Thread: Help! Sylvester is turning into a giant flea resort

Have you tried frontline combo? It's a bit more effective than the normal one. You may also have to treat your house!! Flea eggs survive in carpets and in between floorboards etc...

I never had a flea problem until I used the Frontline Combo then all hell broke loose, as Bethy_boo suggests at this point do your house as well,also don't forget to spray whatever you use onto a bit of tissue & suck it up your hoover,even if you have something like a dyson where you empty out the container the bugs can still get in there.
I finally got my under control by doing the house & switching to Stronghold.
What was you using up until you got the problem....?

never got on with the spot on didnt seem to work all ,- i use the spray bottle on mine and cleared them up really quickly despite being told its should be no different to the spot on . Be careful using Bob Martins as i have heard so poor things about it

I've started spraying the house with Bob Martin spray but maybe I should look at something else if it has a bad rep?

To be honest, we got Sylvester in Sept last year and he had no evidence of fleas and he's had a couple of doses of frontline since then- I wrongly assumed that fleas would't be a problem since he is indoors. We've been taking him out on the harness recently and he's been rolling around in the grass so maybe that's why he's suddenly got so many. Haven't tried stronghold yet....

When we had them the we got some spray stuff from the vets, it was silver with a purple lid if that helps? it was amazing for treating the house! When we were south we used to treat the house yearly after that as well as the animals never had an issue with fleas here, not sure if it because there are less animals about to catch them from or the temp deters them?

Fleas have 4 life stages and no shop bought product works on all stages. Firstly you have the eggs which aren't sticky so will fall off kitty. The next stage is larva when they are almost transparent and can be 6 - 7 mms. Larva eat the adult flea poop. Next is the pupa when it basically cocoons. From then it can take up to a year before it emerges as an adult flea and the cycle starts again. You need to break this cycle using a number of different ways / products.

Everyone has different ways of dealing with fleas but personally I would firstly bath the cat in a flea treatment shampoo. I would then use one of the tablets like Sentinel (or in jab form at vets). This works by stopping eggs from hatching. Continue with spray or I prefer powder as I think its easier to get it right through the fur. These only kill the adults. If you kill the adults the larva can't feed and die.

Put a flea collar in your hoover and hoover at least once a day. Hoover beds, sofas etc as well. Wash all cushion covers, bedding etc. If you put teddys, cushions etc in freezer it will kill anything flea wise). You could use an insectacide in the garden if you think that's where they have come from.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. Candes- I like the sound of the natural approach, I just don't think Sylvester would tolerate me combing him enough to make it work. I had a look on amazon for a house spray with decent reviews and bought a couple of cans (indorex). I hoovered the whole house really thoroughly then sprayed. We also shaves a small patch of hair off both Dudley and Sylvester just above the shoulder blades and treated them with frontline again (we can now be sure it got to the skin). The poor boys just look a bit sad with their bald patches. Dudley is acting really strangely- we have only one carpetted area in the house (the stairs and landing) and a rug in the living room and he avoids standing on these at all costs. He jumps from high spot to high spot to get about and then slides down the bannister to get downstairs- really comical but worrying! What can he see on the carpet!! Actually now I come to think of it, he's even started to avoid standing on the kitchen floor which is tiled. Really odd.