Expert: Brandy - 12/28/2006

Question
i have a cat  who just  had babies on dec20th 4 of them  they are doing good  but i seen flees on them i dont see any on the mother  i need to no what to do about this  i have washed the kittens with baby shampoo  and picked all the flees out  and i washed the mother  i keep seeing the flees  please help  

Answer
I'm glad you didn't mention using flea shampoo on them as they are way too young for that. If the mama doesn't have fleas, then the fleas are on the bedding and/or nesting box, or in the flooring/carpeting around them.

I would get a new box, new bedding, and clean the area around the kittens with a bleach solution (no stronger than 10%.) Since they are still young, I would not use any kind of flea powder on the mama, as the kittens can ingest it by mistake.

It will take a while to get rid of the fleas. While you can see the adult fleas, the eggs are almost invisible, and resemble dirt, so the monitoring of the bedding (flat newspaper sheets is fine, and keeps the kittens warm) is important. Fleas, if allowed to increase in number, can cause anemia in kittens.

On the plus side, it's great that you're taking such good care of these babies, and the extra handling (providing the kittens don't get chilled) will help socialize them.

Just be patient, and everything will turn out okay.