I came across a blog today by a Veterinarian. I reprint her story here so that we can all learn how to best take care of our pets. A silly, preventable mistake cost one small cat her life.


A little kitten came in the other night - the owner had accidentally put her dog's flea product on the kitten. The kitten was starting to have tremors. This is something we see with some frequency. These are products bought over the counter, and they have an insecticide called permethrin in them. This is a product that is generally well-tolerated by dogs. However, cats are not small dogs, and cats do NOT tolerate this medication - they are much more sensitive to it.

Some people accidentally put the dog tube on the cat, some people actually think well, just a little should be ok, and try it on the cat. I've even had people figure that since it was bought over the counter, it should be safe, and they've put the whole large dog tube on a cat. The more the cat gets, the bigger the problem.

The ironic thing is, there are products available that are much safer and in my experience work a lot better. (Most of the cats that come in with this toxin still have fleas running around on them!). Permethrin in cats causes potentially severe tremors and seizures. The worst of these last anywhere from 24-72 hours. We bathe the cats to get the product off, then treat them with a muscle relaxant called Robaxin first, then we move on to other drugs as needed (there is a limit on how much Robaxin we can use). Sometimes the tremors are quite challenging to get under control, and we really have to work at it with multiple drugs, lots of TLC and nursing care, etc.

Once the tremors are controlled, the cats generally start eating, but may have residual twitching for a week or so. Until today, I had not lost one of these that I tried to treat. But for some reason, this little kitten's tremors were very bad, required lots of medication. I don't know if he had a side effect from the medication, or if he had some other problem on top of the medication. But we lost him today, and it just tears me apart because this is so preventable.

So, DON'T put your dog's flea medication on your cat. (BTW, these medications are clearly labeled not for use on cats). Better yet, get Frontline or Advantage from your vet (I think you can get these online too). I am not one to push specific products here, but these two products are so much safer and so much more effective. A warning though - the dog product Advantix is NOT safe for cats (causes tremors as well). So don't confuse Advantage with Advantix. Better yet, always double check the label before applying the product. Oh, and if you do use one the permethrin products on your dog (check the label), don't let your cat around your dog. The cat can rub on the dog and get sick just from that.