Hi All,

My father, who is a pensioner, has 4 yr old British Shorthaired, medium sized black male cat.

Unfortunately, it had been quite a while since the cat had flea treatment. After combing the cat down over moistened white paper, after seeing red stains appearing I realised it had fleas.

The cat was bathed and then treated with Frontline Spot-On.

I hope you can clarify few things for me please:

1) We treated the cat with Frontline Spot-On and applying it on on the base of it's skull and few centimetres below with one pipette as instructed........is that sufficient until next month?

2) Generally, is this the best treatment or is there a more comprehensive form of treatment for the whole body with "pet friendly" products that are readily available?

3) If so, can you please mention some of these products?

4) Even after defleaing a cat, is it normal for them to scratch themselves without that necessary being an indicator that they have fleas?

Thank you!


Jay

I am not keen on the spot on treatments myself, although frontline is generally a good brand.
For a more comprehensive flea treatment, you could try frontline combo, although this may only be available from the vets. However, I don't think they will need to see your cat in order to sell it.

The important thing to remember with flea treatments is they are not a preventative, they are a cure. Because of this, I flea treat my cats when they have fleas (never so far) and not very often as a routine.
If the cat goes in the house, it is likely there are also fleas in the house, if you do not get to these, you will have a never ending circle. There are flea products available for furniture, however they usually only kill the fleas in certain stages of its life cycle. For example if the flea is in its cocoon, most (if not all) flea treatments will not kill the flea at this stage, however, if you hoover before you spray the house, the vibrations coax the fleas out of their cocoons.
Hoovering is also a very good method for getting rid of fleas, if used in combination with the house sprays, but you will need to do every corner of the house, not forgetting things like curtains and mattresses.
Its also a good idea to put anything that will fit in the washing machine in the washing machine.

I was going to start a thread about this, but then didn't bother...because I'm tired of moaning about things that don't work. I thought Frontline would've killed all the fleas "..within 24 hours" like it says on the packaging. Considering I had to wait 1 and half hours to buy it because it was locked in a cabinet at pets@home and the person with the key wasn't there...I thought it was plutonium strength. Turns out it killed about 80 per cent of the fleas and they are making a come back. I honestly don't think he's picking them up again from the carpet or sofa because I've never seen one as yet around the house. Also, the dosage is for 1-5kg, considering he's in the lower end of the weight scale and you have to dump all of it on your cat, I would've thought it would've killed them easily.

One negative thing about owning a cat is the rubbish products they sell you..it's like a complete con. Vets and pet shops are all in it together it seems...."suckers...you'll do anything for your pets...hehehe".

i like Frontline combo due to the fact that my cat went to a cattery and came back covered in fleas i previously was using a flea spray.
I used frontline combo and it worked miracles i also used the household spray bought from my vets.
I would also suggest you get your cat wormed if he has not been already just to be on the safe side as if he were to ingest a "bad" flea he could get worms.

depends on what you're trying to tackle.

fleas(4 wks), ticks(2 wks) - Frontline Combo would be the one you're after fleas in house and on cat should be gone by the end of the month. depending on how bad the infestation.

fleas, mites, and some worms - Stronghold/Advocate would be a better choice (great for indoor or outdoor cats)

as these cover the full life cycle you only have to treat the cat once a month and no treatment for the house needed in most cases. these kill the fleas and do not repell. you would need something like Indorex or RIP fleas to spray the house if you still have an issue in the house.

these you can pick up from your vets. Just give them a call ahead to be sure they have them in stock and they will put some aside for you.

Also if you have fleas you most likely have worms as ingested fleas lead to worm infestation. So speak to your vets about worming treatment. Drontal, Milbemax are pill treatments that you can use. Panacur is a paste and Profender is similar to the flea treatments as you can place it on the back of the neck. but be sure to not place it on the neck within 3 days of placing the flea treatment on. Sometimes they can irritate the skin. These need to be repeated every three months. Be aware that any of these can irritate the skin and keep an eye on the application area and see your vet if irritation occurs.

hope this helps.

I'm suprised at this, I did not think that flea treatments would kill a flea inside its 'waterproof' cocoon.
As the flea is not on the cat when its in it's cocoon it falls off the cat into the carpet, it will get rid of all the fleas on the cat.
But not those in cocoons in the carpets/furniture will escape the treatment, when they emerge from their cocoons, the cycle starts all over again.

lol i think they mean it covers the life cycle by stoping the laying. you would need the Indorex or RIP spray for the house to get the cocoons.

pedantic... covers/not kills

Okay, this is not strictly relevant but I just want to add that under NO circumstance should pet owners use their left over doggy de-flea product on their cat. It is too strong and will result in a massive reaction perhaps leading to anaphylaxis. We had a cat brought in with exactly that problem not too long ago - it died unfortunately despite hours of care.

Easy mistake to make - don't be caught out.

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Personally I prefer frontline combie from the vets. A good few years ago I had a flea problem with my cat. I tried all the off the shelf products nothing worked.

Frontline did but I also used a household spray for furnishing, carpets etc.. Frontline isn't a quick fix as it doesn't kill the actual flea it breaks their cycle. For me its important to keep up with treatment as so far so good, haven't had any outbreaks since I started using Frontline.

My outdoor cat (sadly now passed away) I treated every month March to September and every 6 to 8 weeks during the colder weather, as he didn't go out as often.

Sue

we used to get cats in seizures in the clinic in London from owners using dog flea treatment on the cats. most of them didn't make it.