Taking care of cats II

Always follow label directions and if you have any doubts or questions talk to a qualified veterinarian or a pest control operator.

We now have a kitten along with the adult cat. This poses challenges as I cannot use the same chemicals or doses for the adult cat and the kitten. We had a three pronged approach with the adult cat in addition to treating our own environment.

We would wash him once a month with Sergeant's Gold Flea and Tick Shampoo for Cats and Kittens (which contains insect growth regulator), put Frontline Plus on him the day after, and then give him Heartguard (Ivermectin) about a week before his bath when the effects of the bath and Frontline were wearing off. This worked just fine. We even had an infestation from an abandoned bird nest and while the cat was bitten often, it was clear they were not thriving on him. I almost suspect that the pesticide regime on the cat did away the infestation from the entire apartment.

Now, with the kitten, things are much more difficult. We cannot use the Sergeant's Gold as it is for cats 8 months and older. We used Sergeant's Skip Flea that requires that it be used every two weeks. It has no insect growth regulator and I suspect that the pyrethrins do not have a residual effect, or it is a weak repellant effect. The vet prescribed 3 doses (over 3 months) of kitten Revolution and then moving on to adult revolution.

However, kitten revolution is for cats under 5.1 lb. The dosage is 1/3 that of the adult dose for cats from 5.1 lb. to 15 lb. It turns out that our kitten has grown so rapidly in the last two weeks since we gave him a kitten dose that he may be 6 lb (we weighed him and he was either over 5 lb. or over 6 lb., even though we had a result of just over 3 lb., that would mean he hasn't grown in over a month, which is visibly not true--over 5 lb. is the most likely weight). He is very itchy and it appears he does not have enough Revolution in his sytem to be of any use.

I am now looking forward to his next bath and very much looking forward to his next dose, which will probably be the adult dose per his weight. The annoying thing is that he makes us humans itchy and the mites seem to survive on him enough that even the adult cat is more itchy. When we gave him his kitten dose, we did not realize he had grown so much and that the kitten dose was so inadequate for the situation, but we are afraid of giving him more as we do not want to poison him.

The increased itchiness may be the result of rodents moving into the building as the weather cools and the fact that the last time we washed the adult cat, we accidently used the Sergeant's Skip Flea, which as I described has limited benefits. We washed the adult with Gold a couple days ago, and I hope it helps us and the environment--and the kitten. The adult is still on his old regime as it seemed to work and we have a number of doses left of his medicines.