I just want to help spread awareness to all of you folks that have used Hartz products. When it comes to flea and tick prevention, there’s too many owners that get over the counter products. Please don’t do this. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Hartz product or any other brand, even Frontline. Get it from your veterinarian. As a veterinary assistant I see at least one pet that’s been subject to these products every week, and the result varies with each of them. Some succumb to the toxicity of product and nearly die, others break out in hotspots all over their body, and still more come in completely infested with fleas. Get your preventative products from your vet. This is the only way to guarentee that it will work. If it doesn’t, the company will reimburse you, but only if you got it at a vet’s office. Even getting them from PetMeds and other such websites, though cheaper, does not guarentee it’s the product you think you purchased. It’s of dire importance to keep your pet on flea/tick preventative and heartworm preventative. Yes, it is expensive to do so, especially if you get it from your vet. But prevention is much cheaper than a cure. I am begging all owners out there to please take care of your pet. Fleas carry tapeworms, and can carry hemobartonella – the organism that causes cat scratch fever – and those parasites can cause serious harm or death to a pet. The same for ticks that carry Lyme, Ehrlichia, and Babesia – devastatig diseases to your pet. Heartworms are even more important to prevent. They’re transmitted by mosquitos, and one bite from a mosquito can infect your dog or cat, even if they always stay indoors (please remember that mosquitos can get inside, and fleas can be tracked in from your front yard). The treatmet is six months long for a dog, and the injections are arsenic based. Heartworms in cats can effect their lungs. Is it truly fair to let them suffer through something like that, because you wouldn’t get preventative from the vet? Products like those made by Hartz are detrimental to your pets because people assume it’s ok to use since it’s being sold in the store. Please, please, please don’t fall for this. Read these other stories and see what Hartz has done to pets because they falsley market their products. You have the right to know about your pet’s safety with these products, so talk to your veterinarian to get all the information you can. Love your pet, get in the know.
3 Comments Received
December 24th, 2010 @7:11 am
If products made by Hartz are detrimental to pets, then Vectra and Vectra 3D (which are sold exclusively by veterinarians) must also be detrimental to pets because those products were created by Hartz.
If you must use a pet pesticide product, it’s best to consult your vet before doing so to make sure that your pet is healthy enough for it, and to make sure that you get the correct dosage for your pet’s weight. However, even the vet-prescribed flea and tick products are capable of causing adverse reactions. These products also pose significant health risks to children who come in contact with treated pets.
Here is information from the American Veterinary Medical Association in regards to pet spot-on products:
http://www.avma.org/animal_health/flea-tick-products-EPA_faq.asp
December 29th, 2010 @3:14 pm
I am a new dog owner and received my puppy, “Gunny” from my Dad as he is sick and could not take care of him. He was only around 8 weeks when I got him. He is a south Georgia mutt for sure and is a mix of lab, pit bull terrier, and chow. Sweet, playful, and flea infested. I am not very educated on matters of dog care, and this is my family of 4′s first dog (from a puppy).
Not only did Gunny have really bad flea infestation from the pack of country swamp dogs he was living with outside only, he had worms. Of course I didn’t want to spend a ton of money so I happened across some of Hartz product at the Walgreen’s down the corner. I bought three- an itch spray (basically aloe, hydrocortisone), rid worm for puppies, and flea treatment for puppies.
I could not say enough about the rid worm. Really good stuff.
He is totally flea FREE at 3.5 months old, and I am not sure if the combination of bath after bath + the treatment was what got rid of them.
The verdict is still out on the spray. I have used it around 3-4 times and it seems to help. He is white with light brown spots and I noticed that he has stopped scratching his belly so much. I think it actually works pretty good. I am tending to go favorable.
..needless to say, after owning my dog for a month and a half, our family has fallen totally in love. I want to take good care of him and don’t want to give him anything that would hurt him. On a side note, I was told that giving him Purina brand “Puppy Chow” was like feeding my kids McDonald’s everyday, but it seems to be just fine (as I refuse to pay the absurd amount of money that this Eukanuba or Science Diet costs). Please give me your feedback and tell me if I am a horrible pet owner,
Donald
GA
January 4th, 2011 @11:24 am
Donald,
Hartz and vectra both have an absurd amount of side effects. Vectra 3d in my experience is only prescribed at Banfield a corporate vet with unfortunate corporate interests (money and only money) These can hurt your dog even if he has been through the treatment before with no side effects. Every dog owner should be informed and if they still want to pour this stuff on their dogs they should at least know what they are risking.
As to the purina it is a low quality food. Look at the ingredients. No you arent going to notice many side effects in a healthy puppy. The real effects arent going to be noticeable until the dog is older and will appear as ill health, dull coat, bad teeth, shortened lifespan. Science Diet and Eukanuba arent much better if you look at their ingredients. When you get a food thats all corn, beaks, cardboard, and sprayed on rendered fat you may be paying less for the bag but the puppy is eating more because there is less nutritional value to the food. That also means the puppy is pooping more.
It is like feeding your kid mcdonalds every day. They wont get diabetes until they are middle aged but youll be able to trace it back to the decade long mcdonalds experiment.
You know you have to eat healthy to be healthy, well so does your dog. And if you break it down the cost per day to feed your dog is still very low, and better food will save you money (if you would treat your dog for illness) or heartbreak in the future when the effects of his poor diet become apparent.
Look for a food with a quality meat as the first ingredient. Science diet, eukanuba, puppy chow, etc. are all corn, wheat,s soy and byproducts. All fillers and all allergens as well.I have a lot of dogs and Im on a tight budget I feed them Authority right now it is petsmarts brand of food. The price is midrange, and its far better than those three brands we’ve mentioned.
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