Hi cat lovers just need some advice. I live in a shared house and my flatmate has been bitten a few times around the ankle and thinks its flea bites and to be fair it does kind of look like that.
My 2 cats are indoor cats and i've checked them for fleas but there is no sign that they have any nor are they scratching i'm hesitant to put harsh chemicals on them if they are not the source but if there are fleas in the house would it be better to treat them now before they get infested?

The best treatment for your cats is from the vets at least for the first time and then you can shop around. You could try www.petmeds.co.uk as they are are often cheaper than the vet. You must, if you find fleas on your cats, treat the house too and that will take time and you must get the strongest treatment on the market. I say this as the fleas soon become unaffected by the cheap stuff the supermarkets sell. Never put the treatment for the house on your cats as that will harm the cats. Please, please don't wait till you find a flea on your cat before treating them as the number of fleas on your cat must be multiplied by about five hundred to work put how many are in your house. Act as soon as you can, please.

have you not seen flea dirt on your cats. Its like lots of black grains of salt? To see if it is flea dirt put it on a wet tissue and if it spreads red then it is flea dirt. I use a nit comb from the chemist to check my 6 cats. If after combing you still find nothing then get your friend to check for bed bugs on his mattress.

I have indoor kitties too. As a precaution I give them a flea treatment about every three months because even though they don't go out there's the occasional vet visit and we can come into contact with our friends pets etc so might pick up any little unwanted strangers.

I get Advocate from the vets its a combined worm treatment too.

I've often wondered where indoor cats pick up fleas. Can they get them from going to the vets? I do stroke an outdoor cat, so is that a possibility?

I would get some Advocate (get your pets weighed) and some Indorex to spray the house.

Fleas hitch lifts on trousers and skirts. They aren't fussy.

Don't waste time or money on ineffective treatments amd whatever you do, do NOT use Bob m===tin products, they have been known to kill.
Get a vet prescribed product for the cats and also a spray for the whole house. Use both asap and it will all go away!

They make cats fit too. Why they are allowed to sell the stuff, I don't know.

the bob martin spot ons actually have the same active ingredients in as frontline these days

so if the fitting etc. is still true, i'd go careful with them too

You do still need to worm them though (I didn't intiially realise this) as the wormer in Advocate only kills roundworm, not tape worm. So a bit pointless really because you still need use an additional worm treatment like Drontal regularly as well (don't know if this applies to indoor cats, but certainly to outdoor).

Advocate is a good flea treatment though, it's essentially the product which was previously branded as Advantage, combined with a wormer.

I've never bothered with sprays like Indorex, as products like Advocate act as a 'flea vacuum', so that once the cat is treated they pick up and successfully kill any fleas/hatchlings in the environment - unless you have a monumental infestation.

Our vet advised Advocate monthly if ours were outdoor cats. And Drontal every 3-6 months (both of these are administered by drops now). As my lot are indoor I Advocate them every three months and Drontal'd every 6 months. I've seen the results of bad flea/worm infestations and very very sick cats so I always take the precaution even though my indoor cats have limited exposure.

Also keeping on top of this stuff means that you don't have to spray the house too regularly (if at all if you've really got it under control). I once had a very violent allergic reaction to the house spray stuff so I avoid it like the plague.

Sounds like you've had good advice from your vet NK.

My three cats are outside mingling with flea-infested bunnies on a daily basis, so I use Advocate monthly. I've never had to use a an anti-flea room spray, it shouldn't be necessary if effective treatments are used on the cats.

I use Profender drop-on for worms, rather than Drontal.

I just wanted to mention for others' benefit that Advocate advertises itself slightly misleadingly as you do still have to use another worming preparation. It does also allegedly protect against ear mites too though.

My Impossible Princess came with nest fleas,so I had to spray the house as kittens get everywhere.

However she had one lot of worming stuff in a long tube thing that some kittens absolutely love but she didn't for one time only and then never got worms again.

I miss her. I guess she went the same way as a neighbour's chicken.

All of my kittens arrived with fleas, even the pedigrees, but I didn't need to spray the house, just treated the kitten .... I bought a can of Indorex years ago but then the vet told me it wouldn't be necessary to use it, and as it turned out it wasn't. It's still unused in the cupboard

I always deflea my cats every 2-3 months or more frequent during warmer months. I had a realy bad infestation last year where i got bit all the time. I also used indirex it is dear but it realy does work. I also did it a week later to catch any odd ones. Flea eggs can lay dormant for months not years so they might have been there before. Moving furniture around can also disturb them as well. I only know this as this is how i found out we had had them.

I have checked for flea dirt as well one of my cats is a short haired oriental so its very easy to see on her and there is absolutely no sign of flea dirt either.

Thanks for the advice anyone will make a trip to the vet on Monday to get some stuff.

Worth noting. A friend of mine who has outdoor cats recently had a flea problem though not a major infestation. Although she never spotted any flea dirt her small black female had a bad flea allgery and started balding in places (funnily enough I used to have a small black female which did the same). Although she could not find any signs of fleas she used a vet prescribed flea treatment and her moggy is all better now.