Dog owners blame popular flea medicine for pets' deaths
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Have been seeing a lot of people post, but until necropsies are done on dogs, it's not going to make any difference when they have under 1000 people claiming the drug killed their pets but no proof.
I remember a similar flood of people claiming something... a deodorizer spray... was killing/making their dogs sick, even though absolutely no proof and major amounts of the people's own vets said dogs had other serious health issues and could not say it even had any effect. Eventually it was filed under snopes.
But so many people said chicken jerky from China was making their dogs sick and the manufacturer/distributors and FDA kept saying no proof. Yet Australia had same issue, lots of deaths. Banned the product, death rate dropped dramatically. They took the view... something is wrong, we don't know what but let's be cautious. We took another 2 yrs to even get warnings and the stuff still isn't banned.
With new drugs... I gotta tell you, I just don't. My own vets say, seems safe but lets wait 5 to 7 yrs. This drug was approved only 3 yrs ago. Also, if a drug made my dog throw up, I sure wouldn't be giving it the 2nd or 3rd dose. Unlike the deodorizing spray, these cases SEEM valid, and scary. It is one reason I prefer the spray on or top spot type... they act odd, you can at least get some of it off and have more time to get to a vet.
Trust your vet generally... but not with new drugs. I don't want mine being a guinea pig.
Anyway, thanks for posting it. We have to be our dogs' advocates.
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I would say it could be suspicious, and unfortunate that dogs died. But Debra is right, necropsies need to be performed to be sure. Dogs get into so many things without our knowledge.
On the other hand, I never use these chemical flea medicines. I tried the topical ones and they burned the fur right off my dogs. These medicines are pesticides and if you read the labels they say to be careful and not to apply to human skin - safe really? I've gone to herbal (Doc Akerman's for example, no cloves) sprays even though they need to be applied every day. My excellent rabbit hunters often come back not only with the rabbit but also the rabbit's fleas. I've seen the fleas die and drop off immediately when sprayed. The ones with citronella also keep mosquitoes away.
