Canine Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA & IMHA) - please make note...flea control

Just noticed on Meisha's hope the newest success story...Ziggy.. (if the owner was not a vet tech I think he would not have had the chance he received)..still another case where the pet had a dose of flea control product a few days before the onset of AIHA. Curiously, however, many pet owners do not seem to reveal an absolute abhorance that the pharmeceutical companies are permitted to produce products laden with toxicity that are not adequately tested in clinical trials before they are approved. Get your anger up, folks. These insecticides, infiltrating within your pet's blood system, are causing AIHA/ killing our pets (especially pets owned by those who do not have funds for multiple hospitalizations to attempt to save with transfusions, expensive meds, etc.) and we are paying our vets and pet retail outlets to help us to do so!! Unbelievable. Don't purchase these products and protest vehemently to the manufacturer and the EPA (regulator of pesticide products). That is the only way to remove them from the market. Tell your vet your are NOT INTERSTED in buying these products no matter how 'bengin' they tell you they are. THEY ARE NOT BENIGN. THEY ARE KILLERS. For heaven's sake...don't use them and let everyone you know who has a pet not to use them they can and DO cause severe AIHA. It's been over one year and $10,000 in vet bills.... thankfully, my boy is still fighting. It is a passion at this point to help to prevent others what has happened to him. Jan

jan philly

If everyone who had a dog that has contracted AIHA could fill out a standardized form regarding the meds and vaccinations their dogs received, we might be able to find a common thread. One case to cause is anecdotal, but hundreds of cases we might be able to find the common link.

Ron B San Mateo

You are correct Ron...and if any of the writers on this board can reveal the potential impetus that started their pet's AIHA I would be most appreciative of knowing. The most recent post on Meisha's hope, Ziggy's AIHA was also (from the description) very possibly precipitated by Frontine. Fibronil is a pesticide and the main ingredient in frontline that is of a toxic nature. It has only been on the market for 10 years. Completer information on the product's safety has not been fully revealed. When I requested clinical study trials from Merial, the company that produces the product a veterinarian responded very curiously... with a mantra of 'our product is safe' it is probably something else that caused your pet's AIHA reaction.' She also conveniently ignored two separate written requests,to be made aware of their recorded data on clinical study trials to 'prove' the effacacy of the products on dogs. If you peruse the website http://www.elversonpuzzle.com/biospotlettersv11.html started by James Terbush whose pet almost died from an application of Biospot, you will see that the responses of systemic toxicity from these products are certainly far from anectodal. Here is a page on Merck's website titled, "Hemolytic anemia caused by chemicals and toxins": http://www.mercksource.com/pp/us/cns/cns_hl_adam.jspzQzpgzEzzSzppdocszSzuszSzcnszSzcontentzSzadamzSzencyzSzarticlezSz000590zPzhtm If you have given your pet a flea control product and have experienced an adverse reaction resulting in AIHA knowing such information would be helpful. We need to protect and inform each other as well as protect our pets from products that are deadly. Jan

jan Philly

BTW..... One of the chemicals listed as a possible cause of hemolytic anemia is sulfones. Fipronil is metabolized in mammals to a sulfone component (fipronil sulfone).

jan philly

I gave Cranky Interceptor on Sunday and Wednesday he started getting sick. I cannot say for certain that is what caused it but I also cant attribute it to anything else. Teresa and Cranky

Teresa Smithfield

Jasper has been using Frontline for 10 years. We hadn't put any on him for at least 2 months prior to him becoming ill, because I only ever used it every 3 months. He literally became ill overnight, he stopped eating (unheard of for him) and then collapsed about an hour later. I had taken him for a walk to see if he could go to the toilet thinking he may have a blockage. Whilst we have no idea what has caused his episode of AIHA and I have racked my brains as to what may have caused it.....We were on holiday for 3 weeks and he was with us. It hadn't been overly hot, can't say he hadn't eaten onions as he is a scavenger! (he ate dead crabs and seaweed and anything else on the beach he could find before I got to it). The only thing I did was to give him Drontal wormer the day we went on holiday knowing what a scavenger he is.

Jackie pembrokeshire; west wales; uk

I had to put my dog Shelby to sleep last month after a short battle with AIHA. We thought things were going well, but she soon relasped to a level much lower than when she was diagnosed. I know so many people here carry on for months, even years in the battle but Shelby had no quality of life left and I could see no reason to continue with more blood transfusions and stronger more toxic (chemo) meds. I may never be able to prove it, but I suspect Interceptor as an initiating factor in her demise. Shelby weighed 52 pounds and at that weight the vet always gave her the Interceptor dose for a 51-100 lb dog. It always seemed to me like if the dose would do for a 100 lb dog, she was getting twice what she needed, but the vet always reassured me that she could not OD on the stuff. She took it every month for 9 years, so I don't really know if it was a factor or not.

Steve California

Hi Everyone, I know the question of whether or not to give heartworm preventative is something many of us have struggled with. I wanted to mention two things that helped us make the decision for Murray. First, some time ago, someone posted a link to a Whole Dog Journal article on the topic that you can probably find through the search feature on the board - it talked about the pros/cons of the various heartworm meds and the risks associated with heartworm disease. And, then, I and my holistic vet consulted with Dr. Dodds on Murray's case and her reco was to give Interceptor every 45 days (the efficacy is longer than the 30 days the manufacturer recommends). He is ~40 lbs. so he is at the higher end of the weight range for his dosage. There is a fairly high incidence of heartworm in Illinois so, while I worried about it for days, we opted to give him - after all he's been through, I couldn't imagine if he were to come down with heartworm. In his case, he has been fine so far. As with many things, when it comes to IMHA, there is no clear answer - it's one of the biggest things we struggle with. Bonnie

Bonnie Chicago

Bonnie, I am VERY glad to hear Murray is doing well. Let me just say that I certainly realize that not all of the precious animals we talk of on this board have developed AIHA from flea control products. However, I reiterate my extreme concern regarding the ingredients in these products (i.e, topical flea control products are 45% pesticides). There may be a time and place for them, but I fear minimal warning labels on packaging, dosages that are recommnded which may be far too toxic for our smaller guys and lack of proven clinical study trials revealed by the manufacurers should cause great pause. Coupled with hundreds of adverse pet effect letters that can be mined via various consumer websites (i.e. http://www.elversonpuzzle.com/biospotlettersv11.html should be an absolute red flag in and of themselves (they are clearly NOT anecdotal). The public should be demanding the pharmaceutical manufacturers reach out with much more comprehensive and honest information both to the veterinarians and consumers. In Choe's case there actualy was a clear answer....his AIHA resulted from Frontline topical flea control product. My extensive research has confirmed same. Absolutely no doubt. Pesticides in the bloodstream can wreak havoc and be deadly. I wanted very much to trust our gov't regulators and scientific researchers performing safety quality control efforts. Many medication treatments for people have had proven adverse effects and ultimately showed grave health risks. Many people have passed away. Same for pet treatments. One can only be made aware of such a high volume of pet illness and adverse effects from flea control treatments before the same queries are presented. How many more pets need be strickened? And just how do consumers get answers to pertinenet, concerning and reasonable questions from so many well protected and wealthy large manufacturing (pharmaceutical) conglomerates? Wishing you and Murray the best, Jan

jan philly

The night Otto was diagnosed with AIHA the vet notice a few fleas on him so he used frontline on him. The next evening he was 10 times worse and we had to make another trip to the vet. He slowly declined the next two days before he was taken from me. Now I wonder if he would have stood a chance had he not been exposed to the frontline.

Terri West Virginia

Terry, you didn't know...how could you have known? . A number of years ago I was 'mom' to a wonderful older dachshund who I adopted at 11 years old. She 'thanked' me everday for taking her out of the shelter and very probable euthanasia. After about a year she developed the beginning stages of kidney failure. I was doing all I could to keep her with me and had her on hydration therapy. She was holding her own. She was a dog who was a flea magnet and was allergic to the bites. The vet assured me frontline would not compromise her already tenuous condition. I believed him. He was the vet. He was wrong. She was gone in three days following the application. Many of them are wrong. It is perplexing as the vets are so knowledgable in so many areas....but flea control seems to be one that is not given much attention. The marketing strategies used by the manufacturers are so well executed and so well funded, that it appears that significant data like clinical study trials and product effacacy are placed on the back burner. And so it happened to my pet (Choe) yet again. This time I choose to speak out. Whether the members of this group agree with me or not I hope I have provided you pause when choosing to use these products. Do some research, read others' examples and make your own decisions. Terri, my heart aches for your loss. I feel your pain. I'm sure your life will be blessed with another wonderful pet companion and I wish you the very best. Jan

jan philly

Jan, I for one appreciate your warnings. We all need to look very carefully into anything we give/do to our pets as well as ourselves. I am lucky that we do not have any flea problems due to elevation and in 10 years of living in the mountains we have only had to remove 1 tick. I always envisioned a beautiful yard and garden but decided I can do without all the chemicals that my animals as well as the wild ones already here would be exposed to. I know my Vet who I do like very much probably has me classified as a bit of an nut job because I am constantly questioning every step of my dogs health requirements. IE: shots, heartguard and so on. I never want to go through losing another dog to this awful disease so I remain ever cautious. With that said my dog Salome had had no drugs other than a Rabies shot 10 months prior to diagnosis so I don't think it was related. While hindsight is a useless thing, we all can do our part by educating everyone we come in contact with our new found knowledge so they don't have to pay the dear price we did. Penny

Penny Lytle Creek Calif

I know this is an old post, but just had to follow up our experience this morning. Holly went in for her blood work, and she as well as our Chihuahua have been dragging their butts and biting at the back end. Our Chihuahua has had to have her anal glands cleaned once before, so I asked them to check Holly's anal glands and of course they were full so they cleaned. Boy is that smell awful! We spray our house once or twice a year depending on how bad the flea season is and had done it about 4 weeks ago, took the girls out for the day to keep them out of it. So while at the vet, the girl combed Holly and of course found one flea, which I said was probably from their grass outside, HA! So right away they said she should be on Frontline, and I said no she cannot be. The assistant called Frontline to ask about being absorbed into the blood, and OF COURSE THEY TOLD HIM, NOT IT DOESN'T ABSORB INTO THE BLOOD SO SHOULD BE FINE WITH A DOG WITH AIHA. HA! I DON'T BELIEVE IT FOR A MINUTE AND WILL NOT PUT THIS ON EITHER OF OUR DOGS! I DON'T CARE WHAT THEY SAY. So I picked up a phamlet and on it, it says quickly spreads all over the body and into the oil (sebeceous) glands in the skin, to me that is to close to blood. So just wanted to share that with you all. We heard somewhere sprinkle salt all in your carpet and the fleas eat and die??? Might be worth a shot, HA probably an old wives tale. Linda

Linda Sapphire

Merial is committing fraud by providing this (mis) information. And they are so powerful an institution that they are getting away with it. Linda, you are absolutely correct in refusing the treatment. I had another letter sent to me from a pet owner that revealed the same exact situation I had with Choe..... regarding her pet contracting anemia resulting from a second dose of frontline. Why most vets are 'believers' in the claim from Merial that the toxin does not permeate the system is very curious. There is letter after letter written by pet owners which talks of severe neurological as well as systemic effects of this dreaded pesticide. STAY AWAY FROM THIS AND ALL FLEA CONTROL PRODUCTS. Protect your pet. We have to learn from one another what NOT to do and spread the word. Jan

jan philly

I have just read some of these posts regarding fleas. Funny enough, towards the end of this summer I noticed a few fleas on Trixie. I gave her "Frontline" it comes in a vile and I put a few drops between her shoulder blades and on the base of her tail as directed. Hmmmmmm now I am wondering if this could have caused what she has "AUTOIMMUNE HEMOLYTIC ANEMIA?"

Tricia UK

Tricia, I'm sorry to say that it certainly could have been the initiator of Trixie's AIHA. How long between the application (of the frontline) and the symptoms? (it is usually about 2-3 days). In my case it was the second dose. The instructions tell you to apply every four weeks.....but that is too high of a dosage as I and many others found out the hard way when our pets suffered from pesticide toxicity poisoning. Please tell me more about the time period that Trixie showed symptoms as related to the dosage of the frontline. I have corresponded with a staff veterinarian, several times from Merial. However, she denies that frontline can permeate the system. We know this to be a false claim after the many, many adverse responses pet owners reveal soon after the application. Take a read of James Terbush's website. You will be horrified to learn what the EPA allows in pet products without adhering to proper study trials/ regulations. http://www.elversonpuzzle.com/biospotlettersv11.html

jan philly

Sabres story In April of this year I first used frontline spot on I have 2 German shepherds it all seemed ok until 72 hours later my male started having mild seizures he had never shown sighs of fits before that day and was a healthy 45kg as he was a bigger an average I used 1 40-60kg pipette on him he had a few seizures for about 3 days mostly at night then they just stopped I did think it might be the frontline as it was the only thing new we had given our dogs my bitch was fine in April tia came into season and they mated and sabre had no more seizures until we frontlined them both again in June about 10days before the pups where due then like before sabre started having mild seizures after about 72 hours and like before they lasted for a few days then stopped so now I was sure it was the frontline so that was that no more frontline for sabre I did tell my vet about it when I took the pups in to be checked over and he said it could not be the frontline he had never heard of it having that reaction on a dog but I was sure sabre was doing good again no more seizures so I left him until august to make sure the frontline had left his body then put him back on program which I had used before with out any problems but we did frontline tia with the last dose I had for her and the pups before they left me for there new homes and we kept sabre away from them over night so on the 21august we let sabre play with them again thinking it should now be safe as it had dried in but on Thursday night going in to Friday morning of the 24th sabre had a seizure again and was restless for a few hours then seemed ok again we went to deliver a pup to Folkestone late that morning and sabre was still fine no seizures after the 1 in the night so we thought he would be ok we left our 16yr old at home with the other pups and sabre and tia it was about a 3hour round trip but within 30min s of getting to Folkestone I got a text message saying sabre had a seizure to we left for the trip home while on the way home my son kept phoning me as sabre was having more seizures and the where getting stronger and lasting longer some lasted about 4 mins as soon as we got home I phone the vets and we took sabre there he had another seizure before we left lasting a few mins we got him into the car and drove to the vets while waiting to be called in sabre had a seizure in the back of my car we got him out on to the grass and I ran in and told the nurse sabre had just had another seizure we then got called into the vets but sabre could not stand or walk properly his back end was gone so we helped in we put him on the vets table his breathing was very fast and again I told the vet it was the due to the frontline but he still said no by now sabre was flat on the table so we carred him though the back where it was cooler while we talked about what to do we did think about trying meditations but I said it would not help as it was the frontline not just normal seizures sabre was totally flat no life in him breathing very fast but shallow so thinking back to that day now I think his organs must have been shutting down due to the amount of seizures he had that day so thinking it would be best for sabre we had him put to sleep when his pups where just 10 weeks old he was only 4 years old I then contacted merial and told them what had happened and like my vet they said it could not be the frontline it was just his breed but he had never had a seizure before I used frontline a few weeks later I found this site and was very shocked to find out this had been going on for years I email merial again and told them so the only letter I have had from merial says that frontline does not canse seizures ha ha what a joke I’m still emailing them weekly but they have not got back to me once guess they just think I’ll go away well they are wrong they killed my loving pet and I will keep on at them as long as I live you can email me at eithna_bright@fsmail.net I have email the kennel club and await there reply plus animal meds and noah and I’ll also keep on at my vet merial have got back to me again after i kept emailing them telling them about other cases they have now offered to pay for the treatment we had on the 24th august but still say there product is safe ha ha what a joke well i'll still keep after them as i'm still not happy eithna

eithna crawley sussex uk

I am so sorry! I don't use any flea/tick stuff on my dog...I use totally natural/holistic stuff which really is for itching but also repels fleas/ticks. Last year I was sold by my previous vet (who dumped me) a bottle of stuff to use for my dog's itching...it says to WEAR GLOVES before applying to the dog! Now, how safe can that be? I think many of our dogs are getting things that can be deadly...and I for one am not trusting what the vet says as *gospel truth*. I do my own research. I realize that they have gone to school BUT they also have been sold a bill of goods just like the human drug companies do to doctors! Just look at the tv commercials...it's one drug after another. Again, I'm so very sorry for your loss. He was just a baby... Mrs. Gates

Mrs. Gates Michigan

I am convinced TC's relaspe was brought on by Vaccine's and HeartGuard(Heartworm) tablet. I had stopped giving him the frontline and switched to a natural product with cloves, for fleas. If TC makes it through this I will change to a Holistic vet, the vet we are seeing for his IMHA/AIHA is an oncology specialist. If anyone knows of a holistic product for heartworm I would love to know about it. My regular vet, knowing TC had IMHA back in January (never actually told us that was what it was) did not warn us of the danger of vaccine and flea/heartworm products, Every time I would give TC flea or heart worm product he would vomit a yellow bile. The vet always said not to worry about it, just a mild reaction. Since TC is my first dog I had nothing to compare with..my conclusion with all of this is that vet's do not know everything! The average pet owner looks to the vet for the right answers....my Husband cannot believe that I am challenging our specialist over TC's pred reductions...she wants to go faster than I do after reading all these posts.

Wendy Tampa FL

challenge away, Wendy. Do not take anyone's word as gospel. There are a lot of guestimates going on in the world of pet treatments with just as litte accountability when something turns out to be a harmful treatment. Jan

jan philly

This thread was discussed between 05/10/2007 and 06/11/2007

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