Hartz flea treatment- deadly?
Hi everyone! Just had a strange experience.
I usually use Fibrogard or Frontline as a flea preventative topical treatment, but decided to pick up a Hartz topical treatment to see if it worked as well, with a lower price tag. After applying it, I decided to google its effectiveness and was horrified to see many websites dedicated to how negative and harmful this product is to both dogs and cats. There were dozens of bad experiences people discussed, saying how their dog had seizures and needed to be hospitalized, barely surviving. I immediately bathed Trixie thoroughly and was able to get off all the treatment, and she is completely fine.
Did I overreact? Has anyone else had an issue with over-the-counter flea treatments such as Hartz or Biospot with their corgi? If this product truly does kill animals, how in the heck is it still legally sold?
Just curious about other people's opinions and experiences. :)
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Geri & Sidney on
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I've heard lots of terrible stories about Hartz! We did use it once (before Sidney) and one of my dogs acted really weird, staggering and shaking. He eventually was ok but would run and hide whenever we got out the Frontline/Advantage, like that one experience scarred him.
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Permalink Reply by Karyne & Dr. Sheldon Cooper on
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I'm an animal Health technician and well Hartz product are not the best. We did have some intoxication in both cats and dogs with flea/tick product. We also had a really bad skin infections with animals. I always recommend ( so does my vet ) to you veterinarian product such as advantage , heartgard and other approve product :) So in perspective I don't think you over react I think you did the right thing to bathe your corgi.
Hope this help !
Karyne
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Permalink Reply by Alexandra & Trixie on
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Thank you :) I bought her some Fiprogard today which she has done well on- a bit more expensive that Hartz but certainly worth it to keep her safe!
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Permalink Reply by Wilson Waddlepants and Joyce on
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The bottom line is that all "spot-on" products are "associated" with adverse reactions. Last Spring, the EPA issued an advisory due to an increase in the number of adverse reactions reported which ranged from skin irritation to seizures and death. If I remember correctly, the report I read said that in 2008 there were over 40,000 reactions reported by pet owners and veterinarians and 600 of them were deaths. The year before there had been about 25,000. I also read that what was required of the manufacturer of Frontline was to make the dosage levels more clear on the packages which leads me to believe that a high percentage of the adverse reactions were due to the improper application of the product. People are stupid.
It's been a couple of years since we had to deal with fleas, but this year all of our dogs were bothered by them. I tried using a natural flea spray but it just didn't work. Well, let me rephrase that, it worked to kill the fleas that were actually ON the dogs at the moment, but did nothing to deal with the eggs and larvae. So, I caved and bought Frontline Plus. After a few days the fleas were gone. I've used Frontline a few times in the past on all of our dogs and none of them has ever had a reaction of any kind. The key I think is not to over use it and to use the correct amount for the weight of the dog so it's effective the first time around. We also bath our dogs before we put it on and two days later and vacuum the heck out of the house.
The active ingredient in Frontline Plus is Fipronil. It's absorbed through the dog's skin and into it's oil glands. The packaging states that it kills adult fleas, flea eggs, and flea larvae for up to six weeks. My experience has been that it works for longer than that. Specifically, I've never had to use it for longer than one month and the fleas were gone.
I have heard from some pet owners that they don't think Frontline works anymore so I looked around online and found a few articles. This is one of them: http://dralex.hubpages.com/hub/Frontline-Does-Not-Work My personal opinion is that if you overuse the product the fleas become immune to it.
I forgot to mention, my vet said one of the biggest differences between spot on flea treatments is the delivery system and the cheaper products utilize a less effective method which doesn't allow the product to spread consistently throughout the subcutaneous tissue. It would make sense that could cause skin irritation at the site where it was applied, but seizures and death ? That's hard to comprehend.
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Permalink Reply by Morgan on
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At the risk of sounding like a hippie from California, I use a natural treatment called Vet's Best. It uses peppermint oil and clove extract. I actually turned to it in desperation because I applied Frontline to no affect. (http://www.vetsbest.com/products/dog-flea-tick.php) It was what finally worked for me. It also costs a lot less as well. Plus as an added bonus, the corgis and cats all smell great! Thanks for raising the alarm on the Hartz. Its nice to have a good discussion about flea treatment.
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This is the link to the product I used: http://media.mercola.com/assets/PDF/product-labels/natural-flea-and... It smelled good, and like I said, it did kill the fleas on them at the moment, but even after a lot of re-applications and regular intensive vacuuming, our dogs and cats still had fleas crawling on them. I think the product you used sounds good and it might be the clove in it that's the clincher ! Thanks for providing the link. One product I do buy from the other website is krill oil in a spray bottle and I highly recommend it: http://media.mercola.com/Assets/PDF/product-labels/krill-oil-pets-p...
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