Dangerous Flea Treatments and Shampoos/ Permethrin

[Jeanie]

Thanks to Bosco'sMum for this valuable information:

"Twitching, [excess licking], and weak hindquarters sounds like
dog flea treatment on the cat. permethrin can harm cats to death."

.

[melysion]

Felix (my Mums cat) wears a flea collar with that permethrin stuff all the time

[jessies mum]

Oh no - I just bought some flea spray for my house that has it in??

[amitos]

It makes me wonder why one whould use permethrin for his cat. Advantage (regular or Multi) and Revolution (selamectin) spot-on formulations are great against fleas. Adv. Multi and Revolution can be used for ear mites, scabies, etc... why would one use a collar? this is too toxic and serves little purpose.

Originally Posted by Jeanie

Thanks to Bosco'sMum for this valuable information:

"Twitching, [excess licking], and weak hindquarters sounds like
dog flea treatment on the cat. permethrin can harm cats to death."


.

[Kobster]

^ I agree. The stuff from the vet is more expensive, but it is SAFE and EFFECTIVE. Things you can't put a price on when it comes to my babies.

[bluemilk]

Jeanie,Boscosmum, Thanks!!!! I just bought some spray today! I'll have to check to see if it contains Permethrin! God bless you,thanks for watching out for us!

[jazzcat]

New here, just wanted to say thanks for posting this! Lots of valuable info around here!

[nanook]

I just saw this! I haven't been around much lately.
I'm so glad you posted this, Jeanie! I can't tell you how any times, when I used to work at the vet, cats would come in seriously ill from these darn OTC flea (and deworming) products. Sadly, some even died! I think it's criminal that they still have them on the market.

Wanted to add also that anything with pyrethrins should not be used on cats as well. Even though it is "natural" (permethrin is the synthetic version) it can still be highly toxic to cats.

[tsenseless]

I tried various shampoos/treatments (including permethrin).. Anything containing permethrin should have a warning on it "FOR DOGS ONLY". As it was the only thing I could get at the time, I disregarded this and diluted the mixture (heavily) with water. My cats suffered no ill effects.

I ended up having to have a family member ship me some stuff from the US to get rid of the problem completely.

I used "sergeant's silver squeeze on for cats" (active ingredtian etofenprox 55.0%)

After 2-3 months and many many many complete house sanitations (basically turning my house into a clean room) later. No more fleas! I had some extra medication so I used them on the 'wild' cats that I feed outside, now pretty much the whole neighborhood is flea free! I dont know what that active ingrediant is, but the fleas REALLY hate it.

Be warned though, if your cat has a heavy flea infestation they'll jump off your cat and eat the **** out of you before dying. I found that if I used isopropyl alcohol on my body (from shoulder down to fingers and from thigh to my foot), the fleas wouldnt bite me. I had to wash my arms/legs with alcohol every day or they'd come back and bite me some more.

[IrisdadSovine]

So, tonight I start to believe my cat Iris has fleas. I never actually saw fleas on her, but she has been scratching more for a while, and she did stay with my mom's cat for a while, who definitely has had fleas recently. Also, I went back to the apartment that I just moved out of and found that it has become infested. I decided that since she likely has fleas, I should get some medicine. So, I go to the grocery store. Its late in the evening, because I get off work late. I don't know anything about flea medicine, and I would never suspect that something would be sold over the at the grocery store that is dangerous to the health of animals. Not something intended to be used on a pet animal, I mean. So, I pick up Hartz Ultraguard spot-on flea and tick "medicine."

Then, I notice that there is a lot in the little tube that you are supposed to empty on the cats neck. And there are a lot of warnings on the box about safety to humans and animals. So, after applying, I decide to do some research. I find all these horror stories about Hartz Ultraguard and bad reactions cats have to it. In any case, I don't something that could be dangerous on my baby. So, I give her a bath and wash it all off with generic, Dawn-imitation dish soap.

For the thirty minutes or so that Iris had the Ultraguard on her, I noticed that she hopped around and acted like she didn't like having it one her. I tried to keep her from licking it, but of course, she tried to lick it constantly. So, she inevitably managed to lick some off her back, and off her feet, from scratching. I read more horror stories, some about veterinary employees who frequently treated animals poisoned by these over-the-counter medicines.

After washing her, she seems to be feeling okay, though not as energetic as she was before applying the medicine. This could be her natural rest cycle. I don't really know, but the whole thing made me really worried. I feel terrible for putting something on my cat without knowing that it could cause her serious harm. And I am appalled that the Hartz company is permitted to go on selling these products, without the general public even being made aware of the potential danger. I would gladly appreciate if anyone knew more about this product or the dangers of it. How worried should I be? I love my cat and if I did anything to endanger her life or her long-term health that I could avoid, I would feel awful. I hope that it is made more common knowledge that Hartz Ultraguard may be harmful or dangerous to the health of cats and other pets.

Iris's Dad