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Is it safe to give my cat flea treatment before her spay surgery?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Cat | Mixed Breed | Male | neutered | 11 months and 24 days old | 10 lbs

My 11 month old cat is going to be spayed in the upcoming week (3 days away). He has recently developed a bad case of fleas. I have been washing him to keep them down, but I want to use a oral medication (such as Capstar) to really clear the current fleas up. Is it safe to medicate this close to the surgery? Do I need to let them know that I have given him a flea treatment recently?

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Destini R. Holloway, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on March 18th, 2017

Yes you can most certainly use a Capstar this close to surgery because this medication usually works within 1 hr, lasts only 24 hrs and has no affect on the cardiovascular or respiratory system, so its safe to use same day of surgery if needed. In fact, in practice we often give this medication to surgery pets right before their surgery if they have fleas to prevent the spread of fleas to other hospitalized pets. So no worries. It wouldn't hurt to let them know you gave the medication. However you should consider putting Darcy on a flea preventative as well to prevent re-infestation, because chances are that the fleas have laid eggs in the environment as well, and since Capstar is not a preventative, it will be out of her system after 24 hrs has passed.

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    Answered By Dr. Melanie, BVSc MS

    Veterinarian

    Published on

    It's perfectly safe to give Darcy Capstar now. It's a one time pill that starts killing fleas in 30 minutes, and it's effects only last a day. In addition, you can give him a spot on flea treatment such as Revolution or Advantage with the Capstar. There's no concern about giving him these medications before he gets neutered, they will have no effect on his surgery :-)

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