My cat has fleas!

This is the first time ever that I am dealing with fleas. I saw my cat itching his back and I looked closely and pulled something off. I pulled it off with a tweezers and put it on my counter and sure enough, it jumped! I knew it was a flea..yuck. Anyways, I stuck my cat in warm bath water with flea killing shampoo and bathed him. My cat DOES NOT like water so this was a real challenge. I also heard that laying down salt on the carpet will bring all of the fleas up to the top of the carpet because it dries them out. Is this true?
How do I know that all of the fleas are gone? I brushed him and didn't find anything, but how can I be 100% positive?

I really don't think you can be 100% positive they're gone with cats or dogs. My poodle is white and when I bathe her, you can really see her light pink skin and any black fleas on her. Every time I bathed her in the summer (flea) months I would find anywhere from 10-20 fleas on her. I'd take them off and kill them (just putting them in a small drop of dog shampoo that I squirt on a plate does the trick), then I'd double check everywhere on Gigi to make sure I got them all. When I think I have and start to dry her, sure enough 2-3 more fleas would be on her. Argh! It is really frustrating, right? And even when you do get them off, you take the chance that they will jump back on from going outside again or from even just being in your home.

Every summer we have to apply Advantage to our 3 cats and 1 dog and flea bomb the whole house. I just look at it as a given each summer that we will have to deal with it. Even though all our pets are indoor pets, humans can bring in fleas from working in the yard.

I just experienced the same thing with my two cats and unfortunately a simple bath, even one with flea shampoo, won't do the trick. Most of the time those baths only kill the adult fleas and do nothing for killing the eggs, not to mention the eggs are likely located throughout your house wherever your pets sleep the most often. I brought my cats to the vet and they gave me a 3 month supply of Revolution for each cat that I have to apply, they also suggested vacuuming the entire house regularly, especially where the cats sleep. If your flea problem is especially bad you may need to flea bomb your house or have an exterminator come in. Good luck!

I found out the hard way that getting rid of fleas is a long drawn-out process. The main problem is that the fleas don't only live on the cat. They also live in the cracks along the walls and they also live on other animals nearby. So it takes a combination of techniques to really get rid of the fleas.

One of the first things you should do is to get an anti-flea floor cleaning liquid. Then clean every single place that your cat goes to in the house, which is probably just about everywhere. Then you need to bath your cat with an anti-flea shampoo.

Fleas can survive for a very long time even without food. Some can even survive for up to two years. However they must suck blood to produce eggs. So one way of breaking their breeding cycle is to deny them the blood which they need to produce the eggs. What this amounts to is that cleaning your house with the anti-flea liquid and bathing your cat with the anti-flea shampoo is something that is not just done once. You have to keep on doing it until you do not see any more fleas around. Then you just keep on doing it for, say, just as long again to be very sure. For example, if you took one month to reach a flea-free situation, then keep on using the anti-flea liquid and anti-flea shampoo for one more month.

Here's a picture to give you a better idea what you are up against:


For more information, check this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flea

I looked it up, and I found Advantage II Flea Control for Cats seem to be work well for flea control on cats, it has good customer reviews.

It is hard to be sure if the flea is "100%" gone. If they got loose on your carpet or elsewhere in your house, you might want to consider "flea bomb" the entire house.

The problem is not just a question of the fleas being 100% gone. The main problem is that whenever the cat goes outside, there is every possibility of meeting another cat with fleas. Then the cat will bring home some unwanted visitors. Even if the cat doesn't meet another cat with fleas, there may still be fleas lurking in the yard. So it's a neverending battle.

Yes, I agree that fleas could live anywhere.. furniture Upholstery, nooks and crannies of furniture, mats, carpets, rugs etc. That is why it is really hard to get rid of fleas. Frequently bathing cats with anti flea shampoo and cleaning flea bombing and using flea powder all over the home would help. The problem is when we get a bit comfortable thinking our pets are flea free they come back again.
Each time your pet goes out the risk gets higher.. Having an anti flea collar would help.

This is my personal experience speaking.

Flea bombing the house, unless the infestation is extremely severe, isn't necessary. By using Revolution or Advantage on the cats and thoroughly vacuuming the house daily for a week or two, you'll get rid of the fleas and eggs pretty quickly. One trick I've used for years is to put one mothball into the vacuum cleaner bag. Just one. It will kill the fleas and eggs that you suck up out of the carpets and furniture, so you don't have to change the bag every time you vacuum.

Flea collars are pretty much useless, if they were strong enough to kill all the fleas on the cat, they'd be too poisonous to use.

Some cats have reactions to the one-drop medications like Revolution, so do keep a close eye on your kitty and if he/she begins shaking or twitching, wash him as quickly as possible and get him to the vet! In all the years I've had cats, I only had one that had a reaction to the meds, so I believe we used a different, weaker medication the next time and it worked just fine.

WARNING: Keep the mothballs out of reach of children and pets.

Hi Dash, sorry to hear, but I will give you what worked for me.

I agree with PMom but I sprinkle flea powder over the carpet to get them up & jumping, then after a few, I vacuum them & the flea power up. Now, as far as your cat, I did 2 things; One, to get rid of existing fleas, work the flea powder really deep into your cat's coat, then put her in a pillow case - head up & out of it of course! But cinch it up loosely around the cat & hold her for a while as the concentrated effects of the powder does a great job, then take him/her out & brush/comb it extensively or you can give a bath, which may not work for your cat!


Best wishes in your flea battle !

We had eleven cats at one point (now we have four) and we did not have a flea problem as long as we kept the cats indoors. Recently, a wild cat from outside ran into our home and infested our house so we have fleas again. But whenever we have a flea problem, using flea medicine is good enough. We never had to flea bomb our house and they would all eventually die and never come back. Some flea medicines work better than others though. Whenever my mom catches a flea on her she would have a cup with water mixed with dishwasher soap nearby and dunk the flea into the soapy water and leave them there for a while. They would die and we would dump it out. My dad believes that vacuuming up the fleas helps but my mom thinks that they will jump out or that they would make eggs and they'd hatch so she would dump out the bag afterwards. Right now we have some flea carpet powder on the floor and it does not help because the fleas are still here. We are simply waiting for the next time we can put flea medicine on our cats since my dad wanted to save money and bought a cheaper medicine that did not work the last time.

I incorporated flea powder & vacuuming, in that I sprinkled it on the floor & vacuumed the entire carpet & the fleas cannot survive the flea powdered bag. The word has been, over many a year that fleas only spend 10% of their life on the animal & the other 90% on carpets, furniture, in the grass, etc.

There are a lot of great suggestions already here, but I thought I would share my own experience. My outdoor cat came in contact with my inside cats, exposing them to fleas. The thing about fleas is it's not as simple as a bath. Baths help eliminate the adult fleas. You then need to check them (lie them on their belly) for fleas and pick off any of the ones you see and flush them (this only works if they have lighter fur). When you're done with this, brush them with a come, which will help get the flea eggs off. You should vacuum the spot you brushed your cats immediately after. You'll then need to apply flea medication to the back of their necks. This will also help get rid of the fleas. If you have multiple cats, however, you need to keep them separate or they'll lick it off each other (this is why you put it on the back of their necks in the first place, so they can't reach). This will dramatically reduce your problem. You should also wash bed linens very regularly, and make sure your cats can't get into the area where you keep your clothes or towels. You should also change your litter box one to two times a day.

A very important thing you need to look out for: FLEAS CAN LEAD TO WORMS. Cats eat fleas all the time, because they're scratching or gnawing on themselves or grooming their fellow cats. When this happens, they are exposed to worms (since the worms live inside the fleas). These worms live in their stomach and cause serious problems for them. It's very common for the cats to develop worms when dealing with fleas. The best way to treat for worms is to do all of the above and also dose them with VET approved medication, which they need to take orally. It's usually a liquid, and they pretty much hate it, but it's important. It will help get rid of the worms. You'll notice odd little segments (short and yellow) around the house after, which means the medication is working. You need to vacuum and do laundry very very regularly as well as do all the steps in the first paragraph.

With any luck, you'll be able to get rid of your problem, but fighting fleas is a very long battle.

Oh fleas are definitely a problem for cats that go outside. If you keep them inside, you can eliminate fleas more easily but it's true that as soon as they go outside, they'll likely pick up fleas.

I'd like to add this to the suggstions gathered here: Diatomaceous Earth. Here is a very informative article about it which includes a source: http://www.richsoil.com/diatomaceous-earth.jsp (The article itself is not selling, just teaching. But the quality of the product is important, you only want to use food grade and the article explains why.)

The drawback with this is that once it gets wet it becomes useless. But it can easily be reapplied. I have used it successfully in the straw I put in the outdoor cat shelters I built. It worked amazingly well. I always like to go for non toxic solutions wherever possible so I was delighted to learn of this.

Oh Fleas. Freaks me out just thinking about it!

I used to work in a pet shampoo factory, and their secret anti-flea ingredient? Tea Tree Oil! The smell of it apparently repulses fleas. It is natural and works like a charm. You can either buy some oil and dab it around your house or maybe buy a tea tree collar for the cats. Be careful using the oil neat though as too much can damage the cats!

As I see others have said Diatomaceous Earth is great for de-fleaing your house. It is natural, will not hurt the cats and works very very well. You can sprinkle it pretty much anywhere, the fleas eat it, and die, then all you need to do is clean it up.

As for ways to bathe your cat, you can apply the shampoo in a spray bottle to your cat and wipe them with a damp cloth, I find when I do this my cats never cotton on to the fact they are actually being washed and sit and let me do it, just be careful of the cats eyes and face. You can also try wiping the cat with just a damp cloth, or even baby wipes to clean it up a little.

To get rid of fleas you need to keep your environment clean and tidy. For that vacuum your sofas, rugs carpets as often as you can. Use a good shampoo for your cat. I have heard of a product Ovitrol Plus which needs to be used carefully on your pets. Ruffle the hair and spray a light coating of the spray onto the animal.Ovitrol Plus kills flea eggs, flea larvae and adult fleas.