conuly | I don't even know with these fleas...

it seems like they're coming back every three weeks, and the Advantage is supposed to be good for a full month. (And usually, by this time of year I'm slowing down to an every-six-weeks schedule, but it's been so warm that I really can't do that!)

This isn't good for the animals, and it's doing nothing for my peace of mind either.

Sweetheart, whom the girls are calling Reeses, is still hanging around and she's stopped lunging at Mama Cat. Which is good, because Mama Cat will win any fight with her. If she's still here next week I'll take her into the van, because they'll be close by. Gotta hit up my neighbors who get food stamps, see if any of them will lend me their card. (I'm not paying $125 for a stray to get fixed. No way, no how. $5, now, I can do that.)

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

batwrangler

Ugh, fleas. I've heard about Advantage not working in some areas. My vet recommends Vectra 3D instead, for dogs at least. Not sure what their recommendation is for cats or for mixed households.

From:

conuly

I've never had a problem previously, but I suppose all pest control methods that don't involve physically removing the pests do eventually reduce in efficacy.

From:

wpadmirer

I like the flood proof lawn and the article about human bones.

We may not flood because we have local plants and gravel over limerock instead of pavement on our little street. No matter how bad the flooding has been around us, we're always fine. YAY!

From:

conuly

I bet your neighbors think it's some black magic, or else they'd've copied you!

From:

thewayne

Ticks and fleas aren't much of a problem up here at 9,000': as a rule they can't handle the low pressure, on top of that the below-freezing winters. But we always do tick treatments when we go to Phoenix, such as we're doing for Thanksgiving. If they pick some up while we're down there, they won't (usually!) last long once we're home. But my wife did pick a pretty big tick off of Dante, our white standard poodle, a few weeks ago. We already had a wellness visit for one of the other dogs with a vet, so she took the tick in to the vet (we put it in an empty pill bottle), the vet wasn't too concerned.

From:

conuly

Thank goodness we've only ever had one tick. Ugly things.

From:

loligo

Where we live, both Frontline and Advantage have become fairly ineffective. We're getting got results now with Revolution on our cats.

From:

conuly

I'll try it.

(Then again, it's possible I'm just not keeping good track of the dates.)

From:

stormsong

I'm also using Revolution. I like it, but we've only been using it for two years. I have taken my cat to a tick-infested wood and she was fine, but I don't know if we've ever been exposed to fleas.

From:

conuly

Hard to believe you haven't.

From:

siderea

New York hospital's secret policy led to woman being given C-section against her will

OMG, why is she merely suing and not pressing criminal charges? There's a technical term for sticking a scalpel into a legally competent person without their consent, and it's assault and battery. Where the hell is the DA in all this?

I hope she winds up owning the hospital, at the very least, but an example needs to be made of the MDs who did this pour l'encourager d'outres.

From:

conuly

I have no idea, but did you read the article on how elderly people have been forcibly assigned "guardians" and had all their possessions stolen?

From:

siderea

I've been procrastinating reading it, because I'm not up to having my head explode right now.

From:

conuly

Wise, wise choice.

From:

siderea

Fleas: 30 years ago, our cats had terrible problems with fleas – one cat was allergic to fleas, so this was awful – and we were pretty sure they were picking them up on the porch. We noticed the neighbor's cat, who also hung on our porch, didn't have fleas, so I asked the neighbor what they were using. They enthused about anti-flea garlic pills for pets (e.g.), and ran inside and brought me some. I was surprised to find that each pill was the diameter of a quarter, and half as thick. I asked how they got such a giant pill into a cat, and they said they crumbled it into the food, but actually the cat would beg for them.

I had somewhere to be, so thanked the neighbor, went in and left the anti-flea pills on the kitchen counter, then headed out. When my mother and I came home, the pills weren't there. We found one half-eaten one in the sink, and one wedged under the fridge, and never saw the other two again. So apparently getting the pill into the cat isn't the hard part. My mom was too cheap to pay for them (they were very expensive back then), so we never did find out how effective they are, about which I am still cross.

Ever since then, when I know I'm going into the woods or someplace mosquitoy, I try to make a point on eating a lot of garlicky food. (Bugspray is medically problematic for me.) Seems to work!

Edited Date: 2017-10-09 12:56 am (UTC)

From:

conuly

Isn't garlic (and all alliums, really) poison for cats and dogs?

From:

siderea

Yes! :

What's the toxic dose of garlic?
The toxic dose for pets is 1-2 cloves/kg, so a 4-kg pet receiving 4 or more cloves a day may die. One teaspoon of garlic powder is equal to a clove. (A garlic clove and a teaspoon of garlic powder weigh about 9 g.) So, 4 teaspoons of garlic powder (36 g) would be toxic to a 4-kg pet, such as your average cat.

4 tsp == 1.3 Tbsp. Don't feed your 8lb cat a tablespoon of garlic at a time, even if it sits up and begs making googoo eyes at you. From the previous link:

Active Ingredients per Tablet
Brewer's Yeast 50 mg
Garlic (bulb) 21 mg*
Iron (from Iron Amino Acid Chelate) 1 mg
Niacin 550 mcg
Pantothenic Acid (from D-Calcium Pantothenate) 440mcg
Manganese (from Manganese Amino Acid Chelate) 220 mcg
Riboflavin (Vitamin B2) 220 mcg
Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1) 220 mcg
Copper (from Copper Gluconate) 110 mcg
Vitamin B6 (from Pyridoxine HCI) 20 mcg
Folic Acid 9 mcg
Zinc (from Zinc Gluconate) 1.65 mcg
Vitamin B12 (Methylcobalamin) 0.09 mcg
*Though long known and used as a safe medicinal plant in holistic medicine for people and pets, garlic has come under scrutiny recently for the role one of its compounds may play in a condition affecting the red blood cells in some pets (the development of Heinz bodies). Please know that the amount of garlic found in our brewer's yeast and garlic tablets, as well as any of the natural health products, treats and foods we carry is included at levels known to be safe for our animal companions. Garlic would need to be ingested at extremely high levels for an extended period of time to have a detrimental effect on a companion animal's health. Please see our article,Garlic's Many Health Benefits, in our Holistic Healthcare Library for more information about the safety of garlic.

Inactive Ingredients - Magnesium Stearate, Microcrystalline Cellulose, Natural Vegetarian Turkey Flavor, Parsley (leaf), Silicon Dioxide

BTW, the danger is that garlic (all alliums?) is a blood thinner to cats, and they can develop Heinz body anemia, and fatal complications of that, if you give them too much. Considering the toxic dose of garlic is apparently 36,000mg, and a pill has 21mg, and your alternative is to put a neurotoxin on the outside of an animal that licks itself clean, maybe it's a risk you're okay with.

Edited (HTML; I can math, I swear) Date: 2017-10-09 05:26 am (UTC)

From:

conuly

Well, that's why you're very careful to put the flea medicine in between the shoulder blades, where they can't reach. (And to wear gloves - damn thing gives me migraines.)

From:

siderea

I guess cats don't get migraines?

From:

conuly

I don't know, actually. They definitely don't like getting the medicine put on, so I've floated the idea that they may be having a headache. If so, it passes within a few hours, because they act normal as soon as they realize I'm no longer chasing them around to dose them up.

At any rate, their strong dislike of that time of month is 50% of why I limit our use of Advantage during fall, winter, and spring. (The other 50% is the cost.)

From:

archangelbeth

Regarding fleas, if you can vacuum religiously every 1-3 days, with flea powder in the vacuum bag, that gets the wiggly larvae. (I had outdoor cats that became indoor cats, and they were in a part-finished basement for a chunk of that, and we could SEE the flea larvae wiggling on the cement floor!!! VACUUM!)

...http://eartheasy.com/live_natural_flea_control.html has some ideas, and does note that while garlic may work, it can cause lethal anemia. OTOH, brewer's yeast? I dunno. I'd wind up asking the vet. >_>

Good luck, in any case. Fleas are terrible.

From:

conuly

Fleas will kill small enough animals. Plus, they're very visible on Finn's fur. I mean, ew.

From:

archangelbeth

*shudder*

At least they're not fire ants.

From:

siderea

We Don't Do That Here

This is excellent. Gacking.

From:

larryhammer

Excellent intersex article, and good for InterACT for getting this out there.

(I've had some dealings with InterACT, and the child of a friend is CAH. The Human Rights Watch report mentioned is worth reading all the way through.)