# Scary Allergic Reaction to Flea Meds



## Katie (Apr 9, 2005)

Ive had a pretty rough night but not as bad as my poor Chloe. Last night i applied K9 Advantix to all 3 of my chis. Tyson has used is often and Chloe has also used it a couple of times. I hadnt used it for at least 4 months because i never noticed fleas. But i saw one on Chloe a few days ago and decided to buy some. It was the first time i gave any to Leila and so far she is fine as is Ty. Unfortunately i think Chloe is having a bad allergic reaction.

She was sort of acting not herself today. She was sort of clingy and a little bit more hyper than usual but nothing i noticed to be weird. I had thanksgiving dinner at my house tonight with 16 other people and wasnt in my room much since i was helping cook and eating and everything. I kept the dogs in my room because of all the people and the little kids. 

I didnt notie anything until about 9 o clock tonight when i came in my room to digest my huge thanksgiving dinner. Chloe was on my bed with me and wouldnt sit still. She kept jumping up really fast and changing positions constantly. She was still clingy and hyper too. I watched her for a few minutes and noticed that her left leg was sort of twitching or spasming. My first reaction was that she had pulled a muscle or maybe broken her leg while i was gone. I felt her leg and stretched it out and rubbed it all over and Chloe gave no reaction. So i put her on the floor to see her walk and she immediately sat down and didnt really want to walk on it. I got up and walked around since i knew shed follow me and shed take a couple steps then sit right back down. I was worried about it but decided id wait till morning and see since i figured it was probably a sprain. I sat down in my chair to watch her while my boyfriend sat with her on my bed and comforted her so that i could get a better look. She did the same thing again. She kept kicking her leg really hard and switched postions and walked around and layed down and got up this continued for about 10 minutes until she finally layed down for about 2 minutes. Then i noticed her left ear was twitching. If youve ever been around horses, you know how they move their ears if theres a fly near it..or if you tickle a cats ear itll bend down real fast. She was doing that about every 3-5 seconds. Then the right ear started doing it but not as often as the left. At this point i was starting to panic.

I started thinking about anything that had changed or that i had done or that oculd have happened and i rememebr the flea medicine. I did a quick google search and found this amazing site about bad reactions and fatal stories of people pets and their reactions to all different brands of flea medicines.

http://www.elversonpuzzle.com/biospotletters.html

After going through a lot of the stories i came across a lady who used advantix on her dog and had the same ear twitching as me. Other reactions to flea medicines sounded like Chloe's uncontrollable leg. 

I immediately ran her a bath and scrubbed and scrubbed away at my poor baby to get off any "medicine" that was left on her skin. 

I brought her bad and watched her and told my boyfriend that if she couldnt lie down and relax and sleep that we would take her to an emergency vet. Thankfully after about 20 minutes she did fall asleep. 

I feel so horrible and guilty. Im calling my vet first thing tomorrow morning and if shes still the same im taking her in to see what they can do for her. Maybe a muscle relaxer and some benadryl or something. Chemicals in the flea meds can cause neurological problems and liver and kidney damage. Ive never heard of anything like this until now and i am still completely shocked. I always thought of it as such a postive "medicine" but after reading all those stories and seeing Chloe like this i dont think i will ever use anything like it again. Please check you flea prevention for Permethrin. Its suppose to be one of the more dangerous pestisides used in flea medicine. 

Its almost 3am now.. i dont know if ill sleep but im going to try. Ill let you know how Chloe is doing tomorrow...


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## berenicevlz (Nov 19, 2005)

I hope she gets better :?


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## lacedolphin (Nov 20, 2005)

I hope she is OK! I had a similar situation with a generic version of advanix I bought in the store. My pom would roll over while walking! Now I only use flea shampoo and rinse and rinse it off then use a human grade shampoo on top of that. I won't use anything other than that. I may have to wash them more frequently to keep the fleas in check, but the fleas are less of a risk than the treatments is my opinion. Please keep us updated!


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## Roie (Jul 19, 2005)

I hope she is feeling better today!! That is shocking i'll have to check those stories to see if my flea medication is mentioned!! I hope she is doing well!


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## Katie (Apr 9, 2005)

hey thank you for the kind words. Thank gosh Chloe is back to her normal self this morning. I guess the bath and some sleep helped. Im so thankful that it was the only side effect since a lot of the stories i read were horrible. There are pages and pages and pages of awful stories about many flea prevention products (advantix, bio spot, advantage, frontline, hartz flea meds, Sergeants PreTect, and Zodiac FleaTrol are ones i remember but it seems like just about any of the products can cause serious allergic reactions but some brands more so than others). Seizures and kidney/liver failuer is what caused the fatalities in the stories that i read. I cant even think about Chloe being dead right now from a flea medication. I wont EVER use any kind of pestiside on any of my dogs ever again. Im going to try herbal and organic methods and also have the yard sprayed.

Thank you again for the kind words and for caring. 

I have a 4ish minute video of Chloes reaction last night..she was just starting to relax a little bit so i didnt catch the worst of it but you can see her ear twitching and her switching positions because of her leg spasm. Im not sure how to get it so that it can be seen on here though


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