I LOVE animals. Particularly cats. There’s a piece of my introverted self that seems mirrored in these sweet, furry little souls. They are independent, curious, loving and have a sense of playfulness. They’re snuggly, but need time to themselves. And cats are affectionate and cuddly, much like my children, but sans the orthodontia bills or college tuition. (I’d claim they don’t have the ability to talk back either, but anyone who has ever heard my cat Moses meow at me when I tell him to get out of the treat cabinet would know that this is a blatant lie. He definitely talks back!)
Consequently, cats are my Achilles heel when it comes to practicality. I see a stray kitten in need of a home, and I will snatch it up and keep it regardless of the practicality of the matter. Thankfully, my husband has a soft spot for these furry beasts, too.
This tendency has led us to taking in 5 cats over the course of the past 19 years. All of them were stray kittens in need of a home and 3 of them needed to be bottle fed round the clock because they were either orphaned or lost when they were only 3-4 weeks old. And 2 of them were INFESTED with fleas when I got them.
This may not seem problematic at first glance, you may say, “no big deal, that’s why they make flea medication.” But, animals younger than 8 weeks can’t take flea medication, so….you have to de-flea them the natural way. This is quite a bit more work, but well worth it.
Getting rid of fleas, naturally
Step 1: Sequester the animal.
We found it easiest to put a bed, toys, water bowl, food dish and litter box in our downstairs bathroom. For the first week or so that we had the kittens this is where they lived. It kept them separate from our other pets so that I didn’t have to worry about them inadvertently spreading fleas or other parasites. It also gave all the animals a chance to get used to each other’s new sounds and smells through closed doors.
Step 2: Bathe the animal using Dawn dish detergent.
- For some magical reason, Dawn kills fleas. Our vet recommended the blue stuff, but I didn’t necessarily have any on hand, so I used the clear and it worked equally well. When you’re bathing them make sure the water is warm, but not hot (dip your elbow in the water just like you would for a baby’s bath). If it’s a small enough animal, I found that my kitchen sink was the perfect size for doing this, and the spray nozzle made it even easier.
- First, wet the animal down. You can spray them and hold them so that their body is under water but their head is above. If their feet can touch the bottom of the sink and their head can remain above the waterline, this will help keep them calmer. (Let’s face it, they aren’t going to be calm, so anything you can do to help along these lines is good.)
- Then gently lather their head, soaping their fur from the neck up, making sure not to get it in their eyes, nose or mouth. Leave the soap on their head while you gently but thoroughly wash the rest of their body. (The reason you want to do this is because the fleas, when faced with water and soap, will immediately flee to higher ground. They will try to climb up to the animal’s head, but the band of soapy fur will help deter them.)
- Use a flea comb to comb the animal thoroughly. Drop any fleas or eggs you find into a bowl of hot soapy water. Repeat this several times.
- Rinse, rinse, rinse the animal several times. Make sure the soap doesn’t run in their eyes.
- Towel dry the fur baby.
- Blow dry the animal using low heat. Animals under 8 weeks get easily chilled. Gently blow drying them reduces that risk. Just make sure not to inadvertently burn them by getting the dryer too close.
Step 3: Comb, comb, comb your animal.
You may or may not get all the fleas and flea eggs with the first bath. To speed up the process, make sure you use a flea comb on them several times a day. I found a routine that worked, after I fed them their bottle of formula, I would comb the kittens. This amounted to combing them 5-6 times a day. And, because I’m totally retentive when it comes to fleas (they terrify me), I changed my clothes when I did this so that no fleas could take a ride on me into the rest of the house. It made for a week of unholy amounts of laundry. But it worked. I’m hoping you’re not quite as paranoid as I am. You’ll have less laundry that way.
Step 4: Treat your other pets for fleas
To keep the fleas from spreading to our other pets, we treated them with an all natural flea spray called Wondercide that I bought on Amazon. I won’t lie, the cats didn’t like it, but it worked really well. And, it is safe and natural, so I didn’t have to worry about my kids (or cats) being exposed to unnecessary toxins. I have even used it on kittens with no harmful side effects.
Another effective treatment is to rub down your pets with food grade diatomaceous earth. Diatomaceous earth is soft and powdery. It’s a naturally occurring soft rock that has a high silica content. The silica shards cut through the waxy exoskeleton of fleas and causes them to dry out and die. You don’t want to breathe it in, but the food grade version is safe enough to ingest in small quantities, so it shouldn’t harm your pets when they groom themselves.
Step 5: Vacuum
I’m not a huge fan of vacuuming. I tend to get a bit lazy about it and have it on my to-do list for two weeks before following through on it. When you’re battling fleas, don’t skimp on vacuuming. Vacuum, vacuum, vacuum and make sure you empty out the canister or bag to get rid of all the potential flea eggs. You can even spread some diatomaceous earth around your carpet and vacuum it up for good measure. This should kill anything in the carpet.
Ok, I think that’s about it. This process is laborious, and I will admit that it drove me to tears a couple times, but it has worked for me. My fur babies are flea free and we haven’t had to use any pesticides or flea medication on them. And in case you think it may not be worth it, just take a look at these adorable faces!
Moses 
Sampson 
Lilah