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Post by Gianna on Aug 12, 2018 22:45:52 GMT -5
One of the cats has brought fleas into the house. Except for one or two brief incursions, we have essentially been flea-free for about 25 years. Advantage had come into our lives, and no more fleas. Happy, happy!
Unfortunately they are also on the second cat now too. I did not notice the signs early enough. The past couple days I've been trying to see if flea combing, etc., would be enough to prevent a full out-break, but I'm not sure it will. First day I got about 20 fleas from both cats, then maybe 10, and today about 10 again. And there would be more from where he picked them up originally since he still goes outside, and roams a wee bit.
I have some Advantage at the ready but would prefer to not use it. Think I'll wait one more day of flea combing to bring out the big guns. It really depends on whether the 'new' fleas have already laid eggs around the house. I've also vacuumed and washed kitty beds, but if they are here in those numbers, they are probably settled in.
I hate fleas. It's been so nice without them.
It just occurred to me - he probably got them from across the street. They have a lawn, and their nice old dog recently died. They have no other pets, so my cat (who I saw over there) probably became very attractive to the orphaned fleas. They had kept their dog well-bathed however, but who knows.
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Post by brownrexx on Aug 13, 2018 6:26:08 GMT -5
Oh, I HATE fleas. Poor kitties. Now you will also have to watch for tapeworms because fleas carry their eggs and transmit them to the pets.
Our cats picked up fleas (and later worms!) once when one of them went to the vet and had to stay for a few hours! Grrrr
Good luck.
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Post by september on Aug 13, 2018 9:32:34 GMT -5
Only had fleas on my cats once a long time ago, and I have to assume they came from chipmunks or mice they hunted and ate. Actually, only one did the most hunting, but spread fleas to the other one. We live in the woods and there were very few other neighbor cats that they could have come in contact with. Being neutered, they had no interest in love or fighting so would have no reason to want to be in close contact with strangers they didn't like. Yes, the black one had to be treated for tapeworms periodically because of his hunting small varmints. Luckily, the fleas only popped up once, and took about a month to fully eradicate. This before Advantage was commonly available.
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Aug 13, 2018 10:51:52 GMT -5
Fleas are the reason we have our baby girl. My niece called us and asked if we wanted a puppy because someone she knew of was selling them. My answer was NO!
So, wife and niece go to look at them anyway. Wife calls me and says, "babe, we have to do something, this poor thing is covered in fleas." "Can I please bring her home, she is so precious!" So I replied "ok, bring her home."
Wife runs to Walmart and get a dish pan. Several shampoos later we had a beautiful black & tan Dachshund. This poor thing would not have lasted another week. She had flea mound buildup all in her ears and all over her body. She was only 5 weeks old and has been my constant companion since.
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Post by brownrexx on Aug 13, 2018 11:36:01 GMT -5
This poor thing would not have lasted another week. Poor baby - but she landed in the nicest home she was ever likely to find. She is probably more pampered that some people! Fleas do not only live on cats and dogs. They are on all sorts of rodents, and any other mammals that live outdoors. Your cats can contact them on blades of grass where the eggs are just waiting. They do not have to be in close proximity to other cats or dogs. Interestingly, I ride horses once a week and although they do occasionally get a tick on them and flies love to bite them, they don't ever have fleas on them. I wonder why?
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Post by Gianna on Aug 13, 2018 15:04:49 GMT -5
Oh, I HATE fleas. Poor kitties. Now you will also have to watch for tapeworms because fleas carry their eggs and transmit them to the pets. First cat I ever had had tape worms. I had no clue.... First one I saw was shocking to me. I'd forgotten however, and am now watching for those too. ICK!!! I don't know the origin of these fleas and since we have lots of wild critters, perhaps the likelihood of tape worms might be higher.
I'm flea combing 5-6 times per day and only got 5 total from both cats this morning. So I'll wait another day before Advantaging them. Unless I get a good number more later today. One cat likes to be flea-combed, the other is still suspicious.
As for horses, do they have a thicker hide that fleas can't penetrate?
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Post by mgulfcoastguy on Aug 13, 2018 15:09:46 GMT -5
A woman that I know has 2 cats and a dog. When they get infested she just puts Advantage on the youngest and strongest. The fleas migrate back and forth.
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Post by brownrexx on Aug 13, 2018 15:16:34 GMT -5
As for horses, do they have a thicker hide that fleas can't penetrate? You may be right about that. They are definitely thick skinned.
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Post by paquebot on Aug 13, 2018 22:04:16 GMT -5
Friend went to Florida and took his dog with him. Came back with some huge variety and then he moved to a place where he could not have pets. I ended up with the dog and fleas. House was quuckly so infested that the cat would only sleep on top of the piano. Soeinkled Sevin throughout the house and took care of the fleas. Only had them once since then and just the local type.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Aug 15, 2018 14:06:48 GMT -5
When I had an apartment at college, there were lots of stray cats outside, so even though my cats were indoors, we had flea infestation over and over and over. (Fleas hitchhiked in on DH and I, then infested our cats and bred indoors.) They got so bad at times they were biting DH and me, too! I can't tell you all the things we tried to keep them under control, but there was always a new supply coming in. This was when Advantage was available from vets only. We were starving students at the time, but we still should have ponied up for it - it would have saved us and our cats from a lot of misery.
When we moved to our rental house after that, the very last thing we did before we put the cats in the cat carrier to come to the new place was give them a bath with flea shampoo. DH also treated the carpets before we moved in. Since my cats didn't bring any fleas in, and there weren't many stray cats, we were flea-free the whole time we lived there. When we moved in here, we again had the carpets treated (previous owner had a dog) and bathed the cats with flea shampoo before bringing them. Again, we had no fleas for many years.
Unfortunately, my cat Lily likes to go outside in my garden. I have to keep her with me at all times due to the leash law here. Despite the leash law, there are cats around every once in a while, and other crittrs, too. So Lily picks up a few fleas every now and then. Lily used to be a stray, and and she will NOT put up with being combed or bathed. So, we use Advantage - else we would have fleas again. Fortunately both cats seem to tolerate the Advantage and it works well. In most years I should be able to give the cats a few months' break from the Advantage in the coldest part of the year and resume when it warms up in the spring.
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Post by paquebot on Aug 15, 2018 20:25:56 GMT -5
Good to see Laura confirm what I wenr through here. They were the same fleas that she had and they would also bite humans. I would think that they are a separate species found only in the SE. Compared to our local ones which are mostly an annoyance, those Florida buggers were like a rat versus a mouse. Luckily the whole city didn't become infested.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Aug 15, 2018 21:41:14 GMT -5
Laura_in_FL, Wait? What? Did you say cat on a leash? I ain't never seen one on a leash. How do they take to that? You can tell I'm out here in BFE.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Aug 17, 2018 9:34:28 GMT -5
You can leash train most cats, but it's very, very hard unless you start when they are kittens. Cats are also really good at slipping a simple collar, so harnesses or vests are usually used to attach the leash. Even once your cat is trained to the leash, you don't walk a cat like a dog. You can't really dictate where to go. You can make suggestions by bribing with treats or walking ahead and calling the cat to you if your cat is one that comes when called. But most of the time, "walking the cat" is just the person following the cat around while the cat explores wherever it wants. If you're curious about the training method: www.wikihow.com/Leash-Train-a-CatBut in practice, very few people have the time or patience to leash train a cat. I think I have seen someone walking the neighborhood with a cat on a leash one time many years ago. I tried it briefly over 20 years ago and decided it was too much effort for the benefit. Really, living in an area with a leash law that applies to cats just means people keep their cats indoors. Some folks might have an enclosed outdoor cat run in their backyards.(I don't know for sure, since everyone around here has a privacy fence.) In my case, I just let the cat into the fenced back yard for brief periods while watching her, and use treats to bribe her to come back when she leaves the yard.
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Post by september on Aug 17, 2018 10:14:19 GMT -5
I would not want to walk a cat on a leash in a public area. If you were accosted by a stray dog, your body would probably have a series of bleeding puncture wounds as the cat climbed up to safety on the top of your head! Back in the '70's on a connecting flight from ?Amsterdam? to Paris, a young man got on with a leashed Siamese cat on his shoulder to sit in first class. As we walked past his seat, you could smell the acrid urine fear smell from the cat. Glad we didn't have to sit in first class! Poor cat. He would have no doubt been happier in a carrier where he could hide.
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Post by Gianna on Aug 17, 2018 12:15:04 GMT -5
I tried training one of the cats to a harness. I cracked before the cat was fully adapted.
Previous cats were fine in this backyard fenced with wire 5 feet and with 2X4 inch mesh with no escapes (besides occasional carelessness) for years. Then Devil Boy arrived. See avatar. He put his bayonet between his teeth and scaled that fence the first time he saw it. Sigh. He was used to going outside in his previous life, so keeping him indoors meant constant whining... So now he goes outdoors in a limited way (hence the fleas), and if the coyotes get him, I will heart-broken, but so be it.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Aug 21, 2018 11:34:12 GMT -5
Lily has no problems with my 6' privacy fence. She climbs it, jumps it, squeezes through any tiny gaps between boards or underneath. When she wants out of the yard, there's no keeping her in. Once time she slipped away from me when we were out in the garden and didn't come back when I called, so I left the backyard and started looking. When I finally found her she was on the next door neighbor's roof. (They have an oak tree that overhangs their house.) I convinced her to come back down with the offer of treats. Cats don't like climbing down trees; it's really awkward for them. But they *can* do it when sufficiently motivated.
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