Dear Sinéad and Siouxsie:
We are indoor/outdoor kitties, and our question is regarding flea control. Our new vet says that they won't sell any "spot on" flea control items that are classified as pesticides. They proudly claim that they are a pesticide-free vet hospital. They say pesticides are bad for kitties.

Our former vet used to recommend Frontline Top Spot and so Mommy bought that for us and "dosed" us on the neck each month during flea season. The new vet recommended something that was a pill that Mommy would have to give us each month.

From the way we're looking at it, the spot on stuff could seep into our skin and possibly become concentrated in our liver, kidney or other organs. But wouldn't the ingested pill also pose some threat to our internal parts as well? Just about everything out there anymore is bad for you but we want Mommy to choose the lesser of the evils for us.

We will not wear flea collars, especially since they don't work very well and the gas they use is something of a nerve agent-definitely not good for us kitties. The herbal collars that have no chemicals don't do anything and we hate the way they smell anyway.

Do you have any suggestions? We love the outdoors but don't want to make Mommy mad by bringing in fleas.

Meowwwwrrr,
Ashan, Nigel & Scipio

Siouxsie: Oh, we don't like fleas at all! We had them once when we were kittens, and Mama gave us baths. Yuck! She's just lucky I wasn't as big as I am now, or she'd have gotten it, that's for sure!

Sinéad: I didn't mind so much. Those fleas were itchy and yucky, and Mama was really nice about drying us off after she got us all wet. And the fleas went away, too.

Siouxsie: Fortunately for us, we don't go out (well, not much, anyway), so we don't have too many flea problems.

Sinéad: The first thing you need to know is that if you are healthy cats, you're going to be a lot less attractive to fleas. Fleas are like predators; they prey on the weak. So if your mama keeps you healthy by feeding you good food and making sure you get enough exercise and taking you for regular check-ups, you probably won't get fleas.

Siouxsie: Listen to the brainiac. She knows what she's talking about this time. We think people worry about fleas a lot more than they need to, and that they spend a lot of money giving us flea treatments we may not need.

JaneA: As a flea preventative, Dr. Richard Pitcairn, in his book Natural Health for Dogs and Cats, recommends adding nutritional yeast and garlic to your pet's daily food ration-use anywhere from one teaspoon to two tablespoons of yeast (depending on your pet's size-one teaspoon is probably quite adequate for cats) in each meal. It can't hurt, and cats usually like the taste of nutritional yeast. I'd use powdered garlic, though, because fresh garlic is probably too potent for a cat's taste.

Sinéad: I think you're right about not wearing flea collars, though. Our Mama tried to get Siouxsie and me to wear collars once. It was not an enjoyable experience.

Siouxsie: Yeah, you should have seen Sinéad running around backwards in circles trying to get the thing off! Hee hee hee.

Sinéad: Anyway, as I was saying, flea collars usually aren't safe for cats, and they're not very effective. Not only that, but some cats (and dogs, too) get allergic reactions to them.

Siouxsie: Mama did talk to our vet about chemical flea control once, when she thought we'd be living out in the country. Our vet recommended the "spot on" flea control stuff, and told her that it's good for ticks, too. The vet also said spot treatments are less dangerous to us because they're supposed to be toxic to fleas and ticks, but not to us.

JaneA: Tick control is important here in the Northeast, because around here, many ticks carry Lyme disease, which, if left untreated, can cause chronic pain and health problems in people. If I had to choose a chemical flea prevention method, I'd probably choose the "spot on" stuff, too.

Sinéad: There are non-pesticide ways to get rid of fleas, though. When we got fleas, Mama bought an herbal flea shampoo and gave us baths and used the Demon Vacuum Cleaner a lot.

JaneA: Let me step in here for a moment, ladies. I can describe this in a way that helps people to understand what I did.

Siouxsie: Thank goodness somebody understands us.

JaneA: In order to get the fleas out of your house, you have to kill the eggs and get rid of new batches of fleas as they hatch. It takes a lot of effort to do this the pesticide-free way, but if you do this properly, it works very well. Here's what I did. First, I made a powder, a mixture of half table salt and half baking soda. I sprinkled it on all the carpets, under and on all the furniture, and let it sit for an hour or so. Then I vacuumed it all up and disposed of the bag outdoors immediately. I did this once a week until the fleas disappeared. I laundered all my bedding and all the cats' bedding, pillow covers, throw blankets-basically anything that moved and that the cats sat or slept on-in hot water. You may have to do this once a week for a few weeks, too. Once a week for three weeks, I bathed Sinéad and Siouxsie with Flea-B-Gone, an herbal flea shampoo from Avena Bontanicals in Rockport. Once I rinsed them off and toweled them dry, I picked or combed out any half-dead fleas and drowned them in a jar of water with a couple of drops of dish detergent (water with a drop or two of ammonia also works well). I kept this jar with me wherever I sat, and if I was watching TV or reading a book and a cat crawled onto my lap, I'd pet her and casually search for fleas. The ones I found, I picked off and plunged into the drowning solution. This process is obviously very labor-intensive, but it works. My flea epidemic was gone after three weeks, and nothing I did was toxic to the cats.

Sinéad: We didn't like the vacuum cleaner, though.

Siouxsie: But we were so glad we didn't have any more fleas! And Mama was so good about keeping that smelly shampoo out of our ears and eyes.

JaneA: If your cat does get fleas, remember to check it for tapeworms once you get your flea problem resolved. Tapeworms are intestinal parasites carried by fleas, and cats get them from eating fleas as they groom or as they eat prey with fleas. You can tell your cat has tapeworms if you see little things that look like rice grains around its anus or under its tail. If your cat has worms, take it to your veterinarian and get a prescription wormer; it's my understanding that many wormers sold in pet stores aren't effective on tapeworms, and good luck trying to get your cat to eat cayenne peppers or some other traditional herbal wormer!

Sinéad: We hope this helps you, guys. Your mama sounds like a great caretaker, and may you have many happy outdoor excursions.

Got a question? Need some advice? E-mail Sinéad and Siouxsie at advice@paws-and-effect.com. None of the advice in this column is meant to be a substitute for regular veterinary care.