About a month ago, the latest addition to our family, Foxy, a little red-haired Chihuahua that we’ve had for nearly a year, had a major seizure in our living room that lasted about 5 minutes or so; wobbling around in circles, foaming at the mouth, back legs paralyzed, etc., then slowly snapping out of it like nothing ever happened. Being that she is the newbie around here, we just assumed that we had adopted a defective dog.
Three weeks later I gave both of our dogs a bath using the Hartz 2 in 1 Shampoo. Within a couple of hours Foxy had her 2nd seizure, exactly like the 1st. It wasn’t until then that I realized that the common denominator was the Hartz shampoo; remembering that it was only a couple of hours after bathing her that she had the original seizure. I never dreamed at the time that the shampoo had anything to do with it.
Luckily she seems to be doing alright. And Mimi, our other Chihuahua who got bathed at the same time, doesn’t seem to be affected at all. And, so far, even though the dogs got plenty of shampoo all over me while I was bathing them, my wife hasn’t had to shoot me in mid fit! (I did however beg her to give me at least 5 minutes before pulling the trigger).
I have to say that I have used this product on many of my dogs over the past 30 years, and this is the only dog I have ever seen have seizures. But rest assure, I will never trust the Hartz people again!
I have used the drops on my dogs in the past and the side-effects of those were always very noticeable, no matter which brand I used, including the Hartz. Every single dog I have tried them on has absolutely hated them; it seemed to burn them. And in fact the 2 times I used them on Mimi she seemed to get very lethargic for a few days afterwards, poor thing.
I am currently searching for a safer way of controlling fleas, if anyone has any suggestions.
As far as Hartz goes, I think they should be court-ordered to use their products on themselves for life, without the possibility of parole!!
UPDATE:
Amazing. 5 minutes after I posted this story, Foxy went inot her 3rd seizure to date; exactly 1 week after the last one. This one seemed slightly milder than the others, but scary just the same.
Questions:
Is there an antidote??
Will she ultimately survive?
Will she have these seizures from now on?
Answers: ??
3 Comments Received
June 24th, 2010 @6:41 pm
STOP USING THESE PRODUCTS< PLEASE!!!!!!!
July 4th, 2010 @1:27 pm
Something my mother used growing up, and has proven effective for other people even currently – Brewer’s Yeast. You sprinkle it on the dog’s food, they eat it(I’m told it has a beefy scent to it), and it protects them from the inside-out against fleas.
October 28th, 2011 @10:49 pm
Update:
Almost a year and a half later… Foxy still has seizures from time to time, 3 or 4 a month on average. They are not quite as bad as they used to be but still difficult to watch.
Her latest vet doesn’t think she needs meds for the seizures unless they get worse, but he does believe that it is permanent damage likely caused by an adverse reaction to the flea shampoo.
It still blows my mind that this stuff is on the shelf of every single place that sells pet supplies of any kind.
Amazing.
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