Conference misery::feline_v1

I, too, noticed a reaction to flea collars in one of my cats.  When Bit
was about a year and a half old, we chose to put flea collars on all of
our animals (3 dogs and 2 cats at the time).  She was the only one who
seemed to mind.  She sneezed alot, had runny eyes, and was very lethargic.

The vet told us that the collars are not tolerated by all animals, and
her reaction was typical of those who can't tolerate them.  

You were wise to notice the difference and not to continue the use of the
collar.  I don't know of long-term affects, but nobody wants a sick cat.

Ellen

The flea collars most likely did cause the personality changes you saw 
in your kittens.  Any flea medication, (shampoos, powder, sprays, dips,
collars, etc.) can be very harmful to cats, but even more so for kittens.
You can actually poision a kitten with many of these products.  

Let's face it, Fleas are awfully hard to get rid of.  I think the best
and safest products available currently are MYCODEX shampoos, and sprays
which are available from a vet.  They really do work and they are safe
even for very young (4 wks) kittens.  If you have longhairs, powders 
seem to work better than sprays because the sprays don't get down to
the skin.  I'ld stay away from collars altogether.

If the fleas come back, you might also want to check your carpets, fleas
seem to like to live there!!!!  

Good Luck

Cin

Feed them garlic too. Most cats like garlic, and most fleas don't. If the fleas
are migrating off the cat and onto you, you might eat garlic yourself (depending
on your social situation).

It took a combination of Mycodex and garlic to rid our cats of an infestation;
the Mycodex alone wasn't doing the job, but adding about 1/4 tsp. of powdered
garlic to each meal did the trick. We've since discovered that Erick loooves
garlic oil capsules (sold in vitamin departments), and we give them to him as a
special treat.

Val & Jon

   I never heard of using garlic before, I'll have to give it a shot.
The ONLY thing (other than baths, which are dangerous to my health) that 
I found that works is a flea spray that my vet gave me (Sold me that is..).
It calss Adam's fea spray and deoderant.  (I could do with out the deoderant.
Every time I spray the cats, they smell like they've been to the poodle parlor)
Anyway, this stuff is GREAT.  You spray some on a cotton ball to get the cat's
face first (to avoid spraying in it's eyes.)  On stroke across the face and you
can see the fleas hopping around and leaping off the cat, screaming as they 
fling themselves to a horrible death.  (Well, maybe not screaming, but the 
results are pretty dramatic.)  You can use this stuff as often as once a day if
you need to like if you've got a bad infestation and you're gonna go after it
gangbusters to clear things up before you go on a maintainence routine of
once a week or so.
    BTW what do you do with the garlic capsules?  Just give them to the cat or
do you open them up and pour it on his food or what?
   
    I'd be interested in hearing any flea suggestions that you guys have.  The
flea spray works well, but the cats really don't enjoy it very much.  (By don't
enjoy I mean trembling drooling and in once case a very violent reaction.  
Violent as in slashed an artery in my hand.  I've since then found that they 
react better if I treat the whole cat by sprayingcotton balls and then wiping
the cat's fur with them but they still don't like the smell.  I think they also
don't like feeling the fleas stirred up after the spraying.)  But I have to 
keep the fleas tightly under control since Cinnamon is HIGHLY allergic to
fleas.  (Poor kid got so bad that he lost hair on his rump, his necks was a 
mass a scabs, he had a staff infection from worrying the flea bites so much, 
and to add insult to injury, his anal glands were impacted as a result of the
infection and had to be squeezed to clear them up.  You never saw a cat look
so indignant in your life!  The vet says he may also be allergic to ragweed.)
So the bottom line is, I'd like to as many passive flea control suggestions as
possible.

tlh

I've read that brewer's yeast, when fed to cats, keeps fleas away.  I have
yet to verify this myself.  Brewer's yeast has other benefits, in that it's
chock full of vitamins (mostly B vitamins, I think), and is good for cats'
coats.
							-- Nina

Garlic pills:

Well, Erick will just eat them as is, but Zorro won't touch them. They are 
little gelatin capsules that resemble vitamin E capsules, and I suspect that 
Zed got bored of chasing them sometime in the distant past, and now doesn't 
choose to recognize them as food. Erick has gotten good at eating them; he 
just chews on them until they open, and then swallows the whole thing.

If your cat doesn't want to eat them, then you COULD try opening them
yourself. I'd reccomend just sticking them with a pin to let some of the oil 
out, and see if the cat's willing to do the work. Otherwise, you'll probably 
end up with garlic oil on your hands. 

The old-fashioned, low-tech solution is to buy a jar of McCormack (or 
equivalent) garlic powder (not garlic salt) and sprinkling it over their food. 

    Jon

  WEll, I tried the garlic powder and the cats, they no like it.   
They walked up to the bowl sniffed and turned tail on it.  One of the cats
actually started scraping the floor around the bowl like he was covering up
something in the litter box.  Oh well.

tlh

You might want to get them to try it, either by coersion (leave the 
garlic-laced food in the bowl for a few hours) or try them on it again. Often 
cats will change their mind about peculiar food.

    Jon & Val

   Oh very definately!  The one thing I won't let my kitties get away with is
picky eating.  when I put something down on the floor for them they don't get
anything else until they finish that.  So far they have learned pretty well.
The only thing I've had trouble getting them to eat was a *real* cheap dry cat
food I got once just to see if they liked it. (Why pay more if they will eat
the cheap stuff, no?)  I think it was called Acme cat food, I kid you not.  And
it sat untouched on the floor for at least three days when I finally broke down
and bought some friskies to mix with it.  I left the garlic laced food down and
thay eventually ate it but they weren't happy about it.

tlh

RE: Flea collars

Do not!!!! use flea collars with long-haired cats.
There is a very real risk of having a very sick or dead cat.
Also a word about dips --- 
		Vets have some very effective flea dips, however;
		talk to them first and make sure they know their
		business. I have heard of vets (or vet techs) who
		attempt to use the same dip for cats as they do
		for dogs. This is a sure fire way to acquire a
		dead cat (one dip is sufficient!).

Why shouldn't you use a flea collar on a long-haired cat?

I have a 6yr old longhair named Sir Cat, and he has always worn a flea
collar.  

(He has this annoying habit of jumping off of balconies, running around
the neighborhood and picking up pests to infest the other two cats with
when he gets hungry and comes home.)  

Cat collars are useless.

You need to use a good flea spray available from your Vetinary Surgeon
such as NUVAN TOP or BOLFO (available from UK vets anyway).

These should be sprayed onto the cat's coat once a week, after combing back
the fur against the grain as it were.

I have two Longhair cats and thoroughly recommend these products.

FORGET FLEA COLLARS!

John Fox

My cats (ages 5 1/2 and 6) have always worn flea collars (the white
hartz Mountain ones and they never pick up fleas; they get new collars
every 5-6 months.  A friend's cat who lives neraby, though always
manages to remove his collar within a day or so of John putting it on him,
so John pretty much gave up, and has a flea-y rug in his living room.
My vet says that many cats are allergic to the black kind of collars,
which have a systemic insecticide in them, and will break out in a rash
because of it.  I only tried that kind once, since they don't seem to be
as easy to find as the white ones, and neither of my cats were allergic -
nor did they get fleas.  I rather like the white ones, at least on Nebula,
my half-Siamese, as she is otherwise almost completely black and I worry that
she may get run over (or even just tripped over - it took her a long
time when she was a kitten to figure out that she couldn't just sit in
the middle of a dark stairstep like her spotted cohort could without
getting stepped on).

I have also found flea collars to be very effective.  True, many of the 
commercial flea collars have become outmoded, but we get a flea collar once 
every 5 or 6 months from our vet that keeps us from having any problems.  
Freebie comes in every once in a while (say once every other month) with a 
small infestation near his tail, but a dose of flea powder or spray, and he's 
good as new. 

Fleas are like all obnoxious pests - they can become resistant to practically
anything.  But there should be a flea collar out there that can handle the 
bugs in your neighborhood.  (Barring the sensitive cat, of course...)  And 
flea collars can't be beat for convenience.  

- Chris

Well, here I'd been feeling all superior because *my* cats never get fleas,
and guess what happens! Must be the long, warm autumn we've had, since
they never got fleas before; whatever it is, it's a royal pain. I gave
them a bath, poor things, and flea-bombed the house, and vacuumed every
day, and got a flea spray... the spray seems to have gotten rid of most
of the fleas on the cats, but the cats are just miserable. Just think of
having that awful-tasting and smelling stuff all over you, especially
when you have to lick yourself to get clean!

At least the cats don't seem to be allergic to the fleas. My parents'
two Siamese suffer horribly every summer when the Houston flea season
hits.

With sympathy,
-b (the newly flea-ridden)

    I don't have a cat,but came into this conference to see if I can
    find out about fleas!  The reason is that my partner has just bought
    a house which is causing us trouble.  There is a cat flap in the
    back door which gives us a hint.
    
    At first we didn't say anything to each other, just thinking we had
    got bitten somewhere by something, but after three days of moving
    furniture into the house, we had to admit we both were suffering
    quite badly from nasty lumps and bites on ankles, feet, legs, and
    in the case of my partner, he had nasty bites on his back.
    
    We are currently quite  miserable.  After a lot of the usual house
    moving problems, this is just enough to cause a breakdown.
    
    After talking to a pest control person, he said that cat fleas are
    most likely the culprits and we have arranged to have the whole
    house sprayed.  The carpets are long pile and not particularly fresh
    looking to be honest.  It will cost 40.00 (pounds) but maybe we
    can get some peace and stop the horrible bleeding itching we have
    had.
    
    I didn't find anything in this note about fleas attacking humans,
    but the theory seems to be that, because the cat has gone, the fleas
    are hungry for something else.
    
    Any comments from cat-owners on this situation.
    
    
    itchy diana

    Fleas do bite humans, even when cats are around.  I have 3
    indoor/outdoor cats.  To keep my home relatively flea free, I have
    had to adopt a whole flea extermination program which involves flea
    collars on the cats and regular flea baths, as well as routine flea
    bombing of my house.  If I sometimes wait to long to bomb, I start
    getting the itchies.  And since I am allergic to the little buggers,
    my legs/ankles look absolutely horrible.
    
    Since you don't have cats, you will just need to rid your house
    of fleas once.  I would recommend a professional exterminator to
    come once now, and then again in afew months.  Flea eggs can lie
    dormant for years, waiting for the right hatching conditions.  A
    one time extermination may not kill the flea eggs.  Talk to your
    exterminator about what type of time frames he recommends.  You
    may also want to have the yard around your house sprayed, as well
    as any decks and porches.
    
    Good luck.
    
    	-Nancy

    That was a quick reply!
    Well as I said, I have talked to a professional pest person, and
    arranged for a house-spray session tomorrow.  Hopefully this will
    stop the problem which is really uncomfortable. He said to make
    sure the edges of the carpets are bare as that is where fleas like
    to hang around.
    
    I will let you know what the results of this happening are!
    
    diana

    You may also wish to spray your yard, if you have one, especially
    dirt areas.  Otherwise, you may end up tracking fleas indoors from
    the outside.  You may have to do this more than once, and I would
    have it done close to the time your are bombing the indoors, since
    it wouldn't do to de-flea your house and then just bring em inside
    again.
    
                                                       ---kim

    Also, spray or "bomb" the house again or use a product that kills
    the eggs before they hatch so they won't hatch.
    
    E.T.

    Marhabah, Diana,
    
    There was a long discussion about how to deal with flea bites on humans
    awhile back.  The net result was use Witch Hazel on the bites and DON'T
    SCRATCH because scratching makes it worse.
    
    salaam a'laykum
    

    Well the flea spray man certainly cleared up the problem.
    No bites since.  This man said he has regular contracts with
    cat owners to go every couple of months and spray the house.
    
    A whole new piece of education has been absorbed by me!
    
    diana
    

    We've had cats for 20 years, and have been very lucky I guess because
    only once did we have a problem with fleas.  Our vet told us to
    never put a flea collar on the cats because they can cause cancer.
    Has anyone ever heard of this??
    
    Marj
    

    
    How about ultrasound collars: anyone tried these out?  Anyone know what
    frequencies/ output levels are used?  I've heard these work on dogs.
                                        James

      Popular Mechanix had an article last month on untrasonic collars.
    Their conclusion was that the ones that constantly vary their output
    frequency do work. The ones that maintain a constant frequency don't
    usually work as the pests can adjust to it.
    
    Bob