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just found a flea on our cat, do we go full nuclear? (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Our cat Athena is a fluffy girl and we just found a flea on her, we removed it and crushed it but now my girlfriend is freaking out and her skin is squirming thinking the whole house could be infested. I'm of the opinion that we've caught it early and we should just check her usual sleeping spots as well as get a flea comb but my girl is damn near ready to buy a steam cleaner for the rug.

Idk, what do you guys think? How should we handle this?

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Just buy some Frontline Plus, apply it to your cat's neck in a spot she can't lick, and done.

It's a topical poison, harmless to animals, but it kills of parasites very effectively. I've used it initially to treat an acute infection (found 2 fleas), and now use it as a preventive measure.

Per instructions you should use it monthly, but every 3-4 months seems to work just fine for me.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

This cleared out a flea infestation in our dog. We use it preventatively because ticks, as well.

Fleas tend to linger because their eggs shed all over the place. As I recall, frontline had some double action going on by both killing fleas and causing their eggs to hatch into nymphs that never evolve into breeding maturity.

Fleas don't really like biting humans, so any occurrence is a one+off.