Cat owners beware

I was going to post something about the end of Buffy, how Buffy used to be so great and then was so bad, but became kind of great again at the end (but only kind of), but instead, I’m going to pass on a cautionary tale about a brand of flea medicine for cats (or dogs) that you must never, ever buy.

Let me preface by saying: the cat is ok.

What follows was sent by an old and dear friend. Read it, be angered, and *never buy Hartz products again. Let’s see that invisible hand of the market slap these irresponsible fucks a good one.
bq. I would like to warn you all against using Hartz flea treatment for your cat. This medication comes in tubes somewhat similar to more expensive medications such as Advantage and Frontline, to be applied at the nape of your cat’s neck. I purchased this after very carefully reading all of the specifications on the back (for cats over 10 pounds, greater than 12 weeks of age) and put it on my cat Delilah. About an hour and a half after application, Delilah started acting very strange. She was crawling around on the ground and moving in a jerky manner, lifting and shaking each paw with every step she took, almost as if her feet were wet (they were not). Her ears were back and her eyes were twitching.
bq. The back of the package warns that “some cats may have adverse reactions to the product” and advises the consumer that if this happens, they should bathe their animal and call the vet. I bathed her and she did not improve, so I decided to take her to the emergency weekend vet clinic. Lucky I did, since they told me she could have died if I had not brought her in. She had to be catheterized and have an IV installed, and they had to treat her with medicine to flush the flea treatment from her system. She persisted in having “tremors” (aka seizures) for almost 12 hours after arriving at the hospital and had to stay overnight for a total vet bill of almost $350. Thankfully, she has completely recovered now and will likely have no long-term effects other than a heightened sensitivity to flea medication.
bq. The reason I want to spread the word about this is that the vet clinic told me they see more adverse reactions to this flea medicine than any other, and here’s why: according to the vet, basically, the way these medications work is through blocking neural processes. The old medications used by companies like Hartz apparently are not insect-specific, with the line of thinking being that since your animal is so much larger than the insect, what is lethal to a flea or tick won’t harm your animal. Newer medications like Advantage and Frontline are apparently insect-specific. In addition, in order to compete with these new medications, which provide a month of treatment (whereas the old ones broke down in about a week in the sunlight), Hartz upped the concentration they were using so that it would last longer.
bq. Amazingly, Hartz (and the EPA) know of this situation and have not recalled their product. Instead Hartz has changed the labelling to have “stronger precautionary statements.” I believe this is a dangerous product and should not be used by anyone.
bq. If you do a quick search online you can read literally hundreds of stories about people whose pets have died or suffered severe neurological damage as a result of this product. I wish I had known this before buying the product. I’d also like to stress that this did NOT happen due to improper usage (i.e., using a dog product on a cat)—I followed the directions exactly and could have killed my cat. So please, forward this information to anyone you know who has a cat (or dog, as apparently this same problem happens to many dogs treated with these products) and urge them never to use Hartz products on their pets.
That’s all folks. As the lady says, don’t buy Hartz, and tell your friends.

 * KT: I’m allowed to call you ‘old’ now that you are a Master. Sorry, them’s the rules.

Filed under: cats