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Six months ago, my family adopted
a one and a half year old Dalmatian,
named Hamish. He had been in a
high kill shelter in New York City,
and was rescued just one day before
he was scheduled to be destroyed.
To protect him from fleas and ticks,
our vet recommended Frontline - a
liquid that is applied to the dog's
back. It gave us peace of mind
knowing that he had this protection,
but it had to be purchased from a
veterinarian and was quite expensive.
One day while shopping, I came
across an over-the-counter product,
called Bio Spot Flea & Tick Control
(by Farnam Pet Products). It looked
similar to the Frontline product, but it was much cheaper, so I decided to try it. The Bio Spot seemed to work just as well as Frontline, so I used it again six weeks later.
An hour after applying the Bio Spot, I found Hamish thrashing about on the ground. His body was completely stiff. His head was raised in the air, and his jaws were opened wide. A thick foamy saliva was spewing from his mouth. Horrified, I tried to determine if something was stuck in his throat. His windpipe was clear, but he was not breathing. His eyes began to roll back in his head. He was dying and I did not know what to do to save him. We made a desperate call to our veterinarian.
What to do if your pet is having an adverse reaction to a flea control product...
BATHE YOUR PET WITH A MILD DISH DETERGENT (SUCH AS DAWN),
AND RINSE WITH LARGE AMOUNTS OF WATER. DO NOT USE A
FLEA AND TICK SHAMPOO BECAUSE IT CONTAINS PESTICIDE.
IF SIGNS CONTINUE (LETHARGY, LOSS OF APPETITE, DROOLING,
INCOORDINATION, LABORED BREATHING, INCREASED EXCITABILITY,
ELEVATED BODY TEMPERATURE, VOMITING, DIARRHEA, OR SEIZURES),
CONTACT YOUR VETERINARIAN IMMEDIATELY.
After a few minutes, Hamish slowly began to recover. We had just witnessed something we had never seen before - a grand mal (severe) seizure. Our veterinarian said that a blood test might help to find the cause, and mentioned the possibility of epilepsy. By the afternoon, Hamish looked much better, but that night he endured three more grand mal seizures.
Why would a healthy dog have four grand mal seizures within twenty hours? I searched the Internet for information on epilepsy, and read that if seizures begin to occur frequently, the animal may have to be euthanized! We would not know the results of the blood test for a week, but we had a feeling it was
not epilepsy, and wondered if the seizures were caused by the Bio Spot.
It seemed unlikely that Bio Spot could have caused the seizures because we had used it (same batch) just six weeks earlier with no adverse effects. Also, the packaging did not list seizures as a possible adverse reaction (it listed only lethargy, itchiness, redness, rash, hair discoloration, or hair loss).
Just in case the seizures were caused by the Bio Spot, we thoroughly washed Hamish to remove as much of it as possible, and took him to our veterinarian for a physical exam and blood test. The exam showed that everything was normal, and the blood test revealed no internal problems. Our veterinarian could not rule out BioSpot as the cause of the seizures.
Hamish has not had any seizures since the Bio Spot was thoroughly washed off three weeks ago, and appears to be in good health. However, we worry about irrepairable damage that may have been done to his neurological system, and wonder if short-term exposure to the chemicals in BioSpot will cause any long-term health problems.
How Bio Spot Works
According to Farnam's website, the ingredients in Bio Spot "move around your dog's coat by several processes including diffusion and capillary action, and transfer from hair to hair as the pet moves." That may lead you to believe that it remains on your dog's coat, therefore it's safe for your dog. The truth is these harmful chemicals are absorbed through the skin and enter the bloodstream. That is also how transdermal patches work - they use the skin as a way to enter the body.
The main active ingredient in Bio Spot is a pesticide known as permethrin (it is used in more than 18 similar products, including Bayer's K9 Advantix and Summit VetPharm's Vectra 3D). It kills insects by paralyzing their nervous system (that is also how nerve gas works). However, it cannot distinguish between an insect's nervous system, a dog's nervous system, or a human's nervous system. That is why it is important to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water after handling.
Serious Risk to Health
While never claiming their Bio Spot product is safe for dogs, the Farnam website states, "Nearly all dogs tolerate Bio Spot well." However, that does not mean it is safe for ANY dog. The word "tolerate" means to bear, endure, or suffer. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council:
"Many and perhaps most Americans believe that commercially available pesticides, such as those found in pet products, are tightly regulated by the government. In fact, they are not. Not until the passage of a 1996 law focused on pesticides in food did the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) begin examining the risks from pesticides in pet products in earnest. To this day, the EPA allows the manufacture and sale of pet products containing hazardous insecticides with little or no demonstration that a child's exposure to these ingredients would be safe. Just because these products are on store shelves does not mean they have been tested or can be presumed safe."
"Of course, as bad as these products may be for pet owners and caregivers, they often are worse for the pets themselves. Based on the very limited data available, it appears that hundreds and probably thousands of pets have been injured or killed through exposure to pet products containing pesticides.
As with small children, pets cannot report when they're being poisoned at low doses."
Natural Resources Defense Council
November, 2000
What is known about Bio Spot's main active ingredient, permethrin? A few drops of it can be deadly
to a cat. Toxicological studies have linked this pesticide to serious acute and chronic health effects. The EPA has classified it as a possible human carcinogen because it increases the frequency of lung and liver tumors in laboratory animals. It suppresses the immune system. Permethrin is also suspected to have played an important role in the development of illnesses known as the Gulf War Syndrome.
In a recently published journal entitled, Experimental Neurology, researchers at Duke University Medical Center found that frequent and prolonged use of permethrin on adult rats lead to cell death in their brains. In another recent study, researchers at Virginia Tech found that low-level exposure to permethrin caused changes in the brain that could lead to Parkinson's Disease.
The inert ingredients in Bio Spot, which are not disclosed, may pose an even greater risk because they
receive much less scrutiny by the EPA. The cumulative and synergistic effects of these chemicals are not required to be tested for safety.
Is it true that nearly all dogs tolerate Bio Spot well? Perhaps, but the risk of short-term exposure includes severe adverse reactions, and the risk of long-term exposure is unknown.
Posted on July 14, 2002
James TerBush is a designer of educational games and lives in Pennsylvania.
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What can YOU do to get dangerous flea and tick products
removed from the market?
NPIC is open seven days per week from 6:30am - 4:30pm PST. They maintain
a database of adverse pesticide incidents for the EPA. Accurate information
helps the EPA determine if additional regulations are needed.
2. Also, contact the manufacturer of the product. Their phone number is on the reimbursement for veterinary expenses related to adverse incidents.
3. Veterinarians or their staff are urged to report adverse incidents using the
NPIC's Veterinary Pesticide Incident Reporting portal.
4. Consider joining a class action lawsuit.
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“How could intelligent beings seek to control a few unwanted species
by a method that contaminated the entire environment and brought
the threat of disease and death even to their own kind?”
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
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“Our approach to nature is to beat it into submission. We would
stand a better chance of survival if we accommodated ourselves to
this planet and viewed it appreciatively instead of skeptically
and dictatorially.” E.B. White
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"There are 'critical periods' in human development when
exposure to a toxin can permanently alter the way an
individual's biological system operates.”
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
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"They are available in grocery stores, pharmacies, feed
stores, veterinary clinics and pet stores. They are often poorly
labeled and lacking adequate instructions for their safe use."
EPA Overview of Pet Pesticide Products, August 1996
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“The Agency currently assumes that toddlers are exposed
to a treated pet for 1.0 hours per day. The Agency believes this
estimate represents a protective estimate of toddler
exposure to a treated pet."
EPA - Draft Technical Guidelines - Standard Operating
Procedures for Residential Pesticide Exposure Assessment
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“The steady rise of reported toxicities to spot-on products
with pets underscores the potential health implications
of chronic human exposure."
Nicholas Halbach, DVM, Director Hesperian Group, 2009
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"Understanding the potential exposure to humans resulting from
contact with pets treated with topical health products is critical."
Bayer Animal Health, to FIFRA Science Advisory Panel,
October 6-9, 2009
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“EPA does not have sufficient chemical assessment information to
determine whether it should establish controls to limit public
exposure to many chemicals that may pose substantial health risks.”
GAO, Report to Congress, High-Risk Series, January 2009
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“I think it’s a good idea to minimize pesticide exposure of any sort,
not only because of what we know, but because of what we don’t know.”
Donald Weston, University of California-Berkeley, February 2010
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"Over time, repeated nerve stimulation can lead to other neurological symptoms, and this is why pyrethroids are cited as a possible cause of
ADD, ADHD, Parkinson's, Bell's palsy and even Alzheimer's disease."
Jeanne Roberts, freelance environmental writer
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“There's something going on here that we need to figure out."
Jim Jones, EPA, re: pet spot-on incidents, May 2009
Copyright © 2002-2010 BioSpotVictims.org All rights reserved.
"Farnam's Bio Spot Flea & Tick Almost Killed Our Dog."
BY JAMES TERBUSH
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