I'm obviously the devil

Loooool! I gave Henry a bath a while back, I've never heard a cat make that sound before. :shock: He groomed himself so much afterwards that he got a hairball. :lol:

In California whenever we got new kittens they were always flea-infested so they got a flea-bath in the washroom before they came in the house. My poor husband thought he KILLED Bonnie the day he brought her home. :shock: He thought he'd wash her himself instead of enlisting my help. Well, she struggled and struggled and then just went suddenly LIMP in his hands and he got upset, thinking he'd killed her! :sad
Well, turns out she was struggling and struggling and finally decided there was no way she could escape, so she just gave up and let him do whatever he wanted to her.

Since then, we sort of got away from bathing with flea shampoo and would use a medium sized hand towel, spray it liberally with flea spray and wrap the kitty up in it like a burrito and hold them for a period of time until the spray/fumes killed the fleas. Oh, they would cry and wriggle like mad as those fleas ran all over their bodies, trying to find a way to escape! After a period of time to allow the flea-cide to work, then we'd bathe them with a regular shampoo to remove the residue and dead fleas.

A trick I used to help them dry, and this is especially good for cold-weather bathing...
Set up a large carrier and drape a towel over part of it to regulate air flow. Put a huge, fluffy and absorbent towel in the bottom. After getting the immediate wet off the kitten, place them in the carrier and shut them in. Then use your hair blowdryer and set it to low/medium with warm/hot air-flow and prop it so it points into the door of the carrier and has unrestricted air from outside to pull in. ([i]set it up on a few books, don't lay it on the floor, couch or bedding where fabrics/fibers could block the air inlet[/i])
Viola! Instant "groomer's dryer".
*by using the dryer on low/warm, it shouldn't get overly hot in the carrier. Use the towel draped over the top to monitor how warm it is inside the carrier and adjust accordingly. You don't want to cook the kitty, but you do want air flow and for it to warm up inside so the kitty can feel comfortable sitting up and grooming (licking) their fur to help them dry.

Poor Riot, I could *totally* see her miserable expression...but sometimes we have to do bad things to them, to help them in the long run.
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I got her a new flea collar, too, since the last one didn't seem to help. This one is purple! Anyway, I saw all sorts of things like flea powders and sprays and such, but didn't know if those would work as well as a shampoo. I honestly just didn't know if i could hold her still to get the stuff on her skin!

Krickette, I just use Dawn dishsoap - it works as well as any flea shampoo I ever bought and is a fraction of the cost...and smells better too. :laugh1

Flea collars are useless. They might sort of keep fleas off the neck. But the biggest thing to deal with fleas is to treat the environment. Only about 10% of the flea population, the adults, actually lives on animal. All the early stages live in the environment (particularly in carpet and under furniture). No matter how much you treat the kitten, if you don't treat the fleas in your apartment, they will just keep reinfesting the kitten.

I do not ever use flea collars on pets. I think they are ineffective, treating mostly the neck and no where else. I also think they are harmful to the pet by putting a concentrated area of poison on their skin, in their fur and right near their most important organ ([i]brain, heart, lungs[/i]) systems. In particular, there is one brand sold in grocery-stores that has had a lot of emergency incidents due to 'over-medicating' with the flea-collar product. [i]*I just did a Google-search and it seems Hartz is the one with the most alarming reviews.[/i]
http://www.nrdc.org/health/effects/pets…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I prefer to wash and if any sort of control is needed afterwards I use the very reliable Advantage or Revolution spot-on products.

wow. Thanks for the info!
and yeah, I know all about having to treat the environment....That's why my dogs are screwed. They run on at least 10 acres, sometimes they get access to the full 300+....all our land is infested apparently, and all my dogs are terribly allergic. That Comfortis pill is working, but it's the only treatment we've found so far.
So should I use the powder on my carpet then? or is there a better treatment. A fogger maybe?

Powders usually work well. You just want to make sure you get a good quality one. There is a company that will come once a year and treat all your carpets with a product that kills fleas for a year, but does not harm humans/animals.

Front line is your friend, baths are not. and Over and out (fireant bait = frohipnil=frontline granuel) ...or seven dust. Heck we have sprayed a house with frontline that got a tick infestation.

see this appartment i don't want to invest in getting sprayed because i'm going to be here like 1 more month...not worth it. But I'll dig around for a good powder. I know they sell one at walmart....dont know what brand though.

eta:
This is the flea collar she had:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
then i got her this one:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and bathed her with this:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

One way to treat your carpets is to sprinkle salt and borax on and then work it in with a broom, leave sitting for 3 weeks and then vacuum. Not sure exactly how it works, but it does!

Diane

You can buy a do-it-yourself spray for about $10 at Lowes or Wal-Mart. I've used them and they do work pretty good. We had a fire ant problem at a house we lived in short term several years ago and one of these sprays fixed the problem.

http://www.bayeradvanced.com/product/Tr…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This product works great for fleas on cats. Its the same active ingredient as Advantage. For a whole lot less. I think I paid $24 for a quart last summer. The dosage is 2.5 ml for 1-9lbs and 5ml > 10lbs. I used it on our three cats last summer. We had a BAD flea problem up until I started using it. This took care of it and this year we HAVE NO FLEAS (cats are fine btw)! Of course we live out in the boonies and they have no point of new exposure.

http://www.bayeradvanced.com/media/msds…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Here the MSDS for safety information.

I have used one of those house sprays and they are brilliant and cheap - I'd go for that.