Has anyone had a bad reaction to Cheristin flea meds?

Have used Advantage successfully with amazing results within less

then 24 hours with my Tuxedo who was infested and uncomfortable

with the fleas biting him.  Was also losing hair on his back.  Tuxedo

is back to being the healthy kitty with hair grown back and a happy

Affectionate Maine Coon. Also, no prescription needed.  My first

attempt to purchase at Walmart was unsuccessful (all sold out).

Went on the internet and purchased at amazon with free shipping.

Have your kitty tested for heart worm, because he/she probably

ate some fleas.  Hope this helps a bit.

Thank you for your painstaking description of what your poor Simba has gone through!  In reading all the other stories I feel bad for the cat's suffering.  I always wonder why nobody has tried something natural instead of these chemicals, even though in some cats, there are no bad reactions.  It's still a chemical and it's a poison.  Hasn't anybody tried Diatomaceous Earth?  It's very safe for topical application and safe for ingestion. It kills fleas and ticks plus if ingested (put some in their food), it kills internal parasites, as well.  It's safe for humans, too, to take internally.

Just always get the food grade.  Put it in an old spice bottle and use the tiny holes to shake it on your cat (or dogs) and rub it down to the skin.  Put it in a bag of dry food and shake it up or a pinch in wet food to get rid of worms.  My cats are inside cats (which brings up another topic).  If you let your cats outside, then they DO have worms, but they are much safer as inside cats for many dangers, not just fleas and worms. 

Don't take my word for it, do a search on the internet and read about Diatomaceous Earth use.  I'm all for natural means to medicate myself and animals.  Even rubbing mint leaves on an animal will deter flea & ticks, but to kill them, use D.E.  I just feel really bad for all those cats suffering and I had to jump on here to let people know. 

I have used this for months and works great . Have had no issues with it 

I have been giving my cat this for over a year..the only side effects she has to it is..she acts strange for a day.  She just curls up alot and stays by herself.  I am thinking it's the smell that bothers her.

Does your cat isolate herself for a day or so?  Does she act strange at all?

nothing bad

I never ended up giving it to them. My dog has acted lethargic like that with hers, which I discontinued.

If anyone is still interested, here is some information on Cheristin.  A few years ago, Elanco introduced a flea treatment for cats called Assurity.  My vet recommended it when Advantage stopped being very effective.  I put it on all 7 of my cats.    The treatment killed all fleas within a day, but on the second day i noticed that 4 of my cats had large bald spots at the application spot. I called my vet but she said she had not heard of any bad reactions.  I still didn't trust it, so I just used Advantage for the rest of the summer and it worked well enough for maintenance.  Last year I had flea problems again, so I thought I would use the same treatment, Assurity for the first application, then Advantage after.  When I tried to get Assurity at my vet's office, they didn't have it and didn't even remember the product.  (Huh?)  But they had a new product called Cheristin that they recommended.  I went home and did some research and this is what I found.  Assurity caused tons of bad side effects, from simple hair loss to death in cats.  In response, Elanco discontinued Assurity, decreased the amount of the active ingredient (Spinetoram) from 39.6% of the treatment content to 11.2%, and reintroduced the product under the name Cheristin.  I used Cheristin with great caution, keeping my cats under constant surveillance for about 2 days.  The treatment killed all fleas, and my cats had no bad reaction.  Still, I went ahead and used Advantage for the rest of the year and it worked just fine.  I am about to go buy Cheristin again, but will only use it on my two younger cats, as even the label warns against using it on elderly cats.  I wish Advantage still worked for me.  i don't really trust Bayer, either, though.  It's suspicious that once we cat owners figured out we could buy the dog size tubes for about 1/4 the price, suddenly they "reformulated" the dog treatment, making it unusable for cats.  Still, for a long time Advantage worked great with no side effects on my cats.  I am going to try diatomaceous earth on my 21-year-old cat, and see if it works.  No matter what you choose, READ THE LABELS.

I do not believe Bayer reformulated the product (Advantage II) but they changed the packaging to make it very scary.  The cat product says "do not use on dogs" and the dog product says "do not use on cats" yet the formula for each on Bayer's web site is still exactly the same, as it always was.  While their other products are not the same for cats and dogs (Advantage Multi, for instance, same ingredients for dogs and cats but different concentration of the moxidectin in each), I firmly believe this is just a marketing move by Bayer, because once people discovered they could get 10 times as much for the same price by buying the Extra Large Dog Advantage II, or that they didn't have to buy a separate product for each animal when they had a large dog, a medium dog and a cat, many folks opted for the less expensive route.  I certainly couldn't afford to pay cat advantage prices for 15-20 cats.  Vets were the one who told rescue groups about this.  Here are screenshots of the product label information from Bayer's web site.

I would love the cart. Thank you!

To red top lover, I would love the dosage chart. Thank you!

Here are the doses we use.  NOTE:  If you have multiple cats and they groom each other, or dogs and cats who groom each other, keep them separated until the slightly oily medicine is no longer visible, usually a day or so.  It is OK to use on a nursing mama cat if the kittens are young enough that they are not climbing all over her.  You do not want anyone to get it in their mouth.    It tastes terrible and will make them foam at the mouth. 

Advantage II – imidacloprid (9.1%), Pyriproxyfen (0.46%)

Bayer’s Packaging  (shows what doses they use)

Kitten under 5 lbs.                  .23 ml

Small Cat 5-9 lbs                    .4 ml

Large Cat  9 lbs & over          .8 ml

Small Dog 10 lbs & under     .4 ml

Medium Dog 11-20 lbs          1.0 ml

Large Dog 21-55 lbs               2.5 ml

Extra Large Dog over 55 lbs  4.0 ml

Our Cat Dosing – for healthy cats (we divide in smaller increments to save more)

Kitten, 2-3 lbs                         .1 ml

Kitten 3-5 lbs                          .25 ml

Kitten/Cat 5-7 lbs.                  .35 ml

Average Cat 7-10 lbs.             .6 ml

Big Cat 10-15 lbs                   .8 ml

Huge Cat 15-20 lbs                 1.0 ml

Our Dog Dosing – for healthy dogs

Puppies/Dogs 5 lbs & under  .2 ml

Small Dog 5-10 lb.                 .4 ml

Medium Dog 11-15 lbs          .8 ml

Large Dog 16-25 lbs               1.5 ml

Larger Dog 26-55 lbs             2.5 ml

Extra Large Dog 55-85 lbs     4.0 ml

Huge Dog (over 85 lbs)          6.0 ml

TO OPEN:   Cut into foil close to cap of tube and remove from package. Remove cap from tube and turn over, placing other end of cap in nozzle

Twist cap to remove inner seal, then turn over again to recap vial.

TO DISPENSE:  Squeeze a small amount of the liquid into small container so you can draw the measured amount into a syringe. (We use old vaccine vials with rubber stoppers).

Use 1 ml. (1 cc) syringe for the smaller doses

For CATS, part fur between shoulder blades where they cannot reach to lick and dispense in a line, then cover with fur again so they cannot shake it off.

For DOGS, part coat and dispense close to skin in several places along the spine. Cover with fur again so they cannot shake it off.

I've been using Cheristin for a few months for flea prevention (not an active case of fleas) after using Revolution for years. My vet told me Revolution wasn't holding up well against the very vigorous flea population we get here in the Gulf South. Like OliveS, my cats seemed lethargic the day after application. (They never experienced this with Revolution.) Also, as a topical product, it doesn't dry fast enough and their coat on the back of their head/neck is damp with product for almost an entire day. But this time, one of my cats (they are from the same litter) had a more pronounced reaction to it, vomiting everything he ate or drank for the next 2 days, plus the lethargic effect. We're on day 3 and he seems to be coming out of it, and I'm waiting on a call-back from the vet, even though he seems to be improving now, but I wanted to put this out there as a possible reaction. It seems to be very clearly linked to the product, so we're going to be switching back to Revolution next month.

Also, only one of the cats had a bad reaction. 

Went to vet on Friday. He said revolution does not work. Will try. Spent $85 for 3 capstar and Revolution, did not work. I t

hope cheristin will.

Some dog flea meds will kill cats

The regular flea meds stopped working for all of my cats both at home and office.  I was recommended Cheristin and WOW does it work well.  Lasting on my outdoor cats for 45+ days without a single flea in the comb.  My indorr cats got fleas from but after a single use of Cheristin,two months later no fleas!

I highly recommend Cheristin and I do not do this often! Looks like the other flea meds no longer work.

I bought mine through Amazon and it work better than any topical I have ever used. The old standard topical quit working for my cats in Florida.

I highly recommend it.

I used it on my boy for the first time this month with no problems.

My cat has died!  I am so very sad!  She had FAD (Feline Allergic Dermatitis) and I'd been using Cheristin on her along with the other 2 cats I have since late 2014.  She was 10 years old and an indoor cat.

I'd noted after application that they all would be rather lethargic for a day or so afterwards and the flea problem was gone quickly.  It worked like a charm it seemed but wow, what a toxic odor it has and all 3 cats hated the odor except the one that is now dead.

My girl got sick last year in August after using Cheritin on her for about 1 year.  She  began hiding and was really confused.  I took her to the vet and he told me to use Feliway around the house.  It did not help but gradually, she got better and I continued to use Cheritin for cats on her.

In March 2016, she fell ill with a fever and I took her to the vet again and he ran $500 worth of tests on her and found nothing wrong.

She was so sick when I got her back it was horrific!  She was scared to death, hiding and having trouble jumping up to the sofa or bed.

Fast forward to June 2016.  More money spent on more vets and no answers.  She began to vomit blood and would no longer eat nor drink.  I had her put down not long after that as she'd gone from a hefty 13 lb. cat to a mere 7 lbs.  She could no longer walk and turned in circles in the end and she could no longer jump or hardly move.

Here is the particularly odd thing about her case:  She no longer seemed to have the ability to meow or purr.  Its as if she no longer could meow or purr!  Why? 

I have 2 other cats that are brothers age 3  years.  I've been using the Cheristin on them too but now I am afraid it will kill them as they become lethargic too after applying Cheristin to them.  They are both indoor cats as well.

This is an issue.   My sweet dear girl is gone now and is it because of this flea treatment called Cheristin? 

Does anyone have anything they can suggest I do?

I am DEVASTATED.