# Strange smell with Advantage?



## unchienne (Mar 29, 2009)

I think I've posted about this before, but it might have been a side comment in aother thread. 

Anyhow, with spring coming in, I've been using flea preventative again. I don't usually put anything on them in the winter unless I see flea activity, which I usually don't. Last month I put on their first dose of the Advantage and the same thing that happened last year happened again. Boo was just fine but both Tilly and Pearl developed this horrible, musky aroma. I tell you what it smelled like: it smelled like male dog musk. Before adopting Poppet, I chose a different dog, a male Pomeranian, who was extremely aggressive when it came to scent marking. He had just been fixed the day before and still had some of the "juice" left in him...the aroma was horribly pungent. And that's what the girls smell like whenever I use the Advantage on them. The commonality in symptoms might be b/c they're littermates. 

Physically, they showed no outward sign, but the aroma was just horrible and it was tangible. It's like their bodies transformed the Advantage b/c whatever they touched or rolled in developed that same nasty scent. I just placed an order for Frontline spray (which I've used in the past on Boo and Poppet and have been satisfied with the results) and I'm hoping that it's somehow more tolerated by their bodies, but isn't that just the oddest reaction?

Boo remained unaffected. No smell. Nada. Nothing. And I used the meds from the one tube (bought a size larger) for all three, so I know it wasn't a bad batch or anything like that.

Anyone else had this happen or have heard of it happening to anyone else?


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## Jerry'sMom (May 5, 2009)

i'm no chemist, but i would think that anything causing an unpleasant odor coming from 
your dog is something i would not use again... maybe you could try frontline plus. we use it. it works.


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## sugarbaby (Dec 21, 2009)

i use advantage and have never had a problem with it , it works better than any other product i have used and with also rescuing kitten's and puppy's from 1 day old i can use it on them  its also a lot harder to overdose with advantage .


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## unchienne (Mar 29, 2009)

Jerry'sMom said:


> i'm no chemist, but i would think that anything causing an unpleasant odor coming from
> your dog is something i would not use again... maybe you could try frontline plus. we use it. it works.


Yeah, two tries was enough. The first time I thought maybe it was b/c the Advantage was older and had been lying around a bit. The second time was with a brand new box. I've used Frontline spray before (find the spray more economical than the tubes) with good results, so I just placed an order (none of the vets around here carry the spray...just the tubes) with Petmeds. Will try treating them when it comes and am hoping for good results. 



sugarbaby said:


> i use advantage and have never had a problem with it , it works better than any other product i have used and with also rescuing kitten's and puppy's from 1 day old i can use it on them  its also a lot harder to overdose with advantage .


Ditto here. I've used both Frontline and Advantage with no problems in the past. Boo suffered no reaction at all. But both girls did both times I used it. Maybe it's just a body chemistry thing. Like how Jessica McLintock on my friend, Cristi, smells unbelieveable and feminine but on me smells like Pine Sol with a hint of burnt rubber. I tried contacting the company to see if they'd heard of anything like this but the customer service number operator forwarded me somewhere which forwarded me somewhere else which deposited me at someone's mailbox whom I don't even know is in anyway connected or can help me with my question. Talk about off-putting. The smell goes away in a few days, but it's just freaky when it happens. Can't be an overdose though b/c I customize a ml to pounds ratio, which means that tilly gets .2 ml versus the normal .5 ml dose for a dog her size according to the sizing range chart on the box.


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## Jerry'sMom (May 5, 2009)

unchienne said:


> ....Maybe it's just a body chemistry thing. Like how Jessica McLintock on my friend, Cristi, smells unbelieveable and feminine but on me smells like Pine Sol with a hint of burnt rubber....


OMg! ROFL! I remember my first love gave me some perfume one Christmas.
On me, it smelled like burnt wood! :daisy: Gave it to my Mom and it was an entirely different fragrance.


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## sugarbaby (Dec 21, 2009)

advantage is pretty hard to overdose  , my vet said they have had overdosed pets come in from frontline but not once advantage , i would say thats why it can be used on puppies from 2 days old where frontline cant .


i would say its just like you say  perfume smells different on everyone i would assume dogs could be the same.


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