London Sit with Fleas + Allergy: Seeking Advice from Sitters and Owners

Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat
1

Dearest THS coomunity,

I’d like to share an experience from a London sit currently, to provide some context and hear how other sitters and owners might handle a similar situation.

Timeline: From Suspecting Fleas to Agreed Early End

This was a two-week cat sit. Around day 7, I noticed a few tiny black specks in one indoor white cat’s fur (harder to spot on the other, whose fur is mostly black). It looked like possible flea dirt, so I messaged politely with a photo attached and asked if they happened to have any flea treatment at home, or if there was something they’d recommend I do in the meantime. I was more than happy to act immediately per their instructions.

The owner’s reply was along the lines of:

“Thanks. [Cat] is due for vaccinations when we get back. I’ll get the vet to check him for fleas and mites at the same time. They have some excellent spot-on neck meds. We had the same issue with our other cats. Looks like it’s back.”

No immediate action was planned during their trip (about 6 days away).

Soon after, flea bites appeared gradually across my body, followed by sneezing, watery eyes, and a stuffy nose — a clear allergic reaction. With a back-to-back sit looming, I couldn’t risk spreading fleas to the next home or pets. So I followed up to share my health concern and kindly note that I needed to stay safe for my next sit. I requested to finish the sit two days later “if treatment for the cat or pest control isn’t available at the moment,” while offering to continue coming by to feed the cats morning and evening and to clean the litter before handover. I added:

“I completely understand that dealing with fleas can be tricky and that no one is at fault, but I hope you can understand my concern.”

They agreed with my offer until they found a replacement. I also reported the early end to THS for transparency. When a replacement sitter was arranged, I left the keys at the specified spot as instructed, ensured that the cats’ routines, plants, mail, and household checks were all handled, and updated them fully.

My Actions to Make It Work for Everyone (Pets, Owner, and Next Sit)

To balance the cats’ care, the owner’s trip, and my health/next sit safety, I:

  • Moved to a nearby hotel at my own expense; disinfected/sealed clothes and belongings.

  • Increased vacuuming/mopping those last few days to minimise fleas for the cats.

  • Maintained full routines until handover day.

I believed this approach created a fair compromise: the owners’ holiday continued with minimal interruption, the cats’ routines were maintained, and I protected my health and future sits.

The Surprising 2-Star Review and That Hurtful Line

Post-sit, the owner left a 2-star review stating (paraphrased) that everything was great until fleas were spotted; they had planned a vet visit post-holiday, I canceled a week early mid-trip, forcing frantic calls for replacements, and thus they “couldn’t recommend me in good conscience.”

The closing line stung most:

“Cats and dogs sometimes get fleas. If you are allergic to fleas perhaps pet sitting is not the thing to do!”

This felt dismissive given the precautions I took to maintain routines, minimise flea risk, and support a smooth handover. While fleas do happen, expecting a sitter experiencing healthy concern to stay in the home for six more days isn’t reasonable and overlooks health and chain-risk to future pets.

I’ve grown up around various rescue cats and owned cats myself, so I know firsthand how tricky fleas can be — they can happen even in clean homes, and it’s not always the owner’s fault. As a pet owner, I empathise with the frustration of an “old issue coming back.” But at the same time, as a sitter and cat owner, I believe owners have a responsibility to ensure regular flea prevention and address issues promptly when they arise, for the sake of their pets and anyone entering the home.

Questions for Fellow Sitters and Owners

I’d love your thoughts to help us all navigate better:

  • Spot fleas mid-sit, owner says “vet post-trip”? What’s your approach?

  • Worsening allergy with next sit looming: when/how do you exit?

  • Messaging tips: empathetic but firm on health/hygiene?

  • Reviews: detail fleas honestly, or assume resolution?

Owners welcome too: Mid-trip, if sitter reports fleas/allergy, what helps most? What’s fair communication?

Thanks for reading and sharing!

2

You seem responsible and reasonable, unlike the host. Their review will hurt them more than it hurts you. It sucks that they were jerks, but best to move on.

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3

Thats just ridiculous. What’s next? “Dogs sometimes bite. If you dont enjoy that, perhaps pet sitting is not the thing to do!”. “Cats sometimes get a litter. If a surprise litter mid sit is not something you can handle, perhaps pet sitting is not the thing to do”. Absolutely correct that pets get fleas. Also correct is to handle instant treatment (and warn the sitter before, “we have had these troubles within 6 months”.).

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4

Did you also review them mentioning the fleas and the sit ending early? I hate to say this but it feels like in a situation like yours, there either has to be an agreement by both sides not to leave reviews or it is super important to get your side in as honestly and tactfully as you can.

I understand that the homeowners were inconvienced but a flea infestation (and if you see them that’s an infestation) is a reasonable excuse for ending a sit early. You acted responsibily for the pets, for your own health, and for the health of the owners and pets at your next sit.

The suggestion by the hosts that you shouldn’t sit if you are allergic to bites is snarky and uncalled for. As a sitter, I read the reviews left by the hosts and if I saw yours, I wouldn’t consider them. If I had seen a review by them mentioning what happened, or a comment by a review for you, that took responsibility and stated what actions have been taken to prevent this from happening to future sitters, I would consider them.

I would recommend a shortened version of your OP as a response to the review.

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5

This is also what I read anytime someone reviews/otherplaces claims “you must not be a real animal lover because of X”. I think that sentence is lousy. Are you not a real animal lover if you cant handle a lion? Or, indeed, lice - they are animals too!

Recently one of our host said “thank you so much for looking after them, we have not been on a holiday without them for a year and we really appreciate the break”. So refreshing! It does not mean the host dislikes their pets, it just means that people have multiple goals in life, and taking care of… someone´s flea infested cats at the risk of their own health is not aligning with that, no matter how much they are into caring for pets.

6

It sounds as though any inconvenience to the home owners was a situation of their own making, due to a) not ensuring cat had been checked/treated before going away when they’re already aware that fleas are a potential problem, and b) not taking you up on your offer to treat the cat yourself mid-sit.

Furthermore, marking you down when you’ve acted fairly and responsibly will reflect badly on them rather than on you. I mean, a sit with fleas AND a lousy review for your efforts - it’s a definite pass from me!

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7

@Winn-y, we hope that substantially all THS members - both sides - are good, reasonable people. But there are exceptions. In our experience, when we find pet parents that have a yellow flag (e.g. unreasonable expectation) on one topic then there are almost always other problems. In your situation, it is possible that pet parent blamed you for ‘causing’ the extra work of finding an alternative sitter.

Your OP perspective (and host may have different perspective) suggests clearly unreasonable response. Suggest two potential action steps:

  • Escalate a ‘Member Dispute’. Appropriate if you believe that pet parent significantly breached THS Terms of Service. Formal process that collates insight & evidence from both parties, then determines appropriate actions.
  • Move forwards positively. Suggest no hurry to leave a reply to review from pet parent, there is no time limit. When ready and calm then leave a brief, factual reply that demonstrates reasonableness. Then forget all about and look forward to better adventures.
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8

Be clear that you get to respond to their 2 star review with 1 response and there is no time limit in submitting your response.

Indoor/outdoor cats can be exposed to fleas but there are easy preventative treatments that responsible owners should, at the very least, use 1 month before and leading up to a sit. A laissez-faire approach by cat owners should not be projected on sitters. Yes cats and dogs do get fleas but that is entirely the fault of the owner.

Considering your allergy sensitivity, you might want to add a flea comb to your sitter kit. Cheap, easy to use and they immediately indicate if there’s a flea problem if you take a few minutes to learn how to use them.

The problem is I’m not sure how you should respond if fleas show up. Treating the cat(s) still leaves the home infested until flea bombed. As a host with cats that are strictly indoors, I know they have still been infested on rare occasions. I would be very unhappy to learn from a sitter mid-sit that fleas were discovered and I need to arrange a replacement sitter from afar. How things played out from that point could result in a stellar or scathing review of the sitter by me. It definitely could go either way.

9

You did a great job and tried to continue to help them out, shame they didn’t see it that way. Good on you for trying to help them out, and good on you for considering the future pets you come into contact with.

We would definitely be mentioning the fleas in our review given the non-action of treatment, and also we would mention how it has a potential knock on effect to the future pets we are due to care for too, it’s irresponsible of the owners, but also we would have put our foot down and told them it needed to be sorted immediately, by either treating the cats ourselves, or taking them to the vets. We wouldn’t have allowed an owner to delay action at all. We would have worded it politely but so that it wasn’t open for discussion, and more matter of fact.

Respond to their review with straight facts, so future owners who read their review on your profile will be able to see that they are irresponsible without you having to say it.

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10

The owner should most certainly have made sure the cats had had their flea treatment before you arrived. As @Maggie8K says, their review won’t do them any favours. You couldn’t have done more.

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11

So, these ‘excellent spot-on neck meds’ hadn’t actually been applied, and weren’t made available to you during the sit, despite the circumstances?

In response to your questions:

  • We agree with what @HappyDeb has said, we too would have insisted on immediate treatment being made available as it’s both unreasonable and thoughtless of the HO to expect both you and the cats to live with a flea infestation for further week or more!

  • In the absence of agreement for immediate treatment, we’d have contacted THS with photo evidence and given the HO 24 hours notice of our intention to leave. Your actions, though clearly coming from a place of consideration and care, facilitated their irresponsible response (and the cat’s continuing discomfort!).

  • Absolutely! We’d not take a judgemental tone (though would quietly take note of the fact this HO is clearly aware of effective drop-on treatments, but had failed to use them despite acknowledging the cats had previously suffered flea issues, and would wonder why - financial cost, possibly?) but would certainly assert our position as being non-negotiable due to the obvious health and hygiene issues.

  • We would mention the flea issue and HO’s response in our review, because it happened, and it’s not something you should have had to deal with in the manner you did. Had you done this (whilst still acknowledging the positives of the sit) and outlined what steps you took, then the negative review left for you would have been immediately blown out of the water.

Your experience - and the review you received - show these hosts in their true light. It sounds like you’ve gone above and beyond, but then it’s backfired on you. Although it’s bound to be smarting a bit right now because of the injustice, this is just a blip and part of the journey, so do try not to dwell on it. Chin up!

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12

I would have immediately called my vet and made arrangements for a sitter to pick up flea treatment for both cats! If possible I would have had the pets bathed as well.

I noticed fleas on my dog on 12/24/25 and RAN to the vet for treatment, bathed the dog with Dawn dishsoap and then treated her immediately! Nobody has time for fleas and I can think of nothing worse for a sitter and for pets to deal with.

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13

Yes, I did! I mentioned the flea issue in my positive review for them (thinking we’d resolved it amicably) and explained my side in response to their retaliatory review.

I was confused and frustrated because I thought we’d agreed on a fair compromise. In my review, I explained what happened throughout and said I was glad we’d reached a deal and handed over smoothly. Despite my efforts to be understanding about them being abroad and unable to handle things immediately, they turned around and blamed me for not staying the full sit. Here’s their quote:

“At the time we were halfway around the world. [Me] offered to visit the house twice a day to clean the litter and feed the cats. This is not what we signed up for or agreed to. I had to spend a day of my holiday frantically calling family and friends to arrange people to house and cat sit. So it is with great regret I must say that I cannot in good conscience recommend [Me] as a sitter.”

But now I know I should be more assertive and save my kindness for people who respect each other :sweat_smile:

14

Yeah I agree with you. Loving animals shouldn’t be used to justify endless unreasonable treatment. In fact, because I do care about them, I’m always extra careful and I hope to approach every sit in a healthy state, both physically and mentally! And yes, the warning is very important — if I had known about the issue beforehand, I could have prepared better :sweat_smile: Transparent communication is key.

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15

Thank you for your understanding! It’s the first time I’ve been in this kind of situation, and I truly did my best to solve the problem and reduce the inconvenience for everyone involved. I’ve learnt my lesson, and I’ll move on!:face_holding_back_tears:

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