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Has anyone ever tried bathing a cat or three?!
To our chagrin, I noticed the other day that one of our three moggies had fleas! Of course if Sidney had them, then the other two would as well, and sure enough, when I checked them with the flea comb, they all had them. I researched the various methods of flea treatment and we are in the process of an all-out war on the little critters, including flea bombing and powdering the house and washing everything in sight - and of course the cat treatments.
Much of the advice I found online advocated giving the cats a bath, with either cat shampoo (which is a flea repellant) or baby shampoo. The pet shop didn't have any cat shampoo so I bought the baby shampoo. I attempted to give them a bath today and I can honestly say it was the most difficult thing I've ever had to do. Giving them tablets is easy by comparison, and that's saying something! Needless to say, none of them liked the water and each of them in turn tried to get out of the bath by whichever method they could, which of course involved Chloe and myself getting slashed for our efforts. The bathroom was drenched, as were we, and I can't exactly say that it was successful. Sidney would not even let me get his front end in the bath. He was soaked from the waist down. In the end, I managed to get him wet all over by pouring water with my hand onto him as he lay shaking on the bath mat (out of the bath). I didn't bother with the shampoo as I knew there was no chance of rinsing him afterwards - but I did comb him lots and lots. Moo and Pearl (who are usually much less cooperative than Sidney) were a little better, and I did at least manage to shampoo them, and (sort of) rinse them, but it was not a huge success and they were extremely traumatised afterwards (in fact Moo has gone missing somewhere in the house - we can't find her anywhere!). I've combed them to within an inch of their lives and I'm not finding as many horrid little critters as I was doing.
I dried them off as much as I could (but didn't dare try the hair dryer as they wouldn't have tolerated that as well), then they licked themselves "dry" for about half an hour. When they were dry I put the Spot-On flea treatment on them. The trouble is, that although they're not supposed to be able to lick it off themselves, somehow they manage to, and the little one is now drooling at the mouth. I remembered then that she did that the last time I put it on her. That's possibly why they got fleas - if they're licking off the treatment every time. The packet says to put it between their shoulder blades, which is exactly what I'm doing. Perhaps I need to put it a bit higher up.
If anyone has some advice on a really good flea treatment which doesn't involve bathing the cats, or something better than the spot-on type treatments, then I'd love to hear it, thanks.
To our chagrin, I noticed the other day that one of our three moggies had fleas! Of course if Sidney had them, then the other two would as well, and sure enough, when I checked them with the flea comb, they all had them. I researched the various methods of flea treatment and we are in the process of an all-out war on the little critters, including flea bombing and powdering the house and washing everything in sight - and of course the cat treatments.
Much of the advice I found online advocated giving the cats a bath, with either cat shampoo (which is a flea repellant) or baby shampoo. The pet shop didn't have any cat shampoo so I bought the baby shampoo. I attempted to give them a bath today and I can honestly say it was the most difficult thing I've ever had to do. Giving them tablets is easy by comparison, and that's saying something! Needless to say, none of them liked the water and each of them in turn tried to get out of the bath by whichever method they could, which of course involved Chloe and myself getting slashed for our efforts. The bathroom was drenched, as were we, and I can't exactly say that it was successful. Sidney would not even let me get his front end in the bath. He was soaked from the waist down. In the end, I managed to get him wet all over by pouring water with my hand onto him as he lay shaking on the bath mat (out of the bath). I didn't bother with the shampoo as I knew there was no chance of rinsing him afterwards - but I did comb him lots and lots. Moo and Pearl (who are usually much less cooperative than Sidney) were a little better, and I did at least manage to shampoo them, and (sort of) rinse them, but it was not a huge success and they were extremely traumatised afterwards (in fact Moo has gone missing somewhere in the house - we can't find her anywhere!). I've combed them to within an inch of their lives and I'm not finding as many horrid little critters as I was doing.
I dried them off as much as I could (but didn't dare try the hair dryer as they wouldn't have tolerated that as well), then they licked themselves "dry" for about half an hour. When they were dry I put the Spot-On flea treatment on them. The trouble is, that although they're not supposed to be able to lick it off themselves, somehow they manage to, and the little one is now drooling at the mouth. I remembered then that she did that the last time I put it on her. That's possibly why they got fleas - if they're licking off the treatment every time. The packet says to put it between their shoulder blades, which is exactly what I'm doing. Perhaps I need to put it a bit higher up.
If anyone has some advice on a really good flea treatment which doesn't involve bathing the cats, or something better than the spot-on type treatments, then I'd love to hear it, thanks.