Hartz flea/tick drops

We acquired a cat that's been roaming around outside for the past four months or so. She is not feral, but rather an abandoned "indoor/outdoor" (based on the information we received when we got her) cat. She's only been in our house for just over twenty-four hours, but we decided it would be better safe than sorry and decided to get flea drops and use them on her as well as all the current residential pets to prevent a potential flea outbreak.

We went to Walmart and we bought Hartz flea drops for cats. So far I've only used it on the new girl, none of the residential cats have gotten the doses meant for them.

However while reading through some reviews (I was actually trying to find out about how long until it takes effect) I saw both some really horrible stories and many stories that said that the product worked perfectly fine.

I have now decided not to use it on the residential cats, especially as one of them is sixteen years old and I don't think she would recover well if something were to happen. But I am nervous that the new girl is going to react badly to it, although it's been on her for approximately eight hours and she seems fine I am very nervous.

I have ZERO intention of putting it on her or any of the residential cats again, ever, but I'm still really scared that something bad will happen to her. She hasn't had any issues at all, absolutely zero symptoms, but I have high anxiety and it's getting to be time for me to go to bed and I'm so scared to wake up to her sick or worse. Does anyone know approximately how long a reaction would take effect, if there was to be any?

Yes I too have only heard bad things about this product. I think the reaction usually occurs after using the product over a period of time or happens right away. I would keep an eye on her but you probably would have seen some signs of a reaction.

It is always good idea to bring a found cat to the vet to examine for disease and a microchip. You for sure do not want to expose your other cats to her until she is given the all clear by the vet. I would bring her to the vet ASAP and during the check up mention that you gave a possibly unsafe flea treatment.

If you are worried about flease please only use the spot treatments at the vet like revolution.

Franksmom said:

Yes I too have only heard bad things about this product. I think the reaction usually occurs after using the product over a period of time or happens right away. I would keep an eye on her but you probably would have seen some signs of a reaction.

It is always good idea to bring a found cat to the vet to examine for disease and a microchip. You for sure do not want to expose your other cats to her until she is given the all clear by the vet. I would bring her to the vet ASAP and during the check up mention that you gave a possibly unsafe flea treatment.

If you are worried about flease please only use the spot treatments at the vet like revolution.

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I'd be sure to keep her isolated until seen and tested. Thank you so much for taking her in though! So sweet of you to do that for her!

@Franksmom I thought so, but the more stories I read the more panicked I got about everything.

Yes that is definitely a good idea, and we have every intention of getting her seen by a vet. She's outwardly healthy, so I'm relatively optimistic but you never know what may be lurking underneath.

@Katluver4life Well it sounded like she had pretty much been abandoned, according to what my boyfriend's mom told us about her. She's supposedly an "indoor/outdoor" cat but she hated being outside alone and refused to leave his step-dad's house for multiple days and became distressed if outside alone. His mother called the number on her tags and they just told her to throw the cat out (in just those words). His mother seemed to really want to keep her, but she is allergic so she can't, so we took her in since the next best thing his mom could do was find her a good home.