WARNING: DANGEROUS FLEA MEDICINES

How horrible! I accidently used a topical with methoprene on my cat a few months ago, luckily she didn't get sick from it but once I heard about this, I threw the rest of the pack straight in the trash! She doesn't have fleas right now but if she gets them you can bet I'll be finding something safer to use.

(it wasn't one of these three brands, but it has that ingredient in it. I don't recall the name but it was in a green package and came from petsmart)

um, does frontline have this in it?! we use frontline a lot but we're out so i can't look at the ingredients!

mimi - frontline, advantage, and revolution (the three common prescription flea medicines) typically do not use cheap pesticides like the ones sold in grocery stores/wal-mart/pet stores. Fipronil is the main ingredient in frontline and as far as I know it has not caused the same kind of widespread bad reactions.

We had used Bio-spot years ago until it nearly killed our German Shepherd. Beware of collars as well. NO collar. It's best to use a topical flea treatment. Flea control can be achieved in many other ways other than using a collar – veterinary `spot-on' products are very effective and safe to use. Flea collars are often left on long after the flea control chemicals have ceased to function. I've seen fleas on the rump of cats wearing a flea collar so obviously, they don't work very well. Owners reported hair loss and skin reaction. The other problem with collars is the risk of cats getting hung up on items and choking to death. At EPA’s insistence, Hartz Mountain Corp. has agreed to cancel uses of several flea and tick products that may be associated with a range of adverse reactions, including hair loss, salivation, tremors, and numerous deaths in cats and kittens. In the short term, the agreement calls for new labeling of the products. The new labeling will state that the products of concern are not to be used on the most vulnerable animals, including cats and kittens that weigh less than 6 pounds, cats older than 13 years, or kittens less than 5 months old. Through this agreement, Hartz will voluntarily stop all new production of these products by September 30, 2005 and will not sell or distribute any affected product after December 31, 2005. The company has agreed to a prohibition on sales down to the retail level by March 31, 2006.

Catsofmany - it's the spot-on treatments that are implicated in this mess. I agree the veterinary ones are probably relatively safe (Advantage, etc) but those types you can find at wal-mart, the grocery store, etc are potentially dangerous. Sergents, Hartz and Biospot are the "big names" but the same ingredients are in some of the others. The one I used was Zodiac but it has Methoprene in it and I won't be using it ever again. I agree flea collars are worse than useless though, for dogs or cats.

WOW! Good that I don't purchase Hartz for my cat, I purchase Advantage. Catsofmany, are you saying that flea collars for cats don't work, because I was thinking of purchasing one?

johnisgood2 - they don't really, no, or they work well for a few days and then quit working. And I've seen a cat end up foaming at the mouth and stumbling around from a bad flea collar, the cat recovered as soon as they pulled it off, too. They're just as bad as the drops. Worse for cats, really as they are not generally safety collars and can get caught on things and choke your cat. Even if they don't make your cat sick they are not a particularly effective method of killing fleas. Stick with the advantage.

I agree with jpete, thanks for posting this info telegramsam, now we can keep our cats safe. :)