How Often Should You Use Flea Treatment? Your Guide To De-Fleaing Your Cat

Fleas can irritate your cat, and some cats can develop an allergic reaction to flea bites, which can cause them even more discomfort. In extreme cases, they can develop Flea Allergy Dermatitis (FAD), which can cause hair loss and inflammation. Fleas can also spread diseases from other animals to your cat or even to you. 

Despite how common fleas are in cats, there are some misconceptions that many cat owners have about them, including; 

• Cats only get fleas in the summer 
• You only need to do flea treatment once 
• Your cat doesn’t need flea treatment if they are an indoor cat 

How much is a flea treatment for cats?

My preferred preventative flea treatment is called NexGard Combo. It comes in a pack of three and usually costs about £32. Each treatment protects against fleas, ticks, roundworms, hookworms, tapeworms, and ear mites for a month. 

So, the cost per month works out at £10.66. Alternatively, you could think of that as a total cost of £128 per year to keep each of my cats protected from parasites, which to me is a pretty good deal! 

NexGard is also very easy to use—I just need to squirt one of the pipettes on the back of their neck once a month. That’s much easier than giving them an injection or struggling to get them to eat a pill by hiding it in their food. One of my cats is very resistant to taking any medication orally, so I’m glad I can just apply this one topically. 

There are other, cheaper options available (such as Frontline), but they often only protect against fleas and ticks and not internal parasites like roundworms and hookworms too. 

How often can you flea a cat? 

A lot of owners only do a flea treatment when they see their cat itching, or they start to notice fleas in their cat’s fur. The issue with this approach is that, like most parasites, by the time you notice fleas, you already have a problem. Then you not only need to give your cat treatment but also take other steps like shampooing your carpet, combing your cat with a flea comb, using room sprays, bathing your cat, etc. 

By the time you see fleas, they have no doubt laid eggs in the carpets. This means it sometimes requires several rounds of flea treatment for both your cat and your house to eliminate them. 

It is much better to prevent your cat from catching fleas than it is to wait until they already have them. Using a preventive treatment like NexGard and using it monthly should protect your cats from ever getting fleas. My two most recent cats have had NexGard every month for the two years and a half years that I’ve had them, and neither of them has ever had fleas (or any other parasite). 

What is the best cat flea treatment? 

As fleas are one of the most common problems a cat owner encounters, there is an unsurprisingly large array of products available. 

Topical Spot-On Treatments 

The treatment I mentioned above, NexGard, is topical, meaning it is applied directly to the skin. These treatments are easy to give your cat. If your cat is particularly fluffy, you will need to part their fur a little bit to reach the skin on the back of their neck. I normally wait until my cat is sleeping and do it—they rarely even react. 

Oral Medications 

Oral medication is normally a capsule but can sometimes be a liquid. Depending on your cat, these can be very easy or very hard to administer. Some cats are so food-mad that you can add anything to their food, and they don’t mind—they’ll gobble it right up. Other cats can be very suspicious. I have one cat that will eat around any medicine in his cat bowl, so I end up having to give him pills by hand (and I have the scratches to show for it!) 

Flea Collars 

Flea collars contain synthetic pheromones, which can prevent fleas from infesting your cats for up to several months at a time. 

Flea Sprays

Flea sprays are sprayed directly onto your cat’s coat. They are effective but are best used to treat an existing flea problem rather than as a preventative measure. 

Flea Shampoos

These are formulated to kill fleas on contact and may also help soothe irritated skin. However, they typically provide only temporary relief, do not provide long-term protection against fleas, and do not prevent future infestations. Also, as anyone who’s ever tried to give a bath to a cat knows, it can be a LOT of work! 

Flea Combs

Flea combs are not technically a treatment, but they can be useful for physically removing fleas from your cat’s coat. These are particularly useful for cats with long or matted fur. They are best used in conjunction with other flea treatments, as dead fleas can stay in your cat’s fur and continue to irritate them even after a treatment has killed them. 

Do indoor cats need flea treatment? 

While it’s true that indoor cats are at lower risk of getting fleas than cats who regularly go outdoors and meet other animals, they are not 100% protected just by being indoors. There are still several ways they could contract a flea infestation. 

• Other Pets: If you have other pets that do go outside, like another cat or a dog, they can spread the fleas to your indoor cat. 
• Humans: Humans can inadvertently bring fleas into the home on their clothes if they have spent time around another animal that has fleas. 
• Wildlife/Pests: Rodents and other pests can bring fleas into homes and spread them to your cat. 
• Flea Eggs: Flea eggs from an earlier infestation can stay dormant in your carpets for up to a year. 

Providing your indoor cat with a preventative flea treatment like NexGard should prevent them from being infested with fleas even if they come in contact with them. This will also prevent the fleas from having a food source so they cannot lay eggs and create more fleas. 

Are cat fleas and dog fleas the same? 

Cat fleas (Ctenocephalides felis) and dog fleas (Ctenocephalides canis) are similar, but there are two key differences: 

Preference:
Cat fleas can infest dogs, and vice versa, but they prefer their respective host and will tend to thrive more readily on their preferred host. 

Size:
Just as cats tend to be smaller than dogs, cat fleas tend to be slightly smaller than dog fleas. 

Final Thoughts: How Often Should You Use Flea Treatment?

The most important thing is that you use some form of flea protection on your cats. All cats come into contact with fleas eventually, even if they are indoor cats. NexGard is my preferred method for the reasons I’ve stated (ease of use and protection from other parasites), but there are plenty of other options available. If you are unsure which is best for you, you should speak with your vet, who will be able to give specific advice for your cat and its needs. 

Remember that fleas are parasites that cause irritation and disease for your cat. They are NEVER something that your cat should have to endure when there are so many different methods of treating them available.