Newborn Kittens With Fleas
This application kills the adult fleas but not their offspring.
Newborn kittens with fleas. Newborn kittens with fleas or ticks should be treated immediately. Fleas can make a new home on your kitten in many ways even in indoor cats. When the fleas surface pluck them out and send down the drain. In consultation with your vet kittens over 4 weeks old may be treated with capstar there is a minimum weight requirement.
Soapy water helps prevent fleas from jumping out of the bathwater although it isn t actually necessary to remove or kill fleas. Have tweezers at your side. As soon as you notice there are fleas either in the house or on a pet take action. If their mum or any other household pet has fleas kittens can become infested immediately after birth.
Carefully remove fleas from the kitten s coat and drop into the bowl of water to drown the flea. Instead you can gently bathe newborns using a dish soap. Bathe newborns in dish soap to remove fleas. Make sure you deflea all of your pets and soft furnishings before your queen gives birth to ensure they don t suffer from a flea infestation.
Dry the baby with warm towels so we don t drop their temperature too much and dry the best you can. The worst thing you can do is nothing. Kittens cannot be born with fleas. If you use soap choose a nonmedicated tear free gentle soap only like dawn or baby shampoo.
With the baby being under 8 weeks of age we have to be careful with what we use. Choose a mild dish soap that does not have antibacterial properties. To kill anything that the bath didn t completely get rid of we need a preventative. There is a myth that kittens can be born with fleas.
Again newborn kittens need manual flea removal. However you can bathe them in dawn dish soap in the mean time. Start from the neck and work your way down to the tail. Harsh chemicals are not safe to use on young kittens especially newborns.
Other flea medications safe for kittens list 8 weeks of age as a minimum. Check with your local vet since the kittens are so young. Blood sucking parasites can be fatal to kittens as they can cause anemia or a low red blood cell count or carry lyme disease. My go to product is the vet kem ovitrol.
Avoid flea shampoos because they aren t intended for use in kittens under 12 weeks of age. The preventive to treat kittens with fleas.