Flea-control product glues dog to inside of crate
By Gina Spadafori
October 8, 2009
From Edie Lau and the VIN News Service, this odd report:
A veterinarian presented with a peculiar case of a poodle stuck in its crate last week traced the problem to the pet’s spot-on flea treatment.
Residue from the product Advantage, which was applied between the poodle’s shoulders, somehow came in contact with the plastic base of the animal’s crate, dissolving the plastic and causing it to adhere to the dog’s belly
When the dog wouldn’t come out of its crate the next morning, its concerned owner brought the dog, crate and all, to Dr. Tej Dhaliwal of North Town Veterinary Hospital in Ontario, Canada. Following two hours of sleuthing, Dhaliwal concluded that benzyl alcohol, an inactive ingredient in Advantage, was to blame.
Bayer Animal Health, maker of Advantage, acknowledged that the flea treatment was the likely culprit and offered to pay the owner’s veterinary bill, compensate him for loss of salary and replace the crate, Dhaliwal said.
Bob Walker, a spokesman for Bayer in the United States, confirmed that Advantage contains benzyl alcohol, which reacts with certain plastics. He said he consulted with colleagues in veterinary services and was told, “We know it can happen, but we’ve never seen it.”
Walker said a lead veterinarian in the department thought that most of the veterinary community was aware of the potential for the product to react with plastic. Walker said that he personally had not heard of such a thing before. He added, “My counsel would be, if you’re not aware, you need to be aware.”
Here’s the rest. Duly noted.
Sounds lucky that it was a hairy dog, a smooth coat may have suffered chemical burns.
I had a simiar thing happen to me with super glue. After numerous times of using it, and (of course !) getting it on my skin with no ill effects, I spilt a drop on my trousers. It caused a chemical reaction immediately, fumes came off it as it literally boiled I could hear it fizzing, it melted the fabric which stuck to my skin and it burnt like hell.
I guess a warning/indication should be added to the packaging then, although it’s sounds like this was a ‘perfect storm’ of events.
Bayer are to be commended on their reaction as far as compensating for all costs, good to see.
Comment by Alison — October 8, 2009 @ 12:49 pm
This month the EPA should be releasing their findings on spot-on flea control products.
I was prompted to write an ebook on safer flea control since the initial flea product suspect list was removed from the EPA website.
It was later replaced with a more comprehensive list but the removal of the initial list made me uncomfortable and caught my attention.
Frequently I read about flea control product incidents. Many are from OTC (over the counter) products or those purchased from suspect sources.
I’ve written about counterfeit flea products and related topics on the blog but want to remind people that those products purchased, although convenient are pesticides.
If you have an incident please report it. You can find that and other useful websites posted in a resource area on my flea treatment blog.
In addition, there are alternative options discussed in videos and in the blog posts.
Comment by Ark Lady — October 9, 2009 @ 8:40 am