Can I use normal dishwashing detergent to get rid of the fleas on my kitten instead of using Dawn detergent?
By l.t
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OMG, please do not use anything right now, especially any detergent as your kitty's skin can be damaged and result in real and lasting pain. Please take your kitty to your vet for immediate help re the fleas!!!
Unfortunately, the flea problem is huge and requires constant cleaning of your house. See the information and website below for an explanation on cat fleas and how to control fleas in your house. As you will see, the flea has a special life and you and your pet are invited!
My husband is an entomologist so I speak with first hand knowlege and experience.
Flea eggs do not stay on your pet, they quickly drop or roll off as they do not stick to anything. The fleas you find in your house are from the flea eggs that fell off of your pet. Flea eggs are opaque white or almost colorless. What you may see on your cat are immature fleas from eggs on the floor or outside that hatch into fleas and jump back onto your cat. You will also see (many!) small black dots on your cat but these are only flea poop.
The flea eggs in your home and outside are the real problem. Just one female flea can produce 40-50 eggs per day so you will have thousands of flea eggs in your house on a regular basis. The eggs fall off and into your house or outside so, either way, your cat will then again attract the immature and adult fleas from their flea parents that may still be living on your cat.
Any dish detergent bath may kill the fleas on your cat, however, you can seriously dry the skin and may cause skin rashes, cause an allergic reaction, etc. and you are not addressing the real problem. The thousands of flea eggs that are still in your house and outside hatch and jump back onto your cat (and you!). So, you and your cat are locked into an everlasting cycle in the life of fleas.
A search online for how to kill fleas brings up many ideas for bathing, natural and awful sprays, etc., but these only address your pet. Rarely do they address the bigger problem as a whole. You can check this site for answers that address your pet, your home and the outside. As you can see, flea prevention is a much larger problem than just giving your cat a bath. Please take your cat to your vet immediately to help end your kitten's misery.
You people are redicilious - Wild Like and such all were saved cleaning with DAWN, stop blasting them, their is nothing wrong with using DAWN to wash you cat or dog.
Sometimes detergent can dry out their skin. I covered mine in olive oil (it's thick and smothers fleas), was careful to avoid his eyes, left it on for 10 mins, then washed off with flea shampoo. Baby shampoo can work too.
Your detergent will get some fleas. Dawn will get them all.
It will kill some, but many will survive. It astounds me that people truly don't know how well dawn works. Go to Walmart, they have decent sized bottles of dawn for $1. Use for dishes or fleas.
After reading this site today I tried dawn dish soap and I was astounded how well it worked. The fleas died within moments of contact with the soap. I first applied the soap water around her evey, nose and neck to prevent the fleas from trying to escape to those sensitive areas. I then lathered the rest of her, waited about 7 minutes, then rinsed well.
Some other dish soaps are toxic to cats. My suggestion would be to only use Dawn.
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