Sergeants Gold Could Have Killed Our Dogs!!!

Of course, after seeing the effects of this “medication” on my dogs (normally we do Frontline), I immediately searched the internet and found this site.  Thank God I did because I was able to do our dogs a lot of good by following the advice on here (bath several times with dish soap like Palmolive or Dove and administering 100% pure Benadryl (at the dose of 1-2 mg per pound of DOG weight).

After 15 minutes both dogs (Chihuahua and Italian Greyhound) were coughing and gagging.  Their eyes were watering.  They obviously looked very uncomfortable.  We called the 1-800 number on the package and were told “don’t worry, just give them some chicken soup because it got into their throats and that’s why they are coughing – they don’t have a respiratory problem”.  I didn’t know that Hartz could give veterinarian medical advice over the phone….

We did as advised and the coughing calmed down a little bit, but next came the jumpiness and constant itching!  Of course, we wanted to wash this crap off but didn’t want to make it worse by spreading it and we didn’t know if trying to wash it off was okay.  So off to the internet to search at 11 pm on a Saturday night.  Believe me, if we suspected that our dogs were on death’s door we would have rushed them to the emergency vet – but luckily our dogs didn’t have as bad of a reaction as some dogs have in here.

So I found this website and like I said, thank GOD!  I bathed each dog three times in dish soap to get this crap off of them.  I used a new towel each time (so that I wouldn’t recontaminate them).  After each bath I would smell them to see if that foul Sergeants smell was still on their necks.  After the third bath the smell was faint.

They itched and twitched all night long.  I didn’t sleep!  I spent the whole night watching after them.  Unfortunately, since I am not a vet I waited for my husband to come home from his night job because he has a healthcare background and could determine the proper dosage of the Benadryl tablets that we had.  He said it was very important to make sure it was 100% Benadryl and not Benadryl combined with any other type of medication (i.e., Benadryl + a pain reliever, etc…)

He cut a 25 mg tablet into 1/4 for the 5 pound chihuahua and only gave her 1/4 of a tablet.  He gave the 20 pound Italian Greyhound a single 25 mg tablet.  They slowed down on the itching and finally were knocked out enough to be able to sleep.  We have been giving them a new dose of Benadryl every 8-10 hours.

During the time when they don’t have it they are still itching the back of their necks.  Unfortunately this crap also got on their hind paws so they are constantly biting at their hind paws too.  They are breathing normally, very rarely coughing and their skin is not red where the “medication” was applied.  They LOVE it when I gently scratch their necks.  We even cut their back toenails to prevent them from doing too much damage from the constant scratching.

We are bringing the packaging back to our local Walmart and filing a complaint with the manager.

I think the biggest thing about this product is that with people medications and animal medications – I can accept that there will be rare instances when a bad side effect will happen.  This is part of life.  Unfortunately, the proof that this Hartz Sergeant’s Gold Flea and Tick medication is so harmful is that SO many dogs have become sick (or died) AND that these effects are NOT RARE.  If the side effects were rare, then BOTH of my dogs would not have been affected the same way at the same time.  One is a Chihuahua and the other is an Italian Greyhound.  They are in perfect health and both are adults (not seniors or babies).

In other words, I could understand if one of them had a poor reaction due to a rare adverse event – but what I don’t understand is why BOTH of them would have a poor reaction.  That only tells me that the problem is with the “medication” and not the dog!

Just like everyone else here – my question is WHY IS THIS PRODUCT STILL ON THE MARKET!!!

I sent a complaint to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) already.

Thank you for having this website up and running so we could help our babies

Shannon