Advantage flea treatment making my cat sick?

Ive had my cat sparky for three months now. The first month we gave her advantage she stopped eating properly within a day and acted strange all week. On the Thursday after she kept going back to her litter tray and straining. The vet said she either had a urine infection or was constipated. When we got her home from the vets she was sick on the floor. We thought it was from stress.

On the 21st March we gave her a second dose of advantage since she's been with us. She seemed fine but again wasn't eating as much and actually wasn't as much of a lap cat as normal. The following Saturday we woke up to find she had been sick on the floor again. She seemed much better after she had been sick.

Do you think it's somehow upsetting her digestive system or do you think it's councidence? Wondering if I should get a different treatment for the 21st april?

is she ingesting any of it?

Not that I'm aware of but I'm wondering if she is when she cleans herself

jennielouises said:

Ive had my cat sparky for three months now. The first month we gave her advantage she stopped eating properly within a day and acted strange all week. On the Thursday after she kept going back to her litter tray and straining. The vet said she either had a urine infection or was constipated. When we got her home from the vets she was sick on the floor. We thought it was from stress.

On the 21st March we gave her a second dose of advantage since she's been with us. She seemed fine but again wasn't eating as much and actually wasn't as much of a lap cat as normal. The following Saturday we woke up to find she had been sick on the floor again. She seemed much better after she had been sick.

Do you think it's somehow upsetting her digestive system or do you think it's councidence? Wondering if I should get a different treatment for the 21st april?

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It's possible she is having some type or reaction.  One way to test for this is to switch to a different type of preventative, Revolution as an example.  If you really want to be sure there is no reaction you could use Capstar, which doesn't cause reactions but its downside is its a daily pill.  I'm presuming your cat goes outside?

Sometimes yes. But evening not we were told by the vets she could still get fleas as we could walk them in on our shoes.

Maybe she would be better with an injection?

jennielouises said:

Sometimes yes. But evening not we were told by the vets she could still get fleas as we could walk them in on our shoes.

Maybe she would be better with an injection?

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If you are in a very high flea area it is possible they could come inside but i think its fair to say that in most locations they will only come inside on the animal.  But if she goes outside then there is a risk, and heartworm too is a risk.  Revolution also protects against that, but there is nothing inject-able for fleas.  You can do topical like you are doing, or oral (pills).

StephenQ said:

 
If you are in a very high flea area it is possible they could come inside but i think its fair to say that in most locations they will only come inside on the animal.  But if she goes outside then there is a risk, and heartworm too is a risk.  Revolution also protects against that, but there is nothing inject-able for fleas.  You can do topical like you are doing, or oral (pills).

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there is a 6-month Program (lufenuron) injectable for cats, if it's still available. i've never used it. 

detmut said:

 
there is a 6-month Program (lufenuron) injectable for cats, if it's still available. i've never used it. 

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Interesting I had no idea that program was also inject-able.  A link is below.  The OP should know that Program only prevents fleas from reproducing, it has no effect on adult fleas.

http://www.drugs.com/vet/program-6-month-injectable-for-cats.html

Even without proof that it's the advantage causing the problem, it's enough to warrant a switch. Even if you just try something else for a month to see if you can avoid the reaction. I use revolution and love it, especially since it keeps me from worrying about more than just the fleas!

StephenQ said:

 
Interesting I had no idea that program was also inject-able.  A link is below.  The OP should know that Program only prevents fleas from reproducing, it has no effect on adult fleas.

http://www.drugs.com/vet/program-6-month-injectable-for-cats.html

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Well she doesn't have fleas atm so surely that means it's ok? Or could she still catch the adult fleas if she had it?

ishtar163 said:

Even without proof that it's the advantage causing the problem, it's enough to warrant a switch. Even if you just try something else for a month to see if you can avoid the reaction. I use revolution and love it, especially since it keeps me from worrying about more than just the fleas!

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I am taking her to the vets tomorrow for a dental appointment so will bring it up then. I had wondered if it was best to switch rather than try one more time. I don't want the poor thing getting sick again. But could it really be that making her sick if it is a few days to a week later?

I'm not sure how delayed the reaction can be...have you read all of the package inserts? If that's the only common association between the times she got sick, it seems like it would have to be. If it takes that long to ingest enough to affect her, maybe. Was there anything else that was different than normal right before she got sick? I would recommend the switch anyway, but if the advantage works otherwise and you like it, you could try to find another tie between her illnesses.

jennielouises said:

 
Well she doesn't have fleas atm so surely that means it's ok? Or could she still catch the adult fleas if she had it?

I am taking her to the vets tomorrow for a dental appointment so will bring it up then. I had wondered if it was best to switch rather than try one more time. I don't want the poor thing getting sick again. But could it really be that making her sick if it is a few days to a week later?

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I don't know how long it might take her to react, you can discuss with your vet but these are strong medicines.  The easiest thing to do is switch to another type, the other ones are:

Revolution (also protects against heartworm)

Frontline

Capstar (daily pill)

Program (once a month pill or 6 mo injectable, prevents eggs from hatching)

Another question is how often does your cat actually go outside?  If it was once a week or once a month you could give her a daily capstar pill on the day she goes out and she will be flea-free.  ANd this would be VASTLY cheaper than giving her a monthly Advantage dose.

And the other thing to discuss with the vet is if something else medically is going on that appears to be connected but isn't connected to the advantage.

I took her to the vets both times she was sick. The first time she was also straining a lot to go to the loo so they thought she might be constipated. They also tested her urine but said the results were inconclusive and that they couldn't rule out a urine infection. She was given an anti-inflammatory injection and we took her home. She then spent the night in the vets and they finally got her eating again within 24 hours. We thought it was a one off. 

Then this month we just woke up to sick on the floor so I don't know what she was like before it. But she hadn't been eating as much during the week. The only thing that had been different to her normal routine was the advantage so that is why I made that connection. The vet never said anything when we took her in the second time and told me that ‘cats are just sick sometimes’. I didn’t really like that answer as no animal is sick for no reason. It wasn’t a hair ball as there was no hair in there.

Time to find another vet eh? My horse had a horrible reaction to a mega dose for worms. So this could be similar.