Indoor cat to prevent fleas - other options?

[battaglia01]

Hi everyone,

My cat is about 9 years old. We found him 7 and a half years ago, and he was a year and a half old at the time (so the vet says). He kept coming into our backyard looking for food, and he had a collar (no nametag or information though). He kept coming for a month or so and we realized his owner had likely abandoned him. After taking him in and putting up posters, taking him to the vet, etc, we couldn't identify the owner and took him for our own.

We would let him out and a few years into this he started getting fleas. We had had a flea collar on him, but apparently it didn't do anything. We tried everything to get rid of them - flea dips, flea sprays, combing him, giving him baths, etc, but it wasn't helping, because the fleas were already infested. So we started bombing the house, washing the cat, bombing the house, bombing the house, washing the rugs, shampooing the rugs and the furniture, you name it. After 3 years of hair pulling torture, we finally got rid of the fleas.

My mom has decided to keep the cat inside so that he doesn't get fleas anymore. So every day I see this cat scratch at the wall because he wants to go out, and we say "NO," and it's awful. We live in a city and we have a nice little boxed in backyard, he couldn't get out unless we opened the gate to the outside. And I'm not talking like we have a 6 foot fence, I mean the whole thing is surrounded by 30 feet of concrete. But at the very least I'd like to get him a leash and take him for walks, but my mom's convinced he'll just get fleas again.

The irony is that sometimes me and my dad feel bad for him so we let him out anyway, especially since it's the winter and it's snowing, and he might just get fleas again anyway. Isn't there something we can do? My mom swears she's done it all and the only solution is just to keep it inside but I'm not sure, since the only real flea prevention scheme we ever had in place was this stupid flea collar that clearly didn't do anything.

If we just frontline him once a month, can we let him out without worrying about fleas?

Thanks,
Mike

[Thomas Dock, CVJ, Vet. Technician]

I agree with Linda, Mike.   I have used Frontline successfully for several years and have been very happy with the results.  The medication actually kills the fleas before they start laying eggs and infesting your home.

Once a month dosing is usually sufficient...there are some areas (like Florida) where a more frequent application could help though.

[LindaTX]

We've always used frontline plus on our cats and it works really well.  No more fleas and you don't have to worry about them bringing them back into the house.  Try it, you'll like it.