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Black Specks In Fur

Good grooming practices are essential for maintaining health and happiness for you and your cat. This is a forum to exchange tips and advice for proper care of your cat's hygiene needs.

  
Tohma

Tohma Kitty		 
 
Purred: Mon Sep 4, '06 3:00pm PST 
My mommy is really worried about me and my sister. We both have patches of little black specks in our fur.
Runtie gets a lot on her neck and I get a lot of them on my back. My mommy trys to pick them out and brush them out but they keep comming back. Does it have to do with fleas or something else like skin provlems.
Do any other kitties have these or does anyone know what they are and how to get rid of them.
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Kate♥

I'm your lucky- charm
 
 
Purred: Mon Sep 4, '06 4:21pm PST 
Do you see them at the base of the tail? My guess would be flea eggs. If you do have fleas, you can use a fast acting killer like Capstar, that is available without prescription from your vet, followed by a long term control product like Revolution or Advantage.
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Fuzzy

Mz.Bully		 
 
Purred: Mon Sep 4, '06 4:49pm PST 
My guess would be fleas too. Our neighbor Precious always has the specks on her face and her vet said they are fleas, but her mommy is having the hardest time getting rid of them, she has tried everything, now the vet has her mommy putting something in her food, my mommy has 1 Capstar pill she can have but they have to ask the vet if she can have them together.
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Hunter

Lazy, Lazy, Lazy		 
 
Purred: Mon Sep 4, '06 5:18pm PST 
Sounds like fleas. You can take some of the black specks and put a bit of water on a paper towel and rub them If they turn red, then you have a flea problem. The black flecks are flea droppings (or flea poop). (Digested blood). Often times you will also see white flecks as well which are the eggs. You need to get started on flea prevention (advantage or frontline) stay away form Hartz Bio-Spot or Zodiac Spot On (or any ohter cheap flea treatment). They have been linked to seizure and death in kitties.
You will also need to treat your house. Bombing isn't all that effective. It sprays up, then falls down. Look at something you can spray yourself. I like Vet Kem's Siphotrol Area Treatment Spray (the name may have changed to Premise spray). You should vacuum throughly and get rid of the bag or dump the contents (if bagless). You can even cutr a flea collar and put it in the bag as you are vacuuming. Then treat the house. In 2 weeks the entire process should be repeated. Reason: NOTHING kills the Pupae stage (cacoon) of the flea. It takes 2 weeks for them to hatch, although if a house is unoccupied for a long time, they can stay like this for years. Make sure to spray under beds, in the furniture, and in closets. Anywhere the cats sleep is important.
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Chrissy- (adopted!!!)

The kitty with- the retractable- horns		 
 
Purred: Sat Sep 30, '06 6:23pm PST 
Another thing that you can use is the regular blue dawn. That's what I use on all of my kittens that have fleas and it works WONDERS. The dawn alone will not get ALL of the fleas but will get almost all of them. After you've bathed the kittens you might want to ask your vet for something called a CapStar, the CapStar makes the blood have a bad taste and all of the fleas jump off within 20 minutes. Mickey, one of my other fosters, had fleas to bad that you couldn't see the skin through all of the flea dirt and fleas and I bathed him a couple times with fleas and gave him a capstar and we haven't had any problems since. Good luck!
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Roo

Roo - A Canadian Cat- in Texas		 
 
Purred: Sun Oct 8, '06 4:59pm PST 
Wow, thanks for all the great information on this topic. We were googling and just came across this site... its really great, it sounds like we have fleas on our cat from what has been described. It's funny but she doesn't show any of the classic symptoms like scratching but she definitely has the black specks that turn red if you rub them in a wet paper towel. She hardly ever goes out (except into the garage) but she was able to get them somehow!

Thanks for the suggestions on the capster pill, hopefully we can get her all cleaned up now.
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Gordy

Fuzzy and lovin'- it!		 
 
Purred: Mon Oct 9, '06 3:15pm PST 
Hey Thoma,
I had fleas when I was a kitten and the vet my mom brought me to told her to use BABY SHAMPOO (I was MUCH too young for any chemical treatment). Get your fur all wet, lather on the shampoo and leave it on your fur- all sudsy and slippery for about 5 minutes. The live adult fleas will be smothered this way. Rinse off and comb the former fleas out. The eggs are a different story, they like to stick around for a while and can be removed with the comb as well but, if you don't get them all the cycle will begin all over again. My mom had to repeat this bath and combing for 4 consecutive days but every last flea and egg were removed. I personally don't know anything about a chemical shampoo or treatment since I was only 3 weeks when this occured with me, but it looks as though all these kitties are pretty well informed and have some very sound advice.
GOOD LUCK!!!!

Edited by author Mon Oct 9, '06 3:16pm PST

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Julian In- Loving- Memory

635634		 
 
Purred: Wed Oct 3, '07 1:01am PST 
Thanks everyone for there suggestions. I had thought I might have fleas but I don't scratch often and I do not go outside, but I have moved to a new apartment with my folks maybe that is it. I did the damp paper towel
test and it came back with blood like smears on it. So I guess me and my brother will go to the vet tomorrow with the parents and find out the best remedies for us because I am very old and have a thyroid condition so mom is unsure what to give me. Also it looks like mom and dad have lots of cleaning to do.
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