Additional Pets In The Home
The most common way for fleas to enter your household is on the family dog or another pet that comes inside from being outdoors. Cats can also get fleas from neighbor pets and local wildlife, such as birds, rabbits, guinea pigs, racoons, possums, squirrels, and skunks. Even if a dog is on a monthly flea preventive, some do not repel fleas, meaning the dog can still be home to live fleas and flea eggs. Flea preventives take a bit of time before they start killing parasites, so fleas can enter your house, jump off the dog, and hop onto your cat before feeling the effects of the flea medicine.
What you can do:
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Year-round flea prevention is recommended for all cats and dogs in your home, whether they go indoors or not. While that recommendation is year-round, the spring and summer months, when the weather is warmer, are the most important time of year for preventing fleas.
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Check your cat regularly for fleas and other insects/parasites.
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Check whether dogs visiting your home are up to date on their flea prevention.
How To Get Rid Of Fleas On Your Cat And In Your Home
The first step in dealing with a flea infestation is to give your cat a flea treatment, such as a topical, tablet, collar or spray. To help prevent fleas in the first place, use an effective flea prevention product for cats throughout the year. Consider keeping all pets in your household on a monthly flea-control program using a product that kills fleas through contact, so fleas dont have to bite your cat to die.
To remove fleasfrom your home, wash your cats bedding on the hottest possible setting, vacuum your cats favorite snoozing spots and use a household flea spray throughout your home. Read our comprehensive guide for more information and helpful tips.
Symptoms & Signs Of Fleas In Cats
The most obvious symptom of fleas in cats is scratching and itching more than usual. If you notice your cat suddenly scratching much more, as if theyre in pain or highly irritated, try using a flea comb to look for signs of fleas.
Adult fleas are visible to the naked eye, but theyre fast and can easily hide in your cats fur. They are usually brown or reddish brown in color and have six legs.
Because fleas are so small and quick, you may be able to spot what is known as flea dirt more easily. Flea dirt is the feces of fleas. It may look like tiny grains of pepper or flecks of dirt.
You can find it fairly easily on cats with light colored fur, but it may be more difficult to spot against dark fur. To confirm that its flea dirt and not ordinary dirt, you can run a comb through your cats coat, which should pull some of the dirt off and possibly some adult fleas, as well.
Place the residue on a wet paper towel. Flea dirt will appear to have a rust color as it dissolves because it contains traces of blood, while regular dirt will be black or dark brown.
Flea bites appear, like other insect bites, as small, red lesions. The most common places that flea bites appear are on the groin, hind legs, and the back between the ribs and the tail.
Beyond the irritation that comes from being bitten by fleas, if the infestation is left untreated, some other conditions might also arise. Common secondary conditions caused by fleas include:
- Mycoplasma Haemofelis
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Clean Everything Your Pet Has Come In Contact With
In order to get rid of your cats fleas, you need to take the necessary precautions to prevent reinfection. Your clothes and bedding should be washed in hot water and your entire house vacuumed thoroughly.
Listed below are our flea treatment plans that you can use for both your cat and your home.
- Cleaning your cats bedding: You can vacuum your pets bedding, however, you should wash it at a temperature as high as possible to kill fleas. You can also tumble-dry the fabric at the highest temperature it can withstand.
- Everything must be washed: Remove all bed covers and wash and dry cushions at as hot a temperature as possible. Similarly, your clothes and any other laundry may have been exposed to your flea infestation.
- Vacuum thoroughly: Vacuum every other day for at least three weeks to remove cat fleas from carpets and soft furnishings. If a bad infestation occurs, vacuum more frequently. Cracks in skirting boards, corners of the room, and underneath beds are common places where eggs and larvae can be found. Flea dirt found here could be serving as a food source for juvenile fleas.
- Keep your vacuum cleaner clean: Eggs may get stuck in your vacuum cleaners bag and could be held there for a long time. Empty the vacuum cleaner completely, and if using a bagless vacuum, clean any washable parts with piping hot water.
How To Check Cats For Fleas
This article was co-authored by Pippa Elliott, MRCVS. Dr. Elliott, BVMS, MRCVS is a veterinarian with over 30 years of experience in veterinary surgery and companion animal practice. She graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1987 with a degree in veterinary medicine and surgery. She has worked at the same animal clinic in her hometown for over 20 years.There are 14 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, 95% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 363,524 times.
Before you go on a flea hunt, think about why you suspect your cat might have fleas. If you’ve seen fleas on your cat or in your house, you know for sure you are dealing with fleas and should use a veterinary flea treatment labeled for cats. But, you may have a flea problem even if you’ve never seen a flea on your pet or in your home. Your cat may have cleaned the adult fleas from her fur. Flea eggs may have fallen off your pet and could hatch a few weeks later. Either way, it’s important to know for certain if your cat has fleas.
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Ways Indoor Cats Can Get Fleas
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Keeping cats indoors protects them from getting lost, getting into scuffles with other animals, and exposure to other harmful issues. But even if youre keeping your cat indoors, its important to not skip flea and tick prevention.
Fleas are tiny but powerful. They use their strong back legs to jump onto petsand humansas they walk by. Fleas also multiply rapidly when feeding on a host animal, a single flea can lay up to 50 eggs a day. Unfortunately, this can happen inside your home, not just outdoors. Indoor cats can get fleas in more ways than you may think.
Use A Flea Preventive For Cats
Flea preventives help discourage fleas from coming back. Effective flea prevention options include collars, topicals and oral products that can last anywhere from 30 days to eight months. Choose the prevention method that works best for you and your cat.
Keep in mind that preventives work best when used regularly and year-round applying for only one or two months per year could leave your pet unprotected.
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How Many Fleas On A Dog Is Considered An Infestation
Since just one bite can jumpstart a quickly-moving reproductive cycle, finding a flea on your dog or cat means that you probably already have a problem. Any pet can pick up the ubiquitous flea if they spend time outside, in kennels or around other animals. Even an indoor pet that rarely spends time in the great outdoors isnt entirely immune from fleas. This is because the humidity inside our homes is often stable, meaning fleas can thrive inside any time of year after an unsuspecting host brings these pests indoors.
Fleas are not easily visibleespecially when theyre living on our pet. However, if an infestation is heavy, you may be able to spot the fleas on your dogs skin. Another sign you might have a flea problem is spotting small black or brown specks on or around your pets bedding. These specks resemble coffee grounds and are sometimes called flea dirt. This substance is flea feces, which turns a reddish color if wet.
While they are so small you are unlikely to notice them, flea eggs are oval-shaped and white and are about the same size as a salt crystal. For the most part, the most obvious sign of a flea infestation is noticing your pet scratching more than usual or spotting an irritated hot spot on its skin from flea bite dermatitis.
Now that we have established the risk these parasites pose to your home and furry friends, lets talk about when you are more likely to see them.
Avoiding Certain Parts Of Your Home
Fleas flourish in a warm environment and hide in carpet and furniture. If your cat starts avoiding carpeted areas of your home, consider that a red flag. Theyre steering clear of the fleas!
The first rule in controlling fleas is to keep a clean house, so thoroughly vacuum your floors and furniture including under the cushions on a regular basis. You can also try a natural remedy like diatomaceous earth for your carpets and throw rugs.
Wash your cats bedding regularly in the washing machine. You can also spritz your cats bedding and furnishings with a flea spray for the home.
Get more tips getting rid of fleas in your home here.
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New Home / Environment / Furniture:
Pre-existing fleas from pets living in the home before you, can be dormant for months, so if youre moving, they could just be waiting for your cat to arrive.
Another thought to keep in mind is if you buy second-hand furniture, bedding, or rugs from someone whose pet currently has or has had fleas, you might accidentally bring the pests into your home.
Your Cat Begins Losing Weight
One of the many dangers associated with fleas is that they can carry the developing stage of a common tapeworm. If your cat eats a tapeworm-infected flea while grooming, the tapeworm develops, and attaches to your cats intestinal wall to feed and grow. Tapeworms do not commonly cause signs of illness in cats but are unsightly and a health hazard, particularly if you have young children in your home. Your veterinary team can help you control the fleas that are spreading the tapeworm and treat the tapeworm to keep you, your cat and the rest of your family healthy.
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Make Sure The Cat Cant Get More Fleas
If youve already treated your cat once, then you may be surprised to see him infested again. The unfortunate reality is that it could take a few months to break the fleas life cycle. Up until that point, they will be constantly hatching and trying to re-establish themselves on your cat. So, the first step to beating the fleas in your home is making sure that your cat can not become a safe space for these little vermin anymore.
The best way to do that is by investing in a high quality flea treatment. Sometimes flea medications can be misleading, because while they do work to kill the adult fleas, they may only work once! This leaves your poor fur baby open to just getting them again. Instead, choose a product which will continually kill fleas over a long period of time. The fleas need blood to reproduce, and by using a preventative flea treatment you can rob them of this.
Our top pick for this is the Seresto Flea Collar. These babies do an awesome job killing fleas, and they work for 8 months. That means your cat will be protected long after you break the flea cycle, effectively starving the fleas and killing any new ones that try to hatch. You can read our full review of this product here.
Treat Your Cat For Fleas
First, treat your cat with a product designed to kill fleas. Bathe your cat or kitten with a specially formulated flea shampoo to kill fleas on contact. Flea sprays can be a good option for water-averse cats. Repeat treatment as needed and recommended on the label.
Kitten flea treatment tip: Check the flea treatment label to ensure the product is safe for the age of your kitten. If your kitten is too young, contact your vet to discuss other kitten flea treatment options.
After treatment, remove fleas from your cat or kittens coat with a flea comb then, dip the comb in a mixture of dish soap and water to kill any fleas left on the comb. Inspect and comb weekly to monitor the flea infestation on your cat.
Fact Check: Essential Oils for Fleas on Cats
Some online pet blogs may recommend using essential oils such as tea tree oil as a natural treatment for fleas. However, natural doesnt necessarily mean harmless. Cats are more sensitive to essential oils than humans and undiluted oils can be harmful or even toxic. Essential oils and extracts are not regulated and do not require testing for safety, and it can be difficult to dilute properly.
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Itchy Cat When It Is Not Fleas
07th September 2018
Fleas remain the most common cause of skin disease in cats, although this is not true in all countries , and fleas are not the only cause of pruritus in cats. Where fleas are not the answer, often a much more detailed and meticulous approach is needed to find the diagnosis.
In some instances in cats, it can be very difficult to differentiate between skin disease due to pruritus and skin disease induced by other causes. For example, in humans and dogs, hair loss is almost always hormonal in origin. However, in cats, hormonal skin disease is so rare as to be virtually non-existent. Hair loss in cats is actually almost always caused by excessive self-grooming due to pruritus but cats may be secret groomers and often we may be unaware that the cat is grooming more frequently or more aggressively.
Severe pruritus and eosinophilic plaques associated with flea allergy note matting of the fur with saliva
Why Do Cats Itch And Scratch
Cats can scratch for a multitude of reasons, just like humans can scratch or feel itchy for different reasons.
Cats can have dry itchy skin, where you may see scratch, rubbing, and flaky skin.
Feline friends can have allergies, such as food allergies or chemical allergies to household cleaners, that can make them itchy and scratch.
Itchy, inflamed skin is called dermatitis.
Other times, kitties can become itchy from external parasites, such as fleas.
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Common Feline Diseases Carried By Fleas:
- Tapeworms: Fleas also carry a parasite called the tapeworm, Dipylidium, which is easily treatable. They are commonly found in cats that have been exposed to fleas.
- Haemobartonellosis : Fleas can also be vectors for a bloodborne parasite called Mycoplasma Haemofelis in cats. This bacteria is known to cause anemia, fever and other medical concerns.
- Bartonella species infections: Also known as Cat-Scratch Disease is caused by a bacteria named Bartonella henselae, which a cat can contract via fleas. If a cat with Bartonella scratches a person and leaves an open wound, there is a potential for the exposed human to contract the disease as well and show symptoms of fever, headache, and wound infection.
How To Get Rid Of Fleas In Cats
Flea treatment for cats is an ongoing process. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix. The main problem with fleas is that they can live without a host for months.
This means that even the cleanest of homes and the cleanest of cats can soon become hotbeds for infestation. But if you stay vigilant and make an effort to stay on top of things, the occasional case of fleas will never be allowed to break out into a full-on infestation.
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Make Sure Youre Not Bringing Fleas Back In The House
If you want to know how to get rid of cat fleas in the house, then you should really look past your doors. Its entirely possible that you are bringing fleas back into your home. Humans can easily carry pests into the house without knowing it as they are coming or going. This can be especially true if you go somewhere that there are other animals who may not be treated such as the vets office or the dog park. Its impossible to protect yourself 100% from this, but there are a few tricks here.
For starters, make sure to spray your flea treatment near the entryways to keep any offending pests from jumping in when the door is open. It can also help to keep plants trimmed back away from the house if your have planters, as it makes it less attractive for bugs to hand out there.
Reasons Why Your Pet Still Has Fleas
Youve tried everything but they keep coming back. What are you doing wrong?
- Green Home
What lays eggs, drinks blood, and is the second-best jumper of all known animals? No, this isnt the beginning of a bad joke. Its the common enemy of all pet owners: the tiny flea. The flea can lay thousands of eggs in one lifetime, even though the average adult only lives a few months. However, with the right temperature, food supply, and humidity, fleas can live up to 18 months. Unfortunately, your household pet provides exactly the conditions fleas need to thrive.
Have you been struggling to eradicate fleas? Here are ten reasons why your pet may still have them:
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