As if there aren’t enough worries with spot-on flea treatments for pets, here’s a new one to add to the list. VinNews.com reports that Advantage flea treatment dissolved a plastic dog crate gluing a dog to the crate floor.
When the poodle wouldn’t come out of its crate, dog and crate had to be taken to the vet. “Following two hours of sleuthing, Dr. Dhalwal concluded that benzyl alcohol, an inactive ingredient in Advantage, was to blame.”
“Dhaliwal said the owner of the dog, a 15-year-old poodle mix, had applied Advantage to the dog before bedtime. He speculated that the dog rolled over in the crate before the liquid pesticide dried. Presumably, residue of the product made contact with the plastic floor of the crate, causing the plastic to dissolve and “glue” the dog in place overnight.”
Per research provided by VinNews.com, benzyl alcohol “can extract and dissolve polystyrene plastic and may attack other plastics.” A pet owner won’t even find this chemical listed in the ingredient panel, “as manufacturers are not required to list inactive ingredients.”
To read the full VinNews.com story, visit http://news.vin.com/vinnews.aspx?articleId=14061
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author, Buyer Beware
Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
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Beth
February 7, 2014 at 6:05 am
Hi Susan, I know this is old but I’ve been recently doing research on flea treatments after switching my dog and cat’s food (homecooked organic/grass fed local beef/chicken or a food from your wonderful list) Anyways, I really do not like putting those awful chemicals on my dog, but I don’t wan t him to get worms transmitted by fleas. (i’m kind of horrified that it can kill cats..) Also, there are a lot of mosquitoes (we live in a tropical climate) and he is on Sentinel as a preventative for heartworms/whipworms/etc. He is indoors and only goes outside to use the bathroom or go running/for a walk. He is bathed once or twice a week with gentle shampoo (no parabens/sulfates/that stuff) and his skin is fine (not dry or flaky at all). Do you know of any natural/non toxic preventative dips/treatments I could switch to? Thanks
Susan Thixton
February 7, 2014 at 8:58 am
I’ve never used them – but Only Natural Pet Store has products that are more natural for dogs and cats. You might want to try them.
Debbie
March 10, 2014 at 12:07 pm
I have bought a Natural flea stuff for my cats but how do we know if these ingredients is safe to use on them? “Herbal Flea Spray by NaturVet.”
Ingreds: Sodium Lauryl sulfate, lemongrass oil, rosemary oil, cedar oil and thyme oil.
Just curious, could u put rosemary oil in a carpet cleaner to get rid of fleas safely for pets? What about the yard too? Help…