Accidental Cat Poisoning~! & High Vet Bills~!!

6 Comments

Comment by AH-001 - AveHurley on July 6, 2009 at 3:58pm

July 6th, 2009 @11:57 am http://www.hartzvictims.org/2009/07/03/flea-drops-nearly-killed-my-cat-2/

While I have seen a response from a lady who uses drops that have not harmed her cats, I say to that lady she is one of the lucky ones~ My Vet said that not all cats are the same and some go years without showing signs of being poisoned, however this stuff is poison and long term use DOES damage a cat’s central nervous system.

There are currently non-poisonous remedies already available but their prices are still higher because t

The safe meds are not mass produced at the level that Hartz or Sargents can produce and sell theirs.

Now if they were to change their ingredients to ones that were not potentially lethal to animals as well as pose any potential threat to children and elderly [who often handle pets] then the problem could be solved!

Its corporate greed to use dangerous chemicals to solve the flea problems with cheaper lethal ingredients instead of safe ones.They say they would rather pay individual pet bills instead of changing ingredients as they think only 1:10,000 are affected. How can we know if that number is accurate or if YOU who havent yet been affected were to become that 1:10,000 would you not then also become alarmed?

If you were to see first hand in your own pet how horrible the results of a reaction are, you would change your mind and never use those drops or any like them ever again.

I have not spoken of any law suit as that is not my concern, since I was the one who put the drops on my cat and I was the one who bought them in the first place, not knowing how dangerous they can be and are.Besides even to be reimbursed for medical costs, I cant be as the vet tech disposed of the tube the flea drops came in, so I can not make any lawsuits.

I just want to warn others of the danger of this poison and spare some other poor cats and dogs the needless suffering they would go through as well as the heartache I went through as I saw how much my cat suffered and nearly died.

She would have died without hospitalization and treatment to undo the effects of the flea drops, which she had only 2 drops, but the vet said even one drop can be lethal.

These products need to have their ingredients changed and the packaging should have skull & cross bone could be fatal warnings on them~!

Comment by AH-001 - AveHurley on July 6, 2009 at 3:59pm

http://www.hartzvictims.org/2009/05/28/my-cat-almost-died-after-hartz/

On May 13, 2009 I applied the flea drops to the neck of my one year old cat, Belle. It was not long after that I noticed an odd noise in the kitchen. When I went to check, I found Belle in the midst of a seizure. What I heard was him thumping around in the chair. I called my husband to the kitchen to help. After the seizure Belle was stretched out like he was trying to cough up a hairball, thinking he was choking, my husband grabbed the flash light and checked in his throat. It was right after this that the cat went limp. While my husband was performing CPR on Belle, I noticed he was not breathing. Not sure on how to give a cat mouth-to-mouth, I just put his entire nose and mouth in my mouth and gently blew until I saw his ribs expand as if he were breathing. After what seemed like an eternity, he started severe twitching and had fully dilated pupils. Then another seizure. My husband wrapped Belle in a towel and off to the emergency vet.

As soon as I got to the vets office, they asked about flea drops and I told them that I had used some earlier on Belle. They knew right off which brand, Hartz. After a bath, an all night long IV, valium, and another drug to counter-effect the flea drops my Belle is fine and healthy. According to the vet, 5 out of ever 1,000 cats have this sort of reaction that Belle had and were it up to him, this stuff would be pulled from the market.

Today, a few weeks later, Belle is back to normal and healthy. Were it not for the fact that Belle is a year old healthy cat, I am not sure he would be here today. Toss the Hartz in the garbage.

Ms Lori

Comment by AH-001 - AveHurley on July 6, 2009 at 4:01pm

http://www.hartzvictims.org/2009/05/28/my-cat-almost-died-after-hartz/

Samantha
June 3rd, 2009 @7:29 am So I just recently bought two Hartz products for my cat, not realizing the damage it causes. I bought the Tick and Flea removal and the Ear Mite drops. My poor cat I feel as if I’m torturing it! The spot where I applied the Tick and Flea removal has left him bald. Nothing other than that has occurred, but he has never had a allergic reaction or ANY reaction to any other Tick and Flea products. I fear that I might have to bring him to the vet for the Ear Mite Drops though. His whole left ear has been inflamed since yesterday when I applied it. I could barely even touch the outside of it without him flinching. When I looked inside its extremely red and I can tell he is in a lot of pain! Never again will I trust these products!

Comment by AH-001 - AveHurley on July 6, 2009 at 4:15pm

http://www.hartzvictims.org/2009/05/28/my-cat-almost-died-after-hartz/#comment-11506

AveHurley
July 6th, 2009 @1:13 pm I totally know the horror you went through with Belle~!
I saw it first hand with the little grey cat I raised that was abandoned by its mother near the barn. We initially thought she was a male & called her Napolean but when she turned 7 months old we found out she was a female,lol, having never’looked’ to be sure, so we dont really have another name for her and just call her the little grey cat.Sometimes we jokingly call her Napoleanna~ but still she has never been outdoors,but my sons puppies have been and they brought in the fleas she became infested with.

Her flea collar didnt get rid of the fleas, so with a couple drops that were left from treating the puppies, I put the last 2 drops on her neck only to later see her frothing at the mouth and convulsing and seizing.

Immediately we took her to the animal hospital where they started decontamination and she was placed on IV therapies to counteract the poison of the flea drops.

She is home recovering now but the vet bill was $485 which is equally devasting to me as I am disabled and live on $700 a month which is spent on rent & utilities.I now dont have my rent for my landlord and dont expect any sympathy as he is a farmer and would have shot the cat hat he seen it frothing!

These over the counter remedies while cheaper than what the vet sells are not cheaper when they cause an animal to suffer and either die or cost a small fortune in medical care.

I just got my disability check on the 1st so I had to pay the vet as he would have kept and boarded my cat til I did pay and that was an additional $9 a day which would have been much more to pay next month.So I paid and now I am in the hole for the amount as I only have an average of $25-30 a month left from my disability check and have since been trying to start an online business from home selling my artwork.There are however so many artists out there online that I have not had any sales so now I am trying to make a fundraiser on my website where I will give away some of my art in exchange just for donations, that is like trading art since I lowered the prices to only cover production of my prints,cards and aceos.
I wish I had saved the carton of the flea drops or that I would have asked the vet for the empty tube when she was done with it since the company that made it will only pay the vet bill IF they get the tube back~ [cant blame them for that I supposed as they do need proof and a way to check their Vats]

Still it was Sargents flea drops, single dose that I had used on the puppies so now I wonder had I put a full dose on them instead of just a little on each IF they would have also suffered the same fate as my cat~!
AveHurley
http://tiny.cc/helpcat

Comment by AH-001 - AveHurley on July 6, 2009 at 4:18pm

EVEN LITTLE DOGS HAVE REACTIONS TO THESE POISONS~!!!

http://www.hartzvictims.org/2009/05/30/hartz-almost-killed-my-chihuahua/

I had no idea about 11/2 years ago that I was unintentually poisoning my little Chihuahua, Boo. We had gone to the pet store and purchased the Hartz 3-pack of drops to use because it was cheaper than the other flea and tick medications. Soon after the first application, she had a seizure. I did not put two and two together because it had been several days since applying the treatment. I started doing some research on Chihuahuas and found that occasionally they had seizures. I just assumed that this was common. I didn’t think anything of it. A couple of months later we applied the Hartz again and soon after that she had another seizure. I was so scared that I called the vet and they said that they could do some blood work for about $300 but even then they may not know what caused the seizures. So I didn’t do the blood work. Again a couple months later it happened again! We stopped buying the Hartz because the smell was so strong, we still had no idea about the Hartz medicine being linked to seizures. Since we have not bought the Hartz medication, my Boo has NOT had one seizure. My husband, just the other night, was watching the local news and saw this story. He said, “I think we have figured out the mystery to her seizures”! And then he told me about the medication. I can’t believe that this is still happening to other pets after 11/2 years ago. Why are they still letting this medication hurt our animals? We must do something! I don’t know what I would do if I lost my little girl! She is very young and the seizures were the scariest thing to go through. Not knowing and worrying all the time about her, and then the guilt of now knowing that we were accidentally poisoning her is heart breaking! We must do something!

Comment by AH-001 - AveHurley on September 16, 2009 at 9:20am

Hartz and Sergeants may be different companies but they both apply since both sell over the counter products to consumers for their pets and both use toxic ingredients with abandon, since it is cheaper for them to deal with a few thousand deaths a year than to cut into their profits over the millions they sell!

Congress regulates the agencies that determine whether these products are to be allowed to be put on the shelves of markets and sold the the general public. These companies stack the deck when doing their ‘testing’ of these products in order to get approval to sell them. They underplay their roles and have placed warnings on their products that dont convince most pet owners that the products arent safe.

Instead the warnings serve as a disclaimer to basically use at your own risk on the pets you own.

The regulations arent strict enough. The general public assumes that if the product is for public sale that it must be safe to use. Even with the tiny worded labelling on back of these products, the main label shows a happy pet that is free of fleas because you choose to use their product.

You as the pet owner, consumer, are not aware of how dangerous this stuff really is.You are not intentionally poisoning your pet, you are trying to get rid of the fleas on your pet!

Unfortunately most pet owners dont know this product is going to do the horrible stuff it does UNTIL your own pet is affected. Once you have put it on the pet, or its bedding and the reaction begins, it is too late.

Your pet goes into convulsions, seizures and dies. OR you get to the VET and it costs an average of $500-750 to save your pet and if you can not afford it, you either have to euthanize your pet or watch it die slowly. You might gamble and let it ride it out, and the pet survives, but has permanent neurological damage. Some recover, but most need VET care in order to save them.

Some even with VET care die anyway. The emotional effects of knowing you put the product on the pet to initiate the process of their illness, leaves permanent guilt and pain to the owner as well. Still most victimized owners do blame themselves for not being aware that the very products they purchased that were designed to deal with the problems of flea infestations are in fact dangerous and should not be available for public sale in this this country or anywhere.

Manufacturers are fully aware of the dangers of their products, but they dont care as long as they can get away with it.Their concern is any new regulations that might cut into their profit margins should Congress pay attention to pet owner complaints and change regulations on public sales of their toxic products.

Due to their own corporate greed, they cleverly devise ways and disclaimers, that throw any blame for what they term ‘misuse of the product’ , back onto Joe Q Public Pet Owner and so far they have gotten away with it.

They argue their case effectively and leave many pet owners in the wake of the destruction caused by them. for using the cheap lethal ingredients that they use in these products.

Non pet owners along with lucky pet owners are not always sympathetic either, where you will hear things like, ‘well then you shouldnt own a pet, if you cant afford them’ and again the blame is placed back on the unwitting pet owner who bought the Hartz or the Sargents or the Bansect etc. and used their toxic products..

Since they each use lethal neurotoxins to get rid of fleas in their products, they are equally guilty, but actually use each other to remain guilt free! They each put the blame back on the public - the pet owner for using their products which are more a ‘name your own poison’ thing since they are each dangerous.

To use these trusted named pet care products, you would be just as ’safe’ to use bug spray for hornets as you would be to use flea drops for cat / or dogs!!

Its that dangerous, but many who have not witnessed first hand what this does when a pet is rea