Fleas, Ticks, Chemicals & Your Dog

On Monday I dosed all the animals in my house with their usual flea & tick medications. In Maybelle’s case, that meant a dose of Revolution. Later that night, as I was going to bed, I started noticing odd behavior.She came over to my bedside, demanded a bit of attention, and then went back to her love seat. She seemed to be having trouble getting up, and once she was up there she was panting oddly. I went over, took a closer look at her, pet her for a moment, and then headed back to bed.

But I kept thinking about it. Then I was reading an old magazine that was hanging around the house and there was an article warning people not use PVC shower curtains, and about the dangers of playing with your pets if they use flea and tick collars. So I started poking around the internet and found this warning on 1800PetMeds:

Side effects are uncommon, with less than 1% of dogs showing signs of digestive upsets. It is not advisable to use Revolution in pets that are ill or underweight. Collies and herding dog breeds may have a reaction to the ingredient selamectin if given over the recommended dosage amount. If your dog is a collie or other herding dog breed and your veterinarian has prescribed Revolution, we urge you to monitor your pet for 8 hours and call your vet if your dog displays any signs of weakness, staggering, dilated pupils, trembling, drooling, or pressing his or her head against a wall.

WTF? The weird thing is, most of the warnings I saw on the flea and tick meds were for herding dogs. What’s with that?

So I’m glad winter is coming. At least I’ve got a few months before I have to decide what to do about this… and to talk to my vet. I’ve used PetArmour on the cats with good results (*knock on wood*). But the people on 1800PetMeds don’t seem to be a fan.

Anyone out there have any warnings? Advice? Recommendations?