Flea treatment for cats in a cattery home

Running a cat sitting service puts your own cat at continuous flea risk — every visiting cat is a potential source, so you're essentially fighting a permanent battle rather than a one-off infestation. Before we get into options, one critical safety point: many insecticides that are fine for dogs — particularly permethrin — are seriously toxic to cats and can be fatal even from indirect contact, so it's essential you only ever use products labelled specifically for cats. To point you to the right thing for your Turkish Angora: how much does she weigh, is she currently showing signs of fleas or are you trying to stay ahead of them, and have you been treating the environment — the rooms where visiting cats stay — as well as the cats themselves?

That's exactly the situation where you need a long-acting prescription-strength product rather than a monthly spot-on, because the biggest risk with monthly treatments is gaps — miss a dose by a few days with new cats arriving every week and you've got a window. What does your vet relationship look like — are you happy to get a prescription product, or are you looking for something you can buy over the counter without a vet visit?

In that case, I'd go straight to Bravecto spot-on for cats. It's a single application that provides 12 weeks of flea protection, which immediately solves the gap problem — instead of remembering a monthly dose around a busy schedule of visiting animals, you're treating four times a year. At 4.5kg your Angora sits comfortably in the 2.8–6.25kg dosing range. It kills adult fleas within 8 hours and also covers ear mites as a bonus. It's a prescription product in the UK, so you'll need your vet to prescribe it, but you can then buy it on Amazon UK (Bravecto Spot-On Solution for Cats 250mg) and it works out cost-competitive once you account for the fact it replaces three monthly treatments. The one thing to keep doing is treating the environment — Indorex Defence Household Flea Spray is the standard recommendation for rooms, and with clients' cats coming through regularly, spraying skirting boards and soft furnishings every few months is genuinely necessary. But on your own cat, Bravecto gives you the most reliable coverage for the least maintenance.

Keep the application site dry for 48 hours and don't let her groom that spot — part the fur between the shoulder blades, apply directly to skin, and if you have other cats in the house (yours or boarding), keep them separated for a couple of hours until it's absorbed. Mild temporary hair thinning at the application site is occasionally reported but resolves on its own. If she shows any unusual neurological signs — though this is rare — contact your vet. Otherwise it's a very well-tolerated product. Given the volume of cats passing through your home, I'd also mention to your vet that you're running a sitting service; some practices will do a standing prescription arrangement which saves you a separate consultation each time you need a repeat.

Good plan. To recap: Bravecto spot-on 250mg (the 2.8–6.25kg cat version) every 12 weeks for your Angora, and Indorex for the rooms on a rolling basis. That combination gives you proper coverage given the constant throughput. Good luck — your cat is lucky to have someone thinking this carefully about her protection.