by: Teresa Frady
Fleas can be a real problem if you have a pet in your home. We learned from our vet that the best way to control fleas is to treat both your home and your pet simultaneously.
Last summer, we added a new pet to our family - our cat, Ally. She was a sweet, shorthaired, stray kitten that we picked up from a neighbor's house. Ally had one problem though - fleas. She was completely infested with them, which in turn, infested our home with them. We tried everything to get rid of those pesky blood-suckers, including flea collars, indoor foggers, and bathing her with flea shampoo. And everyone knows how much cats hate water! Nothing that we tried worked. Just when we thought we were rid of them, more would hatch.
We even considered putting Ally back outside, but we decide to try one more thing before resorting to such drastic measures. We took her to the vet, where we were provided with more effective flea foggers and a flea spray for our home called Siphotrol Plus II. We used these to kill the fleas in our house while Ally was at the vet getting a flea dip. They also treated her with Frontline Plus, which was applied to the back of her neck. Our trip to the vet wound up costing about $150, but it was worth it. We were rid of the fleas, and we were able to keep Ally in the house.
We were instructed to reapply the Frontline Plus monthly, however, we found another product at our local Co-op that is much cheaper than Frontline Plus and seems to work well so far. It is called Flea Halt! and is made by Farnam Pet Products.