How Long Does Tick and Flea Treatment for Cats Take to Work?

When your furry feline starts to itch and you see evidence of fleas, it’s a mad dash to find the best flea treatment for cats.  

There are many kinds of cat flea treatments, so finding what works best for you is key to getting rid of a pesky flea problem.  

It’s important to know how a flea treatment is given safely and how long it takes to work. 

How Long Does Tick and Flea Treatment Take To Work?

Fleas and ticks are two of the most common external parasites in cats.  

Whether your cat spends time outdoors or not, fleas and ticks find their way into their lives and into your home.  

Giving all pets in the home flea and tick prevention products is important to protect them from these tiny pests and the diseases they carry. If you find fleas or ticks, you‘ll want treatment to work quickly. 

Oral medications can work in as fast as 30 minutes, while topicals tend to start killing fleas and ticks in six to 12 hours.  

Other factors come into play when you are looking at how long a flea and tick medication takes to work, such as the overall health of your cat, the status of their immune system, how severe the infestation is, and their age.  

Young kittens and senior cats that have health issues often have weakened immune systems, which could cause them to have bad reactions to flea and tick medications.  

Fleas are easier to kill than ticks, and it will take longer to get rid of a larger infestation of parasites. It’s equally important to treat all pets in the house and to clean the indoor (and outdoor) environment to get rid of a flea and/or tick problem.  

Treating your cat and their four-legged housemates is often faster than treating their environment, so keeping them in crates or a small room can help prevent reinfestation of fleas and ticks.  

As you clean the house and yard, keep all pets in the house in crates at the same time to avoid them from getting reinfested after treatment. 

Types of Tick and Flea Treatment for Cats

There are many types of flea and tick treatments for cats. It’s important that all cats are on flea and tick prevention to avoid these critters.  

There are many safe and effective treatments, but it’s important you follow the package directions to avoid toxicity or harm to your cat.  

Let’s look at a few great brand options recommended by veterinarians for flea and tick prevention and treatment.  

Oral  

Oral flea and tick preventives work the best and are the fastest-acting, compared to topicals and collars. The limitation to oral treatments is that they often help only with fleas, not ticks.  

• Capstar is an oral tablet that works in as fast as 30 minutes and continues to work for 24 hours to kill live adult fleas. It doesn’t kill ticks and is not practical to use long-term, as it would need to be given daily while other oral treatments can be given monthly. Capstar does not kill flea eggs or flea larvae, so it usually needs to be given along with a more traditional flea treatment (topical or oral) or a flea shampoo.

• Comfortis is a beef-flavored chewable that can be given once a month to help treat a flea infestation as well as to prevent fleas from returning. It does not work on ticks, but it can be used in kittens as young as 14 weeks old and those over 4 pounds. It usually begins to kill fleas within 30 minutes, and has a 98% efficacy rate four hours after it is taken.

• Credelio is a small vanilla- and yeast-flavored chewable that kills adult fleas in cats and in kittens at least 8 weeks old and weighing at least 2 pounds. It starts working to kill adult fleas within six hours after it is eaten, and it’s given every 30 days. Credelio also protects from and kills Ixodes scapularis (the deer tick) in cats.  

Topical  

Topical flea and tick preventatives are the most used treatment option for fleas and ticks in cats. Most topicals not only help with fleas and ticks but also with other parasites such as intestinal parasites and heartworm (spread by mosquitoes).  

Unfortunately, over-the-counter flea and tick preventatives don’t work as well as prescription flea and tick treatment, mostly because of resistance in the parasites. 

• Revolution Plus is a topical treatment for flea infestations and kills fleas before they can lay eggs. It is also used to prevent fleas and ticks and for prevention and treatment of heartworm disease, ear mites, roundworms, and hookworms in cats. It starts working about 12 hours after application and works for 30 days before you apply the next dose. It is effective at killing 98% of fleas within 24 hours.  

• Bravecto and Bravecto Plus for cats are other topical treatments, and last 8 to 12 weeks after application. Bravecto provides protection against the Asian long horned tick and kills 100% of fleas within 8 hours. It protects against the American dog tick in cats as well, but not past 8 weeks. It also does not last for 12 weeks in kittens younger than 6 months of age.

• Vectra for cats and kittens is an over-the-counter topical flea treatment that works on adult fleas, flea eggs, flea larvae, and flea pupae (not ticks!). Vectra is special in that it also is a repellent. This means that unlike most other treatments and preventions, the fleas are killed on contact and do not need to bite the cat first. Vectra starts killing fleas within six hours of application and lasts 30 days. 

• Advantage II is a topical treatment for fleas in cats. It kills adult fleas, flea larvae, and flea eggs. This medication is also waterproof 24 hours after application, which adds an extra layer of protection, especially for outdoor cats. Advantage II for cats starts working within 12 hours of application and lasts for 30 days.  

Collars 

• The Seresto flea and tick collar for cats is used most often (and works best) as an addition to traditional oral or topical flea and tick treatments. It kills existing fleas within 24 hours of placement and new fleas within two hours. The collar needs to be replaced every eight months. The Seresto flea collar not only kills fleas and ticks but also repels them, so the parasites don’t have to bite to be killed. Make sure your cat’s Seresto collar is snug enough, as it needs to be touching the skin to work.  

Never use a flea or tick product for dogs on a cat; it can cause a fatal overdose or severe toxicity. 

Signs Your Cat’s Tick and Flea Treatment Is Working

One of the first signs that your cat’s flea and tick treatment is working would be a decrease in the amount of itching and scratching your cat is doing. The itch might not be totally gone for a few days as all the parasites die off.  

Within 24 hours, you should start noticing dead fleas. It might even look like your cat has more fleas after treatment, but that is from the fleas dying and falling off with successful treatment.  

Ticks are most often killed after they bite a cat, so you might not notice the ticks fall off until they are dead. Some dead ticks might need to physically be removed from your cat if they don’t fall off on their own. If you do remove the tick, make sure to do so very carefully to remove all the mouth parts. If any part of the tick is left behind, it can cause a skin abscess.  

Even after all external parasites are killed, it can still take a few days for the itch to completely stop.