indoor cat has fleas and losing fur

hi! frontline plus or advantage are really safe, probably allergic to fleas is why she is losing her fur. sounds like she needs some fleas medication asap but dont just buy anything otc alot of them dont work well and can be toxic.:D of course if she seems sick you should take her to the vet, but getting those pesky fleas off is a great place to start good luck kitty
p.s. since she has some fleas be on the look out for tapeworms in the future or after you deflea her you might just want to worm her for tapes ( they can get tapeworms from eating fleas when they groom themselves :) ) yucky fleas)
 
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my cat has the same problem, she is allergic to fleas. even 1 flea sets off the itchies! frontline or advantage help and you might need steroids from the vet. it'll help to try and get all the fleas out of the house too.
 
For fleas, an attack on several levels is necessary.

IMO, it's best to get the fleas off the cat and clean the areas fleas may hide, in conjunction with using something like Frontline.

Step one is to get rid of all fleas on the cat.

One of the best ways to remove fleas that are on a cat is to get a special flea comb and set up a bowl of water with a bit of dish soap in (the soap breaks the surface tension of the water, so fleas just don't 'bounce' off). Comb your cat, paying special attention to the back of the neck, underside, and lower back. After each sweep of the comb, check the comb for fleas and if there are any, remove them and put them in the water (wear light plastic gloves if this grosses you out.

If you think the infestation is really bad, a bath might be a better option (or bathing, and using a flea comb at the same time).

After kitty is combed out, put on the Frontline.


Next, you have to get as many fleas as you can out of the house.
To get rid of fleas from the house, sprinkle carpets and edges of the room with diatomaceous earth (found at garden centers), let it sit for a while (maybe 20 minutes), then vaccuum up. Then, with the DE still in the vaccuum bag, vaccuum areas that you didn't put DE on (maybe kitties beds). Immediately put the vaccuum bag in the outside garbage.

HTH
 
This has been a horrible year for fleas! My dogs both had them and infested my house to the point where I'd look down and see several stuck to my ankles. It was SO gross! I used Advantage on them and flea bombed the house, but the fleas never completely went away. Within 2 weeks, the fleas were back on the dogs too. I was SO ticked off, since it's supposed to work for a month!

I've read that Frontline is better, so that will be the one I buy next time. This is the first year I've had a problem with them inside my house. But it was my own fault for waiting so long to treat them.
 
My dog had this problem too, even if we live in a region with few parasites thanks to the climate particularly dry and the altitude. He was also loosing hair on the back. The vet said was due to fleas and/or to an allergy. I had to use Advocate (from Bayer) after I've washed the dog with a special very delicate shampoo and put some also special conditioner (unfortunately I don't remember the name). In the past I've also used Frontline and it worked too.
The diet was changed for three months to only potatoes and chicken. After that, I gradually came back to the usual menu (rice, meat, white cheese, salad, etc).
Now that the problem is solved I wash the dog with an anti-parasites shampoo produced with Swiss-Alps herbs (but this I don't think you can find this in US).

I think it's a good idea to bring the cat to the vet because of this problem of the hair: observing the hair, the vet can better guess the origin of the problem. Parasites attack more easily when the hair has a problem, so they can be at the origin of the problem or just take advantage of it (in case for example the problem is a food-allergy).

Greetings from Switzerland
Anna with dog Zina

PS: I've found on the web this terrible thing about one product against fleas : http://www.hartzvictims.org/. So, to all dogs and cats owners on this forum, I want to say: be careful choosing the anti-parasite products and, of course, don't use that one!
 
i have read so many bad things about Hartz.it should be taken off the market.i bought Advantage for my cat. i'm hoping she wont have to take meds. it is nearly impossible to give them to my cat

laura
 
My cat has developed a similar problem, but she was licking all the hair off her belly and the back of her hind legs. She has been an inside cat for a long time, and never goes outside.

I took her to the vet, and he said it was either a flea allergy, a food allergy, or an inhalation allergy, or she's just neurotic. He gave her a steroid shot, and it did help her with the itching. We have never found a flea on her, so we changed her food to a special food with one carbohydrate source, and one protein source. After about 4 weeks, there was a big decrease in her itching. We now know she does have a food allergy. However, a few weeks ago, she started licking one leg badly, so I took her back. We still can't find any fleas, but we did find one speck that looks like it is flea feces. I grudgingly put her on Advantage multi because it also treats for heart worms (30% of cats that get heart worms are indoor cats). She will get that monthly, and the regular advantage in between every advantage multi treatment. This means I will also have to treat my other cat, who never goes outside, and is not itching at all. The vet said all it takes is one flea on her to cause a reaction. I hope it helps her feel better. She was looking pretty ragged for a while.

I had the pest control folks spray around the house this spring, and will have them do it again next spring. Other than that, I don't know what else I can do.

Just make sure and take your kitty to the vet for a through check up.
 
i sorta remember the last time she had fleas long ago that the vet said she could also take the stuff that comes in a tube otc. i dont remember what it was

laura
 
you can get frontline plus and advantage otc. just remeber that neither of them "repell" fleas or will keep fleas from jumping on your pet that are still in your housebut will kill the fleas once on your pet. so if fleas are on your pet they will die within a certian amount of time ( a few hours ususally) then more fleas jump on they to will take a few hours to die. if you still have fleas in your house and they have layed eggs and are hatching you see more fleas on your pet doesnt mean the product not working means you gotta getta ridda the buggers best to look up the flea life cycle those critters are amazing esp the pupae stage they live a long long time justa sitting there waiting for the best time :(to hatch :eek:
 
CAUTION!

2 years ago my kitty died because of flea medication. He had never had fleas before, so when I noticed them, I used a product that had been a sample with the shampoo, I do not know if it was hartzor frontline or what---It was on a towelette. I wiped him down with it.. The next morning we found him having convulsions and the vet could not save him.

The vet said that cats are different than dogs because they will lick it off and injest the poison and they can reach places that a dog can't..

So, my vote is take him to the vet!
 
I was using Advantage but last year it did not work. I switched to Revolution and it has worked wonderfully. Revolution also kills ear mites and kills fleas and tics. I buy big tubes of it and use new syringes and draw up the correct amount and then remove the needles and apply on the back of the dogs neck as directed. I save a lot of money doing this. There is also Revolution for cats. I use it on my 2 cats. I found out about Revolution when we had our beloved bunnies. Our vet had us use it on them since we took them outside to play everyday. I have found it to be a safe reliable product. Peggy
 
We had a major flea problem with our cats a couple of years ago.
So what Kathryn said, plus: fleas take about 6 weeks to hatch, and about 3 days to mature from hatched to egg laying.
So every 3 days for 6 weeks you need to treat your floors (DE as Kathryn said, Seven poison worked well for us), this will kill all newly hatched fleas before they start laying eggs.
I also went to Lowes and bought a yard spray and covered the base of my house.
So treat cats (Advantage worked for us).
Treat floors multiple times.
Treat outside.

HTH,
 
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