Fleas!! Help!!

[LionHart]

Thank you all and Tootie thanks you all for the kind words.

The little family seems to be doing well, except for fleas! The other day we started letting Toots out of the cage a bit to mingle with her brothers and sisters and get some exercise while I cleaned things up. I'm thankful that she's trusting enough to let this happen. Today we took more than a peak at the babies and picked them up. When we did we were shocked at the number of fleas the babies have. I've tried looking on line for advise and it seems that it can be very harmful for the babies. Makes sense really, fleas feed off of blood and blood loss can cause anemia.

Most of the advise was geared to 'house cats' were you can control the situation, somewhat, with Frontline and the like, but what can we do? Tootie is a little wild one in that she runs when ever we make movement toward her. We have a flea comb but the comb is as big as the babies! And I don't know if handling them a lot right now will is the right thing to do. I can't believe that putting something on them like Frontline would be good for babies that are barely a week old.

HELP! Any suggestions?

[Laura's Babies]

NO! You are right, do not put anything on the babies. Call a vet and ask about treating the Mama with Frontline/Advantage or something like that. At the shelter I helped out at we use to put it on babies 5 to 6 weeks old but only a drop or two. A week old is way to young... Maybe somebody else can come along and offer you something else you can do. If all else fails, just pick the fleas one by one off of them if the flea comb is to big to use on them. I also suggest putting "Fleas! HELP!" in your title to this thread so it will catch everyones attention.

[catmandu]

And you have to change thier bedding as the fleas will jump off and set up nests elsewhere.
My Dear Mother would break them between her thumb nails, and crush them.
I have heard that theres a device with a lamp over water , and that kills fleas too.
The best of luck in getting rid of those parasites!!!

damn Fleas!!!

[orangemm]

Are they too young for a warm bath? That usually gets most of the little critters off of kittens. We did that with A&B when we adopted them. They were a few weeks older, but a nice warm bath with Joy did the trick.

[Husky_mom]

I have no clue..but maybe putting it on mom would have to do.. or perhaps somehting that mom can pass them through her milk...

if placed on young babies... it can be harfmul that´s why many suggest only babies about 6-8 weeks or more... and because mom can lick it off...

I hope you find a solution...

and more pics of the cuties would be appreciated

[LionHart]

I appreciate all the suggestions (as you can see by the new thread title)

Right now we’ve opted for using tweezers and squishing the nasty little things. Since Tootie’s somewhat wild and won’t let us touch her, let alone pick her up, putting a flea treatment on her is going to be rough. We also are leery about bathing the kittens as we don’t want to wash the mamma scent off of them and upset Tootie.

As for changing the bedding, we have her and the babies in a little condo unit inside the kennel cage. The condo unit has been on the back patio for a long time and just about every one of the outside cats has taken shelter in it at one time or another, she’s used to it, had her babies there. Would getting a new on upset her do you think?

And as soon as my roommate is able to get more pics they'll be posted. We tired yesterday but the little buggers were squrimming all over and every shot was blurry!

[Coda'sMommy]

If you pick the feas off 1 at a time or use a flea comb, keep a glass with water and dish soap near by to drop them into. Something about dish soap makes the fleas not able to swim, they drop like a rock to the bottom of the glass. Very effective way of killing the fleas you pull off of the kitties without having to smoosh their nasty guts all over your finger nails. Good luck getting the infestation under control quickly.

[momtomany]

Bathing them in regular Dawn dish detergent will get them off. I did that on the advice of my vet. It will gross you out as they will all head for the head but it does help get rid of them. If you can get some Capstar and crush up in get in Momma's food it will kill the adult fleas. You can do that a couple of days in a row.

[Laura's Babies]

Ah! I see it worked getting them in here to offer suggestions. GREAT! We got to get those baies clean! You do not have to hold the Mom to treat her.. Just catch her resting in the condo where you can quietly sneak you hand in there and squirt it quicky between her shoulders. I have to sneak up on mine while they are sleeping or they RUN!! (I swear, they can smell that stuff a mile away!)

I would change the bedding whenever you catch the Mama out of there. It'll do no good to treat anybody when they are laying in a nest of fleas.

[Husky_mom]

another thing you coukd do is plae a bucket with soapy water... and a tea light candle inside.. the floating kind... and at night the fleas should jump to the light and die in the soapy water...