Help! The fleas are winning

Our cat is having some serious struggles with her skin and I feel stuck, unsure how to deal with it and rapidly approaching the end of my rope. We've been battling fleas all summer with not much luck. We comb her daily, vacuum most days, have a light trap under the bed, are running the dehumidifier and have put diatomaceous earth in a few more out of the way spots. We have given her baths as well. She used to be indoor/outdoor, but we've confined her to the house for now. But despite all that, we're still finding the same number of fleas on her most days and she is miserable. Seems likely she has a flea allergy. She's scratched herself raw on her neck and we've been trying to cover it with gauze and vet wrap, but she displaces or removes it pretty quickly. We tried the cone of shame, but the wound is on the front of her neck where it meets her chest, so the cone doesn't stop her being able to scratch it. It was almost healed, and then she got the wrap off once and clawed till she bled. Any creative solutions on how to prevent her being able to scratch her neck and reopen her wound? Or ideas on things that might help her not be sooo itchy?

Obviously, the fleas need to be dealt with. We're somewhat limited in our options for that because she has asthma, so absolutely no diatomaceous earth on her or in places she can get to. We're not able to vacuum quite as well as we'd like since our house is partially a construction zone and it would basically take all day every day to move everything, vacuum and put it back. So we've just been doing the best we can and focusing on the areas that she hangs out. For what it's worth, we have wood floor (unfinished, it's more like subfloor) and concrete slab, no carpet.
Any ideas on how to get the flea situation under control would be extremely welcome. I've read almost all of the organic war on fleas thread and haven't found a solution beyond what we're already doing. This is making her and us crazy. We're already spending so much time every day on it and to see almost no improvement is upsetting and wearing all of us down.

Oh, yikes! I'm so sorry, Heather!

It won't likely help with the fleas, but some strong calendula, lavender, & marshmallow root tea, as a rinse might help ease her discomfort, and start the healing process.

As far as the fleas, if you can get some tansy, crush it up, and just scatter it anywhere and everywhere. It repels a host of insects, including fleas. Yup - you'll be walking on it, and it will likely be annoying, but it should at least help cut down on the fleas. Another idea I've tossed around, is making that into a strong tea, filtering it, and using a pump sprayer, to just apply it everywhere, daily, until they're gone. I don't know if it would work, or not - but I can't help thinking it might be worth a shot. I get my tansy from mountain rose herbs dot com.

Even with asthma, you can rub a small amount of DE into your kitties fur (put the cone on for extra precaution) and then apply a very small bit of the DE to her back and rub or comb it in. Doesn't take much and you really only need a small amount focused under the the back of the neck and the back at the base of the tail and if you can a little on the belly close to the legs. Focus on areas the fleas normally congregate. The DE is only harmful when airborne, once settled and there are no airborne floaters  kitty can safely wash and ingest with no worries. Taken internally the worst it can do is kill any parasites or worms she may have. Note whenever you apply DE to anything, you should mask up.

When you wash her you could rinse her with a mix of water and diatomaceous earth so when it dries there's a tiny bit in her fur to kill any of the fleas that get on her, but hopefully wouldn't get in her nose.  

Carla Burke wrote:Oh, yikes! I'm so sorry, Heather!

It won't likely help with the fleas, but some strong calendula, lavender, & marshmallow root tea, as a rinse might help ease her discomfort, and start the healing process.

As far as the fleas, if you can get some tansy, crush it up, and just scatter it anywhere and everywhere. It repels a host of insects, including fleas. Yup - you'll be walking on it, and it will likely be annoying, but it should at least help cut down on the fleas. Another idea I've tossed around, is making that into a strong tea, filtering it, and using a pump sprayer, to just apply it everywhere, daily, until they're gone. I don't know if it would work, or not - but I can't help thinking it might be worth a shot. I get my tansy from mountain rose herbs dot com.

Thanks Carla!
That's a good idea with the rinse. I know the itches are bad, cause she hardly fights the bath. I've thought about more frequent baths, but didn't want to dry out her skin. My addled brain didn't think about just doing herb rinses, which wouldn't have that issue. Last time, we did a calendula and plantain one after the bath, which seemed to help.

A friend had suggested strewing herbs. Is there another one you'd think might work besides tansy? I was under the impression it was fairly toxic if she were to accidentally ingest any of it whilst grooming or whatnot. I know catnip is supposed to be strongly bug repellant, though that might drive her bonkers.

Denise Kersting wrote:Even with asthma, you can rub a small amount of DE into your kitties fur (put the cone on for extra precaution) and then apply a very small bit of the DE to her back and rub or comb it in. Doesn't take much and you really only need a small amount focused under the the back of the neck and the back at the base of the tail and if you can a little on the belly close to the legs. Focus on areas the fleas normally congregate. The DE is only harmful when airborne, once settled and there are no airborne floaters  kitty can safely wash and ingest with no worries. Taken internally the worst it can do is kill any parasites or worms she may have. Note whenever you apply DE to anything, you should mask up.

Thank you, Denise. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that, as her asthma has reached life threatening levels before and she's already wheezy lately. Plus, with her already being so itchy and DE being a skin irritant, I'd be concerned it might make things worse. This is good to keep in mind for a time when she's in better shape though.

hope you cat gets well real soon.
when one of my cats got an open sore I used peroxide to bubble all the gook out then itty bit of Neosporin , after treating for a while it healed and fur grew back

Heather Sharpe wrote:
Thanks Carla!
That's a good idea with the rinse. I know the itches are bad, cause she hardly fights the bath. I've thought about more frequent baths, but didn't want to dry out her skin. My addled brain didn't think about just doing herb rinses, which wouldn't have that issue. Last time, we did a calendula and plantain one after the bath, which seemed to help.

A friend had suggested strewing herbs. Is there another one you'd think might work besides tansy? I was under the impression it was fairly toxic if she were to accidentally ingest any of it whilst grooming or whatnot. I know catnip is supposed to be strongly bug repellant, though that might drive her bonkers.

You can start with my pupper's skin soothing rinse, instead of my first suggestions, as I was initially just trying to remember. This is my actual recipe:
Equal pts(by weight, dried herbs):
Calendula
Chickweed
Lavender
Neem
Marshmallow leaf
Peppermint

Blend, store in a sealed container, in a dark, cool place.
To use:
Pour 16oz boiling water over 6g (3T) herbs, steep to room temperature, add 1T acv, pour over washed, damp pup (OR cat). Massage in, gently working it into the skin & fur. Allow to air dry. It may dry slightly 'crunchy',  but will soften nicely, in a few hours.

If you can get her rinsed, once she's dry and her fur has returned to its normal softness, I use this essential oil blend (*using essential oils for pets can be controversial - in a diffuser, it can really mess with their respiratory system, but these specific ones, in this method has worked beautifully, for us) on my Charlie, to repel fleas, ticks, mosquitos, and chiggers:
5 drops of Lavender
2 drops Citronella
2drops Geranium
2 drops of Cedarwood
2 drops of Lemongrass
8T carrier oil
Combine, and store in a dropper bottle. To use, shake, then drip 4 - 8 drops from the base of the skull to the base of the tail, as needed. In Charlie's case, once a week worked well, for us - she's 15lbs. But, Charlie is a dog. It might be wise to double the carrier oil and possibly leave out any individual oil that your poor cat may be sensitive to. Those can vary, between species as well as individual critters.

Thank you again, Carla! That recipe sounds delightful and so soothing! I might have to use some on myself too, it'd probably help with the stress. I'm not that familiar with neem, but that sounds like it could be a really helpful addition I wouldn't have thought of. And like maybe it'll at least discourage the fleas a bit. Are you using the leaf in this blend?

That sounds like a great oil blend too. Awesome to know it works even on chiggers. They're the bane of my existence in the warm times. It's so tricky to know about using herbs and oils with cats. They seem so much more sensitive, but you've given me some really good ideas to work with.

Plantain oil on her wound is doing wonders, I just hope we can keep her from getting to it again before it can heal up all the way.

You can also blend the plantain into the dried herbs, and I have.
The neem is toxic to both(I believe) cats and dogs, in the oil form. Dried herbs are the safe form, so the only one I'll use, on my critters.

If your pets will eat garlic feed them fresh garlic every day.  Dogs will usually eat garlic if it is mixed into their food, this may not be as easy with some cats.
The garlic oil scent will excrete through their pores and the fleas and ticks and other pests will tend to stay away.  We never had flea problems with any of our dogs.  The garlic scent is so mild you probably wont even notice it.

A warning: garlic may work for pups, but isn't considered safe for cats. Anything in the allium family should be avoided as it can cause anemia in felines.

My question would be to ask you about her diet.  How much research have you done on the topic?  Wet food vs dry food.  Any raw?  Grain free isn't enough, because some brands use potato and tapioca starch.  Carrageenan and gum free?  American pet food rules say if the food contains more than 25% fish, vitamin K must be added (because vitamin K isn't available from fish) and the only approved (synthetic) vitamin k supplement is bad.

I'm sorry you all are having such a difficult time.  It sounds like you are investing lots of effort and energy into reversing the flea situation.  I wish you all a success!

Until it freezes, you could be bringing fleas into the house from the yard on your shoes.  I went through the flea fight with my indoor cats---even in a 3rd floor apt. in a cement block building!

Rebecca Branham wrote:My question would be to ask you about her diet.  How much research have you done on the topic?  Wet food vs dry food.  Any raw?

This is an excellent question, Rebecca! I switched her to raw food (muscle, bones, organs, skin and all) a couple years ago when she was diagnosed with asthma. The vet wanted to put her on daily corticosteroids for life. I did a ton of reading about how diet could affect asthma and other allergies and decided trying a raw diet seemed preferable to a lifetime of drugs with many side effects. And it helped tremendously. She has only needed pills a few times since, gotten to a healthier weight (she was significantly overweight) and seemed healthier overall. I was so hoping it would help her with the fleas too, but doesn't seem to be quite enough.

After more reading, it seems giving b vitamins can help somewhat in repelling the fleas and could be beneficial in helping her skin heal and be less irritated. So I think we may try that along with all our other measures.

Thank you for the well wishes and suggestions!