Advice please- My cats have fleas : /

[MorningFox]

Sorry but I don't think you'll be able to treat the yard. Our cats suffer from fleas in the summertime too and I'm pretty sure they pick them up from the foxes and hedgehogs that come through the garden, no way to control that unfortunately.

I will have to try the table salt option though!

[Sidney]

Posted by TargeT (here)
DE is meant to be basically always there.. my dog beds are lightly dusted with it, as are the dogs, but they are mostly outdoor animals so it's not a big issue for me (I guess I should have given more detail).

I think it takes about a week or two before the cycle of flea eggs & fleas is broken, so if the dust doesn’t work in your area then it won’t work well for you.


BTW that extra DE you have is a great dietary supplement


Get your hands on some Fipronil, it's much cleaner

Well, I did a lot of digging online before I decided to try it. There are so many varying opinions on how to use, and how long it takes etc. It is just not realistic to leave DE laying all over the house permanently. The air conditioning carries it everywhere. I REALLY wanted to try a less toxic way of dealing with this first. So hey, I give myself an E for effort, then an F for failing. LOL Thats life, trial and error.
I read somewhere that the Advantage II does not kill the egg cycle. But the package insert says otherwise. Now I am reading lots of horror stories about revolution which I ordered and was planning to switch to, but I am scared to death I am going to poison my cats . It is overwhelming, physically, and emotionally, especially when I am against using toxic chemicals. But, I have a human child that is higher priority than my cats, and I don't want her (or me) sharing our living quarters with fleas, and their eggs. The eggs gross me out more than the fleas. I don't know, the whole thing grosses me out. Yea, I am the one that removed a black widow spider in a container, drove it to the state park and let it free. Now I am spraying chemicals all over my house, killing everything.
I never knew I was a flea phobic. Arghhhh

And you are right morning fox, the yard is another losing battle and I have decided to keep the cat in permanently. Hopefully she will get used to it. W have rabbits everywhere here, and deer, and oppossums, and you name it, there are furry things here daily, and I am sure they are all flea infested, which would make my efforts even more challenging.

I have been taking the DE internally though and feel like I am doing something good for my insides. And sprinkling it on the cats food too which they don't seem to mind.

[blufire]

Hi Sidney,

Any type of bug infestation can be so overwhelming.

I really would encourage you to stay with the DE. It has never failed with me whether it is on my farm animals or pets that come inside the home or in my garden.

With my animals that come in the house (3 dogs and 2 cats) I dust them every week with DE and on their individual beds I lightly dust them with DE. I do not however spread DE anywhere else in the house. But, I do spread DE in the yard immediately in front of the entrances to the house about 15 or 20 feet every 2 or 3 months.

On the rare occasion the dogs start getting too many ticks and fleas (usually in the spring) I get a cheap bottle of shampoo and add appropriate amount of Permethrin10 (look in farm stores) and also Iodine (gentle wound care also in farm stores) and shampoo the dogs generously and leave the shampoo on for 10 or 15 minutes. Bug problem is all gone.

Of course the house is another issue and I would suggest the insect ‘foggers’. The fog permeates everywhere and gets the little buggers hiding out. Of course you will need to fog the house every 7 days in at least a 21 day cycle . . . so 3 times.

Good Luck!

For more info on DE check out this thread:

https://projectavalon.net/forum4/show...omaceous+Earth

[Matthew]

I caught fleas the other week.

I think I got them by picking up magpie feathers and putting them in a bag. Then carrying the bag around. I think I must have collected, and then incubated, flea eggs. Magpie feathers are so beautiful, with their blue shine. However that will teach me to go round picking up dead things. The point is I had to deal with fleas.

Before checking the internet I got on my knees and prayed "Jesus my healer - rid me of these fleas or give me the knowledge to rid myself of these fleas". Then I got a vision of half a lemon, me washing myself with it, then going to bed.

After accepting my spooky vision I kind of wondered if I was going mad. Wouldn't this be sticky? But I had accepted the answer to my prayer, but now I wanted to know what conventional knowledge had to say about it. Not to challenge the vision, because I felt it was real. But when I did look this up I learnt that D-limonene in lemons kills fleas. D-limonene is found in citrus fruit's rind. Wash yourself in D-limonene then the fleas find you and kill themselves. Wow.

Some advice I didn't need from a spooky vision: first I hoovered the bed clothes, then washed them at a temperature of greater than 36°C, hoovered the bed, then pretty much hoovered everything else, and continued to machine washed everything I could at a temperature of greater than 36°C.

I made a lemon wash from boiling four quartered lemons in water then letting them steep for at least 8 hours. Then when my lemon wash was ready I washed myself head to toe and went to bed. I repeated this for three nights and mornings, hoovering and washing clothes regularly.

Before I got my steeped lemon wash ready I noticed that my favorite mosquito spray also contained D-limonene ('Bug Soother') so I could use that spray under my armpits, behind my knees and on skin fold points that fleas love, until my lemon wash was ready.

After washing with the lemon wash I filtered it and made a spray that I could spray on pillows, curtains, me, carpets, and pretty much everything that can stand the lemon solution.

There were three items of clothes I couldn't wash. Two went in the freezer for a few days (oops they're still there) and one went into a 40l plastic container tub with loads of diatomaceous earth.

I have a 10kg tub of diatomaceous earth, it's always a handy nuclear option to have around the house. Although fleas jump making earth not totally ideal, and diatomaceous earth will dry your skin.

However, diatomaceous earth was a good option to de-flea a hand woven blanket that I couldn't wash or dry clean, and I was nervous about spraying it with lemon solution, because lemon juice can discolor some fabric dyes. It's rare that this happens, but this blanket was not mass produced so I played it safe.

After a few days of being clear, and despite it not being in my spooky vision, I also took the precaution of fog bombing (Pyrethrin) my entire house. Fog bombs are great for destroying airborne creatures although pyrethrin is toxic to fish and cats, so it's not great for the subject of the thread.

Diatomaceous earth is ok but the lemon wash was the coup-de-grace.

True story.

[Matthew]

A better headline is: I cured fleas after a vision from Jesus.

My above post deserves a better headline than I first gave it.

[Sunny]

Fleas don't like B vitamins. If you put some nutritional yeast in your cat's food (and have some yourself too) no one will get bit even if there are fleas in your house. It really works.

[Pam]

Posted by Sunny (here)
Fleas don't like B vitamins. If you put some nutritional yeast in your cat's food (and have some yourself too) no one will get bit even if there are fleas in your house. It really works.

I think an application on their fur would not be a bad deal either.

[Ricker]

Bought a collar for my inside cat once. His fur fell out and left a bald ring around his neck :-O
Old small town vet told me to put garlic in the cats food. It worked for me anyways.
Best of luck.

Ricker

[Anna70]

Cat fleas are one of those species that don't appear to possess any redeeming qualities whatsoever. In large enough numbers their parasitic activity CAN kill kittens, so that is definitely something to take into account in case there should be any hesitancy about using unpleasant products on the little ones.

Diatomaceous Earth certainly has its purposes, but even if edible, it seems you have to be very careful not to inhale it!!

Although garlic is often suggested as an anti flea remedy, it is very toxic to cats and dogs themselves, so I would not chance even using a small amount of that.

The nutritional yeast does sound interesting, as do the lemon spray and the salt! Really interesting tips, thank you!

[DNA]

Borax works great on carpets.

For the actual animal I've found the best remedy is to oil them down.
I've used olive oil, coconut oil and I've also used pure Shea butter.

I got the idea from a southern Kentucky dude who heard me complain and said he used motor oil.
I cringed but he swore by it.
So I used olive oil that first time and it worked amazingly.
I wouldn't recommend motor oil that can't be good for your animal.