hunt you down eat you alive

[the_siobhan]

As per the Law of Unintended Consequences, when the kitchen got gutted the little black ants that nested in the rotten wood got pushed upstairs. Those little fuckers bite. I lay out ant traps and that has mostly been keeping them under control. I'm sure the fact that I'm doing dishes in the shower isn't helping, since the occasional scrap of food gets missed when I'm cleaning up.

(Not the carpenter ants. They are quite happy to continue living in the remaining walls.)

Anyway I've been getting the odd bite on my leg, and just assuming it's an ant bite. Only on Thursday Dr River Song tried to climb up on my shoulder while I was working and an hour later I discovered an insect bite on the front of my neck.

So I can only conclude that the cats have fleas.

You can imagine my delight.

So over the weekend I did all the laundry, washing all the pillows and duvets in the house in hot water. I could have sworn we have some flea treatment in the house but I can't find it and the vet requires an appointment before selling me more so we'll have to sort that once Axe gets home and we can figure out a time one of us can do it. I'll rope them into helping me vacuum all the mattresses and couches and their bed really should go into storage soon, since I'm expecting the city permit to be submitted this week.

Oh and the icing on the cake? One of the cats decided to register their objection to Axe being away all weekend by pissing all over the basement floor.

I am this far away from setting the house on fire, changing my name, and moving to Mongolia.

Comments

[elusis]

That all seems entirely reasonable.

Is topical flea tx available only by prescription there, then? What a pain. If it would be helpful, I can buy a pack of dog tx (or I might even have one) and ship it to you. (Cat topical is identical to dog topical, just in teeny tiny containers - but they charge you the same here for a cat package of X doses as for a large dog package of X doses. And you can get 5 cat doses out of one dog dose.)

If you're needing the pill that treats another part of the life cycle, let me know and I'll ask some Oakland friends if Pet Vet Pet Foods will still sell it without a scrip, and we'll get it to you if that would be helpful.

[the_siobhan]

I've only ever gotten it from the vet before, but I checked one of the local pet store's website and it looks like we can get a version from them. Thanks for catching that, I'll try and get to the store today.

[elusis]

Oh excellent! Fleas are the worst. Apparently they are evolving resistance to both of the topical tx so I've had to use one, then the other, in combo with the pill tx, last time mine got critters. What a horrible timeline this is.

[the_siobhan]

Oh hell. Just what we need.

[greylock]

We got them once, likely from a new rug, and it was weeks before I realised that what kitties were leaving in the bed was "flea dirt".

I think we used Frontline, and that was quite successful.
But we washed All The Things, twice.

At least we got rid of them, and they never came back.

[brainwane]

Arrrrrgggghhhhh! My sympathies!

[cornerofmadness]

sorry for all the agita especially the insects, that sort of things sends me over the edge

[houseof9cats]

We got bedbugs while living by Moss Park. It took me a while to figure out what it was. They gave me topical permethrin, which, um, scary, but it worked! Flea dip for humans. >.>

[the_siobhan]

I lived in a house with bedbugs once, so I'm pretty good at spotting their eggs.

Nasty fucking things.

[greylock]

the vet requires an appointment before selling me more

Your vet sucks. I'd have thought flea treatments were just over the counter, as they are here. Unless this is some kind of nuclear-grade stuff.

Apparently, the flea powder is worthless.