Flea advice from cat people please

What flea stuff are you using Erin? My sister had the same problem and she was using Frontline spot-on stuff. The Vet gave her something stronger which was only available on prescription - I think it was called Stronghold. If you take your cats to the vets regularly they don't necessarily need to be seen to get a prescription. You don't have to buy from the vets - you can then buy it online but you will need a prescription from the vets to buy online.

Agree with the above. You also need to treat your home with a good spray. Your vets should sell one. Wouldn't bother with ones from places like wilkos, when I compared them for a client few weeks ago the wilkos one had like 8% of the active ingredient when the one we stock had 80 odd % of it.

Fleas are a nightmare to get rid of unfortunately. Would defo call your vet for a chat about it and maybe ask if the nurses do flea clinics. I'm a registered vet nurse and we do free flea checks and advice when I work.

We had 2 cats and a dog with it. Used spray and powder and nothing worked. Went to the vet who gave us 3 months' worth of spot on stuff for each and it cost £75, but within 48 hours they were all dropped off them dead. For that 48 I'd run after them picking up half-dead fleas with a tissue, combing them to get the worst out, and not sleeping! Also we bought a flea spray specifically for carpets and fabrics.

Fingers crossed...

Given up on Frontline and now use Effipro which is tons better. Unfortunately Maverick has developed an allergy to flea bites.

I also gave up on frontline after a bad infestation. Don't give up hope! I had loads of sleepless nights and nearly called a professional pest company but the following finally got to the bottom of it:

I switched flea products to advantage (or something like that?) and I let the cat wander around the house - any fleas that jumped on him then died as well as the ones already on him. I think this was the best weapon.

I sprayed indorex everywhere - especially in any cracks and round hte sofa. I smoke bombed the room that I decided was the worst (although in hindsight I think this was overdoing it but i was on a paranoid mission by then)

But mainly hoover hoover hoover (and empty the hoover away from the house). And don't be disheartened if after a few days to a week you spot some more because these are likely to be ones that have just hatched - in one form they can surivive spraying etc. - but if you've treated everything then they can't reproduce. I found the 'survivors' really sluggish from the indorex and they were easy to pick up with a tissue. Within a week I didn't see anymore and I comb the cat regularly now and haven't found any for months. I feel for you - it was a complete nightmare at the time!

Just another thing to add, quite often the flea needs to bite the animal before the treatment will kill it so if you happen to see live fleas just persevere and you will get there in the end.

I also stopped using frontline after Tia caught fleas despite being treated. The vet recommennded 'advocat' instead and it seems much better.

I made sure I sprayed under the radiators as the fleas do love a nice warm place! Fingers crossed for you

Yes - the 'spot-on' treatment basically puts flea poison in the blood. The fleas bite the cats and die. They have a 2 week life cycle from egg to flea so it may take 2 weeks of aggressive treatment before you get rid of them all!

If your using frontline fleas seemed to have become immune to it! We were given advocate which is fantastic but just after you put it on your cat make sure you treat your carpets (treat your cat first as the fleas will jump on anything trying to survive!). Indorex spray is fantastic! You just shut all windows etc shut your cat out the room spray it all over and leave it for half hour before hoovering it kills the eggs that get in the carpet/curtains even spray window sills! If you don't treat the carpets etc they can survive as eggs for over a year gross! So your cat will keep getting infected.

When we moved into our house it was infested with fleas (ew) and obviously our poor cat got them.

We completely scrubbed the house clean and used Indorex flea spray around the house including corners, door cracks, around our bed, carpets, curtains etc. It was amazing stuff and worth the money. One can did our whole 2 bed house. We also used Advantage on our cat as Frontline is rubbish. The problem went away. Good luck with it as it really is horrible especially when they bite you.

Thanks for the advice everyone. It's horrible for the cats and for us!

Think I need to move on to something else too :-(.

My cat is treated using some spot-on stuff but he's always scratching & I've had a few bites on both my ankles (but nowhere else??!!), so not sure it worked last time. Don't have many carpets in house other than my bedroom carpet and hallway as all others are wooden so at least I don't have many carpets to treat too.

One things that also helps to kill fleas is steam cleaning, try and get right into the grooves by the skirting boards. My mums cat come home with them after she had an op, it took us a while to finally get rid of them off her and from around the house. We used stuff from the vets, it was the best one, frontline was rubbish.

I am afraid they get into wooden and laminate floors Pugsley. Our fleas started on our ankles and err spread. The low point was my right armpit!

Oh no! I was hoping they couldn't survive on wooden floors.

Yes, I have bites on my ankles :-(. H doesn't seem to be bitten at all fortunately. I bought a different flea spot on to the one I was buying previously and whilst it isn't a fancy-pants one I do think it's working, possibly as the fleas had become immune to the previous stuff.

Fingers crossed!