Fleas

No, Teddy does not have fleas.  I see a lot of questions about getting rid of fleas and so I want to share how once upon a time we got rid of a severe flea infestation.

At the time, our cat was an indoor-outdoor cat.  The neighbor’s dogs had fleas.  The fleas migrated to my backyard.

Two Most Important Things About Fleas

1. The gestation period of a flea is 7-10 days.  This means that flea eggs laid today will hatch in 7-10 days. And flea eggs are impossible to kill.
2. Fleas jump onto your cat to feed (sucking their blood) then jump off and lay their eggs in your carpet.

To combat the fleas, I bought:

• A commercial flea-filling insecticide from one of the do-it-yourself pest control stores. I used this to spray the front and back yards.  Also spray the walls of your house and the fences.
• Our vet provided a liquid in a spray bottle we could use on the cat.
• Our vet provided ‘bombs’ that we used to fumigate the house.
• Our vet provided an insecticide that we sprayed on the carps and furniture.

Once a week for about 6 weeks we went through the routine of using all this stuff.  It worked.  It was expensive but it worked.