Newborn Kittens and Fleas
Posted on Jul 10, 2013 11:21am PDT
If your cat is a new mother, then you will want to care for both her and the kittens in the best way possible. If your cat and subsequently the kittens have fleas, then you will want to careful to go about removing them. Nursing mothers cannot be treated with all the same medications that are used on other cats, so you will want to make sure to get the proper information.
You will want to purchase a safe topical flea medication to place on your nursing mother cat. Frontline and Advantage are both safe for nursing mothers. Chances are that if you can kill the fleas on your mother cat, then this will help to keep the fleas from spreading to the baby cats. If the fleas are already on your newborn kittens, then the best choices is to bathe each kitten in warm water and use Dawn dish detergent. This will normally kill most of the fleas, and will make it easy for you to pick off the ones that don't die with a flea comb as they will be stunned by the chemicals in the dish detergent.
This dish detergent typically is effective at killing fleas. You will want to do this promptly, as kittens with too many fleas can often suffer from anemia. You will want to make sure that your kitten's gums are pink to make sure that the kitten does not have anemia. Kittens are especially delicate, so it is important that you make sure to choose treatments that are safe and reliable.
The best way to get fleas off of newborn kittens is by getting a mild dishwashing detergent, a flea comp, tweezers, petroleum jelly, two towels, double-sided tape, and a cup of hot water. You will want to run a bath or warm water in the sink, and ensure that the water is not too hot or too cold. Immerse the young kitten up to the neck and make sure that all fur is wet. Then remove the cat from the bath and place on a towel so that you can apply the mild dishwashing detergent. You will want to massage the detergent all over the kitten but do not wash the kittens face or eyes as this could be harmful.
Naturally, the fleas will run to the driest area of the kitten, so you will want to grab all fleas that move to the head and face area and drop them into a cup of hot water. You can also stick them with double-sided tape. After this process, you will want to place your kitten on a clean towel to dry. After the back, you will want to go over the kitten with a flea comb or pick off fleas using tweezers and your fingers. You will want to drop the fleas into hot water or place them on the tape.
You can also apply the petroleum jelly to the teeth of the flea comb to keep the fleas stuck to the comb or make it harder for them to run away. After this, you will wan to place your dry kitten in an area that is free from fleas and gather up all bedding and fabric that the kitten has come in contact with. Wash all of this with hot water.
Make sure to continually check your animals for fleas, and make sure that the mother does not have fleas. Treat the mother with medications approved for nursing mothers such as Advantage or Frontline but steer clear of using flea collars. If you want more information then you need to talk to a local veterinarian or bring the kittens in for a check-up as soon as possible. Talk to a local vet today for more information!