Article Discusses Safety Concerns of Cheap Flea Preventatives
I’d like to thank Joel, of San Francisco, for forwarding an article to me yesterday. The article discusses adverse events associated with flea preventatives, especially those available over-the-counter.
Let me begin with two caveats. Some of the sidebar advertisements on the article are a bit loony. In my opinion this damages the credibility of the article. Loony websites have loony advertisements, and loony websites often publish loony material.
More important, before anyone gets too worked up railing against flea products, don’t forget how vile and terrible are fleas. Fleas spread tapeworms, “cat scratch disease”, and feline infectious anemia. They contribute to skin disease and autoimmune disease. Their feces contaminates houses. They spread bubonic plague. Fleas are bad, bad, bad.
Now, on to the article.
[P]yrethroid-based flea and tick treatments — from Hartz, Sergeant’s, Farnam, and Bayer — are approved for sale by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and they are readily available at grocery stores, specialty pet retailers, and hardware stores. But they are also linked to thousands of reported pet poisonings, and they have stirred the ire of pet owners, the concern of veterinarians, and the attention of regulatory agencies . . . At least 1,600 pet deaths related to spot on treatments with pyrethroids were reported to the EPA over the last five years, according to an analysis of EPA pesticide incident exposure data by the Center for Public Integrity. That is about double the number of reported fatalities tied to similar treatments without pyrethroids, such as Frontline and Advantage — although these products also have critics.
I was surprised to learn that Advantage and Frontline had been linked to 800 pet deaths over the last five years. In my practice, I see major toxic reactions to the Hartz and Sargent’s products regularly. In the last ten years, I have not seen even one life-threatening reaction to Advantage or Frontline, although I realize they occur.
I would be curious to learn the rate of reactions to Advantage and Frontline relative to those for the pyrethroid-based products, rather than the absolute numbers for each product. Also, readers should remember that the number of adverse events listed for each of the products represents events that have been reported to regulatory agencies. The majority of reactions are not reported.
The article, predictably, goes on to describe several heartbreaking horror stories associated especially with use of cheap flea products. But then it delves into unexpected territory:
Another possible explanation for the number of incidents is that consumers often misuse flea and tick products, causing the sickness that pet owners later blame on the treatments, said Jennifer Windrum, a spokeswoman for Sergeant’s. “Pet owners feel incredibly guilty if they misapply it to their pet,” Windrum said. “It’s easier to blame a company.”
Whoa! This is a total cop out. All products are misused by consumers. It’s a fact of life. For a product to be truly safe, it should not consistently cause problems when it is inevitably misused.
Ultimately, the article does not offer any simple advice to pet owners who wish to avoid adverse events associated with flea preventatives. But I’ll be happy to take over that department.
Talk to your veterinarian about the risks and benefits of flea preventatives before you use them. Don’t buy the cheapest preventatives. Use the preventatives according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Don’t assume that natural preventatives are any safer than synthetics. Garlic, a common ingredient in natural products, is potentially toxic to pets.
Finally, keep things in perspective. It is tragic when a pet loses its life to an adverse reaction to any sort of product. But remember that fleas have killed far more pets than even the worst of the flea preventatives. Fleas have also killed millions of people–it is estimated that in 1400 alone fleas killed 125,000,000 residents of Europe.
Flea preventatives may not be perfectly safe, but fleas are very dangerous as well.
You have questions. 
II have a couple questions.
Do you have any experience using Revolution?
I read it’s used for both heartworm preventative and flea preventative. It is effective for both?
Is it safe for use on collies and shelties?
Do you know if it has also been tied to these spot-on treatment reactions?
I’m afraid to use anything right now because your darned if you do and darned if you dont.
We have never ever had any fleas but we have neighbor dogs that have them very bad and even though we have a fully fenced yard, I know they can be passed on to my dogs thru nose touches, etc.
I am trying to learn all I can before we bring all 3 dogs to the vet for their spring heartworm blood test & fecal exam.
We had a horrid flea infestation in our house — brought in by mice! Kitty Boy killed the mice and got a bad case of fleas. Of course, this was discovered on a Sunday night.
We keep a herbal based powder on hand. We don’t regularly use flea preventives because the cat is indoors and the dog swims every day. But I now always have some vet prescribed preventive on hand because we can go months without a flea siting and all of a sudden I see a bugger or two.
But I keep the powder on hand for emergencies and to treat fabric, etc. That way I don’t have to worry about toxicity if I use the vet product soon thereafter.
I think we drop the ball when we don’t act proactively in our homes. We keep a flea collar in our vacuum bag and we can keep a safe herbal powder on hand for fabric, rugs, etc. I check surfaces for any signs of flea dirt. I have to say that many people go too long without vacuuming in general. If you keep up on that alone, you’ll take a big bite out of the problem.
But it can takes month upon months to eradicate the problem, so maybe it does make a lot of sense to look at it preventively.
I used to work as a demonstrator for a pet food, doing promotions in a pet store. One of my duties was to assist customers in finding whatever they needed, including anything on the shelves (even totally unrelated products). I heard some horror stories about many of the cheaper flea medicines, but the one most-mentioned for problems was Bio-Spot. I would hear customer complaints at least three times every week about Bio-Spot, but only once every few weeks for the others.
[...] Article Discusses Safety Concerns of Cheap Flea Preventatives: “ [...]
I have done a lot of research on this subject and it is shocking. I have seen pictures of the chemical burns animals have suffered and it is infuriating that these things are not known by the general public and these products are allowed to stay on the shelves. I understand that not every animal has a negative reaction but the amount of those that do should be reason enough to take a deeper look at these products and change the rules of what is allowed. Before I was aware of this issue, I had used Hartz products on my indoor cat, Molly. Fortunately she did not die but she did go into a seizure of sorts. She started having convulsions and tremors all over her body. Even after washing off the Hartz product as best I could the tremor still lingered for some time. She very noticeably did not like any Hartz product. The shampoo, the spray for the house, the flea collar, or the on-spot treatment. I did my research and found that Hartz, Bio Spot, and the like have the worst reputations and people have lost their beloved pets due to these products. Then I looked into these “natural” flea treatments that are out there. It is insanity! One is made of natural oils that are believed to repel fleas. Except when you look it up they say natural oils like that can be deadly to cats! And cats are more sensitive to oils than dogs but I don’t know if it is good for the dogs or not. Frontline and Advantage are some that seem to have better reputations but if you do the research there as well there are plenty of stories and pictures of the poor animals who had horrible reactions to it, if not deadly. Vets are rarely any help either. A lot of them make money from selling these flea products and, while still mainly caring about the animals, are a bit hesitant to believe that they are harmful because it hurts sales. Now, I don’t think they are knowingly selling products that are hurting animals but there are some that will brush off the concerns of pet-owners. Especially about Frontline and Advantage. There are vets, and one that I spoke to personally, that acknowledge that Hartz is bad but they stand by Frontline and Advantage. Based on their personal experience that makes sense. They personally have not seen cases of adverse reactions to Frontline and Advantage but it is a tough situation. As a vet, you understand that they want to alleviate concerns and not have anyone unnecessarily worry. They also know the importance of getting rid of fleas. And maybe they are just hoping that the odds of a negative reaction are slim. But it would be nice if vets out there could remember that we are people who love our pets and are not just panicky worriers. And these negative reactions do happen enough to be a concern. The best situation would be if the companies that make these products could change the formula and regulations to make a product that won’t cause this danger in the first place. But the best we can do right now is just to get the word out so pet owners can make an informed choice and know which products are at least safer than others to try. And if enough of us cause a fuss, maybe we can make a difference about these products.
[...] Safety Concerns of Cheap Flea Preventatives … [...]
[...] happy tabby now. Remember, don’t use dog flea products or cheap flea products on your cat or you could actually kill him or her. Use products made for cats, and maybe even ask your vet’s office for a [...]
I have heard too many horror stories not to mention the over the counter stuff just doesn’t work…but right now I am having trouble with Frontline Plus! I have been a faithful user of Frontline Plus for several years and now it’s not killing the fleas!!! I even noticed it wasn’t doing very good on the ticks this past season. Of all the years for this not to work we have a litter of pups and that has been awful! We sprayed the pen areas 2 or 3 times, used the frontline on dogs and cats, bombed the house twice too and sprayed the yard! We ended up using Advantage this past month…can’t really say it is working that well either. Either companies or weakening their products due to the economy or the pest or building a resistance!!! I have heard several people who use frontline having issues with it as well. I also work in a vet clinic…the vet there is at a lose as to what is going on but he still swears by it. We don’t want to hurt our pets but this is ridiculous!!!