Expert: Jessica - 9/30/2010

Question
Hi Jessica.  Thank you (and everyone else here) for all the great work you do.   I wasn't an animal lover before, but that changed recently. To make a long story short, a female feral cat visited my job location a few months ago, and she had several littres of kittens. Several coworkers fed them over the spam of a few months, but unfortunately, we had to stop because our boss determined it was becoming a health hazard.  We managed to trap them all over the past few weeks (including the mother), and they are currently up for adoption at the local humane society. However, they are due to be destroyed shortly because of their "anti social" nature to humans, so I was thinking of bringing home a few of the feral bunch and placing them in my backyard.

 What exactly am I getting myself into?  Specifically, if I bring home two feral cats (they're a few months old) and let them live in my backyard, what is the best way to keep fleas off of them?  The cats are very afraid of humans, but they love food, so they'll eat even if humans are 3 or 4 feet away :) Would you say ingestible medication such as "Program" would be the best solution?  Cost is somewhat of an issue, but if ingestible medication gives the highest chance of sucess, I am willing to pay. Also, I am wondering how to administer the ingestible medication if they'll both be eating from the same bowl(s).  I'm not sure how to separate them since they're not very cooperative. Or would you recommend some type of spray, where I could "spray and pray" it lands on them?  I know I have a lot of questions..hoping you'll have some advice.  Thanks in advance.

Answer
Hi Eric,

Trying to treat fleas on ferals that you can't touch is difficult.  Program would probably be the best way.  I would try to mix the program into two separate bowls and hope that they each eat their own.  This is the best you can do.  Program is quite safe, and even if one gets a double dose, it's unlikely to cause any problems, although the one who got less will probably be unprotected.  

As you earn the kitties' trust over time, see if you can get close enough to pet them while they eat.  Lots of ferals will come to trust their feeders enough to accept a little petting, and then you can apply a flea product such as Advantage to the back of their neck.  This will be much more accurate and provide better protection.

Best of luck!

Jessica