Flea Treatment for Cats by Mouth

Flea infestation can be detrimental to the health and comfort of everyone in the household, especially the cat who brought the insects into the home. Fleas can cause disease in cats. Cat owners can treat and prevent future flea infestations using certain oral medications in combination with topical ones.

  1. Flea infestation

    • Fleas get on your cat either from the outdoor environment or from another infested animal. The adults wake up when conditions are right, such as a warm, red-blooded, mobile host. The flea begins sucking blood. The bites cause intense itching. The flea soon begins to lay eggs, about one an hour. They look like grains of salt and are often seen together with flea droppings, which look like pepper. The eggs hatch into larvae, which metamorphose into pupae (they resemble tiny maggots at this stage), and finally, the pupae mature into adults. The cycle begins again. Eggs take one to 10 days to hatch, so it can take a while to put an end to an infestation.

    Health concerns

    • Many cats are allergic to flea saliva and may develop red bumps around the bites. Fleas drink enough blood to lower your cat's red blood cell count and cause anemia, the chief symptom of which is weakness. Fleas can also transmit parasites such as tapeworm to your cat: they eat the tapeworm eggs found in feces, and your cat may ingest the infected flea during grooming. Tapeworm is a nasty infestation that can deprive your cat of nutrition and cause weakness as well.

    Oral flea medications

    • Look for Capstar, Frontline, Proban Tabs, Program Oral Suspension, Program Tablets, or Sentinel. All of these medications work by preventing flea eggs from hatching. This breaks the flea life cycle, but it does not kill the adult fleas. You must use a product designed to kill adult fleas in conjunction with an oral treatment. Get your veterinarian's guidance on this.

    How to kill adult fleas

    • Adult flea killers come in powders, topical liquids and shampoos and dips. As soon as you realize your cat has fleas, check with your veterinarian, who may recommend that you bathe her with a flea-killing shampoo. She won't like it, but it will kill off fleas and wash off eggs. Your veterinarian may also recommend topical treatments to kill off the adults, as well as the oral medication to end the infestation. You could also have your cat wear a flea collar to keep the fleas off.

    Preventing future infestations

    • Oral flea medication is very effective in preventing future flea infestations. However, you should also wash any bedding in hot water, and steam clean carpets. Clean the area around your cat's litter box with disinfectant. You may want to consider treating your yard with pesticides, or you could plant lavender to repel fleas.