any side effects of Advantage flea med?

Hello,

I have been giving my two indoor-only cats Advantage ever since they had thier first (only only - phew!) flea infestation about a year ago. When i first gave it to them, i dosed them one a month for about 3 months. I haven't seen any fleas since, so after that gave them Advantage as a preventative measure about once every 2-4 months (one dose).

i have been trying to search for facts about possible side effects of Advantage - everything i read online says it's perfectly safe, and no mention of side effects. My cats both experience obvious increases in lethargy, and also they squint their eyes, like the smell burns their eyes. anyone else notice this??? it definitely makes them feel really poorly the first 2-3 days, i'm just worried i am "poisoning" them or something.

i feel so bad giving it to them, but i don't want them to be all itchy with fleas again - and worse - having worms crawl out their butts

poor babies!

anyway - please let me know if anyone has wintessed strange side effects, etc...

THANKS

All pestasides can have different effects on all animals. It's very possible that it doesn't agree with either of them. If you notice this effect every time after the application, you can talk to the vet about switching to frontline or revolution.

thanks Sandie, i will certainly do that - although my parent's cat used to have a terrible time with Frontline - so i don't know where to turn! but i can always try and see if there's improvement.

I can tell you that I love advantage, but I switched to revolution because my vet sells it. I really like it alot. The odor is minimal and it absorbes very quickly. The only thing that I have ever experienced is 2 of my cats loose a little hair at the site of application. It doesnt bother them and it grows right back. Out of 17 cats, 2 isn't too bad. You may be able to get it online somewhere.

I have tried several different kinds of flea prevention, but I always come back to Advantage. I have used it on 4 cats, and have had no problems. I just had to make sure they didn't groom each other, but you'll have to do that with any of it.

For 10 years we never used a flea med on our indoor only cat. Whenever I combed her I would check for fleas and while she had a couple flea hitchhikers (that we must have brought in on our clothes), we were lucky and never had an infestation.

Maybe you can try flea combing every day. . .then when -- and if -- you see them, start the Advantage back up. Indoor only kitties have a much less chance of getting fleas unless they have an outdoor run or something.