How We Safely Removed Fleas the Cats Brought Home

Fleas are a real nuisance. Cats like to be outside and if they are like my cats, they cannot easily be kept inside. Both of my cats had flea collars, which I must say do work well, however some cats learn how to sneak out of their collars. This was our case, one of the cats lost all of the flea collars we got her and continued to play in our yard with the neighborhood cats. She brought home fleas which then also infested the other cat. I did not want chemicals as I have seen the flea collars remove hair from around their neck, I cannot imagine what the flea drops would do.

The veterinarian recommended certain chemicals to be applied to their neck. I have heard situations in which the flea drops has caused lethargy and other serious health problems so I am not comfortable with trying them. I began a trial and error process but I finally found something safe that had worked very well and the biting, uninvited house guests are gone.

You will need to treat the cat and the house. Fleas come in on the cat which is their host and the female flea lays her eggs. The eggs tend to fall off of their host which is how you get them all over the house. The flea eggs can fall off while the cat is walking or even sleeping, which leads to eggs in the carpet, on the furniture or anywhere your cat goes.

To treat the house I used table salt. I sprinkled salt on the couch, under the couch cushions and under the couch. I left the salt under the couch and under the cushions for a few weeks, and I vacuumed the salt off the top of the couch after a day of being applied. Do this for any furniture that may get exposed to the fleas. It will need to be reapplied to the furniture at least one more time for overnight. Salt was sprinkled generously all over the carpet. You will need to let it sit in the carpet for at least a couple of days before you vacuum. When you walk over the carpet the salt will work it's way into the carpet where the eggs and fleas are likely to be. This can be repeated if needed. You will also need to wash the cat's bedding often and if the infestation is bad you will probably need to wash all bedding in the house on the hot water cycle often. Fleas do not drown but they will not survive a hot water cycle in a washer.

To treat the cats you can simply apply Brewers yeast to their fur. When you put the yeast on them you want to work it through their fur, trying to get to the skin. This will get rid of the fleas both externally and internally on the cat. Externally it will work with the application and as the cat licks themselves they will ingest the yeast which will get rid of the fleas internally. I noticed a difference within a few hours.

This was the completely safe way I got rid of the fleas. No harmful chemicals for the cats and it is a safe method with children in the house. I am not sure if this will work in all situations but it did here.

Information about how the fleas spread into the house came from my cat's veterinarian. The other information was a trial and error process I took and this is what worked. The salt I tried as I thought it would dehydrate or kill the fleas and the yeast was recommended to me by a close friend.