Adverse Reaction, K9 advantix II

[chipgallo]

My wife and daughter applied a vial of K9 advantix II to our 7 year old Shetland Sheepdog. Less than an hour later he was lying in the back of his crate, non responsive and catatonic. They dragged him out and he eventually livened up a bit. Has anyone else seen this reaction in their dog(s)? The vet switched us from Frontline a while back and a quick search of the internet showed others reporting this and more severe neurological reactions and skin reactions too.

Note the phone number to call to report the reaction

http://www.1800petmeds.com/pet-med-i...-reactions.jsp

[Zeke]

Str1ker had a problem a few years back with a flea/tick med. I used Frontline+ until last year when it stopped working on my girls and I now use K9advantix ll and haven't had a reaction but it doesn't work as well as I had hoped.

Is your pupper OK now?

[chipgallo]

He's doing better. Thing is, he had some of the reported symptoms (vomiting, lethargy) for a while. I need to check back on when we switched from Frontline.

[itsapyr]

Wow hope he is OK. Scarey anymore. Everything we use anymore seems to make our pets sick. I stopped using frontline a few years back because one of my pyrs had a reaction.
Did they give you the right dosage for his size?

[Black Dog]

I used Frontline on my guys for years and it worked fine. Then about 3 or 4 years ago it stopped working completely. Vet switched us over to K9 Advantix for Bear and Revolution for the cats. The Advantix didn't work until we also combined it with a heartworm med that killed fleas as well. No adverse reactions but by the time we got it all figured out Bear was having flea bite dermatitis and licking/digging himself raw and losing fur. All the licking was keeping him wet and developed into a yeast infection. Geez, it was horrible. A round of Prednizone eventually kicked the dermatitis.

Last year K9 Advantix and Feline Revolution worked fine. No reactions.
This year the vet recommended Vectra 3 (they don't even sell Frontline anymore) for Bear and Advantage for TomCat. It barely touched them on the first dose. Both have been miserable waiting for enough time to pass to dose them again (1 month). The second dose seems to be working better but they still have fleas. Unfortunately, Bear has the dermatitis again so I've got him back on Prednisone.

I've heard and read about adverse reactions to all of the current flea medications. It's tough to know what to do!

[chipgallo]

Did they give you the right dosage for his size?

Wyatt is 27 lbs and we used the 21-55 lbs dose. Seems like a wide variance in weight for the same dose.

[Marty]

If these products worked, then maybe - maybe - it's worth taking the risk of using them. But they don't work over time, at least not on our dogs, and we stopped using them two years ago. Last year we didn't use anything and they were fine.

I went to a seminar last night on alternatives; a key point was that fleas are not as attracted to a healthy pet, so diet is important (raw is best, etc. etc.). Here's a list of preventatives (not treatments) that can be used daily (in addition to good diet and grooming), according to the holistic vet who spoke - Carol A. Lundquist, DVM, she practices in Marshall, VA:

Flea combing
Herbal topical powders
Essential oil sprays
Herbal collars
Shoo tags, tick tags and other collar attachable devices
Baths - any shampoo left on for at least 10 minutes will kill all fleas present.

Then on top of that, if you have a flea problem, here are some alternative control methods:

Vacuuming - a lot
Boric acid
Diatomaceous earth - put along baseboards, in carpets and under throw rugs; outside put it along house line. Use food quality, not pool quality.
Flea traps
Garlic sprays for yard
Spray nematodes in yard to eat flea larvae

Also, research is showing that Lyme vaccines are not efficacious (don't work). So we're stopping those too. A majority of animals in this area test positive for Lyme but that doesn't mean they're sick, according to Dr. Lundquist. They shouldn't be treated with antibiotics, which have their own risks, unless they're showing symptoms.

These are some of the things I heard so wanted to pass them along. Hope they work, because I'm done with the harmful chemicals.

[KatherineA]

You need to choose between Diatomaceous earth and predator nematodes - so don't put the Dia. Earth in the same area of the yard where you put down nematodes. The Dia earth will also kill the nematodes. So putting the Dia earth around the house would work and then the nematodes out in the yard but not putting down both in the same area.

[spatulagirl]

Advantage and Frontline don't work for us and I stopped using them because of the danger to kids and pets.

I have been battling fleas on the animals for a few months now (and on us! YUCK) tring to figure out what would work. I am finally flea free thanks to the following:

Program tablets (for dogs and cats) - stops fleas from producing
Capstar Tablets (for dogs and cats) - kills all adult fleas for 24 hours
daily flea combing
weekly bath
daily vacuuming
washing bedding every three days when it was really bad