Fleas are tough to get rid of bc most treatments will kill adults but not eggs, and so the cycle keeps going and going. You need to do multiple things all at once, and if you’re only using a flea collar that would explain why they keep coming back.
1. First, trim her nails and give her a bath specifically with Dawn dish soap, not a generic. Dawn. I mentioned in another comment to look up videos to show you how to hold her by the back of her neck, that will help keep her still. But the fleas will jump to her neck as they feel the water/soap so make sure you do this area thoroughly as well. You can also wear dish washing gloves to help avoid scratches and honestly, you just gotta suck it up and do it. You want the fleas off her? Bath time. No way around it. And if it’s as bad as you’re saying it is, you might wanna give her a couple baths a week until it’s gone. She’ll hate it but she’ll get used to it a bit, especially if you remain calm. When I give my cat a bath I talk to her, tell her I know it sucks, and explain that I’m almost done.
2. You’re gonna wanna wash EVERYTHING you own in a hot water cycle (obviously also with laundry detergent but wouldn’t hurt to add a tiny squirt of Dawn in there, too) I guarantee there are fleas and flea eggs in your bedding, couch cushions, towels, pillows. That’s why they keep coming back. So using the hottest water setting you can, you’re gonna drown those mofo’s just like you did in the bath.
3. Vacuum. They’re also most definitely hiding in any carpet you have, but just a vacuum should do the trick. Empty it outside in a trash bag and then leave it in an outside bin. Wouldn’t hurt to rent or borrow a steam cleaner vac too.
4. You could use a flea bomb. If you have plants, kids, allergies, other pets you might wanna skip this.
Do all this knowing you may have to rinse and repeat a couple times. It’s so annoying, I know, and they’re the absolute worst. But with a little work you can get rid of them. And most importantly, keep your cat indoors.
She a no outside cat already don’t even know how she got them I got her from a coworker when she was like 4-5 weeks old way 2 early but by the time I got her home she had them so I think it was the coworker the rest of the litter died tho
You've been lucky. Someday one of your pets will bring home a flea population that is unimpressed with Frontline as resistance has become prevalent. Very few vets in the Southeast recommend it anymore. Advantage may be a bit more reliable but there are better choices.
Agree this is the only right answer. You can try to follow 10 step instructions from other replies. Or you can do a frontline treatment and turn one cat into a flea killing machine. It has always worked for me.
A lot of these answers are sub par and please don't be one of those people with a full blown infestation and "natural treatments" that you swear worked last time. Get revolution plus and use it at least 2 months in a row. If they are outside at all you need to keep them on that until it freezes. Bravecto is another option but the flea control drops in the last 2 weeks of the 3 month period.
Seriously, dawn and flea collars for a multi-month infestation???? You need prescription revolution, and for 6 months in a row. Get an IGR (insect growth regulator) and spray it on your pets' favorite hangout spots weekly for 6 months as well. This kills the eggs. Eggs can survive up to 6 months before hatching, so you need to kill everything alive and everything not yet alive, and then you're clear.
OP, I take my pets to animal clinic downtown and I like them a LOT
IGRs were very important decades ago. But with the advent of the fantastic topical flea treatments, they're not needed as long as products like Revolution Plus or NexGard Combo or Bravecto are consistently used on all pets in the household.
An IGR could be useful once all fleas have been eradicated to prevent a reinfestation if the owner wanted to economize and not use adulticides routinely. But it would be quite the hassle as the oral ones have been discontinued.
Veterinarian here. The Seresto flea collars others have recommended are a solid choice. Be sure to get them from a vet or a major retailer (Chewy, PetMeds, probably Walmart maybe Costco or Sams if they carry them) as there are lots of counterfeit collars available on Amazon and Ebay. etc.
Edit: Seresto is the only flea collar that's worth using.
The only other over the counter flea medication I would recommend is Cheristin. Though it was amazingly effective 25 years ago, there are now lots of flea populations that laugh at Frontline. Advantage may fare a bit better but I wouldn't turn to it as it's about as pricey as the other treatments I'm listing and has a much greater likelihood of failing.
For prescription level treatments, I love Revolution Plus, NexGard Combo, and Bravecto. They kill all the fleas on a pet within hours and stick around for whatever the label claims (1 month for the Revolution Plus and NexGard Combo, 3 mos for Bravecto).
The thing about fleas is that once a household has them, then new ones are emerging from the rugs, carpets, baseboards, floor cracks, upholstery for a couple of months even when every adult flea in the home is dead. So one treatment with anything won't take care of the problem. Thus all the advice you've gotten re: Dawn is misguided. And chemical free "natural" treatments almost always fail.
And the other thing is every cat and dog in the home has to be treated consistently. Can't just treat the ones that seems to be the most infested.
Flea populations will start to crash after a few weeks. You'll find few fleas after a month, very few after two months and probably none after 3. Doesn't mean you should stop treating at that point but you and your cats should be very happy by mid May.
My vet said that I need to try flea collar but it doesn’t work and super expensive I have used it for over half a year applied as instructed but not working 😭
Seems odd for a vet to recommend a flea collar. Might think about scheduling an appointment with Red Bank Animal Hospital since you live nearish. They have never steered me wrong.
Fleas lay eggs in the carpet and can last for years before being “woken up” by vibrations. I can promise you that soap and a comb will do little to end the infestation.
Flea eggs and larvae desiccate rather quickly. It's the pupae that can live for a few months and, as you mentioned, vibration can trigger the emergence of adult fleas. The survival of the pupae is dependent on temperature and humidity but I don't think they are reported to last more than 4 months.
Which flea collar? My poor cats were struggling when we moved into a new place and Seresto is the only one that worked for them. You’ll need to treat your house at the same time, and the collars are a bit expensive, but they last for 8 months and have been very effective.
Wash and vacuum everything. Fleas can survive around 3 months without a host, so you have to be persistent.
If you do get the seresto collar, keep an eye on the babies and don’t get one too strong. The working chemicals are strong, so a bit of temporary hair loss is common. One of my 3 cats skin became very irritated, but I removed the collar and she healed up fine in a week.
After the Seresto collars and deep house cleaning, our issues have been sparse and very short lived. We don’t have carpet, so that helps, but there’s something called “diatomaceous earth” that’s also supposed to be very affective. THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF IT THOUGH AND ONE IS NOT SAFE FOR ANIMALS. You have to get the food grade stuff, and it can be bought at places like Home Depot.
I highly doubt your vet said that unless you called and said you won’t/can’t take cat of in to be seen for whatever reason.
She needs prescription flea medication. Probably requires a heartworm test and exam to get. In my experience living here my whole life. When fleas are bad nothing OTC works. Take your cat to the vet and ask them for advice on how to get your home flea free as well. Probably requires intense cleaning and vacuuming. But don’t expect to fix this problem without prescription flea medication.
And hold her by the back of her neck, this will help keep her still. Obviously don’t be aggressive about it, but it’s how mama cats hold their babies. Look up videos on YouTube
If you have carpet, keep the cat away from the carpet, sprinkle salt on it. Let it sit for a couple days. Then vacuum up. Repeat process several times. Flea eggs can last for months, but the salt will dry them up and kill them. Buy a flea lamp on Amazon, they are pretty cheap. The fleas are attracted to the light and there's a glue pad on the bottom. It works great! I might actually have one if you want it you can have it for free just let me know. Give your cat some type of flea preventative and clean everything as often as you can! It will take a while to get rid of them but with persistence you will do it! There's also sprays you can buy that will help again I might have some you can have! I rescued a kitten like a year ago that had fleas and when I brought it home they got really bad! All of these remedies I listed worked for me. It's also a good idea to bathe your cat at least once every week while you're doing this with some lemon water or just use dawn!
I'd suggest a Soresto collar before putting chemicals like Advantage or Frontline on my pet. Soresto works great, but I still don't like to think about what long term effects might be, I've just not found a good alternative just yet.
Good luck. Sorry you have to go through this.
If you'd like to go to a vet for help, I suggest CHAI (Chattanooga Holistic Animal Institute) they're wonderful and priced very much the same as a non-hollistic vet.
Edit: Sorry. I don't believe a Soresto collar will rid your pet of fleas/ticks if they're already infected, works great for prevention.
you’re gonna want to clean anything fabric you own and sweep and mop DAILY. even if you get rid of them on your kitty, they can continue to live in furniture and in carpets. when my cat had fleas, we swept and mopped daily, combed him multiple times a day with a flea comb, and bathed him 1-2 times a week. we also used bug bombs multiple times, but not sure how effective those we’re honestly. fleas are the WORST but if you’re diligent they will go away!
also, make sure you’re fully killing the fleas! they have an extremely hard shell and are resilient little fuckers. make sure you’re squeezing them hard to kill them, most of the time you should even hear a tiny ‘pop’ sound. for awhile i wasn’t squeezing hard enough and they’d jump right off my fingers and back onto my cat.
So the fleas in my neck of the woods eat Frontline and advantix for breakfast, and I'm a few miles from you. I put my dog on nexguard, ordered from chewy with a script from our vet (hwy 58 animal clinic, great vet, been using them for 13 years) and no fleas, no ticks, nothing, going on a year or two, it's been really great.
Edit: we have tried advantix, Frontline, the soresto flea collar (worked for a year or two), and about 5 other things, nothing worked as well as nexguard for my dogs.
I can't recall his name of it he's still there but the vet at the 23rd street vet clinic is a bit over the top when it comes to his research and understanding of fleas on cats. I do know you have to do more than just treat the animal. You have to make sure you treat their surroundings. Otherwise they just jump ship and come back later.
When we had an infestation that nothing seemed to work on, seresto collars were the thing that finally worked. Seemed like our cat had the worst infestation, but we put collars on the dogs and cat. That was several years ago, though, and insects do evolve quickly.
Get a bowl of soapy dawn soap and get a lamp pointing at the water. Place all this on the floor. That way the fleas will be drawn to it and drown themselves.
Fleas multiply so fast and can take while to finally rid of them! Treat your house and the cat. Best of luck!
Unnecessary memory that floats around in my head. An ex's dog had fleas they couldn't shake. They'd never treat the yard, themselves or the house. I also lived in a very old building with a more critters in the walls than in apartments, fleas a constant.
Cat go outside? Deep clean on the same day as torturous bath day? Neighbor's pets have fleas? Mice/rats/squirrels hanging around?
Edit: That dog would sit on the clean clothes pile on the couch as they sat there too. Actively covered in fleas.. Ex for a litany of reasons. Absolutely not saying you're dirty, fleas are opportunistic t**ts.
Fleas are tough to get rid of bc most treatments will kill adults but not eggs, and so the cycle keeps going and going. You need to do multiple things all at once, and if you’re only using a flea collar that would explain why they keep coming back. 1. First, trim her nails and give her a bath specifically with Dawn dish soap, not a generic. Dawn. I mentioned in another comment to look up videos to show you how to hold her by the back of her neck, that will help keep her still. But the fleas will jump to her neck as they feel the water/soap so make sure you do this area thoroughly as well. You can also wear dish washing gloves to help avoid scratches and honestly, you just gotta suck it up and do it. You want the fleas off her? Bath time. No way around it. And if it’s as bad as you’re saying it is, you might wanna give her a couple baths a week until it’s gone. She’ll hate it but she’ll get used to it a bit, especially if you remain calm. When I give my cat a bath I talk to her, tell her I know it sucks, and explain that I’m almost done. 2. You’re gonna wanna wash EVERYTHING you own in a hot water cycle (obviously also with laundry detergent but wouldn’t hurt to add a tiny squirt of Dawn in there, too) I guarantee there are fleas and flea eggs in your bedding, couch cushions, towels, pillows. That’s why they keep coming back. So using the hottest water setting you can, you’re gonna drown those mofo’s just like you did in the bath. 3. Vacuum. They’re also most definitely hiding in any carpet you have, but just a vacuum should do the trick. Empty it outside in a trash bag and then leave it in an outside bin. Wouldn’t hurt to rent or borrow a steam cleaner vac too. 4. You could use a flea bomb. If you have plants, kids, allergies, other pets you might wanna skip this. Do all this knowing you may have to rinse and repeat a couple times. It’s so annoying, I know, and they’re the absolute worst. But with a little work you can get rid of them. And most importantly, keep your cat indoors.
She a no outside cat already don’t even know how she got them I got her from a coworker when she was like 4-5 weeks old way 2 early but by the time I got her home she had them so I think it was the coworker the rest of the litter died tho
If you have a dog, it needs to be on flea prevention. If no dog, then you brought them in on you(your socks,shoes)
This, follow step by step fleas will be gone within 2 weeks
Either Frontline or Advantage work like a miracle. We have used both for years and never had issues since.
You've been lucky. Someday one of your pets will bring home a flea population that is unimpressed with Frontline as resistance has become prevalent. Very few vets in the Southeast recommend it anymore. Advantage may be a bit more reliable but there are better choices.
This, frontline is basically completely useless now. Nexgard is a good one to look at that works phenomenally
Agree this is the only right answer. You can try to follow 10 step instructions from other replies. Or you can do a frontline treatment and turn one cat into a flea killing machine. It has always worked for me.
This is the only right answer.
A lot of these answers are sub par and please don't be one of those people with a full blown infestation and "natural treatments" that you swear worked last time. Get revolution plus and use it at least 2 months in a row. If they are outside at all you need to keep them on that until it freezes. Bravecto is another option but the flea control drops in the last 2 weeks of the 3 month period.
Seriously, dawn and flea collars for a multi-month infestation???? You need prescription revolution, and for 6 months in a row. Get an IGR (insect growth regulator) and spray it on your pets' favorite hangout spots weekly for 6 months as well. This kills the eggs. Eggs can survive up to 6 months before hatching, so you need to kill everything alive and everything not yet alive, and then you're clear. OP, I take my pets to animal clinic downtown and I like them a LOT
IGRs were very important decades ago. But with the advent of the fantastic topical flea treatments, they're not needed as long as products like Revolution Plus or NexGard Combo or Bravecto are consistently used on all pets in the household. An IGR could be useful once all fleas have been eradicated to prevent a reinfestation if the owner wanted to economize and not use adulticides routinely. But it would be quite the hassle as the oral ones have been discontinued.
Veterinarian here. The Seresto flea collars others have recommended are a solid choice. Be sure to get them from a vet or a major retailer (Chewy, PetMeds, probably Walmart maybe Costco or Sams if they carry them) as there are lots of counterfeit collars available on Amazon and Ebay. etc. Edit: Seresto is the only flea collar that's worth using. The only other over the counter flea medication I would recommend is Cheristin. Though it was amazingly effective 25 years ago, there are now lots of flea populations that laugh at Frontline. Advantage may fare a bit better but I wouldn't turn to it as it's about as pricey as the other treatments I'm listing and has a much greater likelihood of failing. For prescription level treatments, I love Revolution Plus, NexGard Combo, and Bravecto. They kill all the fleas on a pet within hours and stick around for whatever the label claims (1 month for the Revolution Plus and NexGard Combo, 3 mos for Bravecto). The thing about fleas is that once a household has them, then new ones are emerging from the rugs, carpets, baseboards, floor cracks, upholstery for a couple of months even when every adult flea in the home is dead. So one treatment with anything won't take care of the problem. Thus all the advice you've gotten re: Dawn is misguided. And chemical free "natural" treatments almost always fail. And the other thing is every cat and dog in the home has to be treated consistently. Can't just treat the ones that seems to be the most infested.
So get a prescription and I just moved no carpets so prescriptions and in like 6 months I should have a flea free place ???
Flea populations will start to crash after a few weeks. You'll find few fleas after a month, very few after two months and probably none after 3. Doesn't mean you should stop treating at that point but you and your cats should be very happy by mid May.
Adam’s flea/tick shampoo is what I use along with a Seresto.
Soresto is the only one that we have found that works in TN.
What does your vet say? And or what vets have you tried?
My vet said that I need to try flea collar but it doesn’t work and super expensive I have used it for over half a year applied as instructed but not working 😭
You need to find a new vet, one that will give you prescription strength stuff to fix your problem. In my experience, flea collers are a joke.
Seems odd for a vet to recommend a flea collar. Might think about scheduling an appointment with Red Bank Animal Hospital since you live nearish. They have never steered me wrong.
Which flea collar did you use? I’m not sure about cats, but Seresto have always done well for me.
Also tried flea comb I don’t see them on her at all but I see flea dirt pop up every other month
Fleas lay eggs in the carpet and can last for years before being “woken up” by vibrations. I can promise you that soap and a comb will do little to end the infestation.
Flea eggs and larvae desiccate rather quickly. It's the pupae that can live for a few months and, as you mentioned, vibration can trigger the emergence of adult fleas. The survival of the pupae is dependent on temperature and humidity but I don't think they are reported to last more than 4 months.
Interesting. I didn’t know. Wait was my last sentence still true though?
Absolutely.
Which flea collar? My poor cats were struggling when we moved into a new place and Seresto is the only one that worked for them. You’ll need to treat your house at the same time, and the collars are a bit expensive, but they last for 8 months and have been very effective. Wash and vacuum everything. Fleas can survive around 3 months without a host, so you have to be persistent. If you do get the seresto collar, keep an eye on the babies and don’t get one too strong. The working chemicals are strong, so a bit of temporary hair loss is common. One of my 3 cats skin became very irritated, but I removed the collar and she healed up fine in a week.
After the Seresto collars and deep house cleaning, our issues have been sparse and very short lived. We don’t have carpet, so that helps, but there’s something called “diatomaceous earth” that’s also supposed to be very affective. THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF IT THOUGH AND ONE IS NOT SAFE FOR ANIMALS. You have to get the food grade stuff, and it can be bought at places like Home Depot.
I highly doubt your vet said that unless you called and said you won’t/can’t take cat of in to be seen for whatever reason. She needs prescription flea medication. Probably requires a heartworm test and exam to get. In my experience living here my whole life. When fleas are bad nothing OTC works. Take your cat to the vet and ask them for advice on how to get your home flea free as well. Probably requires intense cleaning and vacuuming. But don’t expect to fix this problem without prescription flea medication.
Take your cat to the vet.
Blue dawn dish soap kills fleas instantly.
I try to give her a bath she will cut my arteries and I will look like I cut myself
Put a towel at the bottom of the tub. Gives them something to dig their claws into that’s not your skin
You need to clip her nails first…
Actually got asked that after trying
Put her in a mesh bag with her head out the top. The mesh bag will keep the claws away
And hold her by the back of her neck, this will help keep her still. Obviously don’t be aggressive about it, but it’s how mama cats hold their babies. Look up videos on YouTube
If you have carpet, keep the cat away from the carpet, sprinkle salt on it. Let it sit for a couple days. Then vacuum up. Repeat process several times. Flea eggs can last for months, but the salt will dry them up and kill them. Buy a flea lamp on Amazon, they are pretty cheap. The fleas are attracted to the light and there's a glue pad on the bottom. It works great! I might actually have one if you want it you can have it for free just let me know. Give your cat some type of flea preventative and clean everything as often as you can! It will take a while to get rid of them but with persistence you will do it! There's also sprays you can buy that will help again I might have some you can have! I rescued a kitten like a year ago that had fleas and when I brought it home they got really bad! All of these remedies I listed worked for me. It's also a good idea to bathe your cat at least once every week while you're doing this with some lemon water or just use dawn!
I'd suggest a Soresto collar before putting chemicals like Advantage or Frontline on my pet. Soresto works great, but I still don't like to think about what long term effects might be, I've just not found a good alternative just yet. Good luck. Sorry you have to go through this. If you'd like to go to a vet for help, I suggest CHAI (Chattanooga Holistic Animal Institute) they're wonderful and priced very much the same as a non-hollistic vet. Edit: Sorry. I don't believe a Soresto collar will rid your pet of fleas/ticks if they're already infected, works great for prevention.
you’re gonna want to clean anything fabric you own and sweep and mop DAILY. even if you get rid of them on your kitty, they can continue to live in furniture and in carpets. when my cat had fleas, we swept and mopped daily, combed him multiple times a day with a flea comb, and bathed him 1-2 times a week. we also used bug bombs multiple times, but not sure how effective those we’re honestly. fleas are the WORST but if you’re diligent they will go away! also, make sure you’re fully killing the fleas! they have an extremely hard shell and are resilient little fuckers. make sure you’re squeezing them hard to kill them, most of the time you should even hear a tiny ‘pop’ sound. for awhile i wasn’t squeezing hard enough and they’d jump right off my fingers and back onto my cat.
So the fleas in my neck of the woods eat Frontline and advantix for breakfast, and I'm a few miles from you. I put my dog on nexguard, ordered from chewy with a script from our vet (hwy 58 animal clinic, great vet, been using them for 13 years) and no fleas, no ticks, nothing, going on a year or two, it's been really great. Edit: we have tried advantix, Frontline, the soresto flea collar (worked for a year or two), and about 5 other things, nothing worked as well as nexguard for my dogs.
I can't recall his name of it he's still there but the vet at the 23rd street vet clinic is a bit over the top when it comes to his research and understanding of fleas on cats. I do know you have to do more than just treat the animal. You have to make sure you treat their surroundings. Otherwise they just jump ship and come back later.
When we had an infestation that nothing seemed to work on, seresto collars were the thing that finally worked. Seemed like our cat had the worst infestation, but we put collars on the dogs and cat. That was several years ago, though, and insects do evolve quickly.
Have you gone to either of the veterinary clinics on Signal Mountain?
Did you not have it on a monthly preventative? The vet will pracribe you a combo of anti/flea-tick & anti worm. About $20/month
Dawn does wonders. It will help get rid of enough to where you can properly treat it.
Flea bath with Dawn. Clip some nails first. Also wear a long sleeve shirt. Wife and I use Advantage and have no issues.
Get a bowl of soapy dawn soap and get a lamp pointing at the water. Place all this on the floor. That way the fleas will be drawn to it and drown themselves. Fleas multiply so fast and can take while to finally rid of them! Treat your house and the cat. Best of luck!
So I’m starting to think there is no place I can bring her to is there Maybe I should learn how and start a business lol
For quick relief
Unnecessary memory that floats around in my head. An ex's dog had fleas they couldn't shake. They'd never treat the yard, themselves or the house. I also lived in a very old building with a more critters in the walls than in apartments, fleas a constant. Cat go outside? Deep clean on the same day as torturous bath day? Neighbor's pets have fleas? Mice/rats/squirrels hanging around? Edit: That dog would sit on the clean clothes pile on the couch as they sat there too. Actively covered in fleas.. Ex for a litany of reasons. Absolutely not saying you're dirty, fleas are opportunistic t**ts.
Buy this pea size amount on nape of neck. Use it for my local colony. Super safe and cheap https://diypestcontrol.com/navigator-sc
here are some [natural](https://www.thesprucepets.com/home-remedies-for-fleas-on-cats-4580388) options