Saturday, June 27, 2009

Chihuahua Seizures, Flea Treatments

Let me just begin this post by saying that chihuahuas are prone to having seizures at times, especially if they are on the small side, however, I have to tell you what I have discovered, at least about my own chis. My Shorty is about 2 pounds and as in some of my past postings, I have reported him having seizures. Well, I used to use that spot on treatment for fleas, and found that it only worked a few weeks, which was very expensive for me.. I also noticed that since I stopped the spot on treatment, he has NOT had any more seizures so now I am wondering if that was the cause of his. Yes, I do have to battle fleas and I think I have found that food grade Diamitous Earth works, just as a combo of salt/baking soda on the carpets swept in. That also includes treating the yard for fleas off of other animals who pass through. Do I dare wonder if the spot on treatments ( I have used several of them) could have contributed to the seizures? I have done some reading on the internet and I hear alot of nasty things. What do you think? Do you have an opinion on this subject? If so, I would love to hear it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do believe the flea spot treatment may cause nasty effects for the dogs. I have 2 pugs and pug breeds too are prone to seizure disorders. In 2007 I used Advantix from Fosters & smith on my 5 year old pug and he had a strange reaction to where his legs would jerk uncontrolably. Although not diagnosed by my vet as a seizure it did seem to me to be nerve related. I have not used Advantix since then but had used Frontline Plus. Well last night I had my 2 year old pug at the vet because he had a full blown seizure. The vet will not agree that it is flea treatment related but I am almost positive it is. I applied the treatment Sunday evening and he laid around all evening and just acted sluggish on Monday. Monday evening I come home and let him out of his kennel and he rolled over on the floor and had a seizure. Had I not had the reaction before I may have doubted it. I was told by a friend vet tech that perhaps it may be the companies I am buying the treatment from. If you buy it from an approved vet they purchase it straight from the manufacturer and keep it in room temperature and have an expiration date on it, whereas, if you buy it from a wholesaler there is no guartee where it came from or how old it is or if it was kept in the recommended storage temperatures. So maybe that is why I have had problems??? I still don't think I will ever chance it again with the spot treatments. Someone had once told me to buy tea tree oil and mix with half water and spray on the dogs and it will keep the fleas off of it. I think I am going to start experimenting with the herbal remedies because it is just pitiful to see my dog to be so miserable and unhealthy because of some chemical.

Bob Disporto said...

I am not sure if this helps but we have two chihuahuas on the small size. We give them revolution once a month, and they have NOT had any of these awful reactions that your poor dogs have had.