There are these small bugs on my cat. I took her to the vet, when I first saw these things, but I guess I jumped the gun because she didn’t find anything on her. NOt even flea dirt.
Now flash foward a month, flea dirt all over the place and small BUGS on my cat. they look like small centipide things, with less legs. Not flea looking things, and they move by crawling. I’ve been trying to catch one so I can take her back to the vet and show them what the hell these things are. But I can’t get one.
Long story short, I want these things gone! My cat is 15 and way to old for this crap! And I have no idea where they came from, though the new place has a out side door in the back bed room, maybe they came in that way.
ANyway long soty made short. I want some advice to get rid of these things. Hoppfylly advice that does not involve a body of water, as Frisky (Cat in question) will murder me if I try that.
SO dopers, best way to get rid of an unknown kind of parasite on a cat.
I suggest Frontline. The active ingredient is Fipronil, which accumulates in the cat’s hair follicles within a day or two following application. It’s a fast-acting neurotoxin which is effective for nearly any insect infestation, including fleas and ticks. I don’t know what it is your cat has, but it’s a good bet Frontline can kill them.
They could be flea larvae. After a little time, they will turn into fleas. Best be getting it taken care of or you will end up with an infestation as we did this past summer.
Chemicals and baths work, but they’re hard on the kitty and your skin.
Have you tried a flea comb? Little metal comb with close set teeth. All you have to do is comb your cat, thoroughly, once a day. Do it near a sink/bowl with a couple of inches of water with a little detergent (not soap, use dish washing detergent) in it. Comb, comb, comb. You’ll collect lots of hair plus any livestock – pull that off the comb and drop it into the detergent water. (The detergent helps the livestock drown instead of floating.)
Work your way over the cat thoroughly, from head to tail. Don’t forget the bellly and inner thighs, and take special care at rump/tail base because lots of bugs like to hang out there.
Do it every day for at least three weeks – time enough for all eggs to hatch and (hopefully) no new ones get to adulthood to lay more.
One bonus: your cat will shed a whole lot less.
Flea dirt is a polite name for flea shit. If you use a flea comb like StarvingButStrong mentions, you’ll see it in the comb as little brown stuff that looks like dirt, kinda. Since it’s made from blood the flea has eaten, it tints water sorta reddish brown if it gets wet.
…and flea dirt won’t be noticeable until well into an infestation. When there are just one or two bugs (the instigators that Kitty or owner brought in), there’s not enough stuff built up to notice. Only after a few days or weeks, when their eggs have hatched and there are more bugs will there be noticeable dirt, nits (egg cases) and bugs.
So it’s possible the OP took the cat in right when he’d picked up bugs, but they’d not yet fully “moved in and set up house”, so the vet couldn’t find them.
I think it’s time for another vet visit, and this time if the vet finds nothing, Jill’s idea might be more likely.
Yup, I found this out just this year. I went to the vet with an itchy dog, SWEARING up and down that he did NOT have fleas. I’d gone over him lightly with a flea comb, looking for flea dirt and stuff, and didn’t find anything. After insisting to the vet tech that he didn’t have fleas, the vet came in and examined him. And she found a flea. :smack: And if there’s one flea, there’s several, whether I saw them or not.
I felt stupid. So yes, you can have the beginnings of an infestation without much in the way of overt signs.
But my dog’s bugs were definitely fleas. I know there are numerous kinds of mites that can infest our pets. Many of them are microscopic though.
You guys are taking this guy’s side.
He is either an alert, concerned pet owner who will appropriately treat his cat’s flea infestation with Frontline, or he’s a nutjob who has been sufficiently egged on by the SDMB to dip his phantom-flea-ridden cat in bleach and light him on fire with a blowtorch. We may never know.
No, we’re just not assuming facts not in evidence. We’re suggesting that the vet may have been in error without being incompetent, and suggesting that the cat get checked out by a trained professional again.
Or do you have access to some other thread about bleach and blowtorches that I missed?
