Advice on fleas?

[Mel94]

My mum’s cat has unfortunately brought fleas in from when he goes outside and they’ve infected Thumper and Angel. We’ve been using Advantage on the buns, but is there a limit for how many weekly doses you can safely give them? The cat has just been given Advantage as well, after Frontline proved to be useless.

 

Also, is there a way to safely get rid of them on the carpet and furniture? I looked on Google about it and I saw people saying use a flea powder, but could someone please recommend me a safe but effective brand and guidelines on how to protect the buns while using it? 

 

Thank you.

[jerseygirl]

The dose for Advantage should only be given every 30 days.
Be careful with using Frontline on your other pets as this is toxic to rabbits. It more affects them if applied topically, but play it safe and limit your other pets interaction with your rabbits if you have used it.

I believe borate based powders are safe to use for carpet and furniture. Sorry, I don’t know of any brands. Food-grade diatomaceous earth is another. Just remove the rabbits from the room for 24hours. Vaccuming can help and pop a flea collar inside your vacuum bag or chamber to deal with anything vacuumed up. Apply spray or powder after that.

[LBJ10]

I agree with Jersey. You don’t want to over apply flea treatments. The best thing to do is get rid of the source. It sounds like they are laying eggs in the carpet and then reinfesting the animals in the house. Diatomaceous earth is safe to use. Remove the buns from the area. Sprinkle generously on the carpets and let it sit for as long as possible. Up to 24 hours is best. Then vacuum the area thoroughly. Do not let buns come in contact with the powder. It’s non-toxic, but the fine powder can cause respiratory irritation is inhaled.

[Mel94]

That’s confusing, we took both buns to the vets to get their scabs the fleas were causing looked at and the locum vet there at the time said that Advantage only lasts for a week on bunnies. :S That’s quite worrying.

We aren’t using Frontline on the cat anymore, but at the time, we did cover the settees and let the buns run in another room for the first 24 hours or so after applying it and the cat can’t be trusted around them, so they never interact.

Thank you for the advice on what products to use on the carpet.

[Mel94]

They were actually due another dose of Advantage tonight, so I’m glad I checked on here before and found out. I can’t believe that!

 

Edit – I just looked on the back of the packet for Advantage and it says 4 weeks on dogs, 3-4 weeks on cats and up to 1 week on rabbits. :S 

 

[LBJ10]

Hmm, I hadn’t heard that about Advantage. I know they can metabolize Revolution faster, but it’s more like 3 weeks. Only one week seems like such a short amount of time.

MediRabbits has this to say:
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Parasitic/fleas/Fleas.htm

imidacloprid: Advantage® – Bayer, one single application is generally sufficient to remove the fleas. If this is not the case, the treatment can be repeated after 30 days. The vapors of this product can lead to irritation of the eyes; it is thus recommended to aerate the room where the rabbit lives in.

[Mel94]

Is it possible that maybe you’re thinking of the dosage for larger cats and rabbits? My mum has the over 4kg package for her cat and it has a picture of a rabbit on the front too. Maybe the bigger the animal, the higher dosage they need and need a bigger gap between treatments? Thumper’s 4lbs and Angel is only 2.8lbs, so maybe their bodies have to have a lesser dosage so it doesn’t harm them? I don’t know, I’m pretty confused and unsure how to proceed with their treatment.

 

We’ve repeated the Advantage treatment because we found that Frontline didn’t work on the cat, but we couldn’t put Advantage on him until the 4 weeks had passed. 

[LBJ10]

I’m just going off of what MediRabbit says. Bayer’s website says that if re-treatment is required earlier than 4 weeks, then it needs to be at least one week since the last dose. This applies to all animals. Although not ideal, Bayer says their product is OK being applied weekly if necessary.

I personally have never used Advantage. I’ve only used Revolution and I know sometimes you have to reapply after 3 weeks, instead of 4 weeks.

One thing to keep in mind with all topical flea treatments is that the risk of side effects increases when the doses are closer together. Revolution and Advantage are considered safe though and side effects are mild (e.g. hair loss).

[jerseygirl]

Everything I am reading is dose the same as a cat also. So only every 30 days. From the packaging, Im reading that as it only gives protection for a week on rabbits but doesn’t indicate that dosage should therefore be once a week.
If in doubt, play it cautiously and only do monthly during an infestation, if required. You may get on top of it from the single dose, then using a flea comb and treating other pets and environment while the number drops from that first dose.

[Mel94]

I was just looking on Google for anything specific about how often to administer it on rabbits and I found a summary of product characteristics from VMD.

It says: Treatment should be repeated after 4 weeks. Treatment of nursing beotches and queens controls flea infestations on both dam and offspring. Fleas are killed within one day following treatment. One treatment prevents further flea infestation on dogs and cats for up to 4 weeks and on rabbits for up to one week. Should re-treatment become necessary earlier than 4 weeks, do not re-treat more frequently than weekly.

So if I’m reading this right, the product only works for 1 week on bunnies, but you have to wait 4 weeks to reapply it? That doesn’t seem to make much sense, that means any festering fleas on the furniture or carpet can hassle bunnies after that time.

[Bam]

Mel94, I’m reading it like: If you need to re-apply sooner than after a month, wait at least 1 week between applications. Once a week is the maximum frequency of treatment.

Rabbits seem to metabolize the active ingredient faster than other species pets. They could still be some left on the skin because it also kills on contact, but the substance will be gone from the blood after one week.

[LBJ10]

Bam – That’s how I was reading it too.

[Bam]

LBJ
It still must be possible to eradicate fleas in a rabbit-household, otherwise all rabbits that share a home with a cat or dog would have fleas all their lives. And they don’t, of course.

[LBJ10]

I still believe it is good practice to apply at the minimum frequency needed to get the job done. If bunny keeps getting reinfested after a week, then additional steps need to be taken to eliminate fleas from their source. Otherwise, you would be endlessly applying the Advantage weekly, which isn’t very practical either.

[flemishwhite]

I’m not familiar with Advantage.  I’ve used Revolution several times with great success.

If you have a strictly house rabbit, you can’t be guaranteed of not getting fleas!  As a human, just walking in the grass can cause a hungry flea to jump on you. Fleas greatly prefer hairy animals. They will jump on you and when you walk into your house with a flea, it will have a strong propensity to jump on your rabbit.  My wife does our gardening and she often has a flea bite on her ankle.  People walk their dogs in front of our house and their are sometimes cats in out back yard.  We’ve had some problems with our house rabbits getting fleas. Revolution got rid of the fleas.

 Also, taking your animal to the vet is a good way to get fleas!  Someone bringing in their pet, lousy with fleas, may have visited before you.  Anyhow, once again Revolution..  Unfortunately, it’s a little expensive.

[Mel94]

Ok, I’m going to leave the treatment for this week and keep checking their scabs to see if they appear to be scratching at the area again. Thanks guys!

Is this the product that you recommended for the carpets?: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Diatomaceous-Earth-Fresh-Water-DiatomPure%C2%AE/dp/B01IBZH2B0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473739522&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=Diatomaceous+earth&psc=1 Just double checking before I buy it. Also, should the cat be kept away from the carpet while it’s down, too? It’s kind of awkward with him because he’s been in a bad fight before years ago, so my mum doesn’t like him being outside for too long and he doesn’t like being closed off in a separate room, he’ll meow like crazy even with his food, water and litter tray with him.

[LBJ10]

I’m not familiar with that brand. But it says food grade so it should be fine.

[Mel94]

Ok thank you.

Sorry for bugging you with questions, but you mentioned above about possible side effects from overuse of flea treatment. Could that include lumps on the eyelid and tear ducts? It could be unrelated, but I noticed them on Thumper Thursday night and we took him to the vets on Friday. Our usual vet was working at another branch and he’s currently the only permanent vet there after his colleague left, so we saw a locum who wasn’t too experienced with rabbits. We wanted to get him seen to, so we took the appointment anyway rather than wait for the normal vet to be there on the Monday. The locum found a vein running to the lump of his eyelid and put some liquid in to show up any damage and she said it appeared fine, she thought it might be a water blister. She seemed a little unsure with the tear duct lump though, personally I don’t feel like they’re the same looking type of lumps. She prescribed him Isathal eyedrops to be given twice a day. We’re on day 5 now and his eye isn’t looking any better, I think the lumps might look a little bigger. Here’s a picture I took tonight.

 

He has a follow up appointment on Friday with our usual vet so he can hopefully find out what the lumps are caused by and treat them. I feel so bad for Thumps, it looks so sore. His eye is watery, but so far there hasn’t been any discharge. 

[LBJ10]

Hmm, I wouldn’t think so. We had another member with a similar problem awhile back.

https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/142899/Default.aspx

[Mel94]

Thumper had his appointment today and the vet thinks the lumps are from blocked glands in his eye. The poor little guy had to have them lanced, he was so brave and barely moved at all throughout. If they’ve not gone by next week then he may have to have the lumps surgically removed. The vet is hoping it won’t have to come to that because he said their eyelids are so thin, patching up a missing piece isn’t easy to do.

 

Thumper was so sweet, as soon as the vet was finished with his eye and the pain relief and anti inflammatory, he came over to me and stood up to my chest for me to comfort him, bless him.

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