Preferred Flea Treatment

There are a lot of different options out there for flea treatments; some work and some don't. I have tried store brands without much luck and have bought Advantage Plus with wonderful results, but the price is just horrible. Luckily I have only had to treat my cats once about a year ago. They are completely indoors so the only fleas in the house would be ones we tracked in ourselves.

My mother in law uses Diatomaceous earth on her cat but it is more a preventative measure than a treatment as it takes a while to kill the fleas and that gives them time to lay their eggs. I would recommend it as a preventative though.

What products have you tried?

 

Fleas are impossible to eradicate as far as my cats are concerned because they go in and out as they please. If I really wanted to, I would have to deflea the entire cat population in the neighborhood. However, I haven't noticed any serious flea infection in my cats yet. Just an odd flea here and there.

One thing which I have tried quite effectively to keep the flea population under control is to bath my cats regularly. Very few fleas can survive a soaking in cat shampoo for five minutes.

 

I tried giving my cat a bath last year when we had a massive flea outbreak. I did accomplish it, but it didn't go over very well! Let's just say she wasn't amused.

I use the collars on mine. My male cat started having a problem with flea treatments when he was getting older and they made him quite sick. This is why I liked the collar, if it bothered him I could take it off immediately and he would be ok. Anything on the skin like the drops, and it would have continued to make him sick for the next month. Because of such reactions, I prefer the collar because it can be removed quickly. It does work too. Last year the fleas were out of control from wild cats and the fact that I couldn't put even a collar on my male. He passed away during the flea outbreak last year.

I also treat my yard with garlic at least once a month and it seems to work for us, but we have a small enough yard to coat it with garlic. Last year I relied more on the chemical treating of the yard and we ended up with a massive outbreak and also had ticks. This year there should be more fleas (in theory after the warmer winter) and using the garlic once a month has helped us take our yard back! Our neighbors all have infestations now.

 

I have never use a flea collar on any of my cats or dogs. How exactly does it work?

As for the garlic, would it work if you plant garlic in your yard? What exactly is the active ingredient in garlic that deters fleas? Would putting garlic in the cat's bed make any difference?

 

I wouldn't put garlic in the cat's bed because too much garlic can be toxic to them. Fleas do not like the smell of garlic from what I was told and I believe if they eat it, it kills them. But I know if you eat a lot of garlic, you have a good chance of not getting bitten.

Yes I am sure that growing it would definitely help too. I got the idea from a company that sells a potent garlic spray for yards and according to them you will never find a flea or tick in a garlic field.

The flea collar is something that you put around the cat's neck and it is not the greatest, but no flea treatment is that great. It can be toxic to humans if ingested so be sure if kids will be around that they do not play with the collar. I only like them because it can be removed if a problem occurs where a liquid treatment cannot.

 

I see. So the flea collar sort of kills the fleas with the material that it is made of, right? I will have a closer look at one, the next time I go to the pet store.

From your description, then planting garlic in the garden sounds like a plan. They look like they have nice flowers, too.

 

I like using Frontline or Advantage. They usually do the job and are affordable if you buy them online. I even spray some eucalyptus around my house too to kill all of the fleas indoors.

 

I used to use frontline but lately its not working. I was reading somewhere that fleas are getting immune to it. This year we tried a different method.

We use flea collars . We add some garlic and brewers yeast to their food. Just a tiny bit or they wont eat it. It seems to work, so far we have not noticed any fleas on them. We also comb there fur out once a week with a flea comb.

Beth

 

Frontline is the only thing that works for us. We tried lots of other ones over the years and nothing worked. I hope they're not going to get immune to it because none of the other methods lasted.