Ugh! Fleas. On a poor little kitten. What to do?
OK, South Bay Pets readers. We need your advice.
What's the best way to combat fleas on a 3-month-old (but sickly-recovering, weak) kitten? The topical drops would be too strong for now.
And how about treating a carpeted environment?
Fleabusters? Something else that's effective yet not too costly?
The poor kitty in question is shown below. ;(
We hope to have a robust 'after" picture in a short time!
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About the Bloggers
Daily Breeze reporter Donna Littlejohn has shared her homes with a succession of wonderful, funny, and occasionally difficult canines -- Muffin, Fritz, Ellie, Mercy, Pilgrim and now Cowboy, an Australian shepherd-border collie, and Tess, a border collie. From strong-willed terriers to weirdly obsessed Australian shepherds, they've invaded her world with boundless energy, wet noses, muddy paws and soggy tennis balls. But they've really brought so much more than that -- like laughter and joy, some unexpected life lessons, and more than a few tears along the way.
E-mail Donna at donna.littlejohn@dailybreeze.com.
Josh Grossberg grew up with the usual array of animals: goldfish, dogs, hamsters, parakeets and turtles. He now owns the loudest dog in the South Bay(Video: Rocket the Dog) and is the least popular person on his block. He spends his free time in dog parks, pet shops and always has an extra plastic bag in his pocket just in case. He also has a cat.
E-mail Josh at josh.grossberg@dailybreeze.com.
I use the original Head and Shoulders shampoo rather than flea shampoos or treatments, leaving the lather on for about 5 to 10 minutes works great to show those fleas that they picked the wrong host on which to feed.
I also used to use straight old fashioned Borax, like the Mule Team Borax stuff, on the rugs as it worked pretty similar to the Fleabusters treatments. You will likely have to retreat the rugs if there is a bad infestation, I believe the flea cycle is 14 days so if you use the Borax hit the carpets again in two weeks. I left the borax on the carpets for several hours before I vacuumed it up.
If the kitten seems really weak, you might consider only using a flea comb and/or strong lemon tonic as a repellant rather than subjecting the kitten to a full bath that might be stressful and further impact the immune system. Boil water and cut up a lemon into it leaving it to steep overnight, then use the tonic in a spray bottle on the pet rubbing the tonic into the coat. It's not the best option but it does help when an animal is either elderly or has compromised health issues.
Food supplements also help to improve the skin so that the fleas don't find it so appetizing, I worry about the diagnosis of what made the kitten sick to this point but maybe you could just add a tiny amt of oil at first to see how the kitten's stomach takes to it.
Now the hard question, since the fleas are in abundance it would be prudent to check for worms as well. If the kitten has worms, then I would make sure that worm eradication gets first priority and THEN follow with the flea stuff but I don't think it's a good idea to load up worm treatments and topical flea concurrently.
Cute kitten! Looking forward to seeing a new photo soon with bright eyes that promise lots of playing in it's future. Bless you for taking such an interest in an animal others would turn from, hope that you are rewarded with many years of purring and loving attention for giving that little one the attention it needs.
Hi Donna:
A friend at work mentioned this same problem to me yesterday at work. When we had 2 cats, we had Fleabusters come out to the house. That was years ago, and we have never had a problem. (We're talking 1985!) I wanted to treat the carpet myself about 10 years ago and went to Petco and bought a carpet powder. It was a 5 gallon tub and was a little pricey but it goes a long way. I also bought a box of Borateem because a pest control guy told me that the stuff Fleabusters used was just like that. Vacuum (and maybe clean the carpet first), then put the powder on there, brush it in good and hard with a big pushbroom and let it sit for 24 hrs. (I think that's what I was told.) Anyway, Google "borate flea treatment". It's some work, but so worth it. I hope it works out for the kitty, and that it can get some meds, too, to help it get over this hurdle. Keep us posted!