Read all of this story. It could save your pet\’s life! (Please share, also.)
I have so many people ask me about tick prevention products. They are often deeply conflicted, as the products are toxic chemicals, and at the same time, a paralysis tick can kill your pet. I\’ve seen people\’s pets severely harmed by these products. I don\’t stock Advantix (I\’ve seen a couple of dogs mildly harmed by this, and had another client tell me about how they had to euthanise their dog after administering Advantix – it had severe neurological damage. Small dogs seem to be more prone to this harm than larger ones.
And now there is a new, shiny, amazing product that\’s hit the Australian market in the last 6 months or so – Nexgard. It lasts for three months, and is being heavily marketed and promoted. I don\’t stock it! Why? Because I won\’t carry any product until it\’s been in the wild for a year or so, and I\’ve googled \”Nexgard adverse effects\” or something of the like. What I found when I did that for Advantix made all my hair stand on end. A lot of dead or severely injured pets.
I got called out to see someone with a sick dog yesterday. He\’s an older fellow, and had been a stable diabetic on insulin injections for about two years, lively, playful, happy, engaged. On the recommendation of her vet, she bought some Nexgard and gave him a dose. That afternoon he started chewing himself frantically, all over. This passed after a couple of hours, then he became unusually quiet. The next day his mum noticed a minor bit of weakness on one hind leg. Two days after this his other hind leg showed some signs of weakness. He had a routine blood glucose check at the vet this day, the levels were fine. That night and the next morning his mum noticed that his jaw was drooping a little one side, and he started to limp a bit on one front leg. That was the Thursday. When she came home from work on Saturday the dog was comatose, she took him to the emergency centre, his blood glucose had crashed. They stabilised that over the next week. So his blood glucose had been ok since last Wednesday.
I saw him yesterday. He\’d been crying out and whining non-stop day and night for the last 3 days. He\’d developed twitches. He couldn\’t get up without help. He\’d been refusing food for the past two days (normally a pig). He was flat out on his cushion- we had to pick him up and hold him in a standing position so I could test his placing reflexes. He had no placing reflex at all in his front feet, very de[ressed in his hind feet – indicative of severe neurological damage- he was effectively paralysed. I have no doubt that this is a direct result of Nexgard toxicity.
I did some Whole Energy Body Balance work with the poor old dog, and dispensed some Australian Bush Flower essences – and we are praying for a miracle. As I explained to his mum, it\’s most likely we will need to put the poor old fellow to sleep.
It\’s my view that using any of these products is a bit of Russian roulette. If your pet is at the bad end of the bell curve as far as toxicity goes, it can be the death of them. So, be warned! I won\’t be stocking Nexgard.
Here\’s another link to soe other people sharing stories of adverse reactions to Nexgard…
http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/6346001-nexgard-chewables-oral-flea-and-tick-repellent—don-t-use-it
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