Asklemmy

43945 readers

794 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
[email protected]: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

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]

40 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

            
              never let your cat outside.  Even when you're not in Ottawa where the urban coyote population works to control the 'outside cat' infestation, it's no longer cool to let your cat out.  If you hate mosquitoes, for instance, keep all cats indoors all the time.
use a vet-approved pill treatment - even when no visible signs
wash everything ... at the least to combat anxiety.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

That's the thing, she's an indoor cat, we have no idea where the flea came from

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Point 1 has to be chosen when the cat is young. Forcing an outside cat to suddenly only be inside often doesn't work.

I adopted a 7-year-old cat from the shelter, and after a week of having to be inside all the time, he got more and more frustrated. After a week and a half, he escaped during the night. In the morning, while I was panicking, he came strolling in as if nothing was wrong.

Since he apparently comes back, I allowed him outside from then on. Since that moment, his behaviour inside has improved a lot. No more random play attacks on my ankles and hands, and generally much calmer.

He has also come back home with mice several times. He always eats them. So I think he is very used to living outside. Maybe been a stray, or a farm cat.

Forcing him to be inside would feel cruel.