Mild skin irritation may occur but should clear up quickly. Additional side effects may include vomiting, diarrhea, and seizure. However, these side effects are extremely rare and tend to affect smaller dogs. If you have any questions or concerns about potential side effects, contact your veterinarian.
One of the most popular drugs for pets is Frontline Plus Flea and Tick Control. Fipronil and methoprene are the main active ingredients in Frontline. Together, these parasiticides eliminate ticks that may transmit dangerous bacterial diseases and kill fleas before they bite. Despite being one of the most efficient conventional flea and tick treatments available, there are some potential side effects. After using Frontline Plus Flea and Tick Control, keep track of any symptoms the pet displays that may indicate a need for medical attention.
One of the most common side effects of Frontline Plus Flea and Tick Control is skin irritation, redness, and sensitivity at the application site. This is not a serious side effect. But some animals might try to scratch where the medication has been applied to the skin in order for it to work. This frequently causes the medication to spread to other parts of the body, possibly even the face and eyes. Consult a veterinarian if your pet has an eye infection, rash, swelling, or other symptoms.
Animals frequently attempt to lick the irritated application spot. An animal might unintentionally consume some of the medication even though they can’t actually reach the application site. Both an upset stomach and a loss of appetite will result from this. Make sure your pet is getting enough water to counteract these effects.
According to PetDrugs. Dogs who have licked or consumed Frontline Plus Flea and Tick Control will drool excessively and frequently, according to com. Placing the topical medication inaccessible to the animal above the shoulder blades will prevent excessive salivation and drooling. To avoid the pet rubbing or smearing the medication, it is advisable to keep an eye on the animal for 24 hours while the medication is being absorbed.
PetDrugs. According to com, Frontline Plus Flea and Tick Control and other canine medications containing fipronil frequently result in depression, sensitivity to increased or abundant stimulation, as well as general feelings of unease and jitteriness. Once the animal is no longer exposed to the medication, these symptoms frequently go away.
A dog who experiences severe side effects like vomiting and diarrhea may have taken too much of the medication. These signs of distress should be addressed right away, along with the animal’s aggression, respiratory issues, seizures, and trembling.
Typical Frontline Plus Cases And The Impacts
Three weeks after taking Frontline Plus, a five-year-old Golden Retriever with discharge from the eyes and ears is taken to the vet. The symptoms go away within a month.
When Frontline is administered again, the dog gets an ear infection that gets better after about six months but never completely goes away. The dog dies from liver cancer two years later.
This is a typical Frontline Plus story that changed Dr. Jennifer Ramelmeier’s perspective on the medication. Ramelmeier stopped using it when he realized its application was related to situations like this.
Dr. Ramelmeier claims that soon after using the product, the owners would frequently complain that their animals had an oily, sticky coat.
When a patient develops a toxic load, the body’s initial response is to discharge through the eyes, ears, skin, and loose stool. These discharges serve as excellent growth environments for bacteria and yeast (which naturally exist on your dog’s body).
Another veterinarian from Maryland with experience in comparable situations and a similar viewpoint on the product is Dr. Christina Chambreau.
She related the incident of a friend’s cat going missing while she was visiting after receiving Frontline Plus two to three hours earlier. He was discovered “looking like a puddle” beneath a bench, according to Dr. Chambreau. When she examined the cat, she discovered that he was extremely lethargic and that his walking gait was very clumsy.
Dr Chambreau advises her patients to avoid using Frontline. In the 30 years she has been in practice, she has only ever recommended it three times. She is extremely worried about its toxicity for the animal and is confident in the effectiveness of alternative solutions.
She has discovered that if an animal’s owners use Frontline or other similar pesticide products after she treats it for any issue, particularly behavioral or neurological issues, the symptoms she treated will return.
Despite the well-publicized incidents, some conventional veterinarians disagree with worries about Frontline’s safety.
According to Massachusetts-based veterinarian Dr. Deborah Lichtenberg, “There is no evidence to suggest that Frontline causes cancer or other serious diseases.” The majority of allergic reactions, she continued, “are mild and don’t require treatment.”
Dr. Lichtenberg cautions that if you choose to use more natural flea and tick prevention, your dog will end up with more ticks and be more susceptible to contracting a tick-borne illness. Lyme disease, Ehrlichia, anaplasmosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, or babesiosis are all tick-borne diseases.
Fipronil, the primary active component of Frontline Plus, was created as a general-purpose insecticide by Rhone Paulenc AG between 1985 and 1987. It was introduced into the market in 1993.
Since then, it has been incorporated into a wide range of products, according to the National Pesticide Information Center (NPIC), including “pesticide products, granular products for grass, gel baits, spot-on pet care products, liquid termite control products, and products for agriculture.”
Merial, the Sanofi animal division’s subsidiary, manufactures and owns Frontline Plus. Sanofi is a large, international pharmaceutical corporation. Additionally, Frontline Plus contains S-methoprene, an ingredient that has been around since 1977 and prevents insects from maturing into adults.
Additionally, Merial creates a number of cat vaccines in addition to Heartgard, which prevents heartworm, NexGard, a chewable flea and tick poison introduced in 2013, and Heartgard.
Overall, Sanofi reported a $706 million net profit on these products in 2015.
Frontline Plus is used monthly on dogs and cats. Note that Frontline is highly toxic to rabbits and is labeled “Do Not Use On Rabbits” if you have a rabbit or other pet. Do Not Use On Other Animals. ”.
By cracking open the plastic vial, the oily liquid is injected between the animal’s shoulder blades. The idea is that the liquid will spread throughout the body and be absorbed into the skin’s oil glands, where it is gradually released, preventing the animal from reaching back and ingesting it.
Concerns about potential side effects abound, with the most prevalent being skin reactions like hair loss, itching, and redness, as well as neurological problems like clumsiness and uncoordinated movement. However, nowhere on the Frontline US website are these side effects mentioned.
On their Q&A pages, the websites for New Zealand and the United Kingdom do address safety issues.
According to the New Zealand website, Frontline Plus has a long-established and wide margin of safety, so your cat should be fine. The owner was concerned that accidentally over-applying Frontline Plus would harm her pet.
The UK website stated in response to a question about side effects that they “could occur but these tend to be mild and temporary in the majority of cases.” ”.
Read about the risks of using oral flea and tick medications here. [Related]
Research by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Fipronil is discovered to enter dogs’ bodies and end up in their fat, organs, urine, and feces, according to the EPA’s Pesticide Division.
Research by the EPA in 2009 examined incident data for spot-on pesticides used on dogs, including fipronil products for dogs and cats. The report on Frontline Plus for Dogs shows that of a total of 2469 incidents, they classified:
2%) >
The EPA discovered that the majority of the reactions involved neurological, behavioral, digestive, and systemic disorders. The most common clinical signs were:
Lethargy and vomiting (possibly due to ingestion) were other common clinical symptoms that were reported.
Human exposure to fipronil was also associated with symptoms like nausea, vomiting, and headaches.
While some incidents were labeled as minor in the EPA study that covered numerous other spot-on pesticides for dogs, it’s crucial to remember that every product was linked to serious incidents and fatalities.
Of the Frontline Plus ingredients, fipronil is the most dangerous. The brain and spinal cord are both part of the central nervous system (CNS), which is how fipronil works. Additionally, it inhibits the GABA receptor, which exists in a similar form in mammals, as well as the GluCl receptor, which does not exist in humans.
Fipronil is more toxic to insects than mammals because it inhibits the insect GABA receptor much more potently than the human receptor. The end result is excessive CNS stimulation, which kills the insect.
There is a difference between the activity of a manufactured chemical and the activity of that chemical’s metabolite, or what the chemical becomes inside the body, even though fipronil is more active on insects than mammals.
This is where the danger to pets arises.
Fipronil primarily transforms into fipronil-sulfone in the bodies of dogs and other mammals.
According to the NPIC, fipronil-sulfone is twenty times more active on the mammalian receptor than on the insect receptor and is six times more effective on the mammalian receptor than fipronil.
This means that compared to fipronil, fipronil-sulfone is significantly more toxic to mammals.
Because of this increased toxicity to mammals, including humans, your child may be exposed to the chemical when she cuddles with your Frontline-treated dog.
A review of Frontline Plus side effects and the safety literature on fipronil was done on behalf of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA).
The review concluded that despite the increased toxicity of fipronil-sulfone, it is unlikely that any side effects would occur because less than 5% of fipronil passes through skin. This suggests the metabolite isn’t concentrated enough to cause problems.
However, studies on the rate at which fipronil penetrates the skin only focus on animals with healthy skin. The reviewers noted that additional study may reveal that fipronil is absorbed at higher levels through skin that is damaged or unhealthy.
Nevertheless, the review found that using fipronil-containing products with corrective application is generally safe. This is due to the fact that the NOAEL (no observed adverse effect level), which was derived from an oral dosage of fipronil taken daily, was significantly higher than what would typically be used on a biweekly or monthly basis.
“Individual variation in response to fipronil is to be expected,” the article states. It advises that negative side effects should be a warning to stop using it.
Also, it advises care when applying it to damaged skin. Finally, it stresses the significance of adhering to product labels, particularly when using the right medication for cats or dogs and using the right dosage.
Prevention For dogs who have suffered from an excessive concentration of the product due to problems with the application or dosage, there are a variety of side effects that may occur.
These effects should all subside within 24 hours of applying Frontline Plus; if they persist then you should contact your veterinarian. When
FAQ
Can Frontline upset a dog’s stomach?
Frontline Plus side effects are uncommon but can include hair loss, skin irritation at the application site, digestive upset, immunological blood reactions, or neurological reactions like seizures. These are extremely rare, as the majority of animals tolerate this product quite well.
What are the side effects of frontline?
Frontline Side Effects There are many worries about potential side effects, with the most frequent being neurological problems like uncoordinated movement and lethargy and skin reactions like hair loss, itching, and redness.
Why do dogs act weird after frontline?
In fact, many dog owners claim that after starting a flea treatment regimen, their dog starts acting strangely or seems to have more energy and is more active. There are other reasons for this as well as the common one of the fleas being killed and the dog no longer being bitten by them.
How long do side effects from Frontline last?
After using Frontline Plus, all of these side effects should disappear within 24 hours. If not, speak with your veterinarian.