Best flea treatments for Cats

When there are signs of fleas on your cat you’ll likely want to get rid of them as fast as possible. There are plenty of natural remedies you can use, like dish soap, to try and remove fleas but they’re not always effective as some of the best flea treatments for cats currently on the market.

When looking for effective flea treatment for your cat can always be difficult, especially with sites like Amazon bombarding you with loads of different options.

With 8 years of experience, in this guide, I’ve focussed my attention on getting the most effective and safe products for your cat, as we know we don’t want to hurt your feline!

After purchasing any of these products, be sure to read the labels carefully, there are guides on the products to make sure you properly apply them. Products that are made for dogs aren’t made for cats and can result in death, and vice versa. Make sure you read labels carefully.

Best 7 cat flea treatments in brief

FRONTLINE Spot on Cat Flea Treatment

Their standard package starts at $29.99 with 6 pipettes which kill fleas and ticks up to 24 hours after application. With the monthly application, FRONTLINE’s flea treatment can kill off any type of flea easily.

FRONTLINE has definitely produced the best flea treatment for all cats. This treatment not only focuses on fleas but other parasites all year round, from hookworms to heartworms, and has been tested on all types of tick species.

Vets from Anton said, “Products from FRONTLINE are perfect for those wanting to easily and quickly get rid of fleas without prescriptions. Our preference is FRONTLINE in most cases.”

It can easily be applied once a month behind the neck and between the shoulder blades and is easily bought unlike some others where vets need to prescribe for something like Revolution Plus.

We’d also recommend you not touching your cat after application, and discourage any rubbing on surfaces.

Advantage II Flea Prevention + Treatment

Advantage II Flea Prevention + Treatment is great for both treating preventing all fleas, from eggs to adults, and starts working just after 12 hours and fleas instantly die within contact with the cat.

Advantage II comes in three types, Kitten, 5-9 Pounds (Small Cat), and also Large Cat 9 pounds>, all of these protecting for 30 days, meaning you’ll need to easily apply every 30 days to keep your cat free form fleas.

Unfortunately, Advantage II doesn’t protect against heartworms, roundworms but does protect against ticks from the American dog tick to the Gulf coast tick.

As mentioned above, Advantage II is easily applied every 30 days in between the base of the neck and shoulders, the liquid form is a small packet that is squeezed out onto the neck as described.

Unlike most topical products, you don’t need to wear gloves to apply this preventive and treatment and don’t need to avoid touching your feline friend after applying it, it’s also waterproof for up to 24 hours, we’d also suggest washing your hands with soap and water if you get the product on your hand.

Adventure Plus Triple Flea Protection

This fast acting flea treatment is given to your cat orally, and starts work within 15 minutes. It guarantees 98% of adult fleas killed within four hours. The chemical used in the product is spinosad and starts within 15 minutes, as mentioned above.

As normal topical methods are easier, sometimes your feline friend dislikes any type of liquid or the smell, oral tablets may be a good choice.

Both Capstar and Comfortis are both two other good oral tablets for flea treatment. Comfortis can protect your cat for up to 30 days, Capstar protects your feline against cats for 24 hours, so Comfortis vs Capstar, Comfortis wins.

This product can protect your feline up to 30 days as well, and starts at a very good price.

Youzxde Cat Flea Collar

Firstly, Youzxde’s flea and tick collar protect your cat for up to 8 months, which is very impressive compared to some of the other flea cat collars in the industry.

This collar protects your cat against both fleas and ticks and has been tested with all types of species of ticks such as the Common deer tick and American dog tick.

Both oral and topical flea treatment is the dominant product but easily is defeated by cat collars and their easy maintenance and effectiveness. And is ultimately a better option if your cat doesn’t like both pills and topical products.

Youzxde’s has made a collar that is non-greasy, lightweight, odor-free and outside-ready. This collar is definitely ready for outdoor cars. It’s designed to make sure that it never gets caught on something and has a two-step safety system to stop this.

The Youzxde’s flea color contains imidacolprid and flumethrin both of these products are released in low increments meaning great preventive and good for treating when your feline already has fleas or parasites.

Capstar Flea Control Tablets

Capstar’s tablets are safe for kittens for as young as 4 weeks old, and upwards of that age. With the majority of oral and topical products, kittens must be 8 weeks old, and some products requiring even older cats.

The product starts work within 30 minutes and kills up to 90% of adult fleas within six hours, so quite impressive. And is definitely a good choice if your kitten doesn’t particularly like topical or spray type products.

Capstar protects your kitten against fleas for 24 hours, a lot less than some other products, but, a limited amount of products allow flea treatment on cats this age.

Capstar have created a beef flavoured tablet to ensure your cat doesn’t hesitate away from the tablet. Cats must be over 4 weeks old and weigh at least 1kg.

How We Choose The Best Flea Treatment Products

We got into two veterinarians who work at our local vet practice and spoke to them on flea issues, the most common flea products used and what they recommend to fix this popular problem. This information given to us by these vets was used when selecting these products, but these vets don’t endorse these particularly.

We checked the Companion Animal Parasite Council reference guide to also research these products. These include FDA, EPA-approved flea control products.

Here is what we considered when looking at products:

  • Efficiency: We measure the efficiency of the product of which sufficiently removes any fleas or parasites.
  • Safety: FDA and regulatory approved products were only considered when taking a look at these. Prescription parasite products naturally have to be FDA/EPA approved anyhow.
  • Value for money: Products that stood out when being good value for money with features took a higher ranking in our tests and ranking. The length of protection was also a big factor when ranking a product
  • Ease of use: The complication of the product was considered when rating a product. For example, products that had a more complicated application, or gloves were required. Products that stated children could not go near the product also ranked lower.

Types of Cat Flea Treatments

Oral Products: Oral products are usually the easiest form of flea treatment, and also a favorite among kittens and some cats. Oral products are the form of pills and are quite easy to apply, and usually very effective. However, pills usually need to be more frequently applied, compared to topical/spot-on products.

Spray Products: Flea sprays are applied to the skin and similar to shampoos, however, both of these we don’t typically recommend over topical and oral products since the ease of use is much better.

Topical/Spot On Products: Topical or “Spot-on” products are the most popular when it comes to flea treatment. Topical is the best preventive and very effective. As the liquid drys, it spreads across the entire cat’s body ensuring all types of fleas and sometimes parasites are killed. It’s often these are applied to the back of the end and shoulder blades every 30 days.

Shampoo Products: As mentioned above, we don’t typically recommend shampoo products and also spray products as both topical or “spot-on” and oral products are more effective and easy to apply.

Coombs: Like we get rid of human lice, Coombs are a product that isn’t nearly as effective as oral or topical products.

Collar Products: Collar products are most definitely the most effective prevention of fleas and parasites. And they also last for a long period of time, usually a full year. Meaning cat flea collars are the perfect choice for owners that just want an easy method to treat and prevent fleas and parasites.

What Else to Consider

Avoid Shampoo and Spray Products

Veterinarians previously recommended various shampoo products and spray products, but they’re no longer as strongly recommended to OTC and oral flea products. Sprays were often filled with pesticides and can often be dangerous when not regulated by EDA and FDA. As mentioned above, even shampoos can be harmful, with chemicals like pyrethrins.

And obviously, most cats hate being bathed.

Avoid Essential oils, and natural products

Essential oils and some natural products found in ‘Natural flea treatments’ can be toxic to cats and dogs, so we’d recommend taking away from them.

Every veterinarian we spoke to strongly recommended not going anywhere near essential oil-based flea products. They’re also “Not proven to be effective” which means even if they’re proven to be non-toxic, they’re likely ineffective towards treating or preventing fleas or parasites.

Dangerous Flea Products

We briefly mentioned this above, products labeled as ‘Dogs’ should never be used on a feline. Some chemicals and ingredients in the dog flea treatment can be toxic for cats. Many veterinarians suggest the neurological effects on felines and can even lead to death when exposed to dog flea treatments.

Over-The-Counter vs Prescription Flea Products?

Both of these options can be very effective. Over the counter, products are easy to get a hold of and prescription-based products need to be given by approved veterinarians. You can easily purchase prescription-based drugs via Chewy or Petco, or even directly through the vets. On the opposite side of things over the counter products can be bought through services like Chewy, Petco, or even Amazon.

The majority of prescription flea products not only combat fleas but also combat parasites such as heartworms, ticks and plenty of other parasites

One of the biggest factors between the two is price, prescription flea treatment and preventives are much more expensive, but generally are more effective and combat more parasites than over the counter products. The reason they cost more is generally because they fight against more parasites, like deadly heartworms which can easily kill any feline, so protecting against heartworms is very important.

And considering all these factors, prescription-based flea products are better for your feline, but, for short-term treatment over the counter flea treatment definitely works.