Help with Cat Flea Treatment
I’ve seen many cats that were miserably itchy but that I couldn’t find a flea on. Yet, if we give a cat flea treatment, the issue resolves. I’ve seen other cats that were not itchy at all, but were just crawling with the little buggers. The first cat is likely horribly allergic to flea bites (just one bite sends them into misery) while the second cat is not. The first cat’s owner will often refuse treatment because they never saw the flea – so the problem is allowed to continue and worsen. The second cat’s owner will often refuse treatment because the cat is not itchy, therefore “there’s no problem.” This is where mistakes are made! The first owner likely wants steroids for their cat – they wish to treat the symptoms, not the problem. In doing so, they expose their cat to the many health risks of chronic steroid usage, some of which are life threatening, because they would not treat the real problem. The second owner is choosing to expose themselves and their family to a significant flea infestation, as well as risking skin infections for their cat, or a preventable anemia (low red blood cell count, in this case due to an excessive burden of blood sucking parasites), or even diseases that are transmissible to people, like plague, or cat scratch disease – because they would not treat the real problem. Please just do the cat flea treatment!
Let’s talk about the how’s and why’s of this cat flea treatment. We’ll begin with the enemy – its environmental requirements and its life cycle . The adult flea is killed by environmental temperatures below 32 degrees F, while eggs and pupae are killed by temperatures of 37 degrees F or less. All life stages require a humidity of at least 33%, but at humidities of 95% or greater the larvae die. Finally, at temperatures greater than 95 degrees F the adults will not emerge from the pupae stage. The absolute optimal (best) conditions for fleas are temperatures of 75 degrees F, a humidity of 78%, and a low altitude (relative to sea level). These are the conditions that allow the fastest development through all of its life stages. These are also often the conditions present during the autumn season in much of the United States.(Michael Murray, moderator, 2009, "Fleas:Fables, Facts and Proven Solutions, a Roundtable Discussion", Merial). The flea that you see is an adult and is a blood sucking and egg laying machine. Every female is able to begin laying eggs at the ripe old age of 24 hours. That’s right, one day old and mature and reproducing. Each female is able to lay 40-50 eggs a day. These eggs then fall off of, or are shaken off of the pet. They land wherever – on the couch, in your bed, in the carpet, on the cat’s bed, outside in the tall grass, etc.
By the time an owner first notices a problem with their cat, all of these developing life stages may have been present in the indoor and outdoor environments for 1-2 months. Because of all of the life stages, and how long it can take to go through them, and how rapidly they can reproduce, cat flea treatment must be aggressive and sustained to be effective. Both the cat (and ALL of the pets in a multiple pet household) and the environment must be treated for rapid and effective control.
Look to the right for the tools you need to help your pet! Talk to your veterinarian about which treatment product is right for you and your cat. There are MANY out there today. (PLEASE be careful with over the counter (non-perscription) medications, like those available at pet, feed, and variety stores. Some of these products will make cats extremely ill, and can cause death.) Simply bathing the cat with a gentle shampoo is a good fast way to remove a lot of them at once. Except, of course, that not all cats are easy to bathe... And again, be careful with flea shampoos and cats - they are quite sensitive to some of the ingredients. A flea comb is a special very narrow toothed comb that can be used to remove fleas from pets. They are still very much alive though, and you will have to kill them quickly or they will just jump away and continue their party! Of the veterinary supplied treatment products, some only kill fleas while others also kill ticks and/or prevent heartworm disease. Some are applied to the skin while others are given as a pill. All though are fairly effective. You’ll either need to treat continually (monthly, year-round) if you live in an area that doesn’t freeze hard, or at an absolute minimum for 3 months to break the life cycle. Go to
Flea Control Products
, a PDF document, for a comparison chart of cat flea treatment products. To learn about safety issues with both veterinary and over the counter flea treatments, go to
Safe Use of Flea and Tick Treatments.
Treating the infested environment is actually more difficult than using a cat flea treatment product, but shouldn’t be neglected as it’s an important step in getting rid of the problem. Simple actions like vacuuming every day for 1-2 weeks, including near baseboards and under and in furniture (they hang out where it’s dark), and laundering pet and human bedding frequently (several times a week) for the first 1-2 weeks can help decrease the numbers of fleas, larvae and pupae in the environment. This is an important part of a total cat flea treatment program. There are simple non-toxic flea traps available – these consist essentially of sticky paper and a light bulb. The adult is drawn to the heat source, makes a jump for it, and is caught on the paper. This is a great way to get an idea of just how bad your problem is too.
Look to the right for the tools you need to help your pet!
There are the ever popular flea bombs of course – please be careful with these as they can be toxic to cats and people both. Identifying and treating areas in the outdoor environment if possible will also work to your advantage. Areas of shade, tall grass and bark dust are all potential problem areas, and should be treated with an outdoor product. Especially note any areas that your cat spends a lot of time resting, and make sure to perform your chosen outdoor cat flea treatment here. There is a nematode (small worm) that is a natural parasite of flea pupae and larvae. If you prefer to use biological control measures like this, look into the nematode Steinernema carpocapsae.
Fleas are an unfortunate side effect of cat ownership. If you find that your cat has them, or your vet has recommended treatment for them, please don’t take offense – just get after the problem! The moral of the story is, show no mercy – destroy them all, in all of their hiding places! The information presented here is not meant to replace the advice of your own veterinarian! A valid veterinary-client-patient relationship (created when you take your pet to see your vet) is essential to providing excellent individual pet care. If your pet is ill, call or go to your vet or an emergency veterinary hospital!
Go to the Pet Health Home Page from Cat Flea Treatment
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Yikes, fleas! Every cat owner has a problem with them at some point. But people make cat flea treatment far harder than it has to be. This doesn’t seem to be deliberate but maybe out of a refusal to accept that there is a problem, or a refusal or an inability to finance the treatment. And not all of the ways to get rid of them are expensive either! (The photo to the right of an adult flea is provided courtesy of the Center for Disease Control, CDC.) 
Over the next 2 weeks to 3-4 months, depending upon the environmental conditions (see above), the egg will hatch into a larva, the larva spins a cocoon and becomes a pupa, and the pupa magically morphs into an adult, which hatches and jumps onto the first warm body that it can find (they are equal opportunity blood suckers and are happy on dogs, cats, rabbits, ferrets, hedgehogs, rats, etc.). The photo to the left is provided courtesy of the CDC also, and shows a larva on the left and an adult flea on the right.
