Comfortis, aka, spinosad is a once-a-month flea repellent for dogs. The way it works is simple: this powerful insecticide is ingested by your dog in the hope that a flea will bite your dog and ingest some nano-particle of the insecticide, which will be enough to kill the flea.
A lot of folks seem to be fine with Comfortis, but this treatment regime violates one of my core rules, which is "outside drugs for outside bugs" and "inside drugs for inside bugs."
The fact that Comfortis does not kill a dog outright is not enough for me. What happens to the dog's liver and nerve system after a lifetime of ingesting this stuff? No one knows! Comfortis is too simply too new to know.
What we do know is that a significant percentage of dogs on Comfortis end up having problems.
- 12.7 percent experienced vomiting
- 9.1 percent had decreased appetite
- 7.6 percent had lethargy
- 6.7 percent had diarrhea
All of these are classic signs of poisoning.
And then, of course, there are the distressing results reported when Comfortis was given to pregnant bitches (results at top). These results are buried in the package insert for Comfortis --a package insert most folks will never bother to read because, after all, their veterinarian prescribed the drug and sold it, so it must be fine.
Right. There could be no profit motive there, eh?
Bottom line: I am taking a pass on Comfortis and all other monthly indigestible insecticides for my dog.
My advice for fleas and ticks is the same as it has always been: a flea comb and an occasional flea bath with the cheapest over-the-counter flea shampoo you can find at your local grocery store.
If other folks want to go with something else for their dogs, that's their prerogative.
4 comments:
Have you heard anything similar about Revolution? It seems almost the opposite of Comfortis, since it's topical for both the fleas/ticks, but it's also supposed to prevent against heartworm. I only ask because of your "Outside/outside, Inside/inside" policy (which I like very much, actually!).
And yes, those results are VERY disturbing. The fact that they culled puppies to begin with "to reduce litter size, according to standard laboratory procedures" is alarming enough. I guess the number of eggies Mother Nature prompts the bitch to release has nothing on the power of Science to abort them retroactively!
Good gravy!
Either the comfortis killed a bunch of puppies.
Or this laboratory is incapable of keeping puppies alive.
60% mortality! Dat's some gooood animal husbandry.
And apparently no necropsies, cuz, why would you want to know?
Revolution is Selamectin and is sold by Pfizer's animal health division. Revolutuion (aka selamectin) seems to have a very low toxicity for dogs -- a 5X dosage does not result in clinical problems. Though Revolution is topically applied, it actually seeps into the skin and acts as as inside drug for outside bugs, which is why it required FDA approval as a drug rather than EPA approval as an insecticide. The product package insert is here >> http://www.revolution4dogs.com/PAHimages/compliance_pdfs/US_EN_RV_compliance.pdf
Revolution is a macrocyclic lactone, the same as Ivermectin. Basically, this is fancy talk for the fact that the stuff works by disrupting the nervous system pathways of insects. An advantage of Revolution over Ivermectin is that is appears that collies are not as susceptible to Revolution.
All in all, not a bad choice if you require a permanent dosing of insecticides for your dogs.
P.
My Chi was put on Revolution by Petsmart's/Banfield Vets....he instantly reacted with a dime sized crater of open wound where it gave him a chemical burn. His hair lifted right off along with his skin. Very sad and Had to be painful. He still has no hair on that spot. I have a chi/yorkie and took her to get her teeth cleaned and the blood test showed high liver enzymes. I had just dosed her with comfortis no longer will I give my dogs thatcomfortis
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