Fleas!

Everyone always has questions about fleas. Let me tell you from experiences, you do not want to mess around with fleas. Here are some basic rules of thumb:

1. When mosquitoes are alive, so are fleas. That means, even in the dead of winter, if you have a couple of warm days or you see a 'skeeter, there are also fleas around.
2. If your cat has fleas, kitty has a good chance of having tapeworm, too!
3. Keeping fleas off your cat is easy. If you let fleas ride and infest your apartment or house, then getting rid of fleas is hard.
4. Generally, these rules apply only to cats that go outdoors unless you and your cats move to a place that already has flea eggs lying around...

Want to know more?

What do you mean, my cat can still have fleas in the winter?

Fleas lay eggs which then hatch and become larvae. This is important to know because only the adult flea lives on your cat. Flea eggs are designed to drop out of the cat hair and fall to the ground. After the eggs hatch, the larvae eat anything organic, but primarily they feed on flea "dirt" which has also fallen to the ground. Flea dirt is adult flea poop which for obvious reasons is made almost entirely of dried blood. Why is this all important? Because if you think you combed out all the fleas out of your cat, you've still missed all the eggs and larvae that have fallen on the ground in your house. And since you keep your house warm during the winter, the eggs have no problem hatching, becoming adult fleas and jumping on your cat again!

* I like this picture of the flea because frankly, if you find a flea on your cat, you're not going to be looking really closely at it. Just getting the general shape of the flea is important.

How can I tell if my cat has fleas?

Obviously if your cat is scratching vigourously for long periods of time (like 10 seconds), she probably has fleas. Catch fleas earlier by combing your cat with a flea comb. The tight metal tines of a flea comb will pull out hair, dandruff, dirt and if your cat has them: fleas and flea dirt. If the comb pulls out fleas, then usually, the flea doesn't jump right away (as it's caught in hair and metal). You can quickly pinch the flea between your fingers (it's flat) and flush it down the toilet or put it in a cup of water. Drowning a flea is an easy way of killing it. Comb the cat at the base of his back near the tail and on the sides of their neck. Because it's hard for cats to groom themselves in these locations, this is often where fleas gather.

Flea dirt looks a lot like regular dirt, but there are significant differences. Regular dirt is usually small and flat. Flea dirt is usually slightly larger and round (see pic). If you can't really tell, then take some of the dirt and smear it against the side of your wet sink. Regular dirt will smear brown. Flea dirt will smear red because it's blood.

You know you have a flea problem when you start getting bit. Usually, fleas will bite you at your ankles and under your shirt. Bites are generally small red raised dots and you'll get a bunch of them together in the same area. Bites are usually smaller than a spider and mosquito bite.

Why should I want to get rid of fleas?

If the obvious irritation flea bites cause your kitty and you doesn't bother you, the here are some other reasons you don't want fleas in your house.

• Enough fleas can dehydrate your cat to death.
• Your cat can get tapeworms from fleas. When a cat eats a flea infected with tapeworm, the cat also gets tapeworm. Enough tapeworms can starve your cat to death. You can tell your cat has tapeworm because he will poop little segments of tapeworm. Generally, these sesame seed looking segments will hang on the hair near your cat's anus. If you see these, get meds from your vet quickly. One pill will kill the tapeworms, but better yet, get rid of the fleas!
• Most cats are tremendously allergic to fleas. If you don't keep fleas off your cat, she could display skin allergies. My cat's skin would get so irritated, he'd lick of whole sections of fur. Then you'd see these raised skin lesions. After medicating him regularly, he's not since displayed any skin allergies.

How do I get rid of fleas?


The only way to get rid of fleas is to break the life cycle of the flea through mass extinction.

• For the protection and welfare of your cat, the easiest way is to get topical skin medication from your vet. Such liquid meds applied to the skin of your cat will kill fleas and eggs. The meds last for a month usually so while your cat is protected, no flea can live on her -- thus, preventing the flea population from growing in your house. You should / must apply the medicine in regular monthly intervals. Don't let a couple days lapse between when you were supposed to apply and when you actually do apply the meds. Cats get fleas really quickly.

My personal opinion about topical flea medications.

• Firstly, if your cat turns out to be allergic to one, change the medicine. For example, I used to use Revolution because it killed a lot more nasty parasites than fleas, but two of my guys lost hair at the point where I placed the medicine. So, then I switched to Advantage even though it kills only fleas because it didn't irritate the skin and it's slightly cheaper. There are other flea medications sold over the internet; I really don't know much about them, but if anyone else has had good luck with them, comment and let us all know!
  
  UPDATE: Recently, there's been news of flea medication causing the death of animals. All flea medication is poisonous. Many of the complaints have centered around the Hartz brand, an over-the-counter (OTC) option. It would be my greatest wish that I did not have to apply flea medication on my cats! If your cats are not in a tick-heavy environment, DO NOT USE TICK medication. Tick medication is highly poisonous and just not necessary unless you live in a tick-infested area. I did some research and found that fleas can live in a wide-ranging temperature and altitude environments. I know from personal communication that fleas don't affect animals in Montana, yet I still haven't found the reason why. This summer, the weather has been less humid with less mosquitoes. I have been able to extend the time between flea medication application. It helps to brush the cats every day to check for fleas and flea dirt. It also helps to vacuum regularly. I'm on week five / six and have only found one baby flea. Hopefully, I can make it to week 7 / 8 before having to medicate the cats.
  
• Secondly, my cats hate having the meds applied to the nape of their neck (as the products suggest), so I just apply the liquid in drops on to different regions of the top of their head and neck trying to apply to skin, not fur. I think it's best to apply flea medication to different areas anyway because having one huge blob of liquid run down the back of your neck is irritating and going to take longer to soak into the skin then several small drops on different areas. Thirdly, it doesn't matter if they lick it (it's going into their bodies anyway, and you can rest assured, they won't lick it because it tastes gross!). But I digress...
  

To continue:

• Vacuuming your house definitely helps! You will suck up flea eggs and larvae, but make sure to empty out the canister.
  

• If your house gets infested with fleas and you can't get rid of them because now they've started to live on you as well as your cat (using cat flea medication on yourself is not recommended), you can buy an aerosol flea poison and "bomb" your apartment. This is tedious work and horrible in general. You have to cover every inch of anything you don't want bombed (like your books). Then you have to vacate your house -- take your cat with you! Then you have to air your house out for a day. Then you have wipe down or vacuum every surface area. Seriously, bombing your apartment is crap.

• If you think you haven't quite gotten to full-blown flea infestation and want to try some other methods. Borax kills fleas by dehydrating them. Pennyroyal is another natural alternative (be careful as the pennyroyal oil can kill cats, too!). There are also chemical sprays that you can spray your carpets, floors, etc (please don't spray your cat).

But nothing is going to do the trick unless you break the cycle of the flea sucking your cat's blood.

So get some medication and

flea your cat!

To close, Wikipedia (obviously) and University of Florida Feature Creatures are two good sites to learn more about the flea.

A final note: I've heard that Montana doesn't have fleas -- not sure how this is possible, but if anyone can substantiate the claim, I'd be interested in learning more.