Saturday, August 07, 2010

Worst Birthday Surprise Ever

Today is my 23 birthday. I'm feeling kind of down in the dumps. It's my own fault really. I didn't make any plans on purpose because I didn't want to celebrate. I'm feeling low even though I'm not supposed to feel like this until I turn 30. I just didn't want to be 23. Not sure why, but there it is.

Well, we have some kind of infestation going on in the guest room. It wasn't bed bugs and I wasn't positive that it wasn't my imagination, but there was some kind of worm-like bug on the sheets. I wondered if maybe these bugs were coming off the cats since they sleep on that bed a lot. So I cleaned the sheets and vacuumed the mattress (which apparently you're supposed to do regularly anyways?). So that was the beginning to my poor birthday. I have been trying to clean the guest room of this infestation for a couple days now. Not pleasant.

The big nasty came last night though. I saw some kind of crawly thing on Maxie! I held him down and tried to find it but it kept crawling away super fast every time I caught a peek at it. I tried for about an hour to grab it but I had to free Maxie after that. He was miserable being held so close.

This morning, I saw it again! Happy Birthday, Becca. I eventually grabbed it and placed it in the plastic bag. Alas, it looked like the flea picture I had browsed on the internet to try to figure out the wormy things in the guest room. I verified once again that it was in fact a flea.

On our way home from my birthday lunch, Panera of course, we picked up some flea shampoo. I gave both cats a bath. Apparently fleas do not like water so a bunch surfaced on Maxie after the bath! I picked at least 15 off him immediately after the bath! Since he was wet, his fur was clumped together and it was easier to see them. Maxie was sitting so still letting me get them but eventually I had to give him a break. Poor little kitten! I couldn't find any on Emily, but I know she must have them too! The shampoo was supposed to kill all the fleas on contact... but definitely did not.

I went to Petsmart and the news was not good. From what I explained, plus the bag of fleas I presented to them, we have a very bad infestation. Not as bad as some cases, but still bad. I spent around $175 on things to clean our house. There's a powder for the carpet to kill the eggs, larvae, and adults; a spray for the mattresses and couches; special kitten shampoo that kills all fleas on the actual cat (I feel better about this since it was from a Pet store and not Walgreens); and of course, Frontline. Since we have two cats the Frontline was super expensive. And this is just the first batch! We'll probably continue with Frontline for at least the next year... possibly for the rest of their lives since I never want to deal with this again! Since they are indoor kitties, once we get rid of the fleas we shouldn't have this problem again. The cats can't be in the house while we clean so they don't eat the powder while it settles, so we're going to do the cleaning on Tuesday when we take them for their vet appointments. I'm glad I set appointments for them already! We'll take them to get checked out, pick up a pill Petsmart suggested that we can give the cat once a day to kill all fleas on the cat in case of another outbreak, and then leave the cats there for the day while we clean. It will be a long Tuesday! Thankfully, both Matt and I have it off.

More bad news: apparently the pet store we bought Max from (not Petsmart) sold an entire litter of kittens recently that had fleas and kitten leukemia! Max hasn't been to the vet since we got him because we didn't see the need. Last time I ever do that when I get a new pet! So the fleas probably came on him when we bought him about 3 months ago. That's a long time for fleas to infest out house. He may also have kitten leukemia, which is treatable, but the test to see if he has it is $40. I'm not worried about having the test but most people bypass it because of the cost. We probably would have. If he does have it and it wasn't treated and we got him fixed, when they put him under he would never wake back up! Yeah, definitely getting that test done on Tuesday! Not that I would give up Maxie for anything, but this is going to be an expensive fix.

I am trying to remain calm. I want to start cleaning now! Tomorrow neither of us have to work since it is Sunday, but where would we put the cats? Stink. It's not use cleaning part of the house since the fleas would migrate back by the time we got to finish. So I just have to wait until Tuesday. Then hopefully we can have this all be done with. I try not to pick at Emily and Max too much, but I want all those fleas dead and gone! I've already seen at least five more on Maxie and I was only able to catch three of them. I need to let it alone. Maybe I'll give them another bath tonight with the new shampoo. But that just seems so cruel. I wish I could give them the frontline now, but I should wait until after giving them the good bath on Tuesday. And you're supposed to wait until their fur is completely dry for it to work. Sigh.

This is so stressful. Happy Birthday to me.

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