Has anyone else heard of the controversy around "spot on" flea/tick preps?

[MoonandBean]

http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/health/flea-tick-control.html

Sunny HATES when I put frontline on her. She rolls around and tries to get it off and then is depressed for hours (she does that when I put her ear medicine in too, though). I have always thought she was just being dramatic but now I wonder if she's having an actual reaction.

I notice Advantix isn't on this "bad" list and I wish I could use that but it's not safe in homes with cats.

What do you guys think?

[pomtzu]

I use Advantix on my dogs, and there are cats in the house, and there has never been a problem. Where did you see that it's not safe in a home with cats?

I got the box out to read the precautions, and the only thing I saw was: "If applied to a cat, or ingested by a cat which actively grooms a recently treated dog, this product may have serious harmful effects." That would stand to reason, but I don't see how anything else could be any more harmful than any of the other products.

It doesn't sound like Sunny is having an actual reaction, but more a case of just not liking it, if you're getting the same reaction with ear meds.

[MoonandBean]

Well...Moon and Bean definetely do NOT groom Sunny :) so maybe it would be a good switch. I'll talk to her vet, thanks!

[Catlady711]

I have heard of this report recently. A few thoughts from some of our vets at work....

1) anything can be 'reported as a reaction'. Meaning that if the owner puts the wrong size/species dose on it's an incident. If they put it on in the wrong place and the pet licks it it's an incident, if the animal happens to be harboring an infection just before application and the animal comes up sick later it's reported as an incident against the topical even if it was non related.

2) at our hospital we have seen more bad reactions, and heard more complaints (like 90% more) from OTC flea/tick meds than from any of the ones bought from our hospital. The remaining complaints on products we sell seem to mostly concern Promeris, very, VERY few complaints on Frontline Plus, and I belive they said only 2 complaints on Revolution in over 5 years. **FYI Revolution is registered with the FDA not the EPA and is considered a drug not a pesticide which is why it requires a prescription.**

Until they can give hard core numbers as to how many complaints per particular product, the exact reactions and numbers of them, and the source of the complaints they do not have an accurate account of reactions. This is even stated on the report in the link.

"In reviewing the list of seven products, please note the following:
...
This information does not account for the market share of these products;
This information does not reflect the severity of incidents;
This information does not reflect potential misuse of the products; and
If incidents are not reported by pet owners or registrants, this may affect the potential accuracy of this list."


From my own standpoint I had used Frontline for several years without any incidents and now have been using Revolution for 3 years with no incidents. The only reason I switched was an earmite episode (Revolution gets earmites as well as some intestinal worms) and my cats hated the kitty Heartgard (Revolution also gets heartworms). The switch made my life, and my kitty's lives easier. Although if I do encounter a tick problem I'd have no issues with switching back to Frontline Plus for that (Revolution does not get ticks).

[happylabs]

Anyone have a natural alternative to using these chemicals? I always hate putting these products on Casey but we have a tick problem here so I have no choice.

[MoonandBean]

Some of my dogster friends are using garlic capsules as a natural remedy. Although, some other dogster friends say garlic can be linked to IMHA...proving that it certainly isn't easy to protect our animals in a way that everyone agrees is safe. Here is the link for the garlic: www.springtimeinc.com

We have a huge tick problem and even with the frontline plus, I pull one or two out of her fur everytime she comes in from the woods (Frontline doesn't repel them; just kills them within 48 hours of attachment). If they are already embedded, sometimes they're still alive and sometimes they're dead. She got her lyme vaccine last year but I still want to protect her from the ticks and fleas. I still don't know what I'm going to do with Sunny (my dog). Bean (my cat) goes outside and has never shown any untoward effects from the frontline so I will continue to use it on him.

[pomtzu]

Years ago, before the popularity of the spot on treatments, I would put garlic powder in the food for my Lhasas. It worked "fairly" well,, but I think that as time went on, it lost some of it's effectiveness, and of course it never did the job that the spot on treatments do. The dogs never had any ill effects from it tho.