Does anyone else have dogs or cats that appear to be flea or tick magnets? I have 10 cats, 5 of which rarely have a flea, 5 appear to be flea magnets. I use the Seresto collars on the 3 younger, healthy cats with good results but I’m hesitant to use them on my two elderly flea magnets. I’ve used the Advantage Multi from the vet. I’ve also used the regular Advantage as my old indoor kitties don’t need the worming components. It seems to slow the fleas down for a week or so but then they’re back. Suggestions? I’m tempted to just go ahead and try the Seresto collar.
Have you tried Capstar (a bath in a pill) or bathing and then treating the environment? To get ahead of the fleas and then the 30 day prevention?
Seresto starts to kill fleas within 24 hours of a flea jumping on your cats.
This means that the younger cats could be bringing fleas into your house. Then, those fleas lay eggs, which fall off in your house ( imagine you cat like a salt shaker- everywhere your cat goes, it has flea eggs falling off of them), which in turn allows your inside cats to get fleas on them once the eggs hatch, molt into larvae, than pupae and hatch into adult fleas. Fleas can lay as much as 50 eggs a day 
Adult Fleas are different than ticks because they will not leave their host animal for any reason. Their metabolism is linked to their hosts blood ( from first drink) and can’t metabolize new blood. Ticks on the other hand, love the majority of their life off of the host. And basically, feed, then fall of their host, molt, then feed, fall of their host, etc. ticks don’t live on their blood meals. I could go on and on about fleas/ ticks if you are interested. Ticks
Putting a seresto collar on them, or advantage or frontline for your inside cats won’t really matter much in the scheme- maybe a little faster kill time with frontline ( 12 hours vs 24hrs of seresto) but all cat products are topical. You can give a cap star ( orally), for a quick kill ( if you have a heavy infestation on the cats) but capstar only works for 24 hrs. Cat products are mainly topically because it is a pia to pill a cat.
If you have a heavy infestation, give the capstar, and put all your cats ( no matter if just inside or inside/ outside) on a monthly flea preventative. And also treat your home/ outside for fleas.
Keep in mind, to kill a flea lifecycle, could take 3- 4 months depending on how bad the environment is with flea eggs/ pupae.
If you want more info on how to treat the environment/ or info on flea preventatives- more than happy to help.
If your cats have fleas that means they are picking them up from somewhere ( your yard) and bringing into your house. Typically you’ll find most flea areas outside in shady areas- direct sunlight and heat kill flea eggs. The larval stage- larvae move away from light. And pupae are in indestructible cocoons that only release the new adult fleas when the feel vibration or an animal emits co2 near them ( exhaling).
Let me backtrack. There are 4 stages to the flea life cycle. Egg/ larvae/ pupae/ adult. Eggs usually hatch within 10 days, larvae can live about 2-4 weeks before molting, pupae can stay dormant on average 6 months. And pupae don’t all hatch at once- they need the specific stimuli to hatch ( vibration from you or your pet walking by, or co2 exhaled from you or your pet, for example)
Why is this important to know, because that lull you see for two weeks, and than all of a sudden seeing new / more adult fleas, means more pupae have started hatching. Which is a good indication that you also have a flea infestation.
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When talking about flea prevention for cats for monthly prevention, you have only a few choices - and never a Hartz brand product.
Advantage brand product family
Frontline brand product family
Seresto
Revolution brand product family
Which ones are just an adulticide ( meaning they only kill the adult fleas) and which ones also have an IGR ( insect growth regulator) which also kills other stages of the flea life cycle.
Really, everyone should be using an adulticide and an IGR flea control whether it be for dogs and cats.
Seresto only kills adult fleas, and starts within 24hrs of fleas jumping on your pets. That leaves lots of time for a flea to take a blood meal
And start laying eggs.
Interesting fact- Fleas can’t start laying eggs until they take a blood meal.
Again, I can go on and on, and this is a lot of information that mainly, your vet and staff know but don’t always or necessarily explain to pet owners.
Thanks @TXnGA. All my cats are 100% indoor cats. Outside cats don’t have a very long life span here. The particular cat with the flea issue lives in my bathroom as the other cats bully her and she has litter box issues. She only has contact with my other elderly cat. My dogs all have the Seresto collars as they are very effective against both ticks and fleas. Three of my cats wear seresto collars, my big chonky cat, big floofy cat and my special needs cat (her back legs are deformed). These 3, along with the 2 old lady cats have the most issues with fleas. I may find the occasional flea on the other 5 so I treat with Pet Armor Plus as needed.
Ok, for some reason I thought the younger cats went outside. And you didn’t mention dogs in your original post.
The key is the dogs then. The fleas are being carried into your house by your dogs.
It doesn’t change the majority of what I said. Seresto collars don’t prevent fleas from jumping on your dogs/ cats. And Seresto collars are only an adulticide and don’t start killing until 24hrs.
At this point you are also dealing with a flea infestation.
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All the animals in the house need to be on a flea prevention. All of your dogs and cats. It’s better to have a flea prevention with an adulticide and IGR in them. An IGR will prevent any flea eggs that are laid from hatching.
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You are going to have to treat your home. It’s going to take a few months to knock down the life cycle. Wash all pets bedding / your bedding every week with warm to hot water. Vacuum all areas of your house, including under your furniture. Remember the larvae, they don’t like light, so when they hatch, they move away from light under your furniture. You are going to have to do this religiously. You can also have your home professionally treated if you want to get a jump on it, but it’s not going to change having to continually wash your / your pets bedding.
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Make sure all your pets are on a preventative. To get a quick knockdown of the fleas you can give your dogs/ cats a capstar, but they still have to be a monthly preventative. The capstar only works for 24 hrs. Follow the capstar up with a topical for your cats. For your dogs, you might want to think about switching to an oral monthly preventative like nexgard. It starts to kill fleas in as little as 4 hrs. If you switch your dogs to the oral preventative- you can skip the capstar step with the dogs. Cats can NOT get any of the oral preventatives, except capstar, for a monthly preventative. Cats are weird and don’t metabolize any of the current oral preventatives that are the market for dogs and those oral preventatives will harm a cat.
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This is important for the next step - Don’t stop allowing your pets to go where they normally go in your house. Remember how I said the pupae only hatch out when they feel vibration/ co2. Your pets will get the pupae to hatch out and they will jump on your pets - who are on preventatives- and kill the adult fleas.
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Which is why you need a faster acting flea prevention ( and one with an igr) like frontline plus on your dogs/ cats to kill the fleas faster and prevent the flea eggs from hatching.
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If your dogs are bringing in the fleas-
You will have to treat your yard, which will be easier than the house. Is there a shady area your dogs hangout in? Under bushes? In a kennel, or garage? Direct sunlight will kill a flea infestation, so will heat. If they hang out in a garage, or shed, then you will have to treat that area.
Do you want me to keep going?
Hi the Seresto collars worked like magic for the younger ones, so why not give them a try on the elderly ones too? Just keep an eye on how the oldies handle it. And don’t forget, regular grooming with a flea comb and going on a vacuuming spree can help you control those annoying fleas. If you’re not seeing the results you want, it might be worth hitting up your vet for other options, like different treatments or meds. They might have just the trick for you.
So which flea ( and tick) prevention products are an adulticide and have an IGR in them? Is it better to just use one product or to alternate between say - Revolution Plus and Frontline Plus? This is for outdoor barn cats and one indoor cat that goes outside on a very limited basis.
IGR is an insect growth regulator- meaning it prevents the flea from molting into the next stage of life. Both have one.
It is better to stick with one product. You may get a temporary relief by switching products but it will start the lifecycle kill over. With either product it will still take 3-6 months to kill the life cycle. Either product you want to start using immediately, don’t bath your pets much, and apply it monthly. Every time you bath or your pet swims it pulls off product off your pet. Both of those products are stored in the subacious glands on your pet ( stays on the surface od your pet ) and is constantly wicked onto your pets skin and hair from its storage in the subacious glands.
Let your pet continue to go into the areas it normally does, any shed hair has product on it and will also help to kill fleas/ flea larvae/ flea eggs in the environment
