Cat Forum : Cat Discussion Forums - View Single Post - Dangerous Flea Treatments and Shampoos/ Permethrin

ibbica · 07-28-2010, 05:53 PM

Josh, several antiparasitic meds that are "safe for cats" actually do contain permethrin. It's just in a much MUCH lower dose than what you find in, say, anti-flea meds for dogs (e.g. 0.1% compared to 40%+). Which of course begs the question, does it need to be in such a high concentration for dogs? But I digress

The point is that just because something has permethrin in it doesn't necessarily mean it is dangerous for your cat (or rather, no more dangerous than other similar medications), as long as you follow your vet's directions carefully. HOWEVER, that being said, I personally would like to avoid the risk as completely as possible, and have been trying to find a safer way to prevent parasites from tormenting my kitties. Which brings me to my own question...

While on the hunt for alternatives, I stumbled across a product called "Exner Petguard". I am, however, very wary of trying this, since all the information I could find online boils down to a single description and one highly suspect "review" repeated on mutiple sites. It appears to be available only in Europe, and its listed ingredients are only:

"water, fat, whey protein, sucrose-monohydrate, ash"

Has anyone here actually tried this stuff? Does it actually work? Does anyone know of any empirical studies on *how* it works? I know how the *manufacturer* claims it works, but there seems to be absolutely no objective analysis out there as to its efficacy (over, say, a soapy bath or a spritzing kitty with a similarly edible homemade solution), or as to just how safe it is... I don't want to repeat their whole shpeal here, but I'm taking the claims that "the inventor and patent-holder drank a bottle of it at a press conference to show how safe it is" with a grain of salt, since I can as of yet find no record of any such press conference nor the name of this mysterious individual :/

The "ash" bit is particularly worrisome to me, as it seems to me that "ash" is just anything that's not burned off during post-production analysis but is in too small a quantity to measure the individual components. For example, is there a possibiilty that one of those ingredients originated from chrysanthemums, and that the "ash" actually contains pyrethrins? (albeit in tiny quantities... but then, 0.1% is pretty minute too!) Or am I being too cynical?

Any thoughts?

07-28-2010, 05:53 PM	#22 (permalink)
ibbica Jr. Cat Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Belgium Posts: 74	Josh, several antiparasitic meds that are "safe for cats" actually do contain permethrin. It's just in a much MUCH lower dose than what you find in, say, anti-flea meds for dogs (e.g. 0.1% compared to 40%+). Which of course begs the question, does it need to be in such a high concentration for dogs? But I digress The point is that just because something has permethrin in it doesn't necessarily mean it is dangerous for your cat (or rather, no more dangerous than other similar medications), as long as you follow your vet's directions carefully. HOWEVER, that being said, I personally would like to avoid the risk as completely as possible, and have been trying to find a safer way to prevent parasites from tormenting my kitties. Which brings me to my own question... While on the hunt for alternatives, I stumbled across a product called "Exner Petguard". I am, however, very wary of trying this, since all the information I could find online boils down to a single description and one highly suspect "review" repeated on mutiple sites. It appears to be available only in Europe, and its listed ingredients are only: "water, fat, whey protein, sucrose-monohydrate, ash" Has anyone here actually tried this stuff? Does it actually work? Does anyone know of any empirical studies on how it works? I know how the manufacturer claims it works, but there seems to be absolutely no objective analysis out there as to its efficacy (over, say, a soapy bath or a spritzing kitty with a similarly edible homemade solution), or as to just how safe it is... I don't want to repeat their whole shpeal here, but I'm taking the claims that "the inventor and patent-holder drank a bottle of it at a press conference to show how safe it is" with a grain of salt, since I can as of yet find no record of any such press conference nor the name of this mysterious individual :/ The "ash" bit is particularly worrisome to me, as it seems to me that "ash" is just anything that's not burned off during post-production analysis but is in too small a quantity to measure the individual components. For example, is there a possibiilty that one of those ingredients originated from chrysanthemums, and that the "ash" actually contains pyrethrins? (albeit in tiny quantities... but then, 0.1% is pretty minute too!) Or am I being too cynical? Any thoughts?