Urgent Problem with Hartz Flea Guard

kingboo · Jul 16, 2015

I bought hertz flea guard and I have a long haired cat and it just soaked into his fur, even though I put it on his skin and I sponge bathed him twice and rinsed him off but I can still smell the flea treatment. Has anyone had issues with this? Is he going to be okay if he cleans himself or should I be concerned!?
Thank you!

jolie0216 · Jul 16, 2015

Please don't use this product!!! It is dangerous for cats and can cause terrible reactions!

http://hartzvictims.org/

If I were you, I would get some Dawn dish soap (only the BLUE Dawn dish soap) and give your kitty a bath ASAP!! If he licks his fur and ingests the product, he could get REALLY sick!! Please get a good flea med from a vet - they can sell you individual servings of Revolution, or Frontline, or something - any OTC flea product has much greater potential for horrible side effects!!

This just breaks my heart - watch this video

catpack · Jul 16, 2015

I agree 100% with the above post!

Your cat needs a VERY good Dawn bath ASAP.

I would contact your vet to determine when an alternative flea/tick medication can be used.

Advantage, Revolution, Frontline, Activyl, Comfortis are several safe medications that can be used monthly to treat for fleas.

A bath in Original blue Dawn works great to kill adult fleas before applying a monthly topical medication.

goholistic · Jul 16, 2015

And I agree with the above two posts!

Honestly, the cost savings from using the "economically-priced" brands (Hartz, Sergeant's, Sentry, etc.) aren't worth the potential harmful and painful side effects. I've experienced it first hand with one of my kitties a long time ago when I didn't know better.

I agree that he should be bathed. If he exhibits lethargy, anorexia, skin redness, trembling, or seizures, he needs to be seen by a vet immediately. Even if side effects are relatively mild, the vet can give subcutaneous fluids (under the skin) to help flush out his system.

moddycat28 · Jul 17, 2015

Do not use ANY products by HARTZ! Especially their flea products. Look at the link to watch the flea product effects on poisoned cats. It breaks my heart. How awful.

Anne · Jul 18, 2015

If these products are so dangerous, how come they're still available? I wonder if maybe the issues were associated with older formulas?

jolie0216 · Jul 18, 2015

Well, the active ingredient in the Hartz flea products is pyrethrin/permethrin - cats are especially sensitive to this chemical if ingested. If you apply the product absolutely perfectly - where the liquid seeps down into the skin directly on the back of the neck, then the cat more than likely would be ok because a cat can't lick the back of his neck. But if the liquid drips down his fur (and doesn't seep into the skin) and it rolls to a place where a cat can lick the product off its fur - then you are going to have a major issue. And how many of us trust ourselves to apply a topical flea product absolutely perfectly in a situation where there is absolutely no room for error? The way I was told - the pyrethrin/permethrin family of insecticides used to be all that was available as a topical flea product for cats/dogs a few decades ago. For a person who lives in a very rural area where cats/dogs get swallowed up by ticks, using the Hartz product would be the lesser of two evils in that case.......But within the last 20-30 years, much better and safer topical flea meds have become available (Revolution, Advantage, Frontline, etc). However, the old Hartz stuff is still out there for sale - a cheaper, dangerous relic of older times. They have been investigated many times by the EPA and forced to change their formula several years ago, but the chance for bad reactions is still much too great. I encourage you to visit that hartzvictims.org website - there are thousands of heartbeaking stories of people who have lost their dog or cat to this product, yet it remains on the shelf.......This is a very important cause to me - I have never used the product or lost a pet to it, but I've read all those stories and watched all those videos on that site, and it really is awful....I would never trust any OTC flea product or dewormer - I think they are either straight up dangerous, or simply not effective.

jmarkitell · Jul 18, 2015

Pyrethins and the related compounds are actually a natural insecticide derived from plants, nonetheless they can cause some problems in some instances. Pyrethins are in almost EVERY insect spray, such as Yard Guard, 99% of Raid products, and other spray bug killers. Pyrethins are MUCH safer than some of the older insect products, which were direct nerve agents. Pyrethins work by inhibiting a metabolic process in insects. In any event, it isn't pleasant to watch. Most warm blooded animals don't have any issues with this product in normal uses, but licking or eating the stuff isn't a normal use.

If you feel that your cat ingested some of this, you probably won't have any problems (unless a lot was ingested), but a bath in dawn (or even baby shampoo...both will dissolve oils and related stuff) will remove a lot of it and a call to the vet will hopefully ease your mind and provide instructions if needed for your kitty. Pyrethins aren't considered a systemic insecticide, which is one that is absorbed by the cat's body and kills insects when they ingest the poisoned blood (poisoned to insects, usually fine for a cat or animal). They are a contact killer, which means the insects have to come in contact with the actual chemical. Products like Revolution and Capstar are systemic insect killers and make the animal itself poison to the insects. This also means the insect poison is spread throughout your cat's entire body.

OK...so much for today's lessons in killing bugs and how to do it. Most cats and dogs won't have any issues with pyrethin based insecticides but some medicines can cause the pyrethins to affect your cats similar to the way it works on insects. If you notice any tremors, unsteadiness, problems swallowing, seizures, and similar symptoms then a trip to the vet is in order. Treatment is usually given as Atropine, which will reverse the symptoms quickly. Its true that Hartz has some reported issues, but just about any insecticide can produce the same issues depending on the cats health and condition.

jolie0216 · Jul 18, 2015

JMarkitell said:
Pyrethins and the related compounds are actually a natural insecticide derived from plants, nonetheless they can cause some problems in some instances. Pyrethins are in almost EVERY insect spray, such as Yard Guard, 99% of Raid products, and other spray bug killers. Pyrethins are MUCH safer than some of the older insect products, which were direct nerve agents. Pyrethins work by inhibiting a metabolic process in insects. In any event, it isn't pleasant to watch. Most warm blooded animals don't have any issues with this product in normal uses, but licking or eating the stuff isn't a normal use.

If you feel that your cat ingested some of this, you probably won't have any problems (unless a lot was ingested), but a bath in dawn (or even baby shampoo...both will dissolve oils and related stuff) will remove a lot of it and a call to the vet will hopefully ease your mind and provide instructions if needed for your kitty. Pyrethins aren't considered a systemic insecticide, which is one that is absorbed by the cat's body and kills insects when they ingest the poisoned blood (poisoned to insects, usually fine for a cat or animal). They are a contact killer, which means the insects have to come in contact with the actual chemical. Products like Revolution and Capstar are systemic insect killers and make the animal itself poison to the insects. This also means the insect poison is spread throughout your cat's entire body.

OK...so much for today's lessons in killing bugs and how to do it. Most cats and dogs won't have any issues with pyrethin based insecticides but some medicines can cause the pyrethins to affect your cats similar to the way it works on insects. If you notice any tremors, unsteadiness, problems swallowing, seizures, and similar symptoms then a trip to the vet is in order. Treatment is usually given as Atropine, which will reverse the symptoms quickly. Its true that Hartz has some reported issues, but just about any insecticide can produce the same issues depending on the cats health and condition.

You know what, I had to go to Kroger today and while I was there, I visited the dog/cat aisle and checked out a box of Hartz flea drops - I noticed that there was no pyrethrin in the formula, it is now S-Methoprene (which I googled and saw that it is an insect growth regulator) so it looks like my info was outdated and the formula has changed, which is good news!

However, reading through that Hartz victims site really got me shook - I would never point fingers, but it seems there's a lot of factors at play as to why some cats have such a terrible reaction to the product historically - some people have applied the dog product to cats mistakenly (which is often fatal) and some people have applied it to kittens under 12 weeks (which is also often fatal). So I'm sure in some cases where an emergency medical situation happens, that it is genuinely user error. And I'm sure that a lot of people have used Hartz without any issues. But, there are so many horror stories out there regarding this product that I just don't want to take a chance. To be honest with you, I've never used a topical flea product on any of our cats - if we see fleas, everyone gets a few rounds of capstar and all the carpet/bedding gets thoroughly cleaned. I also give everyone Program during the warmer months. I get the Capstar & Program from Amazon (I get the generic kind). Anyways, just wanted to update that for at least the one Hartz product I looked at in the store today, it appears that they did end up changing their formula from the one that was giving everyone so much trouble. I still don't trust em though

einzmer · Jul 18, 2015

Hartz flea drops for cats does have a pyrethroid. It is called Etofenprox. So do not use.

ACTIVE INGREDIENTS

Etofenprox40.0%
S-Methoprene3.6%
OTHER INGREDIENTS56.4%
TOTAL100.0%

jolie0216 · Jul 18, 2015

Einzmer said:
Hartz flea drops for cats does have a pyrethroid. It is called Etofenprox. So do not use.

ACTIVE INGREDIENTS

Etofenprox40.0%

S-Methoprene3.6%

OTHER INGREDIENTS56.4%

TOTAL100.0%

Well look at that - I did notice some other word there with the S-Methoprene, but it was long and I forgot what it was when I got home to Google

I just know it didn't start with a "P" so it looked like there was no pyrethrin in that formula - thank you for updating this!!

jmarkitell · Jul 19, 2015

I did a little more investigating on the Pyrethin controversy and came across this snippet of information, which is VERY relevant to this conversation. While Pyrethins are fairly safe for most mammals, it appears that some animals, cats in particular, lack the needed enzymes that make most mammals fairly immune to the normal toxicity of Pyrethins:

"Pyrethroids are however highly toxic to cats because they do not have glucuronidase, which participates in hepatic detoxifying metabolism pathways.^{[11]" This is found on the following site:}

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrethroid

From some of the threads in this conversation, it could very well be that many folks are using the formulations for dogs, which would be very ill advised with cats. Only some of the Pyrethin family is particularly toxic to cats, it could very well be that they all could cause some sort of reaction in certain cats. This stuff is also toxic at very low levels (4 parts per TRILLION) to many insects...could this be the cause of the honeybee problem?

Jim

bluecapps · Jul 21, 2015

Hartz flea products are the worst. please don't use them. please please please give your cat a bath with dawn or baby shampoo or a regular cat shampoo immedietely to get hartz out of his fur.

swami157 · Aug 13, 2015

What if you're unable to bathe the cat?

My cat would freak out and attack me

meeoww2812 · Aug 13, 2015

Wow this is scary all of these comments on hartz flea meds. I never knew that could do that to your animal until I read and did research that's terrible they should really stop selling there products .

Urgent Problem with Hartz Flea Guard

kingboo

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jolie0216

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catpack

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goholistic

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moddycat28

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Anne

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jolie0216

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jmarkitell

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jolie0216

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einzmer

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jolie0216

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ACTIVE INGREDIENTS

jmarkitell

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bluecapps

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swami157

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