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Big problem, fleas on my sphynx!

SphynxAliens

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Jul 29, 2013
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I don't think fleas would live long term on a Sphynx. I'm a vet nurse, I had one of my sphynx with me one day and put him in a kennel beside a cat which we later realised was infested with fleas, they were hopping off the cat and hopping into my cats kennel. I saw one scurrying around on him looking lost and I just plucked it off and chucked it out. Unless they have a host they can live on permanently and breed then they won't survive for long. As for treatments, I would suggest some sort of flea killer for your cat tree but it really isn't necessary to treat your cat.

Fleas breed and lay their eggs on the host, the eggs then fall off. I don't believe they can reproduce without a permanent host, which a sphynx cat most definitely is not.

I really don't have much advice save vacuum your house, cat tree, wash all cat bedding in at least 40degree celsius water, and if you want you can use a safe for pets flea killer in your house (but you really need to leave it in the house for 24hours or so for it to work effectively and you and your cat cannot be in the house during this time).

My dog had fleas after coming back from kennels once, I used flea killer on the house and got a good spot-on treatment for my dog (you need to buy spot on treatments from a vet practise, or use one your vet recommends as pet shop ones are not always up to the job and can be toxic) and there was absolutely no sign of fleas within approximately 10 days.

Hope this helps.. :)
 

rklines31

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May 17, 2013
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Re: New Cat tree.. Big problem!

Finally a post that I have a bit of expertise in. My parents and my brother each own their own pest control business and I have had some flea problems recently, so here goes...

I have tried this trick and it works quite well. I got it from my dad. Put some moth balls in your vacuum cleaner bag (or bagless canister) and vacuum the whole house. This would work on your cat tree as well. Take the bag outside and dispose of it. Do it all again. Take the bag outside. Now, you need to repeat this once daily for a week. That will likely take care of your problem. Since you know the offending piece is the new cat tree, I would take that outside and spray it down with flea killer. The vacuuming technique works well even if you don't have carpet. I have used in on hardwood floors even without rugs. The vibrations encourage eggs to hatch and you can suck them up before they get a chance to feed.

The flea cycle is approximately 3 weeks. The flea hatches, feeds, then lays eggs...a LOT of eggs! Then repeat cycle. Unfortunately, the flea only remains on the host for about 18% of its lifetime, so you guessed it....they are in your carpet, sofa, between the cracks, everywhere. Even if you get a handle on the adult fleas you will likely see new hatchlings in about 3 weeks. If you stay on the vacuum cleaner with moth balls theme, you will eventually get ahead of them. Your house will smell awful in the meantime though.

You can also treat the animal. The best thing on the market is Comfortis (available from your vet). It is currently only approved for use in dogs, but *don't kill me* my vet says is effective in cats and is not harmful *don't kill me*. This medication breaks the flea cycle because when they feed on the host animal they die before laying eggs. You are correct that they won't live on your hairless cat, but they will get plenty of food from him. Fleas are heat-seeking missiles and who do you think the hottest one in the house is? That's right! The 103 degree Sphynx!

Notice none of this advice involves the use of an exterminator. That's because when people call my brother he sprays with commercially available flea spray. It's really more diligence on your part that gets rid of the problem. You can't have dirty clothes, towels, etc. any fabrics laying around. Teenager's rooms are a nightmare!

I hope this information is useful. Good Luck!

Very helpful post, thanks a million!
 

Sfuller

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Mar 18, 2014
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So I have read that you should not use any type of flea treatment on a sphynx. Im in Florida, I live in state park with ferrel animals and we get fleas inside without even owning any animals. The outside of my house is constantly treated. But I know I need a barrier..inside
 
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baseballfanatic

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Apr 3, 2014
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4
I had a problem with fleas with my two dogs. Horrible situation. Follow my guidelines...
  1. Vacuum everything!!
  2. Buy borax and put it all over your carpet. You can also add salt too. It will dehydrate the fleas
  3. vacuum everything again. This is how your will get the fleas, eggs, and larvae gone!
  4. Buy some flea killer and spray it in all the cracks or dark places. This is where the larvae will hide.
  5. Once you've done everything, buy some flea killer and bathe yourkitten with it, then apply a reputable flea repellent. Quite pricey but does the job. They don't live off humans, so you will be fine. If you don't get a flea repellent, they will just be back for blood from your cat. Learned all that from this how to get rid of dog fleas article. I know it's for dogs, but it works well with cats too.
Do not shampoo with flea killer more than once every ten days. It is very strong.
 

curlysue

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So I know this is going to sound weird but take the cat tree outside hose it off and scrub it down with Dawn dish soap. It will kill the fleas and clean the sent from the past owner. There is something in the Dawn that kills fleas instantly. We would use it at the vet office when we found puppies and kittens covered in fleas. I wash down our cat tree once a year with Dawn because it gets the Sphynx rust off them.
 

pashtcat

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Jun 30, 2013
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Well, it's happened. We have fleas. I've read all the posts and picked up Advantage for all the babies. Lots of vacuuming and washing is occuring. This post is very helpful, but I've seen no mention of flea collars. Are they safe for Nakkeds, and if so, what brand? Puddz promptly licked all the Advantage off, and I don't think I can afford to keep reapplying it every week to him.

I'd like to put a collar on him, but I'm worried. Has anyone used flea collars on their babies with any success?
 

Helen

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Nov 16, 2014
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I have a minimal amount of useful information to add.
I dislike the spot on treatments and have found them useless in the uk (ok not useless but minimally effective) against these evolving super fleas in the UK) I have used three types in the last eight months, I spray the edges of the room etc
I am now trying a tablet combination made by the capistar people, as previously noted they work on different life stages capistar to kill any adults and the additional tablet called program which breaks the life cycle.
I keep my Indorex spray in the cupboard, when we are hosting creepy crawlers I do a deep clean and spray and then repeat every two weeks.

I also use essential oils for the dogs baths added to shampoos but realise that is a huge no no for felines.
 

Maria D

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Aug 21, 2015
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When my first Bambino arrived she came by Pet Carrier. She had fleas, no doubt from the airline. Of course they spread to my fluffy cats, the rugs and my clothes. I ended up pulling out all of the rugs, putting in new floors, removed some of the sheet rock and painted everything. After a year they were gone but not before my oldest, Pepe, lost the hair on the back half of his body. Everything is okay now but yes, hairless cats can get fleas. They live in the ears, rear end and in their wrinkles.
 

Zoya

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Aug 24, 2015
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Living in CO we never had an issue with fleas, never treated for fleas. Move to NC and within a week or so Zoya had these red bloody bumps all over her. Closely examining her you could see the fleas crawling in her grey body hairs around her hind legs. Vet said she was allergic to fleas. We had to treat the house and she went on preventative flea med too, Revolution.
 

Embracing-Joyx4

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Is flea medicine safe for naked. I have one boy that really has patches of soft fur and they love him. I have fur kitty who is treated and I have bomb the house twice. I hate chemical! I know that lemongrass , spearmint, and lavender essential oils mix repel fleas but I never know what's okay to put on them.

We have had a very hot dry summer, several years ago we had a summer like this and the fleas we so awful outside ( we are rural) that we had to treat the lawn!!
Any suggestions?
 

Siara

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Sep 12, 2015
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Advantage doesn't do anything useful besides giving my dog and ferrets a bad rash. I stopped using it a long time ago since my pets seem to have sensitive skin. Bayer itself also says you should use extra products to clean your environment because the Advantage won't take care of that. Use with caution for that reason, I'm sure plenty of cats do fine with Advantage but it hasn't worked here so far. It's worth a shot if your Sphynx doesn't seem affected by it.

As for using essential oils, I wouldn't recommend it. You can read more about it on the page in the spoiler but as you might already know you have to indeed be very careful with essential oils since they're so concentrated. Be sure to steer clear from fragrance oils as well since those are just a bunch of chemicals no matter what the label says.

 

renewedmind

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Mar 14, 2014
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OK so here is a trick my grandma discovered while she had a dog kennel and got them alot go find u some cinnamon carpet fresh stuff its a powder you shake into your carpets let it sit overnight and vacume and throw the yeah out she never had to use the "medical flea killer powder" you put in your carpet the exact same way... And as many others have said comforts it is now available for cats as well and works within 30 mins of the animal taking the pill be sure to get the right one for ur cats weight too high a dose will cause vomiting I always use comforts because I'm my opinion front line Bayer advantage non of that stuff works it may work a little bit but not fast and its about a 50/50 chance it would work at all because so many people have been using it for so many years that its not effective anymore that's why they run specials if u buy this many u get this many free its crap the comforts pill works in 30 mins and instantly kills the fleas by breaking the life cycle it does this by disrupting the central nervous system in the flea and making there shells week any babies that get laid if the flea makes it that far will die as well if they ever even hatch
 

Dizzy

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Jan 7, 2017
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14
I had a big problem with fleas on my last cat, Leo. One thing I have learned about fleas is that they cannot survive a dry climate. When I lived in Alaska, it was not the cold, but the very, very dry climate they cannot survive. No issues with fleas there. Different story when moving to WA in wet rainy weather. I really freaked out and researched into fleas because it creeped me out so bad! I didn't even recognize what they were, because they just don't seem to exist where I lived in Alaska! The vets never even treated for fleas there because there weren't any!

If you just so happen to have a dehumidifier, you can set that thing on to 30%. Fleas cannot survive this, but you and your pets can! Most people do not have one though and they can get pricey. I first did the bedroom and yes, my skin suffered lol but no more fleas. I even ran around and jumped in white socks and no more fleas. But in addition to this, I took Leo to the vet and they gave him Revolution. I think a combo of this worked.

The vet tech recommended a flea bomb, but she also treated my cat like he was some wild animal ready to attack her. He was far from that. Never scratched anyone or any other pet. She was definitely not a cat person. I personally would never flea bomb my house due to the nasty chemicals that linger. Yucky! But that's just me.

Also, I believe many flea treatments contain a key ingredient imidacloprid, which is a pesticide. It is actually generally seen as safe and I use it a lot for my plants. I have gotten it on my own hands (haha maybe not a good idea!) but it's really hard to know for sure! Revoution contains the key ingredient selamectin, which I know nothing about except it worked lol. I would research the key ingredients first. But when Leo had fleas all over, I had to weigh in on whether or not it was worth him suffering (and me, too!) to try and treat slowly over time.

I really do believe the dehumidifier worked very nicely! If Wiley Coyote (my current baby) ever gets fleas for some crazy reason (he's indoors), I will try the dehumidifier first. Plus you can always return it if it doesn't work lol. And vacuum vacuum vacuum. Wash EVERYTHING in the washer on HOT! And wash it again every day. Oh, and vacuum some more!

It's been a couple of years since I've had fleas though...
 

Mariechovi

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I was just wondering today if Sphynx get fleas what to do. My other pet never had fleas as we kept her treated year round with Frontline.

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Mariechovi

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Re: New Cat tree.. Big problem!

No no other pets. I dont have anyone else she can go visit..I guess we can hang out in the car for awhile or something.. If I flea bomb, can that just kill whats in the cat tree?
I can attest that in my previous experience, you can get fleas from them being in your car. Years ago it happened to us, we had no pets..our van was kept in a dirt parking lot, we ended up with finding fleas in it which made it either on us or our belongings into our house. Ugh.

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Mariechovi

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Re: New Cat tree.. Big problem!

OMG!!! STOP!!!
I wish I was on here sooner to hear about your problem and give some advice. Im out of the country and not online much..

Please dont do any of the things the others have reccomended ....there is absolutely
NO NEED for houshold sprays, bombs etc for fleas!!!!
Ripley's advice about the vacume was good.
But dont do any of the other things. If you have bought spray. Stop using it.

Sorry if I sound mean...Its just an emotional topic for me!!
As a retired vet tech Ive dealt with so many people and pets over the years who go out and spend hundreds of dollars on nasty chemical sprays that dont work and are harmful for your pet even when they say they're safe. You are wasting your money and putting yourself and your pet at risk.

You wouldnt use chemical sprays or bombs etc around your kids, dont do it with your cat. There is an easy solution that works.

Bayer "Advantage" is available through your vet. It is a small ampule of oil you squirt on the back of your pets neck once a month. It kills an adult flea in 24 hrs and also kills the larvae that will hatch in 3 wks.
Problem solved.
The only other thing you may want to do is vacume as ripley suggested and throw away the vacume bag or empty the canister otherwise the fleas will hop back out.

Advantage is only about $10 for a single treatment or about $50 for a 6 pack. For treating an infestation it is reccomended to treat for 2 months, just to be safe. In short for one cat you will spend about $20 and solve your problems.

Advantage is safe....you can eat it....it tastes very bitter and may make your pet drool if they lick it which is why you apply it to the back of the neck. It would take many boxes of advantage to make you sick....if it even would....
Because it kills the adults and the larvae that hatch later it stops the cycle. You dont even need to throw away the scratching post. Also, the flea doesnt have to bite your pet with this product, in order to die. So your pet is bitten less...

You DO need to treat all the pets in your household for at least 2 months. Thats it.

You may have heard about flea eggs lying dormant for years, and this is true in a place like a basement or shed where there is no one walking around. Flea eggs are stimulated to hatch by vibrations, so if you got fleas, treated with a bomb or spray, and then left the house for a month or longer....you end up with an infestation when you walk in because your activity causes the eggs to hatch....If you live in your house every day you dont need to worry about that....those sorts of things happen in a cottage or rental place left vacant. Ive actually reccomended to people with that problem to move into the infested place WITH a pet that is treated with advantage so the eggs are stimulated to hatch by vibration activity, and then they hop on the pet and die.....and so do the larvae.

There is another product called "Revolution" available from your vet....It is a good product but Advantage kills a higher percentage of adults faster.

Dont buy a product that looks or sounds like "advantage" from your pet store....most of them are only safe for dogs...and can kill cats and still dont work.
There are other products from your vet like an injection or pills but dont get those, although they are good, they only kill the eggs. You want something that does two stages of the life cyle.

As we have all learned, hairless cats can get fleas. The good thing is you can see the flea sooner on a naked cat.

Nofuratu got fleas a couple of months ago, I suspect from my dog when she went to the groomers. I treated my hairy cat, Nofuratu and my dog with advantage for two months in a row and now we're all fine. Although Ive been out of vet medicine for almost 10 yrs and thought maybe the clinic would have a newer product out that works better....they dont.....they all still use advantage.

With a sphynx apply it in a couple of spots on the back of the neck and down the back where they cant lick it off...because there is no hair to slow down the flow..youwant to be careful it doesnt drip off.
Also, although Advantage doesnt wash off....with one bath.....it will be less effective if you have a pet that swims daily or has lots of baths. So hold off on the weekly bath, or reaply every 3 weeks instead of every 4.

Sorry if I sound abrupt.....this is just an upsetting topic....Im so mad at companies that keep marketing dangerous chemicals to people because understandibly, people are scared of flea infestations....they take your money, may make your pet sick, and dont work well, if at all!!! Ive gotten so many phonecalls from owners with sick, dying cats because of this problem.....

Advantage came out in about 1997, and before that its true....flea infestations were a nightmare!!! but since this product has come out, theres no need for all that other stuff...
Any questions feel free to pm me....or call your vet...

Adventures of A Naked Cat
So your 100% sure Advantage will not hurt a Sphynx? We have just the one cat, pet, and no fleas but tis the season. You say apply on the neck and back where kitty cannot lick it, neck is no problem but my Sphynx for sure can wash his whole back area. Also, after applying Advantage, how long to forgo his weekly bath? By day 7 our cat is filthy as he is very active.

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Mariechovi

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Apr 25, 2017
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Re: New Cat tree.. Big problem!

Im well aware of flea meds for animals.. I just dont understand how doing that for my cat will take car of whats in the carpet on this tree. Its like THICK shag carpet.. And we have found them in our sheets.. I can only imagine where else they have made i to in the 48 hours before we saw them on her.. She is easy to deal with.. Its the flea infestation on this tree that im trying to kill....I dont like using chemicals, but again I wouldnt stay in the home either while a bomb is going off. Im better safe than sorry even if it says safe... I even remove my plants! If this doesnt works bu next weekend, I will have no choice but to bomb the house, but dont worry, NO ONE (Sophia included) will be here.. I wouldnt NEVER harm anyone or thing.. Im all about au natural being that I am a huge huge Green girl. I appreciate the advice.


ALSO! I know this is gonna sound silly but ive never dealt with this.. is there anything I need to do as ahuman? Can I carry fleas in my hair or my kids? I know to wash blankets, which I have done with my sons as Sophia sleep in his bed..but what about our bodies?
We have had fleas in our car get on our clothing, transfer to our home, ect. Guests with an animal with fleas can bring then unknowingly in your home, car, ect.

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Mariechovi

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Re: New Cat tree.. Big problem!



Yes, you have to vacate your home for a few hours after fogging. Make sure all food is put away in cabinets or in the fridge as well. Put away all pet toys too after washing them. Wherever you are going, make sure you all take showers before returning home, & if you can get a flea comb or a lice comb to do your hair, just in case any of you have fleas in your hair. What a pain in the arse. So sorry your family has to go through all of this.:ThumbsDown:
Another reason not to use 'Crazylist.'

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