If ear flicking or scratching graduates to shaking, incoordination or salivation, get your dog to a vet or animal hospital immediately. Do not try to wash him if these symptoms appear. At this point, the poison may be in his system and he will need to be stabilized and likely given fluids. After he is stabilized, wash him in liquid soap and warm water. Warm water is critical in order to prevent shock. Your vet may also prescribe medicine to help detoxify his system.
Typically, dogs reacting to a flea treatment will flick their ears or scratch, though these reactions are usually mild and dont last long. However, these early symptoms suggest that your dog may be too saturated with chemicals. Use a dry towel to soak up the excess. If symptoms persist, wash her in a warm bath with mild soap, such as liquid dish detergent, to get the chemicals off her fur.
Most commercial flea products are safe if used according to instructions, though you must take care when applying topical flea treatments or collars. Most collars contain chemicals such as tetrachlorvinphos and propoxur, which release flea-repelling medicines into the fur. Topical sprays and powders often contain pyrethrins, which are derived from chrysanthemums, or their synthetic cousins, pyrethroids. The danger comes less from leeching chemicals on fur than from licking or biting irritated areas where flea medicines rest, or inhaling powder.
Poisoning from powders and sprays used to treat a flea infestation is more common than poisoning from collars. A dogs reaction to pyrethrins or pyrethroids can range from mild to moderate allergies or hives to nausea, respiratory distress and tremors to vomiting and shock. Excessive drooling, agitation and excitability are also common signs of flea medication poisoning. In more severe cases, tremors can lead to seizures. If you see any of these symptoms, call your vet at once.
Fleas are annoying at best and painful at worst for dogs. Conscientious dog parents take steps to keep the tiny bloodsuckers at bay. But if your solution for treating fleas involves powders, sprays or collars, you must be aware of the risks these chemicals pose to canines. Flea medicine poisoning can ultimately do more harm than fleas themselves.
A: First and foremost, ingesting parts of a flea collar can cause a foreign body obstruction where the pieces of collar can become lodged in the stomach or intestines. If obstruction occurs, it is a medical emergency. Most collars will be visible on an X-ray so your veterinarian can see how many pieces of the collar are in the animal’s intestinal tract, how large they are and where in the body they are located.
A: Some pets can be sensitive to flea products containing Permethrin. Any active ingredient ending in -thrin is a Permethrin product. Some animals have a response to Permethrins called paresthesia. Paresthesia is a “pins and needles” or tingling feeling to the skin which can cause shaking and shivering, twitching, agitation, biting at feet and tail and rubbing the body along the floor or furniture. Sometimes these symptoms are mild and resolve on their own without treatment. Also, the fleas dying on the pet can cause some of the same symptoms mentioned which will also resolve once the fleas have died off. In severe cases, you can bathe the dog fully in liquid dish soap three times back to back to remove the product. Other treatments are: brushing the animal gently to help with the sensation on the skin, placing Vitamin E oil on the application site to soothe the skin or by placing a cool compress on the application site up to 10 minutes at a time. If cool compresses are used, the animal should be fully dry and you should wrap the ice or ice pack in a towel to prevent the skin from becoming too cold. If you are unsure of the symptoms you are seeing, you should contact a veterinarian, the emergency number on the product package or Pet Poison Helpline at 800-213-6680 for assistance.
Here at Pet Poison Helpline, we receive a large amount of calls every season relating to common flea and tick products. A lot of these questions are similar in nature and I would like to address some of these questions to help in a potential toxicity situation.
A: Nitenpyram products begin killing fleas within 30 minutes of administration. When the fleas begin dying off, the movement of the fleas on the animal can cause a “tickle effect”. Common symptoms of this are vocalization, agitation, scratching or panting. These symptoms are expected to be mild and self-limiting and not related to toxicity. If this occurs, you can brush the animal gently to help remove fleas and help with the sensations of the fleas on the skin. Normally this sensation will fade once the fleas have died off, commonly within a few hours. If the symptoms continue or other symptoms are seen, then a veterinarian should be contacted.
A: Flea squeeze on products contain active ingredient(s) and a carrier that helps the product stay on the skin. If an animal is able to lick the product when it is wet on the fur or scratches the area and then licks their foot, the bitter taste of the product can cause the animal to salivate, foam at the mouth, become nauseous or vomit. Also, some cats have been known to become agitated and run around the house. This is only due to the taste and systemic toxicity would not be expected. Normal treatment would be to feed the animal a tasty snack and entice them to drink water or flush their mouth with room temperature water. For cats, wet cat food, tuna or tuna juice can be given. For dogs, treats or water flavored with chicken or beef broth may help to flush out the mouth. The symptoms should be mild and self-limiting. You should try to prevent the animal from licking until the product has fully dried. Once dried, it should not cause the same reaction when licked. If you are still concerned about the product, you can bathe the pet fully in a liquid dish soap three times back to back to remove the product.
What happens if you give a dog too much Simparica?
In the overdose groups, transient and self-limiting neurological signs were observed in some animals: mild tremors at 3 times the maximum exposure dose and convulsions at 5 times the maximum exposure dose. All dogs recovered without treatment.
Flea Treatment for dogs! Most are doing it wrong!?
They are furry, loving members of the family, but dogs and cats are also the perfect mode of transportation for fleas and ticks. Millions of people rely on spot-on flea and tick treatments, which are easy and effective, but many pet owners have found that the products can also be dangerous.
Sarah Biddle says she followed the directions to apply a store-bought treatment to her normally playful cat, Uno. Within hours, he was “under the bed and howling and crying and meowing,” she said.
“I thought I had poisoned him,” Biddle said. “I instantly knew that whatever I had done last night, or I had put on him, was making him sick.”
WRAL News did an online search and found multiple posts showing animals with similar reactions. Some side-effects include seizures, vomiting, lethargy, skin burns and death.
Dr. Audra Alley is a holistic veterinarian at Bowman Animal Clinic in Raleigh, where thousands of pet patients use the treatments. While the practice has seen few problems, Alley says the products do contain serious chemicals.
“The most common thing we see is hair-loss at the application site,” she said. “I do think we need to be aware that they are pesticides. They are not a benign class of drugs.”
In 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates the treatments and logs complaints about problems, launched an investigation after receiving 48,000 reports about pet reactions to spot-on treatments. About 1,300 included very serious reactions or death. That’s out of about 270 million doses that were sold.
From 2007 to 2008, pet reactions to the medication increased 53 percent. That’s around the same time that the products, which used to be available only through veterinarians, became available online and in stores. The products also started coming from many new manufacturers and with some different ingredients.NO TITLE PROVIDED
Manufacturers and many veterinary experts say that, while some of the reactions arent explainable, most of the products are safe, when applied correctly. They also say that many of the adverse reactions involve mistakes, such as pet owners using the wrong type of product.
“If people mistakenly put a dog product on their cat, it can literally cause death,” Alley said.
Another mistake is incorrectly guessing a pet’s weight. Applying treatment made for an 18-pound cat to a cat that weighs 11 pounds could be toxic. Alley says pet owners need to be very careful about following directions and putting the medication where it’s supposed to go.
“It says ‘between the shoulder blades.’ How many people know exactly where the shoulder blades are? And if you go a little too far back, cats are little yogis, they can get around there and lick that stuff off pretty easily,” she said.
Last month, the EPA reiterated that it is working to get manufacturers to offer a wider range of dosages relative to a pets weight. For example, instead of 31 to 60 pounds, the range might be 31 to 40 pounds. The EPA also wants all packages to clearly state if they are for a cat or dog.
Alley says the risk of disease from fleas and ticks is significantly higher than the risk of reactions from the treatment. Pets can die from tick-carrying Lyme disease and flea reactions. Those pests can also be a health risk to humans.
Alley says alternative treatments, such as electromagnetic tags, flea paper and supplements, are not as effective or consistent as spot-on treatments. Beyond effectiveness, even natural products have health risks. Alley says garlic can cause anemia in pets, and brewers yeast can cause intestinal problems.
As for Uno the cat, hes back to his old self. Biddle says she wants pet owners to realize the risks of spot-on flea and tick treatments.
“I just want people to be aware that they can be very dangerous and potentially deadly,” she said. 1 / 2
Copyright 2023 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.