I have used Hartz flea and tick drops on my 15 year old cat since we are in Texas. It was the last dropper in the box, Almost immediately after applying it my cat started to twitch. I figured it was because the oil was spreading. A few hours later I noticed that she was having problems walking, wasn’t drinking, and clinging to me like glue. I took her downstairs and washed her with dawn dish soap, and we went to bed. By morning she looked horrible. I gave her another dawn bath and started to do some research to find out what is wrong with her. I came across this site and became sick. On day two I had to syringe feed her water, 1 cc at a time. I also gave her baby food to try to get her to eat something. We are currently on day three and she has started urinating/having diarrhea on herself. She is now being play penned because I am afraid she will hurt herself. I called my vet and they said there is nothing they could do but wait it out. I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. Does anyone know how long until these symptoms will stop? (redness on the back, lethargic, trouble walking/weak, twitching, heavy breathing, incontinence, and restlessness)
6 Comments Received
June 12th, 2012 @8:17 pm
We’re about a week in and so far kitty is hanging on. She got really dehydrated and we’ve had to take her to the vet for fluids twice now and she’s going again tomorrow. Our vet gave us some special food as well to help since her liver isn’t working well.
June 14th, 2012 @9:11 am
Found this article after our incident though already knew the problems was the hartz Flea drops. It had gotten our two 11 month old kittens and 16 week old kitten sick. Normally had used Seargents but had bought the Hartz and will never do it again. If it was not for the fact that we had split up one tube among the three kittens instead of using one on each they all would have been dead by morning. Any flea drop can be to strong despite what the instructions state and have always using another brand only put 5 drops per kitten every few months but a week ago we adopted our third kitten that had such a horrible flea infestation we gave it two flea shampoo baths with the other two older ones then once dry and using a tweezors to remove any flea we could find put on the Hartz Flea drops. Within a few hours, both older kittens started vomiting and the younger one looked like it was stressing to breathe and on top of that when we went to hold the youngest one, our skin burned from the exposure.
I immidiately put all three kittens in the bath tub and ran the shower. The two older ones love water and the youngest one hated it but used baby shampoo on all three washing them through completely for an hour. My wife helped me dry them off and turned on the heater to keep them warm. Then we gave them all water with tuna oil to get them to drink. Today, all three seem fine, no longer vomiting, and playing around as if nothing has happened. Will not be applying and drops of any kind for a long time. I hope your cat fully recovers. This place should be sued and shut down.
One of the problems is definately the dosage is way to strong and too much. Its like the cough medication for toddlers scare where children were dying do to heart problems and the companies stupidly couldnt figure out why this was happeneing. It was happening because years prior people use to use regular house hold tea spoons to give medication then one day they used these measuring caps that showed 1 teasspoon so people used the cap instead of a spoon. You will see that one teaspoon from the cap will fill 5 metal teaspoons and to this day they still dont see their stupidity. Again, I hope your cat fully recovers.
June 18th, 2012 @10:28 am
This reply may be late to help but it may help others who read this with the same concern & problem…
Like stated above.. You need to get you’re vet to run fluids so she doesn’t dehydrate!! With having bad poops she is only going to dehydrate since she is losing fluids. A good way to help get you’re kitty to drink is to go get kitten milk from petsmart or petco, they love it no matter what age & it will keep you’re kitty hydrated & provide needed calories & vitimins while she isn’t eating well. Above is correct about the dose. Sadly they provide one mg for all cats, say you bought a box for a 5-10lb cat they use the max amount for the 10lbs & don’t think about the poor cat that’s only 5lbs & could easily overdose! You can also give her plain canned pumpkin to help with feeding, they LOVE it & it’s so good for them. Keep her confined like you’re doing so you can watch her & monitor her progress (good or bad) if she is limp take her to the emergency vet, they are better able to help with toxins than a standard vet. I know from experience, I do rescue & I also have feral cats on my property & the emergency vet saved one from antifreeze where my standard vet told me they couldn’t help…. Best of luck!
June 23rd, 2012 @4:25 pm
Canned pumpkin works great for constipation but DO NOT use it if your cat is having diarrhea. Bring your cat to the vet so they can give her the proper medication for the diarrhea and PAIN as well as much needed fluids!
June 24th, 2012 @2:29 pm
Beware!!!!
Costco is now selling this product. It is being marketed under their “Kirkland” brand name.
I checked the formula and it is identical to “Hartz Ultaguard Pro”.
The full name of the Costco product is “Kirkland Signature Flea and Tick control for cats. The price is under $20 for 6 treatments. I just purchased this product on 6-23-12.
Please do not use this on your cats. Return it to Costco and let them know why. Perhaps they will discontinue selling it if enough of us say something.
June 25th, 2012 @11:02 pm
We used this on 2 cats a few years back. Both cats ended up getting violently ill from it. They were walking in circles and howling. Both of them went to the vet immediately but the younger one never pulled through and had to be put down even after iv fluids and being bathed by the vet. The older cat survived and finally came home after about a week at the vet and hundreds of dollars spent but for the rest of his life he walked with his head cocked to one side and had very poor balance. I really hope your kitty pulls through. If your vet won’t help I highly suggest finding a different one. Our vet wouldn’t let him come home until they knew for sure he would make it. They even filed a complaint on our behalf against the company
Leave A Reply