Why does my cat still have fleas on its head after topical treatment?

Hello, my name is Dr. Shines and I am happy to help. Ugh! Fleas are the worst but the good news is that you can effectively get rid of them if you use a good product and are diligent in the treatment. Here is a link about the flea life cycle: https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/flea-control-in-dogs The flea life cycle can last as long as 6 months. The key to getting rid of fleas is to make sure EVERY dog and cat in the house is treated with a good flea prevention AND that this treatment lasts an entire 6 months. Your vet can give you access to the best flea products on the market. top products for cats are Revolution and Cheristan. I recommend to ask your veterinarian what they used and to continue it for a solid 6 months. Also know you will likely continue to see fleas for at least 6 weeks (assuming your product is working correctly) because of the newly emerging adult fleas. Lastly, know there is great variation in the effectiveness of topical flea products. As far as they go, for over the counter options, name brand Frontline and Advantage are your best options (but what you get from the vet is usually newer and better). I hope this helps and please feel free to reach out with any additional questions.

If you used a topical preventative and applied it soon after bathing, it won't have been as effective as it should be. These produce use the oils in the skin to spread. When you bathe a pet, these oils are stripped and you have to wait for them to build up again. Typically, it recommended to apply a topical 3 days before or 3 days after a bath or getting wet. It should then be used monthly for at least 3 consecutive months, preferably year round. You should also treat the environment, since most fleas live off of the pet and only hop on for feeding. Vacuum everywhere the cats have been. Discard of the bag or empty the canister outdoors immediately after. Wash all bedding in the hottest water allowable by fabric and dry in the dryer. Use a cat safe area treatment to prevent reinfestation. An oral preventative, such as CapStar, can be given to quickly kill any adult fleas on the cats. Get it from your vet or from the local Petco.

If you haven't treated the house, that will be a continuing source of fleas. I would call an exterminator to kill the fleas. As for Chubbs, give him Capstar once a day for the next seven days. It's safe to give one pill daily, and starts killing fleas in 30 minutes. When it has been two weeks since you last applied the Advantage, you can apply another dose. I hope this helps!

Capstar will only kill those fleas that are on the dog and sucking blood once. Getting rid of fleas is relatively easy but entails work for a few months: Unfortunately fleas only hop on the body of your pet when they want to feed, then they hop off again and stay in your pet's environment. So you need to treat all pets in the household as well as the environment (which contains the fleas, their eggs and larvae). Flea treatment:  1) Get some flea medication such as a Flea spray or a spot on from a pet shop or your veterinarian and apply monthly )Bravecto/Nexgard/Seresto will last longer) 2) get flea powder, put some in your vacuum cleaner bag and vacuum your house and furniture and also non-carpeted areas frequently to remove flea larvae and eggs which live off house dust., Dispose of the bag in the trash outside. Hot-wash all the pet's bedding, If you do this diligently for a few months you will get rid of the fleas. Flea products: Spot-ons: Advantage, Advantix Advantage Multi (Advocate in the UK) Frontline (ticks as well) Bravecto/Nexgard spot on (ticks as well) - for cats, in tablet form for dogs Revolution (stronghold in the UK) Tablets: comfortis (will only kill fleas once) Collar: Seresto (ticks as well) House spray: Indoorex Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further. Please take the time to mark this question as helpful or not as it helps us to improve on the quality of our answers to other pet owners. Thank you so much!

There are several topical preparations that may work for you and Milo. These include Frontline, Effipro, Advocate or Advantage. Find them in pet stores or from your veterinarian. Ideally, you should treat Milo for at least three consecutive months, preferably year round. You will also need to treat the environment. Vacuum everywhere he has been and empty the canister or dispose of the bag outside immediately after. Wash all bedding in the hottest water allowable by fabric. Use a cat safe area treatment to prevent reinfestation.

I'm sorry you're having such a challenging time with Meowsie. It certainly is good of you to treat a feral cat. Crushing Comfortis and mixing it with food shouldn't cause a problem with its absorption, so I doubt that is your problem. If you are still seeing fleas, you might ask your vet for another recommendation, but Comfortis tends to work well. Unfortunately, when a cat has flea allergies or chronic skin problems, it can take a while for the itching to improve even once the fleas have been treated. I might consider giving her a fish oil supplement daily to help improve her skin and decrease her itching. There are a number of fish oil supplements for cats such as Wellactin ( http://www.welactin.com/?pg=cat ). Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using PetCoach.

some flea treatment just don't work on every cat/flea! I advice waiting at least 10 days and the use a completely different product. Spot ons are usually the best option (revolution/advantage/advocate) make sure it's an appropriate one for kittens and a different main ingredient in it to avoid toxicity. Going to the vet for this will be the best idea. Treatment should be given every month, especially after he start going out if he does. A spray for the house to kill the fleas is very important as well as fleas can survive in carpets for ages.