2011 Archives

Our cat always used to walk on our oriental rugs and would sit on the furniture.  Now, he only will walk on the hard wood floors and avoids the carpet and never sits on the furniture any more.  Why all of a sudden is he doing this? He is an older male cat that we took in as a stray 6 yrs ago.

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Hello, we moved into an apartment that had fleas about 15 months ago. We quickly got rid of the fleas because we have no pets, but now I am constantly paranoid about getting fleas again. My question is- is it possible for fleas to survive in our clothes or other items that we may not have caught and how likely is it to get fleas without having pets? We have since moved, but now our new neighbors let their cats roam outside and they sometimes come in our yard. I am concerned about us bringing fleas into the house that the cats may have brought in the yard. Please put my fears to rest! Thank you!

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I found a 3 mo old kitten living in my siding on Sunday oct 16. I brought the cat inside and washed it with dawn dish soap. I kept finding little grains in its fur and thought it was from the kitty litter until i found a flee… and another one so I promptly bought hartz flee shampoo and washed her well. I found more flea on her face and near her eyes, so I washed her face again and saw some flea fall off on to the floor and promptly killed them. I haven’t had her to long and I do have a spray I used in her hiding spots. I have 1 or 2 bites on my arms from yesterday and most of the fleas seem to be gone now. What else should I do and will I have a high chance of an infest. I am currently vacuuming washing and drying anything the kitten was on. Please let me know if I should take any other steps. Thank you, Jason

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To Whom It May Concern,

 My husband and I recently uthenized our dog and two weeks later we start getting bites and come to the realization that we have fleas.

I had no idea that our dog had fleas, I think that she did not have fleas as we just moved into a new house a year ago and I’m thinking the fleas were here previously none the less we now have fleas.

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Hi my dog has fleas and my house is infested. We have treated the dog and treated the house on our own with a spray. We sprayed all of our hardwood floors. I needed to know if fleas live in clothes, so in part of my treatment should I wash all of them? And do they live in beds? If yes how do I rid them of my mattress? I am the only one in the house getting bit my husband isn’t. Our big issue is also that we are moving in 4 weeks and we are not bringing the dog,but we want to make sure we don’t bring the fleas. Will fleas move with us when we pack our things? We are only bringing the bed, clothes, & electronics? If yes should we pre-treat the new house before moving to be proactive? Sorry for all the questions and thanks in advance for your help.

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This is the first time we ever have been infested with fleas. Our dog had them on him and it took us 2 days to realize that he actually had fleas. And then we went to work with bombing the house, vacuuming the carpets and furniture, washing sheets on the bed, throwing out the dogs bed, washing all the dog toys in hot water, and spraying the carpets, flooring, and furniture. The dog has been treated with spot on treatment Frontline Plus, Capstar pills to kill adult fleas, and Program to kill flea eggs and larvae. And he gets a bath at least every 5 days. Since he has been on the Capstar pill I have not seen any fleas on him. But I know we still them since we have flea traps throughout the house and are still catching them. My first question is that if there are no fleas in a trap and it has been 3 weeks does that mean that room has no fleas? Second question is that we live in a 2 family home, with me and my family living on the bottom floor and other relatives living on the top floor, so if we went upstairs or in the car or anyone elses house, could we take the fleas on our clothes and have someone elses home infested or our car? Third and final question is that we are planning on steam cleaning the carpet and have gotten mixed opinions on whether to do it or not, will it help? and if we do treat the carpet/area rugs can we put powders (fleasbuster) down afterwards? How dry does the carpet have to be? Also, if we do steam clean the carpet does that mean fleas will hatch sooner and we can come home to a swarm of fleas afterwork? Just trying to get an idea on this. The dog would not be around when treating, so they won’t after him if we came home, any ideas or suggestions would help. I’m just not sure when this will be over.

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I’m guessing our cat has had fleas since mid-July of this year. Never dealt with this in our lives, so we had no idea she had fleas for so long and was treated by our vet 2 months after (mid Sept.). By then, I’m sure we had many eggs, larva and pupae in our home. The vet treated her with Revolution and an exterminator was in our home at the same time we had the cat at the vet. He said he used Precor. The fleas were out of control, so 3 weeks later, we used a spray called Vet-Kem (this product is an IGR + adulticide, I believe) that we bought at the Vets.

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Hello,

We have been dealing with a flea problem with our small dog and in our house for over 3 weeks. We first discovered several fleas on her over three weeks ago – I can’t be quite sure how long she had them. We immediately gave our dog a bath in flea shampoo but still saw fleas return to her immediately. We haven’t dealt with this before so weren’t sure how to handle and thought that would be enough – boy we were wrong!

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Hello. I’ve been getting bitten in my sleep for a week or so and assumed that fleas were living in my bed. After reading some of your questions, I’ve discovered that fleas don’t live in beds, only on hosts (such as a pet, not a human?) Well, since I started getting bitten I decided that my cats were no longer allowed in my bedroom, so a flea has no host to cling to. Also, our cats were treated for fleas not long ago. Could this be fleas or does it sound like something else? Definately not bed bugs as I’ve done thorough research on them and everything I’ve read cancels them out. Many Thanks.

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I have stray cats living underneath the house and can’t get rid of them. Clearly, they have brought a flea infestation with them. I found a flea in my bed last night and am really freaked out. I sprayed last week and don’t know why I can’t get rid of them with hardwood floors and no pets. Do you have any suggestions? Do they live on the bed? How are they getting onto the bed? I thought they could only jump ankle high.

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