When I lived in my apartment, every so often there would be an infestation of roaches, though, interestingly, not originating in my apartment (which was usually a pigsty) but in the bathroom of the little old lady down the hall who kept her place so hot the original landlord couldn't stand going in there. I had 2 cats at the time, one of them more or less contraband. (The two cats I had gotten when I moved in, with my original landlady's approval, were grandfathered in when the new management changed the policy, but the two cats I had in 1982 were not the same two cats as I had in 1994....luckily management was too stupid to notice, or else they really didn't care as long as the rent was paid and I didn't sneak off in the middle of the night leaving an unplugged fridge full of rotting food and a radiator painted purple and black stripes. I'm not making this up, someone did do just that.) Anyway, every six months or so we'd get notice one night that the exterminators were coming TOMORROW, please take all your dishes out of all your cabinets. I was usually able to fend off the exterminators by putting a note saying Pets, please don't spray, and luckily I only had the occasional roach find its way in. But long story short, I really wouldn't trust exterminators to know, or be straight with you about, whether what they're using would be safe for an immune-compromised kitty. Even if they're conscientious, it might not be something they've come across before.
In a related story, we originally kept Patches in our enclosed porch room, and his dry food attracted ants galore. The floor in there is basically the wood subfloor that was in decent shape so we scrubbed and varnished it. The ants can still get in through the floorboards, at least until we have a chance to slather more polyurethane into the cracks. So we bought a $6 Ant Control System, and haven't seen an ant since. We didn't USE the Ant Control System, mind you, we just BOUGHT it. Hell, if we'd known, we could have bought a $2 Ant Trap. The Ant Control System is now on a shelf of the desk in the porch room, where I trust it is serving as a warning to all ants who enter. ;-) (But when we do use those things -- they're little ant motel thingies -- we put them under sofas where none of our kitties is skinny enough to go, just in case.) Diane R. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of wendy Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2006 10:29 AM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: Re: Insecticides/Exterminators Hey MJ, I don't know if the roaches themselves would be harmful, but if you get them in your apartment, I'd spray for sure. They really gross me out. I would not leave Slinky in the apartment while the apartment is being sprayed. Not only might someone foreign to him stress him out, but he could breathe in the fumes or lick the stuff or get it on his paws, neither of which would be good for his immune system. Can you have them spray next month and just take Slinky for a ride or put him out on a balcony while you wait with him for an hour or so? I wouldn't recommend a kennel/boarding; it's stressful for cats. Bringing Slink anywhere other than his own home will be somewhat stressful for him, but less so if he's with you. I don't believe the insecticides are okay for anyone, but once the vapors are gone so we're not inhaling it, and it's dried so we aren't getting it on our fingers/feet/paws, I'm not too concerned with it. I'll be interested in what others have to say on this thread. :) Wendy __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com This electronic mail transmission and any attachments are confidential and may be privileged. They should be read or retained only by the intended recipient. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the transmission from your system. In addition, in order to comply with Treasury Circular 230, we are required to inform you that unless we have specifically stated to the contrary in writing, any advice we provide in this email or any attachment concerning federal tax issues or submissions is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, to avoid federal tax penalties.
