Sassy cats – Flea scare

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Hazel: You better be damn quick or I’m outta here!

A bug jumped on me and before I could react it jumped off. If you have pets, that sends waves of fear down your spine.

I hadn’t seen what it was. Could it have been a flea? Fleas jump. 

In our area it’s late, but not too late, for flea infestations. The weather’s wonky so why wouldn’t the insects be wonky too.

You don’t want a flea infestation. It’s work and time-consuming to get rid of them. I’ve only had one in the past 20 years but I remember it well.

None of the cats go outside but they enjoy a screened porch. There is a slight chance of picking them up.

Without Jake, who did go outside, I have not been as methodical about applying flea prevention drops. I’m not a fan of medicating if I don’t have to. It may say it’s safe but it’s still a chemical treatment.

There were no other signs of fleas but I had to check all the cats. Gracie doesn’t know about flea checks so she was easy. She wondered by she was getting combed so thoroughly but tried to make the best of it and gave it 2 purrs. That means it would have been 5 purrs if accompanied by some tuna and catnip.

Mollie I had brushed the day before but being thorough, I combed her again. Clean as a whistle.

Morgan, who is not a fan of combing or brushing, tolerated the search. There may have been soft sweet promises of a new mousie going on. Just sayin’

Hazel is always the challenge. She loves her head rubbed but not her body combed, brushed or in any other way checked. She also has a ton of undercoat hair that clogs the best of combs. It took a day to get her. She was peacefully enjoying a snooze in a sun drop when I swooped in. Quick and fast. That’s how you handle her. I got a gallon of hair but no sign of fleas.

I have no idea what that bug was but peace again reigns in the kingdom. I have to pick up tuna, catnip and some new mousies. Nothing comes cheap.

 

74 thoughts on “Sassy cats – Flea scare”

  5. I have found that I do not have to treat all the cats all the time for fleas. As long as two out of three are covered, it keeps the cycle of flea life from happening, if a flea should actually enter my home. This makes the flea stuff cheaper and means less medicine for each cat as well.

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  6. I’m so glad it wasn’t fleas! Everything makes me nervous after Felix’s parasites and then Perry’s worms this year! Have you ever tried the Furminator brush? It’s amazing for the undercoat, but IMO it shouldn’t be used more than in extreme cases because it makes their hair more permanently thin.

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  8. Glad to hear that all your fur-babies are flea-free, but now I’m paranoid that maybe I’ve been a little too lackadaisical about Theo. Time for a check! He’s such an attention whore, he’ll be all over the combing and brushing with the purr machine cranked to max 😺

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  9. Sadly, our last litter of kittens was plagued with severe, birth defects. By six weeks of age, three had died. Of the four, only Jasper remains. Jasper was born with anemia. We have made excellent progress with nutritional supplements. He is now a bouncing, spoiled brat, but we are so afraid of losing him too. The thought of fleas, and what they could do to his blood panics us. He is only seven weeks old, so we bought him a tiny dog collar and put flea drops in between the layers. He’s been wearing it for a week without any adverse effects. (His mama is definitely getting spayed. This will not happen again!)
    By the way, Skitty came into the house about a week ago, climbed into the laundry basket and gave birth for the first time in years. I guess it wasn’t all fat! We now have four new kittens. So much for my wishful thinking! She has a trip to the vet to look forward to in the future as well.

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  10. Well, that’s good news. We are in medicating phase since the kittens joined the household – but not for fleas – for ear mites. I think, actually, that may have been Oscar’s problem, or at least. discomfort in his ears compounded his fear of strangers. Second round of the drops scheduled for week after next.

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  11. Just the title of this post made me itch. A few years ago we had a big infestation after taking in an outdoor cat ( even though we had treated him with Frontline).

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  12. Your post reminded me of, when I was growing up, coming home after a vacation. Because the fleas didn’t have anyone (our cat stayed with friends while we were gone) to feast on for at least a week, they were absolutely ravenous. They just loved me! At that time, all cats were indoor/outdoor cats. I didn’t have that problem after we started to keep out cats inside. I’m glad that you didn’t find any evidence of fleas.

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  14. I just sent this to my wife to read. We have a screened in porch also, and are proud of the new “kitty door” we had installed for them to go/out at their discretion. Our screens are all pretty tight, but that doesn’t mean something as small as a flea couldn’t get through. Just something new to think about, I guess. Unless you were diabolically referring to Flea, the bass player of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, per chance? 🙂 – Marty

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    • No on the Red Hot Chili Peppers. If she keeps an eye on them, they should be fine. I did treat everyone last year but only Gracie got treated this year and it was very early in spring. All seems to be well.

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  15. When we moved from Chicago to Florida with our cat, it was a nightmare. His body did not adjust and he got a chronic flea infestation. He was a main coon. Nothing we did got rid of them, and fleas are year round. I’m not sure, but I think it was before all those topical treatments, since it was 1988. He ended getting severely ill, and he didn’t last much longer after we moved. 😦 He was only seven. The pets I’ve had since him, never got fleas. They were all born in Florida, and we used topical treatments. Thankfully, I’m back home near Chicago where I belong.

    Thankfully also, that you did not find any fleas. Have fun with the kiddies and kitties. 🙂

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  17. We have fleas year round, and there’s always a hatching after a heat wave. All the Southern California fleas are “cat fleas,” but of course they like the dogs who go outside. So everyone is medicated here. It’s the only way!

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    • Yes, me too. I had intended to use the drops for the summer months and did use them on Gracie in the spring. Then time got away from me and it was September. The worst of flea season is usually over by then so I didn’t treat. Maybe next year.

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  21. Oh yes! That would strike terror in your heart. I can get nervous when there is too much scratching–but it is usually dry skin now in the winter. Already have the humidifiers out. Odds are very slim here, too, but spending time parked right next to the screen door…one never knows. I’ve only dealt with it once, too. Glad to here there were no fleas! 🙂

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  26. I think that you were very lucky! Imagine if one of your felines had been stalking that “bug”. You could have had 15-20lbs of prey-driven fur land on you! Now that would have been a surprise!

    I thought about the above as I was reflecting on Ray yesterday. I had just woken up from a nap when Ray jumped up onto the bed and said “Hello” to me. He then turned around and I had a front foot on my neck and a back foot on my stomach. He has no idea where his feet are…. or he doesn’t care!

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    • Jake came from “off the streets” but the rest came through rescue groups so they were flea-free. Morgan did have parasites that we caught AFTER we allowed her to mingle with our other cats. ALL the cats had to be medicated. At our last flea infestation I found Capstar which is a miracle. It kills all the fleas that are on the cat within a half hour but then it’s gone so you need to combine it with a long term flea treatment. At least I didn’t have to bath them. Bathing cats is not fun.

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  29. Fingers crossed there are no fleas! When Z was with us I freaked over fleas and was always checking for worms. We had a kitty in the house for three months and I worried over ringworm and instead she came with a foot long tapeworm. I hate fleas and tapeworms…ewwwwwwww!

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    • Cats can get tapeworms from eating infested rodents. Jake had them a time or two. Fortunately they are easy to treat. Roundworms are a lot worse and ringworm which isn’t a worm but a fungal disease take a much longer treatment too. I love having indoor only cats. It’s eliminated a lot of those pests.

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  30. fleas are the worst… I don’t know why this species exists….. we needed 2 months to get them out… I think the people at amazon think I’m a kind of Pig Pen from Peanuts after I ordered foggers and flea shampoo for weeks…

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