flees

Question
hi carol, my question is my kittens were born today 08/18/2007 they are beautiful, im concerned because my cat precious has flees and she has now passed them on the her kittens what should i do? can the kittens get ill because of the flees? full of them. can i apply some kind of front line medication?

Answer
Hi Laura! Congratulations on your new kittens.

Most baby kittens have fleas. The mom usually licks them off. The vet has medicine for babies, but you have to check with him to find out how soon you can put it on.
Do it as soon as it is recommended because the babies can get anemia from the fleas sucking their blood.

And make sure to worm mom when she is through nursing because that is how she gets worms...from fleas.

You can use a flea comb (purchased from PetSmart/Petco). It is tedious but effective. But you don't want to handle the kittens too soon.

Here is a 'home cure' from someone on the internet. I've never tried it but I thought I would include it here:

"When i worked at the vet, we always recommended for kittens younger than 9 weeks old to use Murphy's Oil Soap. start at the head (dont use it on thier face so start with the top of the had near the ears so the fleas can run toward the back of the cat where you can safely get them) then slather the entire kitten with the soap. let it sit for a couple of minutes. actually hold the kitten. you dont want them licking the soap off. by letting it sit, it chokes the fleas and kills them. then give them a warm through bath and rinse REALLY well."

Hope this helped.