Aghhhh! I found a flea on my cat!

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This topic has 10sd replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 17 years, 2 months ago by Kokaneeandkahlua.

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- 12/18/2008 at 10:54 AM
  LittlePuffyTail
  Moderator
  18092 posts
  I just found one flea while I was combing her but lots of gross, little black flea dirt. My other cats seem fine, I combed them all really well. I know my rabbits don’t have fleas because I brush and handle them everynight and it would be a lot easier to see if they had flea dirt on them.
  
  I know when your house has fleas you need to vacuum and spray carpets and furniture with flea spray but what about my rabbits? I’m very concerned about using any of this stuff because my rabbits have out time in these areas. What should I do?
  
  I keep my friggin cats indoors and they still get fleas! This is sooo frustrating!!!
- 12/18/2008 at 11:05 AM
  xParadise
  Participant
  182 posts
  I don’t think spraying is necessary, not to mention costly and not really even safe for humans to breath in. The best way (although it may take a bit longer) is to treat all your animals, I believe you can even use cat flea treatment on rabbits- just a different dose. Someone else will know better than me. This will kill all the live fleas on the animals and eventually the eggs will hatch and it will kill them too. In the meantime- vacuum, vacuum, vacuum, and steam clean if you can.
  
  Fleas can live off human blood, but cannot reproduce. So soon enough their family line will come to an end and your problem will be solved. It’s a good thing you caught it so early, I’m sure you will have no problem getting rid of them if there are only a few. Good luck!
- 12/18/2008 at 1:45 PM
  KatnipCrzy
  Participant
  2981 posts
  You will need to treat all the animals in the house even if you do not see fleas or flea dirt on the bunnies. Cats and bunnies are very clean critters and they probably groom a lot of the flea dirt and actual fleas off of themselves. If you don’t treat the buns you run a huge risk of not clearing up the problem until you treat ALL the pets. Especially if the topical flea meds make the cats less appealing to the fleas- rabbits might show a higher infestation then.
  
  Safe for bunnies is Revolution Cat or Advantage Cat- NEVER FRONTLINE, and never any of the combo treatments- Advantix, Advantage Multi,etc. Revolution is prescription since it is also heartworm preventative for cats, but Advantage is typically not prescription.
  
  After treating all the pets, you will want to vacuum the whole house especially the areas where the pets are- if they like to go under the bed, couch, chair, etc- be sure to get under those items. Be sure to empty the vacuum afterwords- getting rid of the bag or emptying the canister and getting it AWAY from the house/garage, etc where the fleas can hatch and get back into the home environment.
  
  Any items that can be washed such as bedding should be washed.
  
  Typically to make sure that the flea life cycle is broken and the problem is truly gone you will need to treat all the pets for 2-3 months straight. There are some life cycles of the flea that need to hatch before they can be killed- and that can take a couple of months.
  
  You can call your vet to see what they recommend and what products they carry and if they have any other suggestions for treatment.
- 12/18/2008 at 5:07 PM
  LittlePuffyTail
  Moderator
  18092 posts
  Well I went to the vet tonight and got some Revolution to treat all the cats. I’m going to do that tonight. I vacuumed the house very obsessively, especially where the buns run in the living room and blocked the cats out of the room. I checked the house and saw no signs of fleas so I’m going to wait before treating the rabbits. I want to make sure I need to before treating them. I’m going to thoroughly groom and check over all 3 rabbits tonight.
  
  I’m quite sure I don’t have a flea infestation because none of my animals are scratching, not even the one I found the flea on and most of my cats, including flea kitty sleep on my bed every night and I have never had any bites or itchiness.
  
  Anyone else have a flea scare??? Any other suggestions?
- 12/18/2008 at 6:15 PM
  Scarlet_Rose
  Participant
  4293 posts
  LPT, do your rabbits lick your cats? If so, I would just be sure they don’t ingest it.
- 12/18/2008 at 7:02 PM
  LittlePuffyTail
  Moderator
  18092 posts
  No, the rabbits don’t lick the cats. They want nothing to do with each other so that’s not something I have to worry about. When Stormy runs he chases all the cats out of the room, first thing
- 12/18/2008 at 7:21 PM
  Scarlet_Rose
  Participant
  4293 posts
  LOL! O.K., I thought I would just run it by you just in case.
- 12/19/2008 at 4:12 AM
  LittlePuffyTail
  Moderator
  18092 posts
  I just talked to my friend who works at my vet’s office and she said I should do the buns too. But like I said though, I’ve yet to find more than one flea in the house. I’m so VERY leery though of putting chemicals on my buns seeing how sensitive they are. Is the stuff for bunnies topical like the stuff I did my cats with? What’s the best brand to use? If I put it on them (on their neck I assume?) and it gets on their hay or something by them laying down or they ingest it through washing, is that okay? Paranoid much? Yes, yes I sure am
  
  I still haven’t decided if I’m going to do them or not. Like I said, I hate to treat them for fleas they don’t have but I don’t want to freak out and vacuum for 20 minutes before letting them out either and obsess about them getting fleas.
  
  I am NOT a good person to be dealing with this as I am very obsessive compulsive when it comes to bugs in my house, germs or the health of my buns
- 12/21/2008 at 10:18 PM
  Kokaneeandkahlua
  Participant
  12067 posts
  LOL *deep breaths*
  
  If the vet recommends it, I’d say go for it; I don’t think it would stress them out or cause probs otherwise. I believe frontline is a brand they can have, but all I remember is they cannot have revolution. Hopefully someone more helpful then me comes along!
- 12/23/2008 at 5:04 AM
  LittlePuffyTail
  Moderator
  18092 posts
  Actually I did some research and according to the vet, they can have Advantage or Revolution for Cats. Frontline is the dangerous one that should never be used for rabbits. Since I was worried about giving it to them, I decided to treat one rabbit per night to help eliminate stress! Stormy and Olivia had their treatment and they are both fine. Tonight is Bindi’s turn. It’s Revolution I’m using. The vet pre-measured doses into syringes for each of them according to their weight.
- 12/23/2008 at 9:30 PM
  Kokaneeandkahlua
  Participant
  12067 posts
  Ahhhh touche! I’m glad its going well though!!
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