Month: August 2010

Another innocent Hartz victim

My kitten Sugar was 5 months old with fleas.  She was an outdoor cat before my 7 year old and I adopted her.  I gave her a bath and then applied some of the Hartz flea drops for kittens over 3 months.  The only warning on the packet was “toxic to fish”.  Nothing about the danger it could cause.

She was catatonic, very sleepy.  I thought maybe she was just half-freaked from a bath.  The next day she didn’t eat or drink much and only wanted held.  I took her to the vet the next morning, they gave her a bath to get all the Hartz off of her and hooked her up to IV’s.  They kept her overnight.  Today they informed me she had fluid in her lungs from cardiac distress.  She held on a few more hours, but passed away this afternoon.

I broke the news to my 7 year old.  He lost his father a year and a half ago to cancer, and now he has another loss.  A useless loss that never should have happened.  I wish Hartz could have been with me to see my little boy sob.  They should be held accountable for this!

Glad I found this website before I used anything that would hurt my kitten!

I am lucky to have found this website before even purchasing any Hartz or “OTC” Pet pesticide products. A couple of things I have come across in my fight against fleas that I wanted to share so they could be passed along through readers:

1. Check for fleas the MINUTE you bring an animal home, and continue to check as we know that the flea cycle is basically the most evil thing ever invented and will perpetuate the existence of fleas in your home. Don’t let it get to the point that your pet is crawling in fleas to do something.

2. For my 7 week old kitten, who had about 15 fleas that we picked off of her by hand, being submerged (except for head) in a couple of gentle baths using a small amount of blue Dawn Dishsoap was enough to kill many fleas. We found it was most effective for investigation of the scalp/skin for her to be damp as we could more easily see fleas crawling around. If you sit with your pet and talk to them gently as you use a flea comb (only called so because of its fine teeth) and some tweezers, you can get a lot of fleas off of your pet. Be sure to have a bowl of hot soapy water to put the fleas in as they can hop away pretty quickly.

3. I just got a sample of a Flea and Heartworm application called Revolution (Selamectin) from my vet at the kitten’s first visit. It looks legitimate, however the side effects listed on the product (quite clearly, might I point out) sound really similar to some of the side effects experienced by drugstore pet products. I am concerned about using this product on my pet, so if anyone has had good luck with it, please post!

All in all, I think the best way to handle fleas on pets is to pay attention to them, groom them regularly, and always talk to a vet before you give your pet anything chemical.

Hartz Is a Dangerous Product.

Took my dog to the dog park the other evening, returned home to find he had fleas, Gave him a bath, dried him off and ran to the store and bought a Hartz Ultra Guard pro. Within an hour my dog had a hellacious cough. He had snuck a hamburger off the table earlier that was seasoned so I just figured he got a little too warm. Well next morning came and he still had the hard deep cough and after a few He would get out some flem that was clear and white. I frantacly searched the internet not thinking that the “medicine” is what did it. Till I googled the name of the product. Since Then I have washed him with Dawn and his coughing has reduced, its only the 3rd day. I am really worried. I called hartz customer service and filed a report. I couldn’t believe how casual this guy was. I asked does this kind of thing happen alot, and no joke his answer was “more than it probably should”. He Issued me a case number, and told me to call if he had to go to the vet, makes me wonder what they will do. My dog is eating and drinking, but every little bit he will cough cough cough and then a little flem. I just didn’t realize companies could knowingly sell this kind of stuff. They might as well sell cigarettes for dogs. And the best part is. He still had the fleas until I washed him with dish soap.

horrible company

many years ago I gave my cat Hartz worm capsules. I gave her the advised dosage mentioned on the package. she didn’t go outside and have a normal bowel movement, she had diarhea all over my bed. and she was very ill. I spoke to the company and they completely denied it being the products fault.

my stepmom washed her dog with hartz bath soap and the dog staggered around, fell over, ran into things and temporarily went blind.

I despise Hartz . they won’t clean up their act, I’ve alread had that clearly proved by our discussion. I hope someone will close them down to protect all pets and their owners from this day on.

Shedding some light

I would just like to thank the people who have posted their stories and to the creators of this website.

As a Vet tech working with animals, it breaks my heart when i see a kitten, cat, puppy or a dog come in to our clinic after using a hartz product. This stuff is so dangerous, we see animals come in shaking, foaming at the mouth, skin red and raw and even seizing. We sometimes have to stay overnight on a seizure watch. I know this stuff is cheaper then the advantage or revolution but if your pet needs to come in for an emergency, be placed on IV fluids, given medication and then hospitalization this will run you anywhere from $500-1000 with no guarantees of saving your pet.

I try to tell our clients about the dangers of pyrethrin based products such as hartz but some of them don’t believe me because they think we are just out to get there money- news flash: I didn’t go into this emotionally, mentally and physically exhausting proffesion for the money (we barely make above minimum wage) I did it because I love animals and want to help you protect your furry family members.

This is a pestacide- Do you really want that on your pet? Also what about that one year old that pets the cat? The reason these people CAN get away with this is because its a PESTACIDE and are not under the same FDA guidlines and restrictions as prescription products such as advantage and revolution.

I’m glad to see this website and hopefull it saves countless lives. Because as much as I love to see your pets I love to see them happy and healthy more! 🙂

Sergeant’s Gold Flea Treatment, messed up my cat.

Ok…so here goes, last night around 9:30 pm we were applying flea treatment to all our animals (3 dogs, 2 cats).  Well somehow my 14 yr old daughter accidentally applied the DOG flea treatment to her 2 yr old cat.  We didn’t immediately realize it, about half an hour later she came to me and said, Mom, Tigger isn’t acting right!  She brought the cat with her and yes he was acting very strangely, his skin was crawling on his back, his tail was flipping around wildly, and he was darting all over the living room, meowing very loudly (NOT LIKE HIM AT ALL).  We went and retrieved the med tube from the trash and off to the side noticed a small picture of what appears to be a cat with a X through it.  So we determined it must have been a DOG flea treatment, thankfully my daughter only applied a quarter of the amount in the tube, the rest was still in the tube.  We scrubbed his back with a mild hand soap and hoped that he would be fine.  15 minutes after finishing that, he again became agitated and was running wildly, this time we gave him a bath with dishsoap (he was not happy about this).  He slept through the night in my daughter’s room, meowing, skin crawling, and running around the room.  Called the vet this morning, they said that we had done everything right, as long as he wasn’t having seizures or drooling he would be fine.  Well this afternoon he started to drool.  Long story short, he is now at the vet, recieved 2 shots, and is being kept overnight for observation….We are hoping that he makes it……PLEASE DON’T LET HAPPEN TO U WHAT HAPPENED TO US!

Sentry Pro Killed Our Cat

To start, I looked on the box of Sentry Pro’s cheapest spot-on version and I can’t find anything that even says that you shouldn’t use it on a cat. Their extra strength version XFC says “Do Not Use on Cats,” but that is it.
I put approximately 1/2 a squeeze tube of the cheap Sentry-Pro on my Dog and 1/2 on my Cat. My dog weighs about 45lbs and barely moved all day. The act killed our cat, and this isn’t some kind of mild sickness or oops, this is pretty intense stuff. Donald was a really good cat, never had a single illness or problem, was incredibly well-behaved and liked by visitors, got along with dogs, and still played like a kitten at the age of 5. The producers of these products are sick people. They need to be stopped at some point. All of them: Hartz, Sentry-Pro, and Sergeants use PERMETHRIN as their active ingredient. This stuff is also the active ingredient in BUG BOMBS and RAID. We are being sold straight up pesticides to put on our dogs and cats. The absolute worst part about this is that I have found instances where these products have killed DOGS. For God’s sakes, the product is intended for dogs and it isn’t even safe for them. How does this happen? How do these big companies get away with this garbage? To whom ever reads this, know that if there is ever a mass court appearance, I and my wife would be happy to show with our story. I’m not usually one for taking things to court, but in this instance, I’d like some repayment for the personal anguish this has caused. Please be careful people.

I am very VERY fortunate to have my two kitties, Noah and Kikyo, with me today.

My two cats here at my dad’s house, were both infested with fleas really, really bad. I mean I had never dealt with anything like this in my life, and of course me being strapped for cash at the time, and looking for a cheap way to combat these badboys decided to get a couple of Hartz Tick and Flea collars at the store I work at. Got home, put them on my cats, and felt a tad better for the time being. However, I began noticing that Kikyo (pronounced “Kee-kee-oh”), the elder cat here, was starting to get quite lethargic. Not only that, there was zero improvement with the fleas whatsoever, they were still crawling all over her and Noah. Noah eventually started acting the same way, very much lethargic. Kikyo actually acted more cuddly than usual, which was a positive change. However, guess what? The collars proved to be utterly useless as a mere 2 weeks later, the fleas were still attacking, and both of them continued to have unusual behaviour changes, with Kikyo exhibiting further lethargic-ness.

My dad eventually noticed how bad the fleas were getting when he saw them on Kikyo’s white belly, and decreed we had to do something about this. Eventually we bombed the house, and during that time I had the kitties treated at a local salon, the bombing failed though and I had to take them back to the salon. According to this place, one of the collars actually broke during a wash and got tossed, the other? It was suggested I get rid of it. I said “I will gladly do so, because these things were useless!” as I went to throw the other collar in the trash, I exclaimed “Hartz sucks!” and from there the salon worker told me they had someone come in for an emergency to get a Hartz product off their pet, I realized how fortunate I was to have my two kitties here today without much adverse effects at all, had I kept them on my kitties any longer, who knows what would’ve happened. Let’s just say I am using Frontline from now on, it has been working and though I saw one living flea on Kikyo one day after getting them home from my dad’s friend Cindy’s house during the time they were there before the exterminator arrived to take care of this problem, since then, I’ve seen nothing. Hartz is as useless and deadly as the day is long. If you really care about your pets, do NOT buy Hartz!

Hartz hurts.

I can’t believe this product is STILL on the market..

In April of this year, we used the Hartz Anti Flea and Tick medication on our chihuahuas, and it brought me to tears. My oldest chihuahua, Max, could not even walk without screaming and yelping. The pads on his feet were burnt from the crap we put on him, and he was twitching, and could not stop. Minnie, only about 4 years behind him, began to shake and twitch. It was so heart aching to watch. The veteranarian straight up told us that Hartz is pure poison, and that it should never be used on any type of animal, no matter the age, type, height, or weight. He also said that they could’ve suffered from seizures, and could have had permanent neurological damage if we had waited another day to take them to the vet. My mother took care of them the whole way through, and I helped feed the dogs as they would not feed themselves.

Today, I noticed a few fleas on Minnie, and I quickly gave her a bath and checked her for them afterwards. As a precaution, I looked in our cleaning cabinent, and noticed the flea and tick spray in there. I thought that if it was harmful, that my mother would’ve thrown it away, so I went about using it. I sprayed on the furniture, a little bit of the carpet, and my dog’s cage where she sleeps, unknowing that is was made by the same company that made the flea and tick stuff we used on them in April. My mother stopped me in the middle of doing so, telling me that it was the poison that hurt the dogs, so I freaked out, and am washing the pillows, blankets, and the blanket in my dog’s cage in the wash right now. I cleaned out her cage, and am very nervous about letting the dogs out around the house. I am at my wits end with Hartz! I dont know what will happen if I let them out around the sprayed furniture, and I’m not sure what to do. I hate Hartz, and they are nothing but a cheap corporation that takes money from unknowing consumers! How could you sell shit like that to consumers looking for a solution as simple as fleas? I would rather my house be infested with fleas than to have another Hartz problem! NEVER use Hartz, please, it is not worth dealing with and getting into! Always read online about medications for your animals, you don’t want them to suffer from the horrible poison effects from Hartz or other harmful fake flea and tick products!

Thank You

I truly feel for all of the stories of suffering on here.  Our pets are family members.  We wouldn’t give ourselves or loved one poison, so why does a company think they have a right to do this?

We just adopted a kitten, and i was given a Hartz flea and tick collar for him by my grandma, and i was busy at the time so i just threw it up on the counter.  Well tonight i thought about putting it on him, and i had heard things in the past about Hartz so i decided to google them, and a bunch of complaint sites popped up and I clicked on this site.

All i can say is thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing your stories.  I know some of them had to be painful.  Your stories helped save my little kitty.  That collar is now in the bottom of my trash can, and i will never again use there products.