One of the perks (ha!) of being a vet student is that they give you free stuff, such as Advantage and Advantix II (that's pet pest control in case you didn't know). I decided that free was probably good, and picked some up for my dog.
I was a few days late this month with Tess' flea and tick prevention as per usual. Had I been paying attention, I would have applied it on Saturday. Not really a big deal. I read the directions on the new stuff this morning and dumped it between her shoulder blades, then went off to my first day of lecture.
I came home at lunch to find Tess horking (all terrier owners know what I mean) and scratching herself madly. I wasn't really that concerned until she vomited or regurgitated up some white foamy liquid. I thought, "Huh, that's funny," in a less calm manner than that reads. Since the only change in her normal routine was the flea and tick junk, I went online to see if anyone elses dog had had any adverse reaction to Advantix.
THAT was a mistake.
There are many websites that blame Advantix for ataxia and other neurological symptoms in their dogs, even death. There are some that claim that Bayer is pooh-poohing reports of this from veterinarians and haven't thoroughly tested their product. A few mentioned that some of the ingredients in the product had been shown to have adverse affects when used in other similar products that had been taken off the shelves.
Had I been a bit more with it, I might have reasoned that itching/rolling has been reported with a multitude of topical flea and tick prevention. I also might have noted that my application might not have been the best, and Tess may have gotten the application site with her tongue, hence the spit-up. BUT I had spent the last twoish hours having everything I ever learned in biochem in undergrad crammed back into my head and was not really reasonable at that point (can you blame me?), so I panicked a bit and gave my dog a bath. Twice.
Incidentally, I bought this today:
And THIS is what I did with it:
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