On Sunday, May 24, 2009 I gave my two Lhasa-Shiz-Tzu’s a Sergeant’s Gold Flea & Tick treatment. Since I had not used this item in the past, I decided to only give them a half-dose so I split one tube between the two of them. Within an hour, they both started to scratch at their neck/upper back area. Within two hours, they both were utterly miserable. They were whining, pacing, drooling, shaking, crying and panting. And without knowing I was doing so, I made it worse by taking wet towels and trying to rub the stuff off of them. I called the emergency vet’s number and was advised to bathe them in Dawn dishwashing liquid and give them 1 mg of Benadryl per pound of weight. So there I am, at 2:00 a.m. with my two babies in tub scrubbing like a madwoman. The vet had advised me to bathe them at least twice and preferably three times. They also advised me to watch them closely for neurological problems, such as seizures or uncontrollable twitching. If these symptoms began, I was to bring them in immediately for an injection.
The vet stated without hesitation that this is one of the most common calls that they receive. Enormous numbers of our pets are put through sheer hell by a company whose name we had no reason to mistrust. The vet went on to say that they just cannot believe this item has not been pulled from store shelves due to the high number of dogs that have horrific reactions.
As I write this, it has been just over 72 hours since they were initially unintentionally poisoned by me. Of course I feel terrible that I brought this upon them since these are my baby girls. However, my fear for them is now turning into extreme anger at the Sergeants/Hartz company for not having adequate warnings on their boxes. I am considering my next steps because I want to ensure that I don’t cover ground that has already been taken on by others. However, I am committed to making a strong statement to this company and I will keep a log of all I do, everyone I speak with and what, if any, changes are promised or made.
I am a federal employee and my position requires me to have contacts all over the country. One of my first steps has already been to begin spreading the word. And to each person to whom I speak, I end the story with “Tell everyone you know who cares about animals”. From what I can tell, in the past two days, I have spoken to at least two dozen people who have each told a dozen people and so on. Do the math. The word of mouth impact of this has the potential to be enormous if everyone does this one small thing. I plan to place notifications on craigslist as well as writing to my local paper with a letter to the editor to warn others. I truly hope they contact me and want to do a follow up story as I would be delighted to show pictures of these adorable girls and tell about the horror they endured.
I have not contacted the Sergeant’s/Hartz company yet as I felt it was too soon. I wanted to ensure my girls were truly going to be okay before I did that. One of my girls (Hollie Joy) is not eating well yet but Abbie Mae has her appetite back now today.
I would be happy to hear from others about what steps they have taken, what responses they have received and what future plans are in the works. I am so incredibly angry about this and I need to find a useful outlet for this anger as ranting and raving will do nothing for anyone.
3 Comments Received
May 29th, 2009 @11:31 pm
You should contact the Sergeants company, because adverse reactions have to be reported to the EPA by law. Hope your pups are feeling better.
May 30th, 2009 @6:32 am
Sergeants Flea and Tick – EXTREMELY DANGEROUS–DO NOT USE!! Our Jack Russells, Daphne and Lola are also victims of Sergeants Flea and Tick treatment. After spending $500 in a week on the girls for inoculations, then Lola hurt her knee, and they spent one night at a boarding facility, I was trying to save a little money. We applied Sergeants flea and tick protection the day before boarding. Both girls began to twitch and appeared itchy. Daphne really became itchy by that night, so I wet a paper towel and wiped the area thoroughly to dilute the application. They appeared ok that night and we took them to board early in the morning. We picked the girls up 24 hrs later, brought them home and gave them a bath as I always do after boarding. Daphne first, then Lola. When I wet Lola I noticed she had 2 very irritated spots on both her shoulders about the size of a quarter. After bathing she continued to scratch the areas until they bled. I called the vet and asked how much Benedryl they could have. 1/2 tablet was the dosage for a 15 lb. Dog. It was little help for poor Lola. We wrapped an ace bandage around her and taped it in place to stop her from continuing to scratch, hoping allowing the wounds to heal would be enough. We have had to do this before to stop the dogs from irritating a wound. By that night Daphne was rolling and scraping herself on everything trying to itch. No particular spot. Seemed like he entire skin itched. In the morning my husband contacted the Sergeants 800 number. He was advised by Sergeants emergency to wash both our babies in Dawn dish soap 3 times consecutively. It seems to have helped “a little.” It is early on a Sat morning and we are now waiting for a cancellation at our vet for an appointment for our girls. I feel terrible! The girls are our babies and are treated like queens. This additional vet expense is going to more than eliminate any savings, which is nothing compared to seeing our girls suffering. This product needs to be taken off of the shelf NOW – before it kills! If it takes everyone combining their testimonies, count me in!
December 5th, 2009 @8:21 am
this product did indeed kill my happy healthy 2 year old cat named kitty… see sergeants gold flea and tick 4 cats killed my 2 year old cat!! this just happened a few days ago so im stil extremely angry,hurt,guilty,sad etc I applied it as directed and had used it before but never ever again Junebug im right there with you im trying everything possible to make this company pay for what they did and what they’re gonna continue to do unless enough of us make a big enough fuss about it, i would highly recommend reporting this to sergeants gold i did this twice already the first time they connected me w/a representative @ EPA to report the incident (they legally have to do this just like lisa said) then i still didn’t feel satisfied since they themselves didn’t bother to talk to me apologize nothing so i called back talked to a representative and explained in detail our story i told him i basically was not gonna bve happy until this product was taken off the shelves and also that they should pay our 600$ vet bill and i know neither of these things will bring back my sweet loving baby but at least it will hopefully make a difference in other animals and owners lives and i feel like they should be punished for there negligence! So far ive contacted them & http://www.ConsumerAffairs.com, NRDC natural resources defense council action center, EPA, NPIC national pesticide info ctr, my local vet, and my grandma used to work for the paper so we’re going to try and get a article going also ,im also gonna try to contact the local tv stations, and many many more including the stores that sell this product and cat fancy !! please do whatever you can because it doesnt matter if people have already treaded those waters any treading at all helps and let me know if you have any other recommendations of ways to help spread the word and get this stuff off the shelves, also if anyone knows about any legit civil lawsuits please notify me my email is [email protected]
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