How Do You Get Rid of Fleas on Cats/in House?

Talk to your vet. He can direct you to the safest products to use. If you have already treated your cats with the flea medication that you apply on their necks, don't put on a flea collar or give them a flea bath without speaking to your vet first. Too much flea medication on a cat can cause kidney failure.

Usually the Revolution/Advantage/Frontline stuff works pretty well - but you must do it for 4 months in a row to ensure all the larvae, eggs and adults are dead - the cycle will start again if the stuff isn't given for 4 months in a row.

Unless you already have an all out infestation of your house bug-bombing is usually not required and the floor spray works just fine. The problem with the bug bombs is that they leave a fine mist of pesticide on each and every surface to when you're done you will have to wash down the ceilings and wall to get rid of the stuff... unless you like living in poison.

The one other thing I would do is get a flea collar, put it in your vacuum bag and start vacuuming every day. Make sure you vacuum your furniture and baseboads as well (and spray there too).

I never treated the yard, the pesticide kills every single insect it comes in contact with... even butterflies and ladybugs, I think it's unnecessary.

Good luck!

Act fast! They multiply fast. The house we are renting had fleas from the previos people and the house had to bombed. We came in the next day and there was no smell or anything. I went in every room and sprinkled baby powder at every baseboard in this house. THEN, you have to be very mindful when y'all come from outside. Check all of you clothes and shoes because they are hitching a ride in. Yes, wash sheets and stuffed toys in hot water and get the cats flea collars. Its such a pain in the butt! Good luck!

The only way to stop the spread of fleas is to intervene at the life cycle. If you are using flea medication from the pet store, don't waste your time. The stuff that works you have to get at the vet's office. If you get the prescription flea drops at the vet, it works on the environment as well, and the fleas will be gone within 30 days. There's all kinds- Advantage, Revolution, Front Line... all of them work basically the same.

We have an indoor cat too...and every spring she gets fleas. This cat never has been outside in her life.

My vet said we bring the fleas in on our shoes and then they go for the cat.

We use the drops that you put behind the cat's head and it soaks into their skin.

Then you wait and the fleas slowly all get killed. We just treat her all spring summer long and skip it over the winter. Our vet said treating the cat was enough...then it just takes time for them to all cycle through and die.

Well they can get on your cats and in your house by you or someone else being in a place where they do have them or bringing them in from outside on your clothing or shoes. Other animals (other pets and squirrels) can and will transport them to your yard and you can bring them in. Also they (the flea eggs) can lay dominant for quite sometime and are stimulated to hatch in warmer weather or movement. Not sure if this is a new home or not but sometimes you can see this happen after moving into a new home and they start to hatch out and you can see the adult numbers rise. I would recommend Advantage or Frontline. Some products claim to do the same thing and you apply the same way but are not the same product at all. It takes time to break the egg, larval and adult stage but the numbers will decrease in the weeks to come. Also please continue to use the topical flea treatments on schedule so problems won't get out of hand. I wouldn't say that cleaning things are not going to help that much at all, though it might make you feel better :). It will only rid of them that are on those items. Fleas prefer an animal host, but will use humans if they need to. Time and being religious about topical treatment will help but again it takes some time to see results. There are LOTS of products that make claim from Happy Jack flea trap to Garlic pills to rid you of the problems but sadly most don't do a thing but cost you some money. I was a vet tech for several years and and seen it all. lol
Hoping for a pest free home,
C.

If you don't treat your yard (do you?) they can come inside on you easily. That is how our indoor only cats got fleas last year. It was a pain to get rid of them too.

What flea medicine did you buy? Use frontline or something like that. Flea powder and the cheaper stuff like frontline you can buy at Wal-Mart and Target just doesn't work. You should vaccum two times a day for a few weeks, and always empty the canister or change the bag after. What helped us is shampooing the carpet. We have our own carpet cleaner so it was easy for us. But we did it twice a week along with the vaccuming.
Give the cats a flea bath. And treat your yard.

It was about 3-4 months before they were completley gone. Good luck.

We used to give my dog garlic once a week. We never had flea problems.

Not sure about fleas in the house, unless you use a fleabomb.

First question to you is do you live in a "stand-alone" house or do you share walls with another house or apartment? The fleas spend only a tiny percentage of time on the animals, the rest is in the environment (in the house, outside) and for every one you see on your cats, there are about 8 in the environment. If you have shared walls with another house, it is much more difficult to rid the house of fleas (but you need to be diligent about putting a good quality flea product on your cats). If you have mice in your house, it is also difficult to get rid of the fleas. If you don't have mice, don't share walls, the fleas probably came in on their own or on you and your family members. It's fine to wash the clothes and beds but the fleas jump and move a lot so whether they had contact with your cats makes no difference. The flea products on the market now are so good that there is no reason that you shouldn't be able to get control of the situation. Please check with your Veterinarian or at least call the clinic to make sure what you are using is really safe. Stay away from Hartz products or the cheaper, store brand products. Try frontline, revolution, advantage and better products like that for on the cats. As far as for in the house, please make sure to check with your Veterinarian what to use and how to use it so it really is safe for your whole family (humans and cats). Fleas love heat and humidity and this spring has been hot and wet so perfect flea weather!
Good luck!

Spray the yard, flea dip or treat the cats, put the cats in carriers in the yard, get the kids out of the house, bomb the house & leave with the cats & kids for 3 hours. You have to do everything (animals, yard & house) at once in the correct order or they will just get re-infested. Good luck.