Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - caution:flea control products

Just a reminder as summer is upon us. If you choose to use commercial flea control products it is risky business. My dachshund became ill with AIHA after receiving a treatment of FRONTLINE. He almost died. It is two years later and we are still treating him with pred. Many others have similarly lost their pet and nursed them back after a horrendous reaction/illness to this or anther flea control treatment. You are puting pesticides directly into your pet's system when you use these products. FRONTLINE has a dangerous pesticide in the ingredient called fipronil. It is a relativey new pesticide (past ten years) and it has not been properly tested for mammals for safety purposes. It will kill fleas and possibly your dog. You will never get the vet community to admit this product is dangerous. The pharmaceutical companies are much too powerful. We have discussed flea control and the problems they cause in other posts. This is just a reminder to new readers. COMMERCIAL FLEA CONTROL PRODUCTS CAN CAUSE SERIOUS HARM. My pet is one of the many recepients of such careless treatment production by big-Pharma, in this case Merial. Be very cautious in their use.

jan PA

Jan, Thank you for this information. It's so important that people realize and understand how devastating flea control products are. I never knew the horrible effects until my dog Tipsi (she too is a dachshund) became sick with AIHA. I always trusted my vet, but not anymore. And I still can not get them to admit that all of these products are harmful. I had a vet tell me just a few weeks ago that Frontline was one of the safer ones on the market. Fortunately I'm not buying that because I know they are toxic. Therefore Tipsi no longer receives topical flea treatments.

Layla Brantley Raleigh

Just curious. Is there a safer. or even safe, flea control product? Duck has never had fleas but it would be good to know how to treat him if the need arose.

Debbie BC Canada

Hi Deb and Duck (its been a long time!), everyone! I do flea control the old fashioned way, and it is really working for us. Kent no longer uses frontline (we used plus - arg) or heartguard. For heartguard he takes dimmitrol. Since i started my own flea program Kent has less fleas than when he was on frontline. For flea control i do an assortment of routine easy things. Disclaimer: I am just a person, no vet or homeopath or anything like that, so please i am only sharing what works for me and my dog - please do research for yourself. 1. Soak orange peel in vodka. 3 oranges > 1 liter vodka. I just keep this in the cupboard and use as needed. When i wash the floors, i add about 1/2 cup of this to the detergent (natural). The orange oil repels everything but you do not want to get it on your dog. Ie wouldnt spray it on the coat or anything as it can be toxic. But i do add a tablespoon to his shampoo in the bath and the fleas when he has them do fall right off. 2. come him every few days with a flea comb (use detergent in water, and drown fleas in this). 3. Vacuum everyday. I put a flea collar in the vacuum bag to kill the fleas that get vacummed up. 4. Once a week to the beach for the salt water (anyone live near palm beach county with a salt water swimming pool we could use??? :) then a bath at home. Vet is always surprised no fleas on kent, only sand in his coat. :) 5. Wash all of his bedding every week, including his toys. if i see a flea, i 6. use borax on the wood floors and edges and let sit for a day then vacuum up - carefull do not let it get on the dog - can itch and be very uncomfortable. I have had success using this plus a mosquito repellent herbal oil with lemongrass, tea tree, patchouli and cedarwood. Cedarwood seems to be the key repellent but never put any oil directly on your dog. Dilute and spray around doors etc. Christine and Kent

Christine Fl

Great suggetions, Christine! Layla, I would be interested learning more about Tipsi's reaction to Frontline. There is (more) power in numbers. Jan

jan philly

My Jack Russell came down with AIHA 2 days after administration of k9 advantix. We battled it for 1 month and then we lost him.(I had used Frontline on him from the time he was a puppy thru the summer of his 6th year with no problems.) We just got a new dog and I will not use any commercial flea/tick meds on her due to our experience. I will keep Christine's information in case I need it. Thank you for posting what you have found to work!

Barbara atlanta

Hi Jan, Tipsi has actually never used Frontline. I believe her AIHA was brought on by a combination of K9 Advantix and Heartguard Plus that I used on her in a very short period of time. I always thought these products were safe and I was doing her more harm by not using them. I mentioned Frontline in my previous post because after asking my vet what I should use to control fleas on Tipsi they told me Frontline was the safest of all the treatments. And I just wanted to prove your point that you can't always trust everything a vet tells you. And your experience with Frontline proves that, because vets are still saying they are safe. My vet told me that Frontline was the only one that wasn't systemic..... :( If only they knew. I found a great article regarding the toxic effects of topical flea treatments out of the Whole Dog Journal. Here is the link if you are interested. Just copy and paste into your browser. http://www.apnm.org/publications/resources/fleachemfin.pdf I hadn't posted this earlier because I wasn't completely sure of it's authenticity, but I found it to be very interesting. Hopefully some others will as well. If you are still interested in Tipsi's reaction eventhough it was a different brand of flea treatment, feel free to email me to discuss. Layla & Tipsi

Layla Brantley Raleigh

I just saw ont he news tonight about I think it was Hartz flea control making cats very sick with the cats having seizures. So they are all bad!!! Linda

Linda Sapphire

Linda, commercial flea products are laden with pesticides. The chemicals they use in these products are toxic. Take a read of the website started by James Terbush whose pet almost died from a commerical product, biospot. You will view hundreds of letters written by pet owners whose animals had adverse reactions. It will make you sick, especially since nothing is being done to stop the production of these products in their current dangerous state. There is no advocate(s) for we pet owners that has effectively penetrated Big-Pharma. It's pretty disgraceful that thousands of animals become seriosuly ill and/or die and the industry flourishes in spite of these lossess. http://www.elversonpuzzle.com/biospotlettersv11.html

jan PA

Hey Jan, I know you don't have to tell me about the dangers, I know they are really bad!!! In fact Layla, that was great posting that link from the Whole Dog Journal, I have been sending it to everyone I know to try and get the word out. Still so many people using frontline and I am trying to warn them about all the dangers. Thanks, Linda

Linda Sapphire

My beloved Phoebe, a 12-year-old Humane Society mutt, was hunting, barking, and living life to its fullest until I applied Frontline on her last week. Within 10 hours she couldn't walk and was clearly dying. $1000 later, she has been diagnosed with AIHA, has been hospitalized, and she is still dying. She is horribly jaundiced, wobbles, and can weakly wag her tail. I am having a hard time living with the fact that I put poison on my best beast and that she still wags her tail for me when I walk in the room. I will never forgive myself. I'd like to sue. Lora

Lora Wisconsin

at this point i keep sway clear of all flea and heart commercialized things. nothing, no vaccines either. those links people provided were great things, thanks for those. will save them for sure

josh california

Laura, I am so sorry for your pain. I know what you are feeling. I have/am going through the same horror. I am just fortunate that my boy survived. It has been $9,000 in vet bills and two years of worry and anger. The Pharmaceutical companies are not accountable for the poison they sell to consumers and worse yet the vets do not take the results of this product and demand the EPA take this absolutely dangerous,toxic chemical off the market. Also, there is no gas chromatography test that is avaiable anywhere in the WORLD that has been created to test the chemical fibronil (which is a pesticide) in the blood. So, 'prove it' they say. You can't and no one will back you up. Most attorney's don't want to take this case. they know the potential outcome. It is horrifying what is allowed to go on regarding the production of toxic animal products. There is total fraud in the way Frontline is advertized. 'Safe and Gentle' 'does not penetrate the skin.' Who are they kidding??! I will be in touch with you. Please, please do not blame yourself. You couldn't have known the results. Jan

Jan PA

Hi everyone, As some of you know, I lost Chloe in March due to this horrible disease and hope I never have to go thru it again. I have a 10 month old frenchie puppy now and she ate poo and contracted whipworms, yuck! The vet told me if she would have had heartworm preventative, this would not have happened. But, I don't want her to get AIHA. So, what do you all do to protect your dogs from worms of all types, and mange mites, etc.? Thanks...Sal

My Chloe Michigan

Although I would prefer NO meds, Tillie does get heartworm preventative. The mosquitos are simply awful this year! I cringe every time I give it to her...I was spacing it 45 days apart but now that we are in full bug mode, I have gone back to the 30 days. I will space it out again in the fall. I am struggling with what to do about fleas/ticks...have an herbal spray but have cut way back on that. Tillie is allergic to ragweed = biting herself, scratching, itching. So I have that to deal with as well and am using aloe vera gel and some ground oatmeal and seems to be helping..but won't stop fleas/ticks. *sigh* Mrs. Gates

Mrs. Gates Michigan

How do you test for toxicity due to flea and tick meds? I posted a story (under the general section called "medical mystery") and my dog had a flea collar on for 3 weeks before he became ill... I had mentioned this to the vet because this was the first time I had ever used flea and tick collars - as ticks were really bad this year...

Dana Brandon

you don't!! That is the BIG PROBLEM. There is NO TEST in any lab in any country that has been established to test for toxicity in regards to how these product ingredients can effect your pet. When Choe was at his sickest I asked for a blood chromatography study to be completed to look for the fibronil (pesticide that is the main ingredient in Frontlne spot-on) that I knew was in his system from the Frontline. The head of internal medicine at UPENN Vet school informed me he could not find such a study. Isn't that convenient for the pharmaceutical company? That DARE you to prove it was their product that made you dog sick. Was no medical mystery, Dana with your dog and thousands of others who become ill when their system is permeated with pesticides. DONT USE THE STUFF. It is POISON with a capital P.

jan PA.

Don't I know all about how those pharma companies work. It was the 6 month heartworm preventative, ProHeart6 that brought on my 4 year old golden retriever's AIHA and killed him 8 days after diagnosis. Ten months afteer his death the FDA had them pull it because of the extremely high number of reactions and deaths, AIHA being one of the leading causes of death. Fort Dodge asked for and I agreed to let them have it, a copy of Hunter's entire medical history and that inclued the necropsy/histopath report. He had never been sick a day in his life til struck down with AIHA after that injection. And believe me, i would have never thought about the PH6 causing it had my vet not brought it up. Need I say that Fort Dodge could find "no evidence" that their product caused his AIHA---even tho it had recently been listed on their warning lable as one of the reactions. Others who did not have necropsy done were told that it could not be proven that pH6 caused their dogs death because no necropsy had been done. So it made no difference, necropsy or not. Hunter died Oct. 16, 2003 and it was ulled Sept. 3, 2004. HOWEVER RECENTLY THE FDA HAS ALLOWED IT BACK ON THE MARKET WITH ALL KINDS OF WARNINGS. IT IS NOT TO BE GIVEN WITHIN A MONTH OF ANY VACCINE, OR TO DOGS WITH ALLERGIES INCLUDING FOOD ALLERGIES, OR TO UNDERWEIGHT DOGS OR SICK DOGS AND SOMEWHERE I READ IT WAS NOT TO BE GIVEN TODOGS OVER 7 YEARS OF AGE. When it first came out it was suppose to be safe for all dogs includng heartworm positive dogs, safe given along with vaccines, etc. But laelhanges had to be made after it k8illed heartworm positive dogs, caused AIHA, seizures, liver problems, and the lat label change was made the day my Hunter got his fata injection and that new warning was DEATH.

SANDRA TEXAS

Here's the real deal with the FDA and the EPA (who regulate flea control products with pesticide ingredients). THEY ARE NOT DOING THEIR JOB!! Most (animal) pharmaceutical companies will not release their clinical study trials. When you ask, as I did in writing to a lead veterinarian at Merial, (producers of Frontline) not once but twice, they inform you the information is 'propietary.' And there are no gas chromatography studies (blood tests) that have been created that test the specific harmful ingredient in the blood. So they say, prove it (you can't). They say sue us (you can't cause you don't have any 'proof') and the Daubert Law requires the claimant in order to file a motion to sue to have 'proof' the product itself caused an adverse reaction. Know any scientists/PHd's who will publish a bonafide paper on the harmful effects of specific commercial pet products so you can show it to the judge? No, well, there aren't such folks who I have been able to locate. The EPA/FDA are extraordinarily lax and apparently don't have to inform the public at any great length why they have approved a (pet) product line....or report follow-up checks and balances to the public after they receive adverse reaction reports. If the current Bush Administration had anything to add they want to make it even harder to potenially question or attempt to sue government regulatory agencies. Most lawyers, as sympathetic as they are will not touch these type cases. There is no advocate for us. I have tried for two years. The pharmaceutical companies know they have you over a barrel and that's exactly where they intend on keeping you. Your pet almost died/ passed away from a commercial heartworm/flea product?...ah well. They have nothing to say. People should be outraged. But apparently we can be silenced quite easily. Nobody responds and few ask why. It's pretty disgusting. Jan

jan pa

This thread was discussed between 23/06/2008 and 30/07/2008

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