If you’re a pet owner who treats your animal for fleas or ticks with one of nearly 70 EPA-registered “spot-on” products, such as Frontline Plus or Advantage 9, you should know that the government is taking a second look at these products and advising you to take precautions to avoid adverse health effects in your pet. (The Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for assuring that all pesticides sold in the United States do not cause unreasonable risks when they are used according to label directions and precautions.)
The safety warning was issued by the Environmental Protection Agency after a recent rise in the number of reported health incidents in pets treated with spot-on products, which generally come in tubes or vials and are directly applied to one or more areas of the pet’s body.
Read Flea & tick control products raise health concerns for more information on this and other flea and tick product health concerns in the news.
You can also check out our Lyme disease guide to learn more about the risks that ticks pose and how you can avoid those risks.
Ark Lady
07:15:05 PM on Mon Jul 13 2009
I just finished some extensive research into this topic which will soon be published and the EPA is expected to release an update this month (July).
Although I have begun blogging about flea control concerns I am also tracking much of the news on flea control products and post these on one of my twitter feeds (attached to my user name).
The biggest concern is over the improper use of spot-on products--such as using a dog product on a cat (NEVER do that) or using a higher weight dosage on a lesser weight animal, or trying to estimate and apply a higher weight dosage product to a lesser weight animal.
All of these user errors can result in severe reactions or the death of animals (44,000 reported reactions and 1,600 deaths according to the last report).
The ASPCA pet poison hotline has also just issued a report on this subject which you should check out.
I am glad you posted some of the issue and hope that you will dedicate an article to the topic once an update is issued.