Flea-free for 4 days and counting...
As a New Year's gift, my cats decide to bring me home fleas. Yes. How thoughtful of them.
It was New Year's day, and Dave found an adult flea on the white part of Mittens' face. I'm actually glad that we saw it, so we can figure out how to get rid of them. I shudder to think how long my cats have had them. It now explains some mysteries we've been wondering about for some time now. We noticed tiny drops of blood in the sink where Tigger sometimes sleeps. At first we thought hm... could she be sneezing and spraying out blood? Or could she have injured her little paws? I would cuddle her with little soothing ooohs and aaaahs thinking she was somehow hurt.
So right away we stopped letting the cats out. Who would have thought that there would still be fleas outside when it's freezing cold out??? I thought fleas could not survive in winter. I researched the internet, and it said to first brush the cats with a flea brush, dropping the fleas into diluted bleach to kill them, then bathe the cats to get rid of the rest of them. Then clean the whole house, vaccuum, wash sheets, etc, and to give the cats anti-flea medicine.
So Tuesday after work, I prepare myself for the ordeal of bathing our cats. I've never bathed them, they're always licking and cleaning themselves. Both cats actually like water, but they don't like being held down, and would scratch and squirm to get away. But me and Dave ended up going to the vet and getting Adventage, a liquid medicine you put behind the cat's neck that kills fleas. We put them on both cats, and I had to chase them around to stop them from licking it off. Also, movement helps spread the medicine throughout their whole body, so I got a bit of exercise running after them. We vaccuumed and cleaned the house, but we held off on bathing the cats. The whole point of the medicine is the fleas have to be on the cat to die. It works by killing the fleas when they bite the cat, and we figured if we bathed them, the fleas would jump ship and end up biting us instead!!!
The next morning Dave saw 3 dead fleas in the sink. At least we know the stuff is working. It's supposed to kill all the fleas within 24 hours. But since then we haven't seen any. They're probably super small to see, been vaccuumed, or dead in our cats' fur. Ugh.
I think Mittens and Tigger sense something. I haven't carried them like babies like I usually do, and burrow my whole face in their furry bellies. Not for now anyway =) So they're extra sucky and affectionate, they've been sleeping and purring on our chests and tummies for the last couple of nights. We'll probably bathe them in about 3 weeks, just before we have to put on the medicine again, to clean off the dead fleas and poo.
But for now, (Thank God!) we haven't seen any more fleas. It's good to be flea-free. Flea-free makes for happy kitties.
It was New Year's day, and Dave found an adult flea on the white part of Mittens' face. I'm actually glad that we saw it, so we can figure out how to get rid of them. I shudder to think how long my cats have had them. It now explains some mysteries we've been wondering about for some time now. We noticed tiny drops of blood in the sink where Tigger sometimes sleeps. At first we thought hm... could she be sneezing and spraying out blood? Or could she have injured her little paws? I would cuddle her with little soothing ooohs and aaaahs thinking she was somehow hurt.
So right away we stopped letting the cats out. Who would have thought that there would still be fleas outside when it's freezing cold out??? I thought fleas could not survive in winter. I researched the internet, and it said to first brush the cats with a flea brush, dropping the fleas into diluted bleach to kill them, then bathe the cats to get rid of the rest of them. Then clean the whole house, vaccuum, wash sheets, etc, and to give the cats anti-flea medicine.
So Tuesday after work, I prepare myself for the ordeal of bathing our cats. I've never bathed them, they're always licking and cleaning themselves. Both cats actually like water, but they don't like being held down, and would scratch and squirm to get away. But me and Dave ended up going to the vet and getting Adventage, a liquid medicine you put behind the cat's neck that kills fleas. We put them on both cats, and I had to chase them around to stop them from licking it off. Also, movement helps spread the medicine throughout their whole body, so I got a bit of exercise running after them. We vaccuumed and cleaned the house, but we held off on bathing the cats. The whole point of the medicine is the fleas have to be on the cat to die. It works by killing the fleas when they bite the cat, and we figured if we bathed them, the fleas would jump ship and end up biting us instead!!!
The next morning Dave saw 3 dead fleas in the sink. At least we know the stuff is working. It's supposed to kill all the fleas within 24 hours. But since then we haven't seen any. They're probably super small to see, been vaccuumed, or dead in our cats' fur. Ugh.
I think Mittens and Tigger sense something. I haven't carried them like babies like I usually do, and burrow my whole face in their furry bellies. Not for now anyway =) So they're extra sucky and affectionate, they've been sleeping and purring on our chests and tummies for the last couple of nights. We'll probably bathe them in about 3 weeks, just before we have to put on the medicine again, to clean off the dead fleas and poo.
But for now, (Thank God!) we haven't seen any more fleas. It's good to be flea-free. Flea-free makes for happy kitties.
posted by Jazzygirl at 1:13 p.m.
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