To the tune of a well known classical piece that you all know but you don't know the name of any more than I do (update: It's Blue Danube Waltz, my sister informs me):
My doggie has fleas (bark bark, bark bark)
He gave them to me (bark bark, bark bark)
I gave them to Paw (bark bark, bark bark)
He gave them to Maw (bark bark, bark bark)
and now we have fleeeeas! (bark bark, bark bark)
My maw, my paw, and me, Tallyho.
Except that Apricot is a cat, not a dog; he mews instead of barking, and I don't live with my parents anymore so I didn't actually give them fleas. And the most important part that's wrong: Apricot didn't give me fleas, I gave them to him.
At least, the original fleas probably came in riding on my shoes from the outside, because Apricot doesn't go outside.
This all got noticeable over the past weekend. Suddenly Apricot was scratching a lot, and all over. He was also washing a lot, in unpredictable spurts. Like he'd be walking along and then all the sudden stop and wash his leg frantically. I think he could feel them walking on his skin. (The thought makes me shudder. Ew!)
Then I got the flea presence I suspected confirmed by actually seeing them in the sparse light-colored hair at his temples. I caught and killed one, but due to having cut my fingernails short on Friday night, I didn't have the fingernails to catch the other one I saw.
And of course, if you see one flea, there are tons more where you can't see them. Dagnabit!
Well, luckily for both of us, technology has progressed since Pizza developed a flea allergy and had to be bathed regularly to keep the fleas off him completely. My imagination fails at trying to envision Apricot's reaction to me giving him a bath. He might never forgive me!
Now there is a simple pill that you can give the cat. It's even chewable and treat-flavored (beef, I believe). It's called Comfortis, and is expensive as all get out, but it's totally worth it. You feed it to the cat after he's had a meal, and then for a month, every single flea that bites him, that's the last bite they get. Instant death for fleas! Muha-hah-hah!
Excuse me. Got carried away there.
So Monday I went to the vet after work to get a pill. You can get a 6 month pack, but with his sensitivity to steroids I didn't want to pay for 6 pills if he'd turn out to be over-sensitive or allergic to it.
Now I had an issue: give with a meal. Yes, but what if your cat free-feeds? I don't give Apricot "meals"--I fill his bowl in the morning and he eats it whenever he pleases. However, Apricot himself made life easy for me here. Although he has access to his food all the time, he definitely eats a breakfast and a supper meal. Every night after I finish my supper and sit down to read, he disappears, only to reappear five to ten minutes later licking his chops and appearing quite satisfied.
When I got home I hid his food, just to hedge my bets. The problem is, the pill can make their tummies upset, and they'll throw it up. So you're supposed to make sure they don't have an empty tummy when they eat it, in order to give the pill's ingredients a buffer against the tummy's dislike of it.
It was torment to wait until the proper time, but I knew he wouldn't just go eat because I wanted him to. I had to wait, and watch the poor guy stop and scratch, and have problems playing with the Bird because he kept having to stop and scratch, or stop and lick, and all the time knowing I had the solution waiting.
Finally it was time. Apricot trotted off toward the bedroom where the food is. I followed, which I don't normally do, and he gave me a "what are you doing" look. I produced the food and put it in its normal place before he got over there, but he did see what I did and gave me another funny look. I told him in explaining tones what was going on. Now I've said before, he's getting tired of things being explained to him, and he reacted like I thought he would.
Kind of rolled his eyes and started eating, like, "all right, all right, never mind, I really don't want to know after all." When he finished eating, I cut the pill out of its package (stupid thing looks like you can peel the paper off the back and pop it through the remaining aluminum, but you have to use a scissors to cut it open).
The second the pill was out of the package he started sniffing the air, absolutely fascinated. I asked him if he wanted a treat and put it down on the carpet in front of him (he prefers not to eat from my fingers, and since I desperately wanted him to eat this particular "treat", I was going to make it all the way he wanted as much as possible). He scarfed it right up, even crunching it up while eating it. Cats don't always chew their food since they really don't have the teeth for chewing. Their teeth are meant to tear and rip.
Now I had to keep an eye on him for an hour. He did just fine. Not only did he show absolutely no signs of an upset tummy, but within an hour and a half, there were dead fleas in the sparse hair at his ears. I hadn't realized it would work that fast, and I was very pleased.
By the next morning he was back to not having to stop and scratch every five paces, and by the next afternoon, his fur was all soft again. I hadn't really realized it, but his fur had gone all rough-feeling during the flea invasion. Apparently if I pay attention, the state of his fur can tell me about how he's doing physically.
So I suppose I'll have to spring for the 6 tablets and keep him on monthly Comfortis until the first freeze, and start him up again in the spring. At least he really likes the tablets, and considers them a treat!
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