How to Protect Your Cat from Fleas and Ticks

Last Updated on July 28, 2023 by Holly Anne Dustin

It is important to protect your cat from fleas and ticks. Pests can cause serious health problems and even death.  It is important to choose the right prevention that will repel fleas and ticks and keep your kitty safe and healthy. Some preventative treatments work on fleas, others work on fleas and ticks, and others treat worms and mites in addition. You want to choose the a product that treats the parasites your cat will be at risk for but not over treat.

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Ticks

Like fleas, there is a myth that ticks are only around during the warmer season. Ticks can survive cold temperatures. Ticks become active as soon as the ground temperature reaches 45 degrees Fahrenheit. We usually run in to ticks in spring, summer, and fall.

Cats are less prone to tick-borne diseases because cats pull off ticks before they attach. It is still important to check over your cat after he goes outside. Cats usually pick up ticks around the face, necks, ears, and legs. Be especially careful to check Kitty’s feet between his toes. Ticks on cats cause welts and bruises where they bite.

A female tick can lay up to 20,000 eggs.  They live in grass or shrubs where they wait for a potential host to brush by.  Keeping your grass cut short can help a little but cats are low to the ground and they like to hide out in shrubby areas.

Remove a Tick from Your Cat Safely

If you need to remove a tick, do so carefully.  Do not use matches or try to smother the tick. These can increase the risk of getting a disease because it makes the tick salivate.  Use a flat end pair of tweezers or get a tick puller at a pet supply store. Be careful handling the tick because they can transmit disease through any break in your skin.

Tick-Born Diseases

Living In the northeast, the deer tick is the biggest concern for many people because it transmits Lyme disease, the most common tick-borne illness in the world. Lyme is a problem in people. Dogs also contract Lyme. Cats actually rarely get Lyme.  But they get other tick-borne diseases.

• Lyme causes inflammation and lameness, lack of appetite, and lethargy. Some cats develop kidney problems or heart disease
• Bobcat fever (Cytauxzoonosis) is often fatal. Cats can only get Bobcat Fever from a tick that has fed on an infected bobcat so it is fairly rare. Outside cats in the Southeast and Midwest have the biggest risk. Bobcat Fever takes 3 weeks to develop. Cats develop anemia, fever, dehydration, and jaundice. Treatment involves anti-malaria drugs and antibiotics for 10 days.  About 60% of infected cats survive with this treatment.
• Rabbit fever (Tularemia) is carried by four species of ticks: the Rocky Mountain Wood tick, the American Dog tick, the Pacific Coast tick, and the Lone Star tick. It is most commonly found in the Midwest, mostly Oklahoma. Cats can get rabbit fever from feeding on infected rabbits and rodents or being bitten by an infected tick. If a tick bites your cat and you are worried about rabbit fever, you’ll need to treat her with antibiotics. Rabbit fever isn’t diagnosed until the cat dies from it.
• Babesiosis is another rare tick-borne disease in cats. Infection takes hold around two weeks after the tick bites your cat; but, like Lyme, it might not be diagnosed for months or years. Babesiosis causes anemia.  Treatment is anti-malarial drugs, antibiotics, and supportive care.
• Ehrlichiosis is a bacterial disease carried by the Lone Star tick. Organisms act like parasites killing the cells of the body. Ehrlichiosis causes lethargy, depression, weight loss, vomiting and diarrhea, anemia, swollen joints and eye discharge.  Antibiotics are the main treatment for ehrlichiosis.
• Hemobartonellosis in cats is another tick disease. It causes a parasitic blood infection. Symptoms can include anemia, depression, loss of appetite, and dehydration.  Cats can become carriers and the disease will reappear under stress.
• Tick-bite paralysis is caused by a toxin that affects the nervous system. Like Lyme, this disease is more commonly seen in dogs than in cats. Cats in the U.S. appear to have a resistance to the tick toxin. If your cat has been exploring in the woods and develops weakness, loss of movement, difficulty eating, excessive drooling, definitely bring him to the vet. Often removing the ticks will be enough to relieve the symptoms. Kitty might need supportive care depending on how severely the paralysis affects your cat.

Fleas

Fleas can drive your kitty crazy. Itchy, scratchy, miserable cats act out to get your attention. If your laid-back furbaby is more agitated or aggressive than normal, investigate the possibility of fleas.

Some cats have an allergy to fleas. A cat with flea bite dermatitis doesn’t need an infestation, just one bite can cause intense itching that can last for days. If you see sores or scabs on your pet’s skin, it could be because of fleas. In fact, some veterinarians say flea allergic dermatitis is the most common skin condition in cats.

Fleas can attach themselves to your pet as they go about their daily routines. They are present in nearly all 50 states, from tropical Florida to chilly Washington.

They can jump close to a foot in the air vertically, making it easy to carry fleas home. When a flea jumps onto your pet, it will feed within 5 minutes and may suck blood for up to 2 ½ hours. A single flea can live on your cat for almost 2 months.

Life Cycle of the Flea

Fleas become active when temperatures reach 65-80 degrees Fahrenheit with 75-85% humidity. If you live where the winter temperature drops below 65 degrees, you may get a break in flea activity.

Fleas live an average of 2-3 months. They can lay up to 40 or 50 eggs each day. The eggs will hatch in 10-14 days, form a larva, the pupae, and become an adult flea in 14 to 365 days depending upon the environmental conditions. It is easy to understand how the house can become quickly infested with fleas.

Can Fleas Kill a Cat?

A severe flea infestation can cause blood loss and result in anemia. It can be fatal, especially in kittens. Kitties with anemia caused by flea bites will require iron supplements and blood transfusions. Some cats don’t survive even with treatments.

Cats can also contact tapeworms from ingesting fleas while grooming.  A cat can get infected with Bartonella from flea bites.

How to Beat a Flea Infestation

It is clear why we want to protect your cat from fleas and ticks.  It is better to prevent the problems from developing rather than trying to beat it back after you have an infestation.

Bathe Your Cat

Give your baby a bath. You need not use a flea shampoo. Most of them aren’t too safe for cats. Any shampooing will wash fleas down the drain. Once she’s dry comb her out with a flea comb. It is safe to treat her with a spot-on treatment after 24 hours. Repeat the flea combing daily; drowning any live fleas you find in a bowl of soapy water until the problem has resolved.

A soothing rinse can help if Kitty is really itchy or suffering from flea bite dermatitis and allergies.

Treat Your Pet with a Quality Flea and Tick Prevention Product

Never use dog flea and tick products on cats.

There are a variety of options on the market: spot-on, pills, chewables, and collars. Do your research on whatever product you use to make sure it is right for your pet’s lifestyle.

Home Remedies for Flea Treatment

Beware the home remedy treatments posted about online. Be especially careful around essential oils. Eucalyptus and citrus oils are not safe for cats, and peppermint is effective as a cat repellant.  Garlic is also toxic to cats. Labeling something “all natural” does not make it necessarily safe for cats. These options are also typically less effective, much more labor-intensive, and less long-lasting. The best “home remedy” is soap and water and a flea comb.

Treat Your Home

You must wash everything that can be washed. Vacuum daily. Once you’ve cleaned, you can opt for a flea spray or a bug bomb. If you prefer to use fewer pesticides, you can try food grade diatomaceous earth, boric acid, or a flea lamp/trap. Diatomaceous earth was the key to breaking a nasty infestation for me.

Protect Your Cat from Fleas and Ticks

Beating a flea infestation may take up to three months, but with proper treatment you will win your battle.  Ticks don’t cause infestations, but they can cause health problems for our kitties and ourselves. It is far better, however to prevent a problem from occurring. That involves using a quality and effective prevention product.

We need to look at all factors of Kitty’s lifestyle when choosing a parasite prevention product.  For example, Seresto collars are very effective. But a collar doesn’t work for me because I have a Persian that goes to cat shows, the friction of a collar will ruin his coat lines and cause mats. That’s a pretty weird preference factor, but things like indoor vs. outdoor cats, multiple cats, ages and health status of the cats, is there a dog in the family? Are there children in the picture? Does Kitty sleep in your bed? Where in country do you live? All these questions matter in what type of product will work best for your furbaby.

Flea and Tick Prevention Product Reviews

Collars

Seresto is made by Bayer, the same people that make Advantage. It kills on contact and repels fleas and ticks for up to 8 months. It works within 24 hours for fleas and 48 hours for ticks. If you plan to use a collar, get Seresto.  Don’t get the $8 cheap ones. They don’t work. The best place for those is in your vacuum bag. Be sure your Seresto is not counterfeit. Buy it from your vet or a pet pharmacy, not Amazon or Walmart.

Ingestible Preventatives

I’m uncomfortable with ingestible products. The warning from the FDA on isoxazoline class of medications shows why.  If your cat reacts to a spot-on, you can wash it off.  It is a lot more complicated to treat a reaction to an internal product.

However, oral products can be a convenient option; especially if you have small children in the home. Little kids don’t understand to keep their hands off Kitty until a topical product dries.

Capstar

Capstar is another popular ingestible flea product.  It is inexpensive and fast-acting.  Capstar starts to work in 30 minutes and kills all adult fleas within 24 hours. But it doesn’t prevent your cat from getting reinfested and doesn’t prevent eggs from hatching. There is no ongoing effectiveness, but you can give it every day.

I can’t say enough how much I don’t recommend this product.  We had a horrible experience with it. All the cats I’ve used it with have had some sort of reaction, from intense scratching, to running around the house crying like their tails were on fire, to trembling, drooling and panting. I seriously thought Midnight would have a heart attack.

We used to sell the product at the store I managed. We discontinued it because these types of reactions were common.

Spot-On Treatments

For me, I use spot-ons. The three major brands I have used are Advantage, Frontline and Revolution. But there are many newer products on the market. I just haven’t tried them.

Do not use the cheap stuff you can get at a grocery store. If the active ingredients of a product include pyrethrins, do not use it. It is toxic and can kill your cat. Never, ever, use a dog product on your cat.

Because my cats have always been indoor only cats I have focused on treating for fleas rather than ticks. I’ve used Advantage to keep my kitties flea free with great success for several years. Now that my cats are adventure cats with exposure to the outdoors, and I live in a tick-heavy area, I have to find something else.

Revolution

I’ve had my cats on Revolution for two summer bug seasons now. It is effective and doesn’t seem to bother my cats. Revolution is a multi-pest product.  Besides fleas, it treats ear mites, intestinal worms and heartworms.  It is only available by prescription, making it more expensive than the Frontline or Advantage. It is available in the regular, and the plus version which also prevents ticks.

My biggest challenge, as with all spot-ons, has been keeping my bonded cats from grooming each other and ingesting the product.  The packaging says to separate cats in multi-cat families for 24 hours. That’s just not practical for me. I try to discourage them and hope it tastes bad enough to prevent it.  You also don’t want to get the product on you, so cuddling Kitty is discouraged until the product dries. Again, not practical here.

Conclusion

There is a variety of products to protect your cat from fleas and ticks.  We all have different preferences and lifestyle issues that affect the choices we make when choosing a product to protect our cats from bugs.