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We've never had problems with fleas or ticks on our Maltese, but we've recently moved to the south where those little buggers are much worse (I'm told). In fact I found 2 fleas and a tick on Lily last week---ick! So I bought a 3-pack of Hartz drops, but then decided to talk with our new vet here, since I had to take Lily in for a vaccination anyway. Vet said she strongly recommends Frontline over Hartz (fewer side effects), so I bought a 3-pack of Frontline at her office.
Friday night my husband put the drops on Lily, but I didn't realize until afterwards that he used the Hartz instead of Frontline. Lily is 12 pounds, he used one vial that is for 4 to 22 pounds.
By the next afternoon, Lily was a little sluggish, but thought maybe she was tired from our walk in the park. By that evening, she was just laying in her crate, didn't want to play, just wasn't herself. This morning she is still lethargic.
So I decided to google "Hartz flea tick lethargic." What I read was pretty scary---some very serious side effects, even death. Now, I know you have to take anything on the internet with a grain of salt.....but still I am concerned.
Lily has been eating fine, there are no other symptoms other than sleeping a lot more than usual.
Have any of your pets had reactions like this (or worse) to flea and tick drops? Do any of you who live in the south use a natural treatment that truly works? I read online about brewer's yeast, sea salt baths, vinegar---just wondering if those would really do the job.
ive seen hartz related deaths many times...
first thing i would do is bath her in dawn dish wathing liquird to remove as much of the hartz product as possible...
in terms of natural remiies, they cna be hit or miss...
my dogs regularly get brewers yeast and garlic supliments however i found even at higher doeses neither kept the fleas away, dogs are much too sensitive to garlic (can be deadly in its own right) to go anything over what i was giving them and unortunatly it WASNT working...(though brewers yeast does seem to help keep the moquitoes at bay)
I also tried Diatemacious earth, and while i LOVE the stuff around the farm (on the dogs/in the house just wasnt working for us. the fleas seemed completly uneffected unless i dusted the dogs daily, and then i ended up with grey colored dogswith gritty ur who i couldnt pet without sneezing and feeling the dust on my hands.
so i reserve de for the livestock bedding (in the coops and goat house dusted all over then a fresh layer on top, keeps the lice and such at bay...but indoors it just gets EVERYWHERE.
ive never heard of seasalt baths or vingegar doing any good for fleas (however after a bath a once a month rinse in a diluted vinegar on a long coated dog gives them a beautiful shine...same for human hair!!!)
i dont like to give any of my animals pharmacuticals without nesessicyt...but we ended up with such a bad infestation and none of the "natural" methods were working so i whent back to topical, Advantage on the cats, k9Advantix on the dogs.
Frontline is loosing effectivness in MANY areas now and ive had no luck with it in about 2 years, advantix and advantage however seem to stil be doing thier job.
comfortis, triflexis ect are all supposed to be good too but my female is sensitive to them and they make her ill...
with 2 dogs and 1 cat in our house with flea alleergies i just couldnt keep trying "natural" methods that wernt making a dent in the problem...
now i DO sprinkle DE across the front and back door thresholds once a week to keep bugs form comming un unde the doors.
and i use a crysanthamum (permethin) based spray IN the house on their bedding and such too.
Wow, sounds like you've tried it all foxy. I did give Lily a bath earlier today, but used regular dog shampoo. She has showed no symptoms other than the lethargy, and even that seems to be a little better this afternoon. If she's still sluggish tomorrow I'll call the vet.
We've never had problems with fleas or ticks on our Maltese, but we've recently moved to the south where those little buggers are much worse (I'm told). In fact I found 2 fleas and a tick on Lily last week---ick! So I bought a 3-pack of Hartz drops, but then decided to talk with our new vet here, since I had to take Lily in for a vaccination anyway. Vet said she strongly recommends Frontline over Hartz (fewer side effects), so I bought a 3-pack of Frontline at her office.
Friday night my husband put the drops on Lily, but I didn't realize until afterwards that he used the Hartz instead of Frontline. Lily is 12 pounds, he used one vial that is for 4 to 22 pounds.
By the next afternoon, Lily was a little sluggish, but thought maybe she was tired from our walk in the park. By that evening, she was just laying in her crate, didn't want to play, just wasn't herself. This morning she is still lethargic.
So I decided to google "Hartz flea tick lethargic." What I read was pretty scary---some very serious side effects, even death. Now, I know you have to take anything on the internet with a grain of salt.....but still I am concerned.
Lily has been eating fine, there are no other symptoms other than sleeping a lot more than usual.
Have any of your pets had reactions like this (or worse) to flea and tick drops? Do any of you who live in the south use a natural treatment that truly works? I read online about brewer's yeast, sea salt baths, vinegar---just wondering if those would really do the job.
I would never put Frontline on my dog. There's a reason why they tell you to use gloves when applying the stuff. I sleep with my dog, pet and nuzzle him. I don't want that stuff getting into my mouth or skin.
If you use anything, Advantage for fleas only (not Advantage Plus) is supposed to be okay. What is the chance of a Maltese getting lyme disease? If my dog ever catches Lyme, I will treat him for the disease. I'm not putting that poison on him.
Wow, sounds like you've tried it all foxy. I did give Lily a bath earlier today, but used regular dog shampoo. She has showed no symptoms other than the lethargy, and even that seems to be a little better this afternoon. If she's still sluggish tomorrow I'll call the vet.
I'm sure you are aware that Heartworm is a major problem in the South..... Asking
Yes, our vet said that heartworm is very bad down here. But even when we lived in northern states, we were giving Lily the HeartGuard chewables faithfully every month. Lily has never shown any reaction to that medication.
This morning, she was her spunky self again! Either the bath helped get rid of some of what was causing her lethargy, or the situation had run its course.
At any rate, I think I will experiment over the next few months regarding flea protection. We realized that the tick I found on Lily was probably due to us taking her for a walk in a state park. Hopefully if we keep her out of forests from now on, she won't ever get a tick again. I'll try some of the natural remedies, like brewers yeast and vinegar, or a different brand like Advantage, or maybe a smaller amount of the flea/tick drops on her skin. One vial is for a dog 4 to 22 pounds, so since she's 11 pounds, maybe a half vial would be more appropriate. I read on another site to try putting one drop a day on the dog, instead of the whole vial at once. Lots of things to try.
Our vet mentioned Trifexis (or something like that), which is a chewable med for heartworm and flea prevention combined. Does anyone use that?
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Either the bath helped get rid of some of what was causing her lethargy, or the situation had run its course.
