Cat and Dog Owners Please Read...

[Renée]

Originally posted by ilovetheusers:
I hope you do not take this as flaming you. I’m sorry to hear about your kitty. I hope he feels better.

I won't take it that way if you say so, but your response was unecessarily harsh in some places. Leo does feel better. He's only a teeny tad sluggish today, and I think he'll be back to 100% in a day or two.

Originally posted by ilovetheusers:
Um, yes. I look at everything that I put on or in me if it has a chemical base or has a medicinal purpose.

I did look at the product before buying it. I read the entire label, including the warning, word for word. I compared the ingredients with those in some of the other flea products. I read the labels on the other flea products. I picked the one that, going on the assumption that the manufacturer wasn't blatantly omitting important information on the label, seemed the most effective with an acceptable level of safeness.

Originally posted by ilovetheusers:
I especially check out toxins/poison to see what it might do to the things I put it on.

If the product had been stocked on the "toxins/poisons" aisle, I wouldn't have used it. If the label had a hint that it could cause reactions more severe than skin irritation, I wouldn't have bought it.

Originally posted by ilovetheusers:
What did you think that pesticide/poison was going to do?

I thought it was going to do what it said it would do as listed on the label, the same way as when I apply a pesticide such as OFF to my own skin, I expect it to repel mosquitos without causing me to have seizures or killing me.

Originally posted by ilovetheusers:
There are quite a few “natural” flea/tick remedies, and they all work like crap...

I haven't tried anything at all after my harrowing incident, not even natural remedies. Just read about them as alternatives. What do you recommend?

Originally posted by ilovetheusers:
Always have had a reputation for not giving a damn for over 20 years. Never use anything they make. Ever. Sorry you had to learn this first hand.

I had no idea that was the case until this happened to me. I haven't owned a cat since I was a kid, and back then I wasn't responsible for the cat's care. Now I know this about Hartz and am telling every human being/pet owner that will listen.

Originally posted by ilovetheusers:
If you ever need advice about critters, write me an e-mail at the e-mail address on my fish site.

Thanks!

[ilovetheusers]

Yeah, sorry if I sound like a D!(k. I actually watered it down a bit. I get all pissy about pet stuff, sorry. I really do hope the Leo is feeling better. You’re probably the sweetest person someone could talk to and I’m raggin’ on ya. Again, sorry. <IMG SRC="smilies/frown.gif" border="0">

It is an unfortunate fact that in our society that manufactures all lie. Nabisco isn't going to note the rat hairs in the cookies that it is allowed to have by law and DOW is not going to mention that it sprays it's bubbling bathroom cleaner in the eyes of cute bunny rabbits to test what happens when accidental contact occurs. Be aware that everything you buy has a lie or something rotten attached to it by default.

Remember anything that will kill another creature is a poison of some kind. I forget all of the natural remedies that I have come across, but the stuff based on D-limonene (sic) doesn't work at all. The collars based on herbal repellants don't work either and the bandanas stuffed with herbs look nice but do nothing. If natural is the way you want to go, do it with Brewers Yeast and Garlic tablets. It changes the animals blood to tase bad and makes the animal smell bad to fleas. It works a little to repel, but does zero to kill fleas and nothing to ticks at all. My parents stopped the natural remedies after contracting lime disease (both of them).

If you want my honest opinion, go with frontline or advantage in that order. Program works alright as well but does nothing to kill fleas and does nothing to ticks at all. All it does is malform the eggs of fleas to prevent breeding and then you will not have the larvae biting at you for blood meal. Frontline and advantage kill fleas and ticks, and quite well. I'm not sure if either formulation works on cats though. Ask your vet, but I would not use any spot on product with Leo as he may have an allergy or other adverse reaction to the spot on products. Personally I would use something like a powder by Zodiac or maybe something by Adams(powders are usually fairly safe) and a flea comb (it'll get extra hair out as well and make Leo more comfortable). Also, flea shampoos are great, but cats often hate and will claw, bite and generally freak out when given a bath.

Sometimes the best thing for cats is the flea comb. If you have an indoor cat, realize that it was probably you that brought the fleas into the house. Most people are loath to admit that they may have carried the fleas (that's how it works folks, sorry) but they did. Got bites on your legs then the fleas or larvae are in the carpet using you for blood meal. Got bites on your body then they are in your bed. It doesn't matter how clean you are, they will still jump on you. I actually had a lady get peeved when I mentioned that she gave her cat the fleas as she was the only one moving in and out of the house.

Again, sorry that I'm an a$$. Tell Leo I said hi and give him a scritch behind the ears for me.

[Sowulo]

Another idea for flea control that I'd forgotten all about....

When I moved from my last place into this one I had had a terrible flea problem and wanted to start clean here....I had a company called "Flea Busters" treat the house. They used a simple salt compound which was applied into the rugs and supposed to be done annually. The salts dry out the eggs that get laid in the rug killing them before they can hatch. For 3 years (until my dogs both died of old age) I never saw another flea in the house or on the dogs and this was after just one $100 treatment (I never saw a flea so never got around to having them come back for a repeat treatment.)

[Wayward Clam]

Renee and ilovetheusers, I just HAVE to post an 'attaboy' here (and an 'attagirl' too, I guess <IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0"> ), that little exchange could have developed into a flame war and a closed thread but you both handled it very maturely and helpfully. End result: More good advice goes out to me and everybody else here at Windrivers who owns pets.

Cheers.

[PuterGeekGirl]

Glad he seems to be doing well Renee!

[Renée]

Originally posted by ilovetheusers:
<STRONG>Yeah, sorry if I sound like a D!(k. I actually watered it down a bit. I get all pissy about pet stuff, sorry. I really do hope the Leo is feeling better. You’re probably the sweetest person someone could talk to and I’m raggin’ on ya. Again, sorry. <IMG SRC="smilies/frown.gif" border="0"> </STRONG>

Hey, it's cool. I could tell you're an animal advocate, and you've probably known about this forever and are sick of seeing the same thing played out over and over. I watered down my response to you, too, because my first reaction was really defensive. It's all good, though, really!! <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="smilies/cool.gif" border="0"> Just please know that this was an honest mistake. I know you probably deal with a lot of people who treat their pets like just a house fixture or a bother, and that probably had something to do with your reaction. I just want to say out loud, so you know, I don't take pet ownership lightly at all!

Thanks for all the good info, too. I think (my fingers are crossed) that the fleas are actually gone and I won't have to use anything. Not 100% sure. Even though he was homeless when I got him (two weeks ago), he didn't seem to have a major infestation, and I haven't seen any more on him. I'm gonna let the vet double check him when he goes in for his second round of vaccines next week.

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[rfinney]

Just wanted to say congrats to the little guy for pulling through and thanks for the warning.

P.S.
I'm with Wayward, good show. don't know if I could have handled it as well. <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0">

[ilovetheusers]

Originally posted by Renee:
<STRONG>

Hey, it's cool. I could tell you're an animal advocate, and you've probably known about this forever and are sick of seeing the same thing played out over and over. </STRONG>

Thanks for being understanding. Sometimes it's hard to remember back to when I wasn't "the pet shop guy" and I didn't know a heck of a lot about pets. Sometimes I need to just shut up and go sit down somewhere.

Again, if you ever need to know anything about critters, just write me. I promise to be nice.

[Renée]

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[LabRat]

Glad to know he's doing better. That is a cute breed. I'll bet he's pretty active when he's healthy too. They're beautiful animals with plenty of natural curiousity. Those corporate pr**ks need to bathe in their own product!

[Renée]

Hey, guys, here's an update on the Hartz thing if you're interested. I've been in contact with a Dr. Judy Van Wyk who's trying to get a lawsuit against Hartz and possibly even the EPA about this thing. High hopes, I know, but she's out for blood.

There are literally hundreds (maybe thousands?) of cases like this, so if you know anyone who has had this happen, please put them in touch directly with Dr. Van Wyk at [email protected] . She needs all the information she can get from people to back up this case. If you know a vet or pet shop owner who has seen this happen, their information would be helpful, too.

Her latest email to me is posted here, in case you want to see all the details.

Thanks again to everyone for your concern.

[ilovetheusers]

Yeah, that company has been like Teflon through the years. Lately they have bought out a lot of decent companies, which worries me. A lot of my favorite products parent companies have been bought by them - Kind of like AMD, A-bit and Creative all got bought by Packard Bell.

Good luck in the suit. Hope they get nailed to the wall.