We are infested, I really think flea collars are useless, both cats still have the little b***ers crawling on them with it on!

oddly enough our Ginger tom who was the culprit with fleas in the past died about 4 years ago and never had them since THEN we got another Ginger Tom 6 months old and they are back, the hair seems very dense on this coloured cat...or maybe I'm imagining it

Went to get Frontline today - sold out, so ordered on-line ( way cheaper) and tips or advice, I'm as bitten as the cats!

You will need to use frontline regularly for a while (as per instructions) but it sounds like you may need to get your house de-fleaed as well! All the cats bedding will need to be treated, plus carpets, your own bedding, soft furnishings etc as flea eggs can remain dormant for a long time. You should probably get professional help with this if you want to completely eradicate the problem & then keep up with the frontline to prevent reinfestation.

I've not heard of any link between coat colour & fleas ~ perhaps they're just easier to spot in ginger cats!

Where did you order the frontline from?

Flea collars are IMO pretty useless, waste of money.
I hope you got frontline spot on - it's much easier to apply than the pump spray.

If you are really 'infested' then as wilhemina says you will need to treat the house with something like Indorex household flea spray.

I agree that you simply SEE the fleas more on a ginger coloured cat (and white cats too obviously!) On browns greys and black you cannot see them but they are still there...

Another one here for wondering where you ordered it online? I desperately need some frontline spray. I have 4, 5 week old kittens that are riddled with fleas. Living in the country with 4 cats and a dog its impossible keeping everyone flea free. It'll be a blessing when the kittens go in a couple of weekends actually.

www.vetuk.co.uk

Cheaper than the vets and a good site to keep as a favorite, some of the flea treatment is only for cats 6 months and older.

If you need it urgently, some chemists now stock Frontline spot on, my local independent chemist does.

however my pack of Frontline spot on combo says it is safe for kittens 'over 8 weeks of age'.

Some fleas are immune to front line. My Impossible Princess has Advocate.

I've tried avoiding using chemicals to treat the fleas but because they are still quite young I'm very limited as to what I can use. I have tried bathing the kittens with flea shampoo and combing them out but their fur is so fine and isn't long enough for a comb to get in all the places fleas hide, so I'm a bit stuck. I expect I'll be a trip to the vets to get the spray because I'm at my wits end.

I tried garlic and lemon. Natural products. They didn't work.

The best way is to take each kitten and pick the fleas out for them. I would worry about the ones who are allergic to flea bites as it can't be too comfy for the poor little mites.

You could use a nit comb.

A trip to the vets may well be best.

We always use Frontline Combo on our Penny, it's simple, just a few drops on the back of her neck and it lasts for about a month. It will kill all the fleas that are on your cat and the ones that jump off onto your carpets. We had an infestation when she was young, that's why we started using Frontline, they were all gone within hours.

You'll need to vacuum up thoroughly, the idea being to remove flea eggs rather than hoping to get rid of live fleas which will tend to jump out the way. The next generation are like grains of black or white salt. Shake things/brush them outside the back door.

Once that's done (the vibration from vacuuming will unfortunately stimulate flea activity) you need to spray the carpets and furnishings and anywhere else the cat has slept. Zodiac spray is available in pet shops, a bit pricey at £11, but it's supposed to kill them and prevent reinfestation for up to 9 months. Bob Martin do a similar spray with 3 or 4 month's protection, slightly cheaper, only seen that in Wilkinsons (Wilko). These are trigger sprays, not cheaper aerosols which tend to only knock down live fleas.

I don't use insecticides or flea collars on my cat, but Frontline is probably the best option, or Advantage for that. Instead I give him a 5-minute groom with a flea comb three times a week, and keep a check of where he's been sleeping for any signs of flea eggs, and then vacuum/spray the carpets and furnishings if need arises. The past 2 years are said to have been the worst for fleas, with pet shops selling out of treatments due to demand.

Have to say I now use a nit comb rather than a flea comb and a boiling water, it is the only 'animal' |I kill and I really don't care, last night we got over 40 and she had a flea collar on!

Actually Pets at Home have Frontline to but can you believe they could not sell as it is licensed and no-one could issue it till after the Bank holiday - they must have lots ££££ with the current flea problem!

Miafi, have you Frontlined (or similar) the other cats and dog? That should help quite a bit until you can get the kittens to the vet. It must be a real problem when the kitties are so young.

Can you do the mum if she is still nursing?

my cat has a flea collar, they do sod all

flea spray to get rid of the fleas then regular use of frontline every 4 weeks

My problem is my cat wont let me near it with frontline no chance. With a collar I have to close it and pop it over her head wearing gloves otherwise i wouldnt have hands left. She is a demon.

Mind you I must be lucky as the flea collars seem to stop any fleas on her and the other 2 cats.

We got fleas on Lucy our dog by visiting a friend how maddening is that. My hubby was sat chatting and looked down and there were fleas running over him LOL. He made his escape pretty quickly dragging me with him (I wondered what was wrong) but Lucy didnt stop scratching all evening, so we bathed her with flea shampoo and combed her for 3 days.

I think we have them gone now.

Fleas are a real nuisance. I spray 4 times a year just in case in the house. I know if we have fleas as my grandson is allergic to bites. So far so good in our house, BUT he stayed over his friends 2 weeks ago and they have 2 cats and my daughter was horrified as he had 60 bites under his armpit, his arm and around his back when he came home. The cats apparently sleep or slept on the bed he was sleeping in.

Poor little mite. She had to take him to the doctor. The house he stayed in is immaculate too, my daughters friend was beside herself with embarrassment as she hadnt noticed a problem. Lucky for them they dont get bitten.

Some of these sprays though are pretty dodgy.

There are certain flea products now that can kill cats if they get in contact with them.

Hoovering is one of the best things to try and keep the fleas down. I hoover every day. You have to break the flea cycle.

Fleas can lay dormant like others have said and wake up when new fresh blood arrives PUKE isnt it.

My mate uses the zapper comb I think i will buy one. When you comb the animal if there is a flea a small current kills the flea ZAP.

I feel sorry for anyone who is infested with the blighters.

We treated all the cats and the dog with frontline spot on because it was safe for the nursing mother but because we didn't catch them in time the kittens are covered in fleas from the mum and they are passing back and forth. Its a nightmare because the dog was really suffering with fleas her little bald belly where she was nibbling all the time was red raw. Thankfully thats all healed now and the dog is flea free because the cats don't really enjoy the dogs presence! I think I'm going to have to get some frontline spray and do the kittens but you can only get it from the vets.

A little tip I took the dog to the vets to be weighed and for Frontline spot on for her fleas it cost £30 for 3. We went into Pets at Home for spot on for the cats and noticed it was considerably cheaper for dogs something like £24 for 3.

We've got a flea problem too. Used to swear by Frontline but the last lot we bought didn't solve the problem, our 2 cats were crawling in them again within 2 weeks. Tried Advocate too and found it pretty useless, This time round we're using Bob Martin's spot-on and sprays, it seems to keep them at bay but it's an uphill battle.

I noticed that Wilkinson do their own spot-on treatment - we've tried everything else next time we'll try this but just wondered if anyone else has tried it?

So glad we are not the only ones suffering - it's a nightmare and nothing seems to work in the long term. My parents in law bought a flea catcher thing from the internet it's a round thing with a bulb and a sticky pad - the fleas are attracted to the heat and jump onto the pad and are unable to get off. I take perverse pleasure in seeing the little SH*ts struggling to get off the pad and we've caught LOADS on the pads over the last few weeks. If I catch them on me I either squash them between my nails or drown them.

Johnsons 4fleas tablets are great for getting rid of the fleas on your pets initially BUT they don't stop reinfestation unfortunately.

You really have my sympathy. Last summer I was stupid to enough to forget to Frontline the cats one time and we ended up with a house full of the little blighters.

Flea collars are only any good for one thing - pop on in your hoover bag and they kill any hatching fleas off that you hoovered up as eggs. It took us about six weeks to break the cycle of fleas by :-

- Frontlined the cats and the dog
- Vaccuum everywhere - under furniture especially, cracks and crevices, the works. Do this every day if you can. Empty the hoover and put the contents of the bag in a tightly tied up bag in the dustbin else the fleas hatch out and hop out of your hoover when its switched off!
- Hot wash all your bedding if your pets sleep on the bed, and wash their bedding on a hot cycle too.
- We used Johnsons 4Fleas household spray in the house to kill anything off.

If you find you are getting bitten a lot by fleas you can also buy some spray repellent which is safe to use on children and adults. We all got bitten but my poor daughter is irresistable to fleas and she was covered in bites. The spray really helped her.

The only way to keep the house flea free is to be really systematic about eradicating the little blighters, and to keep up the Frontline/Advantage/whatever you choose. Good luck!

I am very surprised that anyone has found Frontline (or other vet treatments like Advantage/Stronghold) do not work. I have had a household of three or four cats for 14 years, have used those treatments all those years and have never had a problem. For the past four years we have lived in the countryside where the rabbits are jumping with fleas, you can see them leap off the prey rabbits onto the cats, yet within hours the pre treatment of Frontline spot on for the cats has killed them.

Bear in mind that you WILL see fleas on a cat which has been treated with Frontline, but as long as you have kept up to date with the treatment those fleas will be dying, and will not cause a problem.

I have never had to use a household flea spray, or do a special wash of the bedding - or do anything other than re-treat every four weeks with Frontline.

However if you are using treatments bought from the pet shop... I am not surprised if they don't work.

My personal experience of Frontline is that it works well on the cat for the first few applications, but subsequent applications seem to become less effective. It's part of the reason why I gave up on it.

You can still have a flea explosion in the house, no matter how well you protect or groom a cat. All it takes is a pregnant female to hitch a ride on a pet, or a person, and then leap off and lay her eggs and within days larvae are crawling around which soon become young fleas. Petless people have been known to go on summer holidays and come back to find their homes infested.

I've been using Frontline spot on for years now and it still seems effective (with three cats running around fields infested with rabbit fleas). In the past I have also used Advantage and Stronghold, and it can be a good idea to swap them about - thanks for the reminder, I will ask for a different brand next time.

I don't agree you can get an infestation if you are treating your cat with those products - of course fleas do still turn up on the cats, but as soon as the flea comes into contact with the cat's skin, it starts dying.

If the flea eggs in your scenario were laid in the house and you then removed the cats from the house - then you WOULD have a flea explosion because there would be nothing to kill them and you would find yourself bitten to bits! But as long as the hatched fleas jump on a treated cat, they will die.

Funny you should say that I was talking to my daughter about the fleas on cats thread yesterday and she swears by wilkinsons collars, they do an 8 month one. She has no probs right now with her cats and 2 dogs by using them.

frontline (or smiliar) and regular (daily!!!!) vacuuming. It's the only way.