How to Deflea a Cat
Posted by Lauren | Under Strange Encounters with 3,451 views Sunday Apr 23, 2006When I got my Siamese cat Kylee about seven years ago, I didn’t know that we had the kitty neutered way too late. Neutering a tomcat is supposed to reduce their tendency to mark their territory by spraying their piss, their aggression to other cats, and the tendency to roam around the neighborhood. Although getting my cat castrated made him stop urinating all over the house, Kylee still enjoys gallavanting with the neighborhood cats, defending his territory from other strays (the front lawn and the back yard), and picking fights with other toms.
My kitty’s nighttime excursions wouldn’t be such a problem if he didn’t bring home unwanted vermin from his feline friends: fleas.
They seem to like the taste of my blood because my sister and my mother never seem to get bitten. But what’s particularly irritating about flea bites is that they tend to leave disgusting dark marks on my skin after the swelling subsides. My feet are the primary feeding spots of these bloodsucking creatures and I never wear strappy sandals because the skin on my feet is pockmarked with stupid flea scars. The scars do fade after a long while but if Kylee’s fleas aren’t consistently removed, new scars will soon replace the older ones.
Defleaing my cat is a task that requires three people: one to hold Kylee down (my mom), one to control the removable shower head and calm him down (me), and one to remove the fleas (usually the maid). The cat is snatched up from his comfy perch and tossed unceremoniously into the shower area. Upon removing collar and wetting cat, my mother rubs flea-killing shampoo all over his body; the instructions on the bottle says that the fleas should die within five minutes.
While we wait for the shampoo to take effect, the maid and I start removing fleas from his body. Or rather, I point to where the flea is at, and the maid removes the flea and drowns it in a small tub of water. I suck at prying fleas off cat fur because I always keep my fingernails short. That, and I already spent too much time pulling fleas sucking on my feet during the several months we got too lazy to bathe the cat. Once, I was answering a quiz in my terror Theology class when I saw a flea crawling across the paper. It’s just too much for me to have to touch the damn things on the cat itself.
After about five or ten minutes, the poor cat is rinsed and the surviving fleas are picked out of his fur. Except for the occassional growl and angry meow to prove to us humans that my kitty is still vicious, Kylee remains cooperative throughout the entire thing.
The cat is then dried with an old towel and released from the bathroom. Kylee goes off to an inaccessible part of the house, usually behind the fridge or underneath the dining room table, to sulk and clean himself with his tongue. The whole process is repeated two weeks later, or whenever I start noticing fresh bites on my already abused feet.
You really shouldn’t be letting your cat roam outdoors :s It’s kind of dangerous and even neutered cats can even get FIV -.-
Though I hate bathing my cats as much as they hate being bathed XD
Really? I didn’t know that. ._. I can’t really stop my cat from going out though cos he just leaves whenever he wants.
By the way, I happened to look at your scans and they’re really cute! I made an LJ layout of one of the Lisa Frank ones. :D
I wonder how my cat would react when I bath him one day .. I’ve never bathed him since I got him about 4 months ago! :X
Your cat is looks so adorable (love his picture in the tub) . Ours (we have two hyperactive little demons :-)) takes a bath almost every week and at our current season, they’re really grateful for it as its so hot nowadays.
I wish goodriddance to your cat’s fleas and have a good day.
LOL…I Love Cats, and bathing them? Well I leave that for the professionals when it needs to be done, which it doesn’t b/c a) we no longer have dogsand B0 our cats dont go outside.
Your cats name is KYLEE? My daughters name is also and spelt that way. Every other Kylee we meet spells it with an “ie”- KYLIE.
Anyway. Nice blog.
Haha, the story of my cat’s name is pretty funny. When we got him as a kitten, we thought he was a girl, so we named him “Kylie”. But when he started puberty, we realized he was actually a guy. Kylee is supposed to be the male version of “Kylie”.
Do they sell Frontline where you live?
It works wonders on my cats here in the US. Just squeeze a little packet of the stuff on their back between their shoulderblades once a month and there are no fleas at all.
http://frontline.us.merial.com/home/
I don’t have cats, but we got 2 dogs… ^^ Most of the time my mom defleas them. She removes them and drops them off in a jar of gas. XD; Sure-kill way of getting rid of those damn fleas. The dogs sleep a bit far from my room, but there are times I see some crawling on my keyboard or on my dresser.
Hmmm… Cats really dont like water all that much do they?? lol !!
Thanks for the tip… my cat hates taking bath and i hate giving it a bath even more cos i look like a post-clash warrior afetr that with all the scratches and bitemarks…but those damn fleas…:(
I UNDERSTAND THE TRAMA OF GIVING CATS BATHS. AN FLEA PROBLEMS. I HAVE A GREAT PRODUCT TO TRY. IT WORKS I SWEAR. ME AN MY DAUGHTER HAVE BEEN CRAZY WITH HER KITTENS AND FLEAS. OMG. SO I BOUGHT A PRODUCT WORTH WALKING TO PURCHASE. ITS A NATURAL PRODUCT DE FLEA SHAMPOO , BEDDING SPRAY. WORKS FAST ONLY PROBLEM IS THE SHAMPOO IS REAL WATERERY. BUT AFTER APPLYING YOU SEE FLEAS THEN RINSE THERE GONE. NOT ALIVE TO START MOVING AGAIN.I WILL NEVER BUY ANYTHING ELSE.
My cats have never had fleas because we keep them indoors. It’s a lot safer that way for them and stops them from bringing diseases home, getting into fights with animals, humans, and cars.
But when I get a stray, I drop them in dishsoap until they’re gone every day. I only adopt them out to people who will fix them and keep them indoors…
Fleas are really dangerous- they can kill cats if they get too many because they take their blood and that weakens them.
You can keep your little guy inside. Keep doors closed and refuse to let him out. he’ll be angry for a while- but ultimately safer.