Flea Halt by Farnam – Don’t Waste Your Money

New and better ways of treating fleas are surfacing, but one of them is not Flea Halt by Farnam. Flea Halt is a fairly new product that is made to get rid of fleas on cats. Granted, there are dozens and dozens of products that claim to rid your animal of malicious bugs, and most of them do their job, but the condition is, you have to get your animal to sit still for the treatment.

With Flea Halt, you open the towelette, rub your cat with it, then watch the fleas die, right? Wrong. Here’s what really happens: you open the towelette, start to rub your cat with it, and the cat flees – pardon the pun. Who knows if the cat didn’t like the smell ( I didn’t like the smell) or if it was because the towelettes are very cold. Regardless, if I tear open a packet of anything now, my cat runs!

In addition, I have another cat who basically acted the same way when I tried to apply Flea Halt to him. I tried a new approach with him, though, but to no avail. I had the towelette already opened so as not to subject him to the sound of ripping open the package. I started out petting him to get him nice and relaxed. When his eyes closed and he was confident that the scratching and petting would never end, I made my move. Two strokes is how far I got before he bolted.

The towelettes are made to treat cats, ferrets, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters and gerbils. The product package claims to rid these animals of fleas, ticks, lice, deer ticks, mites and mosquitoes. It also claims to deodorize and condition the fur. Maybe you’ll have more luck with one of the smaller animals, that can be held tightly while the application takes place, but with a cat you might lose the battle.

The towelettes contain mostly the same ingredients you would find in flea sprays, which incidentally, my cats hate worse than the towelettes! And I wonder, since cats groom constantly, if the poisons wouldn’t get in their mouths. It’s probably the biggest thing that bothers me about Flea Halt and similar products.

Flea Halt was a free sample from an online pet store where I had ordered some other pet products. I was thrilled when I received two packages of the towelettes free, and couldn’t wait to try them. Up until now, I’ve always used the flea drops which my cats don’t care for, either, but they’re usually cooperative for the quick treatment of a few drops on the back of the neck. With the Flea Halt, you have to rub the towelettes all over the cat – from ears to tail, particularly on the underside of the pet. I think after trying Flea Halt I’ll go back to my regular brand of flea drops which are helpful, easy to use, and the cat doesn’t claw me trying to get away.