What flea protection are you using?

I bought the hartz liquid yesterday and already applied it.

It was just before bedtime for me when I replied so I didn't respond to one year being worse than another year. The reason I asked the question is that with loads of other insects I've know this to be true. One year their will be excessive earwigs, another might be something else. Last year we had to deal with a major barber pole worm problem, which we've never had animals die from before. We just couldn't get a hold on it, even using injectable insecticides. Our goats and cows were fine, but our sheep were hit hard and we even lost a few. It was such a wet summer for us and I read after the whole mess that that warm and wet make for perfect breeding ground so it speeds up the worms life cycle to just 7 days!
So I do think year to year there are fluctuations in different insects, animals, rodents.
I was just wondering if anyone else has noticed early flea problem.
She's not infested or anything and as soon as we figured out it was fleas that were biting us I got the man to grab stuff. I washed the bedding already and luckily we have very few area rugs and my couch has a slip cover. I have some DE in the barn so I'll be putting a light rub of that on the furniture where the cats sit now that they have been treated, just haven't gotten around to brining it up from the barn.

With climate change has come an increase in tick and flea populations in northern areas, and an increase in the diseases they carry. However I would say that your problem was caused by your move to a rural location, and the fact that your indoor cats are now allowed outdoor access. Using a spot-on monthly flea preventative should be all you need to do to eradicate the nasty little buggers from your cats and your home. Just be sure the product you use is formulated for cats, and does not contain permethrin (because that chemical is toxic to cats).

If your cat goes outside, he/she needs to be on flea and tick preventative.

My dogs are on flea and tick year round, even though we have all 4 seasons here.

Fleas in the house are gross and your son is getting bit, so you need to be prophylactic.

I'd feel horrible if my child was getting flea bitten in his own bed!

Mimi, your post is reminding me of the first time we had fleas in the carpet. My first child was 8 months old and starting to crawl, and I was very, very upset about the fleas. I could see them jumping on my white socks. ACK! I nearly wore out the carpet vacuuming! I don't think we had the wonderful, effective topicals back in those days.

Littlemonkey, I hope the Hartz works for you and the kitties don't have any negative reaction to it. You probably will have to apply regularly at least through the summer.

We are probably in different climates. Here in CA, it's always flea time. They never rest!

socks, flea collars and powder pale in comparison to topicals. We use Frontline. Fleas aren't a problem, but we still get the occasional tick.

Yuck!

spedigrees z4VT I don't think the problem was caused by moving. We've lived here since 2012. She's escaped many times since then as well. We used hartz Ultra guard and says right on it for cats & kittens with a pic of a cat on the package.

mimipadv If someone comes to the front door, she'll try and bolt, if you open the screen door in the kitchen and aren't fast enough she'll bolt if she's right there. Like I said in my original post, "she goes out from time to time". She isn't outside year round. And we don't have ticks here. With that said out of all the times she's been out, this is the first and only time we've ever had any fleas. My son is a teenager and I don't feel horrible about him been bitten by a flea. Geesh. He gets bitten every dang year by misquitoes. Should I feel horrible about that?

Also my other cat does not have them yet (no flea or poop on her), though we did dose her just incase, I do suspect we're ahead of any major infestation. We likely caught it early because she sleeps (well did since she's banned for now lol) on our bed.

I don't know how me asking a question if fleas were bad this year turned into that I should feel horrible because my son was bitten by a flea.

socks It's a 30 day dose so it does have to be applied more than once if she still has them. No overt signs of a reaction. I remember when we got our 2nd cat and she had fleas. We had to does the two cats and the older one was foaming at the mouth. It was very scarry. I can't remember what brand it was, was 8 years ago, but it was something our vet had recommend. And yes, totally different climates. I'm in Ontario, Canada and flea season peaks in August and is usually done by October. It was 0 degrees here again this morning.

Hartz is awful, read up on it and you'll see the damage it has done to animals...

Unless you live in perma-freeze, you have ticks. Unless your cat NEVER goes out, it's not an indoor cat.

http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/public/publications/disease/lyme.aspx

http://www.capcvet.org/capc-recommendations/flea-borne-rickettsiosis

http://www.petparents.com/show.aspx/question/do-inside-cats-need-flea/tick-medicine

Please work with your veterinarian on a safe and effective preventative plan for your pets.

The pet aisle at the supermarket isn't the best place to get meds and preventatives for your pets.

Educate yourself for everyone's safety and comfort.

mimipadv Actually I am educated on the matter, thank you. You don't even know my location so you are the one that isn't educated on the subject. I used to live in Nova Scotia where ticks are rampant. I know the dangers, I know what they look like and I know how to check for ticks. While there are ticks in some parts of my current province there have been NONE in my region. It's something that our health unit has put out a noticed on due to bird migration that there is a possiblilty that they will move into the the area as we start having changing weather due to climate change. So far there has not been a single report of a sighting. So perhaps you should educated yourself on the matter and do some reading on other parts of the world.
Sometimes opinions are better received if you don't come across rudely to the original poster.
Really I don' t see a need to continue the conversation since this isn't even to do with what I ask in the first place. No bites in two days and still haven't seen a flea on her, just those four that we originally saw. She's been treated already so no need to poision her and the other cat further and all the bedding and soft furnishings have been dealth with. So thank you for your wonderful insight and rude post that not only tried to insult me as a parent but also a pet owner.

Littlemonkeys3'

Your posts indicate that you really don't understand what is going on. Instead of lashing out in a nasty manner at people trying to help you, maybe you should do some researching on preventative flea and tick measures and also do some soul searching as to how to express your gratuity without insulting people simply trying to help both you and your pets.

SaltiDawg Can you please explain to me how I don't understand what's going on because I'm totally at a loss for what you mean? If you are referring to the flea cycle I do under stand that. I know that adult fleas live on the cats, that why we have check them multiple times. She didn't have any signs of fleas on her originally except on the base of her tail where I saw flea poop. We saw a total of 4 fleas, 2 on my bed and 2 on sofa.
I understand that fleas lay their eggs where the animals hang out. This is why we washed all the bedding in our room, which is her main spot and the sofa slip cover since she has taken up residence there once banned from our bed. I applied DE on the chair that she sits on and on the sofa under the slip cover.
I vaccummed and washed all our hard surface floors.
When someone offers advice that I don't agree with, I have no problem with responding nicely, however when someone offers advice but at the same time tells me that I am a horrible parent and then later says I need to educated myself when they actually weren't educated about the tick situation in my specific area, I really don't feel the need to be polite. There is a way to give advice and insulting someone while doing it isn't the way, especially when it's unsolicited advice in the first place.
We used the spot on treatment for quick results. I don't like to use chemicals on my cats or on my livestock. Sometimes it is necessary so you do it. I don't feel the need to put my cats on long term preventitive and that's a choice I made. Pills are still insecticides, they are just in a pill form.
I've had my cats for 8 & 10 years. They are both healthy and happy.

Well, I hope no one else tries to help someone who does't want it. Good luck to you and your pets :(

Now, I'm going to hug my 15-year old dog.

littlemonkeys3,

Your last post proves the point.

mimipadv, like you I've moved on.

Quite sad for the cat, actually.

SaltiDawg That's too bad you've moved on because I really was interested in what you had to say. Both this post and the post above to you are written with no ill intent. I think you're taking it differently than I'm intending it to be. Although your comments about feeling sad for an indoor cat that gets out from time to time and had a few fleas on her for the first time in 8 years seems a little silly to me, but that's absolutely your right. I'm still interested in what you have to say if you'd like to share.

Hmmm...can't see the part where littlemonkeys was called a "horrible parent". Anyway, "Frontline" worked well for my farm friend's flea infested feline. I hope you have an identical product available at your Vet's office. Good luck!

junebug1961 They didn't have the frontline at the pet store in the town closest to us, our options around here are pretty slim, but I'll keep it in mind if we ever have to deal with it in the future, I can take a trip into a larger town. We're hopeful that the hartz will work since it should stop any new adults from emerging and we haven't seen any adults since the inital 4, which were a day apart.

I live in CT and our vet said that locally the cats have become immune to Frontline. Now I use Advantage which works just fine. There are years worse than others. That is when I vacuum and wash comforters like crazy. Eventually it gets better if the cat is treated, at least for me.

The "haters" need to keep their opinions to themselves. You asked for flea info, and hopefully you have received enough responses to form an opinion. The night before Super Storm Sandy my Ralphie got out. He came home with the whiskers gone on one side of his face, and his tail bleeding like crazy. Rushed him to the vet of course. After 5 days in the hospital he came home but they had to remove his tail. They believe it was a fischer cat, and he had pulled Ralphie's tail out from his spinal column. My poor baby. He doesn't even realize it is gone, he is always wagging his "stump".

The point of my story was that when we were in the hospital waiting for the results of the xrays, there was a woman who laid into us saying it was all our fault. We never should have LET the cat out - she would never do that, blah, blah, blah. My 21 yo daughter and I were stressed and scared as it was. My daughter read her the riot act. Normally I don't condone that behavior but this woman deserved it - how rude and insensitive, but this was one of those times I realized I had taught her well!!!

bobcatralph Owens Sorry to hear about your guy's attack. He's a lucky guy for sure. One of my sister's cats disappeared and they think it was a fischer as well. There were a lot of reports around that time and their 3 cats were always outside but never took off. She was so upset. The other two continued to go outside and have been for 6 or 7 years. Once she was on the way to put out the garbage and there was a black bear and her female cat went in defense mode and would not come back in. LOL My sister was yelling and yelling and the cat wouldn't come. Thankfully the bear wasn't interested and eventually just walked off.

Yes Hartz. It work very well for us. Haven't had any more issue with fleas and my cats had no side effects.