Please note: The rabbit has an appointment with the vet on Tuesday!!!
Yesterday morning, I noticed that my (indoor) rabbit has a small bald spot on the back of her neck (about the size of a dime). While examining the spot, I saw a flea, which made me look at the cat, who was scratching and licking. Sure enough, the Hallhousehold is now the owner of not only two cats and a rabbit, but apparently a group of fleas. The rabbit has an appointment with the vet on Tuesday (whose on vacation until then), and I’ll also get some Advantage for the cats for their fleas, however, until that point, I WANT THE FLEAS GONE FROM MY HOUSE!
I plan to “flea bomb” the house, but I’m not sure in what order to do what. Would it do any good to flea bomb the house this weekend, knowing that I can’t get flea meds until Tuesday? (I know I’ll have to rebomb the house in 3 weeks to kill all the newly hatched fleas.) Do I bomb the house, treat the cats/rabbit, vaccuum everything…or vaccuum everything, wait to bomb the house, and treat the cats/rabbit on Tuesday?
Oh, I’m so confused. (I know this shouldn’t be a difficult process, but I can’t get past the icked out idea of fleas in my house…)
if you smoke bomb the house, you may kill a lot of the fleas …but not the fleas which are living ON the cats. So you will still have a lot of fleas ready to jump back onto the carpet and reproduce.
If you have your kitty and rabbits(?) on something like Program or Advantage which “break the flea cycle” then I submit that’s all you really can / should do.
As cappachula stated, you’re not going to get every last flea (I’m assuming you won’t be leaving your animals inside while your house is being bombed) and those fleas, if not treated, would be sure to reproduce and continue to wreak havoc.
Having suffered through a rather horrible flea infestation many years ago, we tried bombing the place which not only didn’t work but seemed to do nothing more but piss off the remaining fleas. Once we put our animals on Program, we never had a problem with the little bastards –the fleas I mean—again.
At least as far as my dog is concerned (and he goes outside, and the neighbors I don’t think do anything for their fleas) Revolution is the only thing that even touches the flea issue. In fact, it actually fixed my house flea issue - I’m told the fleas prefer the dog. The thing is, you have to wait a while because only some of the fleas are adults at any one time, and they have to hatch, grow up, and bite the animal before it slaughters them.
There is flea shampoo you can buy at a pet store without needing to go to a vet. In my experience it does a pretty good job of killing the fleas on the pet at the time. It doesn’t have the lasting effect of the vet stuff like Program and Advantage, though. Yes, bathing cats is fun.
Also, do you know you have an infested house, or just infested pets? In my experience sometimes pets will have a few fleas without the infestation spreading to the whole carpet, furniture, etc. If you are getting bites around your ankles, then yes you probably should flea-bomb. But if not, just treating the animals might be enough.
I came in to suggest Revolution but I see Zsofia beat me to the punch. My house went through a horrible flea infestation. The cats were all treated with Revolution and not only did it take care of the fleas on the animals but it also killed all the fleas in my house.
[slight hijack]Entirelypets.com is a great site for purchasing pet meds. They are the cheapest I have found and if a med requires a prescription they will call your vet to obtain said prescription. I have used them quite often and can’t recommend them highly enough.[/slight hijack]
Yes, I’ll be bombing the house without the pets inside (duh!). The older cat (indoor-outdoor) can go outside all day, but the other indoor only cat and rabbit I’m afraid will have to remaing in pet taxis while the house is bombing and airing out (about 24 hours, if I recall correctly). This sucks, I know, but the options are limited. Nearly ALL of my friends are allergic (to rabbit, at least). Boarding them for 24 hours would cost way too much money.
I have to wait and see what the vet says about what to use on the rabbit for fleas, but the cats are getting de-flead as soon as I can get to the vets to pick up the drop stuff.
I’m surprised to hear that Revolution will take care of the fleas in the house though. They’re not bad (one jumped on my white shirt tonight when I was on the couch reading), but I don’t want to wait for it to get bad. (I guess I’m lucky that fleas don’t have a hankerin’ for my blood.)
Sorry, Harriet, but I’ve read too many things lately that say NOT to use flea shampoo–everything I’ve read says that it doesn’t necessarily do a better job than regular (baby) shampoo at killing fleas, plus it’s more harsh on a cat’s coat/skin. Plus, I have to be extra careful with what I use on the rabbit–rabbits are very sensitive and there’s a lot of stuff out there that while okay for other animals (cats and dogs) can kill a rabbit (Frontline, for example). I want to check with my vet before I use anyone on her. (And I’m also cautious about using something on the cats, and having it too close to the rabbit.)
So…vet on Tuesday evening, treat the cats and rabbit the same night, then bomb the house on Wednesday. Do I live an exciting life, or what?
