It became apparent that our sweet little Griffin, an indoor cat, was being attacked by fleas. Not knowing any better, we picked up Hartz UltraGuard at the grocery store and, as directed, squeezed the contents of the tube onto the back of his neck at the base of his skull. Within a few hours, the poor little guy was obviously in distress. He was hiding in closets and corners (which is extremely strange behavior for him), he vomited, he began howling as if he was in pain, and he had difficulty walking.
I immediately got online to do some research and found this website. Of course, I was horrified by what I had just done to our beloved pet. We scooped him up, grabbed the dishwashing detergent, and scrubbed the greasy stuff off his back as quickly as we could. He continue behaving strangely for a few more hours, but today is “the day after” and he appears to be fine and I think we’ve been forgiven for our stupidity.
I can’t believe how naive I was. I’m so glad this site exists. Without it, it may’ve been too late to save our little guy. I just wish there was some way of sharing this message with people BEFORE their pets have scary reactions to this stuff. Shouldn’t the labels have more warnings?! It just doesn’t seem right that’s so readily available and so harmful.
5 Comments Received
October 7th, 2010 @8:50 pm
So glad Griffin is doing better… and glad this site helped you. You are not alone.. I, too, thought the product must be safe if it was on our shelves.. I lost my cat in 3 minutes.. seizing and stopped breathing immediately. Those 3 minutes forever changed me.. we lost our Bianca on 8/22/2010, but I will stand up for our pets everyday from now on.. you make her loss a little easier to bear… please tell everyone you know.. dish soap and J & J Baby shampoo from now on for fleas. your pets will thank you as do I… for you letter. It made my day!
October 8th, 2010 @7:08 am
This site also probably saved my cat’s life too. I put the Hartz flea treatment on my cat, then started googling hartz (should have done it the other way around) when I came across this site, I scrubbed him down good. A month or so ago, I pulled all the Hartz packages at walmart, opened them, and dumped them in front of the bleach and other cleaning products, and wrote a lil note on it saying. (This is where this type of chemical belongs, not in the pet section). The EPA doesn’t care because it doesn’t effect humans, and taking it off the market will effect humans (the humans working at Hartz). So unless alot of people start doing things like that (making the public aware thru various means), nothing is going to happen.
October 8th, 2010 @5:47 pm
Proud of you Jack! I so wished I thought of such a thing.. I am still trying to figure out how to put this website on post-its and place it on all products like Hartz.. not sure if it would to any good but so want to save our pets.. I was thinking of writing to our congressmen and elected officials.. maybe we can find a way to make these awful products go away!
If you find anything to promote the awareness of Hartz products.. I am all for it.. and will join in this fight!
Best wishes to you and your pet.
October 9th, 2010 @10:40 pm
i’am so glad you and many others caught it in time.. two or three years ago this site saved 3 of my 5 cats. the symptoms didn’t set in as quickly as yours did.
first they stopped eating and our vet said to force feed them with syringes after saying it’s probably a minor reaction and not thinking it was serious enough for being treated there at the clinic. then after a day they weren’t able to keep it down and couldn’t pee or poop where the vet had us give them something to make them release their bowels which it was pure liquid. they sent us home with antibiotics writing it off as the flu.. went to another vet for a second opinions and they literally tured white the second we mentioned hartz.. scrubbed the two cats down there at the vets with dawn dish soap then went home and scrubbed the other 3 down.
one died a few minutes after we visited him the next day. went into kidney failure and was seizing every few hours. he had a 20% chance to live and didn’t make it. his sister got noticeably better and was sent back home with us 2 days later.. being deemed healthy. that night she broke into seizures and went into kidney failure too when she was 90% recovered and eating and drinking well and already put a pound of weight back on after being cared for at the vets.
I will never forget the horribly traumatic experience this stupid company gave me.. They said they would reimburse me the value of the cats (70$?? how do you put a value on two cats lives and even then, 70$ for BOTH?).. and refused to pay the vet bills exceeding over 5,000$.
Ever since I avoid anything made by Hartz and their side name Sergent’s..
October 11th, 2010 @4:13 pm
Thanks for your story Tain.. I appreciate it.. and I know others will definitely benefit from knowing your story. Please pass your knowledge on where you can… some pet will be thankful.. I am sorry for your loss. Your story along with others does make her loss a bit better. My teenaged son tells everyone he knows.. as do I. Just a beginning. maybe one day we can get these products off the shelf for good.
Leave A Reply