Relax. The fleas should be easily controlled with medications (not sure whether she’s too young? Your vet will tell you) that you squirt on her neck. It kills adults and stops breeding. Don’t worry.
Don’t worry about the dog visitor. I doubt he’ll even notice there’s a cat in the house if he doesn’t see her. If he goes crazy at the door, put up a barrier to keep him away from the door.
It’ll all be fine. Seriously. Please don’t worry so much. It’s rarely as bad as we anticipate. By way of background, I’ve got all sorts here, chooks, rabbits, cats, dogs, parrots. All of my worries about them getting on when a new pet comes in have never amounted to anything. Waste of worry.
Thanks, Blob. That really helped. A whole bunch of people in my life called/texted with problems today, and I’m spread pretty thin. I feel like I just got a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
Agree with blob that sending her away for the day would too traumatic at this point. Blob offers good advice on separating the two.
BUT, as it seems there is a flea problem, perhaps that is a good reason to postpone the visit for now because catching fleas would not be nice or fair to anyone involved.
Re: socialization with humans, as mentioned by a poster above. One of mine is human-phobic and will stay hidden if there is another human in the house, however long they stay. I am afraid it is too late to cure him of it now and I wish I had done something about it earlier. I can’t have an overnight guest, and I can’t even get him to the vet without the vet coming over to sedate him (there was still a battle with blood loss and a ripped t-shirt on my part and terrible fear and stress on his).
So please don’t let that happen with Daisy.
ETA My thinking is that you use the flea situ as an excuse (even if it has been taken care of by the time of the visit) so you don’t have deal with the dog problem right now, on top of everything else.
It’s her birthday, not just a routine visit, she wants her kids to visit. If the dogs’ spot-ons are up-to-date, they shouldn’t have any issue with the fleas.
I would ask a vet whether you can try Capstar - it’s a pill that doesn’t harm the cat, but will poison any fleas who bite her. I don’t know offhand how old a cat has to be before they can use it, but Capstar combined with a topical flea treatment (do not, I repeat, not use anything by Hartz or Sergeant, and no flea collars - there’s one you can get from a vet, it’s called Vectra I believe, might be worth asking about) is the most effective way to get them all fast and keep them from coming back. Even dealing with resistant cases of fleas gets a ton easier with that regimen.
Have you had a vet check her for heartworms? I rather doubt she’d have them but seeing as you’ve found fleas, it is worth checking.
Advantage II and Frontline Plus are purportedly fine for any kitten older than 8 weeks and larger than 2 lbs.
I’ve had my last two indoor cats for ~12 years, used meds for a 2-3 month period maybe once every 2-3 years and have only seen A flea once. Granted I don’t have other animals like dogs coming in and out - someone in that situation may need to apply every month. But modern flea meds are a miracle.
Note that only applies to reasonably well-vetted meds like the ones mentioned above( Revolution is another one, your vet can probably make a recommendation ), which unfortunately can be a bit pricey. Others cheaper knock-offs, including from well-known pet companies, have in the past been linked to occasional toxic reactions.
Some of the older medications have stopped being effective (at least on my pets). My animals have chopped and changed, when one they were on stopped working for them.
Yes, Capstar in conjunction with the spot-on should wipe out any flea problem. If Daisy is only going to be indoors, she shouldn’t get more. They “start up” in spring and they can jump on my dogs outside. One (a black dog, don’t know if that counts) would get jumped on. A Capstar if I saw any would knock them off and I’d restart the spot-on. I tend to only treat if they’re there, but monthly treatment with the spot-on should mean you never see one.
You have an advantage in dealing with fleas now that you didn’t have when you brought them home before. You now have a resident flea magnet. Humans are edible but not preferred as a meal. As long as their population doesn’t get out of control they likely won’t care much about untasty you. The last time I had a kitten, he came with a free bonus from the Humane Society …fleas. I didn’t get bit once. I caught it early like it sounds you did. I focused on using him as the bait to kill the live ones. In that case multiple baths and some safe for kittens treatment. I put time into cleaning tasks to target unhatched eggs. I can report that case of genocide was pretty relatively simple, quick, and highly succesful.
At about 16 weeks, if it weren’t for human surgical intervention, your sweet kitten might be getting pregnant and preparing to raise her own litter. As much as she might look like a tiny baby that must be cared for constantly she’s more like a pre-teen racing towards her teen years in human development terms.
I was only half joking about naps while you are out. Normal adult cats can sleep up to 16 hours a day. Older cats and kittens can sleep up to 20 hours a day. If you give her a little extra attention and play to tire her out, she probably will sleep for most of a 10 hour trip. Make sure there’s toys available to entertain herself with when awake. Make sure if you are missing a routine mealtime the extra food is available. She will be fresh, rested, and ready to properly train you on the proper response to homecoming.
Kittens deal with lots of people that to work and go to school for big chunks of the day. They typically deal with it very early in adapting to their new home and [del]slaves[/del] humans. You’re simply socializing her to deal with how your life sometimes comes with days where you are away for extended periods. It’s not going to break a species that is relatively solitary by nature if you manage it. Teaching her that you never leave for most of a day just sets her up for a troubling surprise later. Most cats are already learning to deal with it at her age and at this point of adapting to a new home. Don’t freak out if that’s the best decision for you. You can absolutely give her all the love, time, and attention she needs and deserves while being out for ten hours.
The nice thing about kittens is that they haven’t formed opinions about most things yet, so you have a window of opportunity to introduce them to items that older cats might turn up their noses at if presented for the first time. Here are two things I’ve done with my kitty:
Use Blue Buffalo walnut pellets - it’s the bag with purple on it. They make a number of other walnut litter products, but the advantage of the pellets is that, unlike conventional litter, they have almost NO tracking. This is a boon if, like me, you must keep your litterbox somewhere you walk constantly (mine’s in my small bathroom). The disadvantage is that kitty poop and the pellets are the same color, so scooping is a bit like a treasure hunt. But for me it is well worth it - I have having kitty litter bits on the floor all the time.
Get a cat harness and leash so you can take your cat outside safely.
half-elf is nicer than me, the way I did it was to make the most god-awful scary noise I could produce when she bit my hands. My husband would play with her when she was tiny and let her bite him and I told him he would regret it. In later years, she didn’t seem to be frightened of me particularly, but I could scratch her belly, groom her or give her medicine without getting bitten, but my husband could not.
ETA: I inadvertently cut off some of the end of the quote.
There are no small parts. It’s 100 contiguous feet of cord wrap that has a pre-cut slit lengthwise down all 100 feet. You could cut it small enough to be swallowed but that’s true of hundreds of thousands of things.
Sorry I haven’t replied to some of the great suggestions. I’ve been sick (lupus flare) and off the boards. I was able to feed and care for Daisy but not do anything about the possible flea infestation. I felt completely overwhelmed by the flare, the fleas, my son’s dogs, and my inability to drive her to the vet in emergency (I have serious vision issues.), and decided I’d made a selfish mistake in getting Daisy. So I gave her away to a friend’s friend who said she’d get the fleas treated, get Daisy her shots, etc.
It seemed like the right decision, but I’ve been heartbroken ever since. Damn, I loved that cat. I’ve always been a responsible pet owner. My dogs lived to ripe old ages. My kids’ fish, turtle, and hamsters all got good care. But I think maybe I screwed up in getting her AND in giving her away. Neither was good for her, and that’s on me.
For what it’s worth, I think you’ve done the right thing - if you can’t take care of her, better to let someone who can do it. It’s damn painful, I know, and I’d miss her just as much in your place, but that’s a very difficult thing to do and to be honest, I think that proves you a responsible pet owner.
Oh, I’m sorry. If the stress was too much, then you made the right decision for you. Daisy will be well looked after in her new home, I’m sorry you couldn’t keep her.
(I’m a dreadful enabler when it comes to pet adoption, so just ignore me if you like… You could (when you are feeling less stressed) consider finding an adult cat up for adoption. They are a lot less stressful than a kitten, and if you find one who has grown up with dogs, the dog visits shouldn’t bother it. As for the vet thing and you not driving any more, here they have mobile vets who come to your house. One of my former cats used to wee himself in the car, so I got the mobile vet out for him. )
I could probably find Daisy’s new home and visit but am not sure I could bear to. I’m sure I could get a cat acclimated to dogs; the problem is that my son’s elderly dogs can’t get acclimated to cats. And really, I was fine with Daisy being a kitten. It was her passengers that freaked me out.
My sister made the same suggestion about mobile vets, and I find there is one in my town. In an emergency, I’d be stuck. Why are there no pet ambulances? If I could figure out a way to handle the dog situation, I might consider adoption again, but…I don’t know. My confidence was shaken by my shaken confidence.
A taxi would probably take a cat in a carrier. Otherwise, make some enquiries. My kennels has fetched my animals to take them up there and bring them back when I got taken off to hospital. One time, I got admitted all of a sudden and someone was overdue for their needles. They just got their vet to do it and I settled up with the boarding fees. I’ve had the vet nurse at the local vet’s bring me medication when I wasn’t able to get up there. My mobile vet has a van, he’d probably arrange transport if I was really stuck and they had to go to hospital and couldn’t be treated at home and my car was out of action. There are “pet people” who would help you out if you needed it. Even the council rangers would probably help with transport if there was a need.
It is stressful not having a plan in place, but alternatives can be arranged. Cats are also generally very hardy animals, and with an indoor cat that can’t get run over, the likelihood of a ‘must rush to vet’ incident is probably not that high.
If the stress was too much, then you made the right decision for you. Daisy will be well looked after in her new home, I’m sorry you couldn’t keep her.