ones in your home you have to deal with, and you need to do it all at once! Getting rid of your cat shouldn't help. Make sure while the cats in a room with no carpets/linens, that you do every carpet and every bed, every sofa.. Even the cats bed, and you get them all off her at the same time It worked, we've not had fleas since (after struggling for 8 weeks with flea treatments). x


Edit - Frontline always worked in the past, but after it failing to work with Rogue we went to the vets. They said that because it worked so well, so many people used it.. and the fleas started to get resistant. Frontline have since changed their formula to stop this, it should work again.

 

[misspriss]

I had fleas bad at one time. We didn't want to bomb the house or anything.

We used frontline on the cats, and gave one of them a bath (killed a ton) the other one is big and gets frantic and bites if you try and bathe her.

We put borax on the carpet and then vacuumed it up, repeatedly. Let it set for about 30 minutes - 2 hours (keep the cats off during that time!) and then immediately took the vacuum outside and changed the bag out, and left it outside between uses. In a week or two, they were all gone. Keeping the frontline on them probably kept the fleas from getting back on the cats, and it was only a matter of time before we vacuumed them all up. I don't remember how many times we had to do the borax, but it seems like we did it a lot.