Odd stuff happening with Advantage?

Hey folks,

I've been using Advantage once a month with my two kittens and my adult cat for several months now. Everything is going find (no fleas and no bad reactions to it). BUT, when I apply it to one of the kittens, which has a very short and dense coat, the liquid seems to flow through the coat and coat all of the hairs in a large area (causing a large wet area around his neck). The hairs even "spike" together when this happens. This does not happen with my other kitten or adult cat, so I'm not sure if it's a frequent occurence or not.

Has anyone every experienced something similar to this before? I try to seperate his hair before applying to the skin, but it doesn't seem to help.

Also, a couple of months ago when I applied it to him he was wearing a safety collar (nylon with a plastic safety clasp). I didn't think anything about applying it with the collar on, but, a day later I found that the plastic clasp has adhered to his skin (yikes!) and that it was stuck, as if the advantage had acted as a solvent when it came in contact with the plastic collar clip and turned into some kind of glue. It could be that he happened to get into something sticky, but he didn't have any other areas of stickyness on him (paws, face, etc) so this is unlikely. Let's just say that 1. I'm never buying that kind of collar again, and 2. I now take their collars off before I apply it.

Art

This happens to both of my kitties when I apply Advantage. The day after I apply it, I usually brush that area and their hair is fine.

Stephanie

My dog's fur does that when I put on flea meds. I just see it as a good reminder not to pet her there! (Though, I still end up doing it half the time.. yuck!)

Advantage does the same to Chuckies fur, i think it's also to remind you where you've put it, so that you don't accidentaly rub that area then rub your eyes etc. He is a larger fluffy cat, so the clasp on his collar stays under his neck usually. That makes it sound like a chemical reaction with the plastic, maybe you could get a different sort of collar. If your kitty is indoors you don't have to leave the collar on either (i do, force of habit)

Thanks, as always, for your replies and experiences.

I'm glad to know that this just isn't "user error" and that others have had the spikey hair thing happen to them too. It doesn't bother me, but I always wonder if the meds are less effective because some of it goes up/on the hair.

As to the collor/plastic/advantage thing, yes, I think that it was a chemical reaction between something in the advantage and either the plastic clasp on the collar or the glue (that probably holds the nylon to the plastic clip). I think that I will email advantage customer service about this and see if it's happened before... not only did my cat's hair stick to the clip/glue/advantage, but it stuck to his skin as well and caused a red welt. I had to cut the collar and effected hair off of him and he seemed fine after that, but still it's concerning.

Art