Comments on: Dogs on drugs: FDA warns of dangerous drug interaction

By: Paula

Paula — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:20:30 +0000

My 14 y/o dog has been on ivermectin for mange which he had last year and it helped a lot. He took his monthly Comfortis yesterday morning and I came home to find him in a drunken stupor, still able to walk but falling. The vet told me these should NOT be taken together but felt that he would be okay. The tail is wagging and he is rallying, but I wanted to get the word out that these meds are bad together.

By: Keith

Keith — Thu, 26 May 2011 17:22:34 +0000

Our dog princess died this morning at the age of 10. Just last night she was as playful and funny as always. In less than 10 hours after being given Comfortis we woke up to find her dead. There are many similar stories online where peoples dogs died within hours of being given this flea medication. We found out too late.
If you know of anyone treating their dogs with this poison ask them to stop immediately. It’s not worth the risk.
She was our girl. We loved her so much. Now we’re left with a void that can never be filled, and a profound sadness that no words can describe.

By: Yvette

Yvette — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 15:42:11 +0000

Dear James,
I came across your site while to trying to research the dangers of Comfortis. I have a oner year old Boxer, a six year old Rat Terrier and a 6 year old Miniature Rat Terrier, all three of my dogs were healthy. Unfortunately I went to Petsmart’s Banfield Clinic and was able to purchase 3 tablets (depending on weight) to give to all three of my dogs for flea control. I was able to attain this product without ever seeing or speaking to a veterinary Dr. This was the first time that I had used this product and gave all three of my dogs a Comfortis tablet Sunday night (4-17-11) and all three of my dogs and within hours all three of my dogs began to vomiting severely. Fortunately the vomiting lasted only a few days but my miniature Rat Terrier began to become very disoriented, began to tremble,his eyes became hazing and glazed and his pupils were dilated and had become blind 4-20-11. Just early that day he had been chasing my Boxer around the yard and doing well. I called the 1800 number for Comfortis/Alanco and spoke to one of their Veterinarians by the name of Dr. Rosencran and at her request I to take him to my vet to be looked at their expense. My Vet completed a full check up and eye stain on my dog and could not see anything that would have caused my dog to go blind within hours. My Vet recommended my dog be referred to see a special veterinary ophthalmologists. Alanco immediately called my vet and approved the ophthalmologist visit for my dog next week. The more I research the side affects of Comfortis the more I am reading about dogs going blind in the same manner that my dog did. It sounds to me that Alanco is well aware of what’s going on and knows more than they are saying! Feel free to contact me at yrwilson1@aol if you have any questions or comments.

By: cassidy

cassidy — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:33:06 +0000

My dog was on off label use of ivermectin to treat mange and my vet was neglegent and put her on comfortis to prevent fleas, of course at the time I did not know about the FDA warning. My dog died within hours of taking the comfortis. As owners we must remain educated about all medications

By: Kim

Kim — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 02:31:54 +0000

My healthy (confirmed by vet visit and blood work in Feb) 10 year old bichon frise had an adverse reaction to comfortis and heartgard (stroke like symptoms) at the beginning of April. This past week she was diagnosed with diabetes. Wondering if there is a connection????

By: Fran

Fran — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 23:42:54 +0000

Last month I noticed My 3 1/2 year old doberman
sitting on my bed looking rather strange. Then he started to twitch, seizure like, mostly his face and ears. The rest of the evening he was not himself, decreased energy. I had given him
comfortis and hearguard plus that day. He had been on this for approx 6 months. Looking back I think I have seen similar reaction but not so pronounced and it did not last long that I did not think anything of it. This week I took a new rescue dog to a new vet because I have relocated. This vet does not prescribe comfortis. So I decided to research the drug..
I will only be using topical flea protection from now on.
Fran

By: Edna

Edna — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:33:11 +0000

Just my two cents, but I will NEVER give Comfortis to a dog again. My 13-year-old dog (granted, she was 13, so the fact that all these problems developed just after she went on Comfortis could be a coincidence…but I personally do NOT think so) developed all sorts of odd problems after doing on Comfortis last summer. Within six months, she was dead. Prior to that, she was totally healthy. After going on Comfortis, she developed trigeminal neuropathy, a disease in which her massiter muscle just wasted away to nothing, leaving strange and alarming (to me, anyway) indentations in her head. This was the first truly alarming sign. She also developed discoid lupus. Then about six months into this, she really sent downhill and developed neurological symptoms over the course of several weeks (which at first I didn’t recognize as such—I thought it was just arthritis), which drastically got worse in the last 4 or 5 days of her life and ended up that she couldn’t walk, couldn’t blink, had a seizure, and in the end, had to be humanely euthanized. After extensive tests (bloodwork/x-rays) revealed only a slightly enlarged liver), and after she ended up having the seizure, inability to blink, etc., my vet concluded that it was a brain tumor which didn’t show up on the x-rays. Now: he feels that all of this had NOTHING to do with the Comfortis, and I should add that he is a fantastic vet who I’ve been going to for 14 years, and usually I trust his opinion. But in this case, even though my dog was old, she was FINE before the Comfortis and it is just quite a coincidence if it had nothing to do with all these strange things happening. I will never use Comfortis again and strongly recommend that other folks think twice about it.

By: Adriane

Adriane — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:42:48 +0000

last month my mom gave my dog butters comfortis and heartgard and he kinda couldnt jump but he got better in a day or two, that was the first and only time we gave him comfortis this month my mom gave him his heartgard and he got really bad. we couldnt find a vet open and thought he would be ok. well he wasnt and it was the most horrifying thing i have ever seen i do not want to see my dog in that much pain

By: The OTHER Pat

The OTHER Pat — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 20:48:12 +0000

I hope Benny recovers and is okay!

You should report this as an “adverse event”. Here is a page on it:

http://www.avma.org/animal_hea.....events.asp

By: Pam Goins

Pam Goins — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 19:23:37 +0000

My dog Benny is taking Ivermectin for congenital parasites, he also received a dose of comfortis last night (both prescribed by vet). This morning Benny was panting, drooling, and ataxic, after an emergency visit to the vet I was told these meds should not be given together.