Question on study of adverse effects from pet flea meds like Frontline

[kristopher]

About a year ago someone posted information about a new effort to evaluate the safety of flea meds like Frontline. I've not been successful finding it with the search engine, does anyone have the original reference or an update?

[dipsydoodle]

1. All I can remember

is that if you're daft enough to use the stronger dog version on cats then expect the worst.

[kestrel91316]

5. A giant duh, lol. Sad that we vets have to tell people NOT to do that.

A client of mine (who can't see fit to bring kitty in but every 5 years) nearly killed his old cat this week just using cat-strength Hartz flea spray which contains organophosphates, a kill-em-dead product with a very narrow margin of safety, and something I have not seen used in cats in 25 years (totally obsolete but sadly still sold). They were telling me about somebody they knew who used DOG flea products on their cat, and I commented that we only do that if we really don't like the cat and are too cheap to pay for euthanasia.

[Nite Owl]

2. I googled this for DU threads

http://www.democraticunderground.com/searchresults.html?q=pet+meds+fleas&sitesearch=democraticunderground.com&sa=Search&domains=democraticunderground.com&client=pub-7805397860504090&forid=1&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&cof=GALT%3A%23008000%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%23336699%3BVLC%3A663399%3BAH%3Acenter%3BBGC%3AFFFFFF%3BLBGC%3A336699%3BALC%3A0000FF%3BLC%3A0000FF%3BT%3A000000%3BGFNT%3A0000FF%3BGIMP%3A0000FF%3BFORID%3A11&hl=en

Might be somewhere in one of the threads. Sorry I don't have time to look through them right now. Hope it helps.

[BuelahWitch]

3. Here's a link to an evaluation by the EPA

http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/health/petproductseval.html

I have a little Facebook friend named Tiny Timmy who has neurological damage from exposure to toxic over-the-counter flea and tick products. You can read about his rescue and recovery (he's 19 months old now; wasn't expected to see his six month birthday) here:

http://tinytimmy.org/timm/

One of his owners testified about the dangers of these products before the EPA last summer. They're working to help get the word out about their toxicity.

[kestrel91316]

6. For the record: Frontline and Advantage are extremely safe products

when used as directed. It's the cheap knock-off spot-on products that have a bad track record of killing cats.

And one of my not-so smart clients nearly killed his old cat with Hartz flea spray for cats this week - the organophosphates in it are very risky. The chemicals in Frontline and Advantage specifically target a part of insect metabolism that doesn't even exist in mammals, which is why they are so incredibly safe compared to older products.

[dipsydoodle]

8. Also from memory,

not from the DU post but from my vet, - you reduce the amount for kittens substantially or don't use at all on them.

[kestrel91316]

9. Well you just follow the label instructions. In the case of Advantage Multi,

there is a specific kitten product that is for kittens 9 weeks and older, and 2-5 lb. If they don't meet those criteria, you don't use it - PERIOD. You find a temporary alternative, like a couple of squirts of Adam's Flea Mist and, most importantly, housing where there are zero fleas to start with.

[sinkingfeeling]

4. All I know is that they keep changing the formulas and now Frontline Plus doesn't work at all.

[damntexdem]

7. I never have to medicate my pet fleas.

They all ran away to the flea circus.

;-)