My mom put 2 drops of Frontline on her 9 year old Sheltie earlier today and now he is trembling and stumbling around. She is bathing him to wash off all medicine that might still be on his neck but we are at her beach home and don't know the vets/emergency vets around here. I have been searching online for more specific details but can't find anymore information on what we should do.

I am really worried because I used one drop of the same medicine on my pomeranian but he seems to be fine.

Any suggestions of things that might help Rocketman? Should I also wash the medicine off my dog?

6/10/2006 11:07:43 PM

bloated doggie corpses

6/10/2006 11:08:30 PM

looks like Rocketman is going to have to be put to sleep

6/10/2006 11:09:03 PM

This is the lounge. Get back in shit chat if you want to be assholes.

6/10/2006 11:10:15 PM

soap and water to get it off

and use the phone book to call the local emergency vet...if you can't find it, call the ones at home and just ask for advice

good luck, some dogs are wierd with meds like that

6/10/2006 11:10:23 PM

I know there are no emergency vets here...maybe in Wilmington. We're not terribly familar with the area.

6/10/2006 11:11:34 PM

use dawn, something that strips grease, and call the number on the frontline box, they have a hot line


some dogs just have different reactions, don't worry

[Edited on June 10, 2006 at 11:13 PM. Reason : ...]

6/10/2006 11:12:29 PM

The reason we are stressing about this is he is acting just like our other family pet who had a heartattack and died

6/10/2006 11:14:34 PM

call the hotline, i dont think frontline will cause a heart attack, just allergic reactions

use advantix next time, but observe the dog for a while afterward

[Edited on June 10, 2006 at 11:18 PM. Reason : If you have a question about FRONTLINE, please call the consumer number at 1-800-660-1842.]

6/10/2006 11:16:35 PM

Quote :

"This is the lounge. Get back in shit chat if you want to be assholes."

hah i thought i was being helpful

6/10/2006 11:19:21 PM

haha shit chat... sad but true

6/10/2006 11:22:16 PM

After a bath and a dish of milk, Rocketman seems to be in much better condition. It's scary to have the family pet seem so helpless Thanks guys.

6/11/2006 2:32:16 AM

youre welcome

6/11/2006 2:47:58 AM

You probably shoudln't be giving your dog milk. Dogs and cats are actually all somewhat lactose intolerant.

6/11/2006 11:57:07 AM

yea, she should probably call the fucking hot line

6/11/2006 1:27:47 PM

My first thought was maybe your dog was scared? My dog would shake from being scared when we used to hold her there and put frontline on her, but she got used to it now.

6/11/2006 2:08:16 PM

Well, I'm glad she's acting better. I've heard regularly that you have to be careful with older dogs and flea treatments because of their age and the stuff being too strong. Maybe switch to Sentinel? it's a pill that treats heartworms, other worms and kills fleas and ticks as well.

6/11/2006 3:38:03 PM

Meatstick-I understand that most mature animals are lactose intolerant. I took a companion animals class and while they can digest a small amount, a lot is a bad idea...it will usually only give them the runs...but milk is also a base and we figured a little diarrhea is better than poisioning.
(http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pro_apcc_ask)

slut-The helpline is the obvious answer...and while it is a "helpline" that basically means someone gets paid to read pretyped responses out to the people who call with questions...Vet school students, however, actually care about animals in general and are often more helpful...A lot of them peruse this board and I found them to be more helpful.

ben94gt-Good idea but we had put the meds on him way earlier

Wheezer-I'm glad too...yeah, we try to be cautious and the vet told us the amount to put on him was 2 drops. My mom refuses to use any more of it on them because it scared her so badly.

6/12/2006 12:23:14 AM

sooo.... does that mean you called the helpline...???

6/12/2006 12:30:07 AM

I've used frontline on my doggies forever, well myself and my family... they've always seemed fine. Good luck and sorry you got so scared!

6/12/2006 12:30:44 AM

i'm calling animal control

6/12/2006 12:42:58 AM

Quote :

"yeah, we try to be cautious and the vet told us the amount to put on him was 2 drops."

i'm confused, they come in pre-measured containers? it shouldn't be "two drops" you should put the entire container that corresponds to the weight of your dog???


oh, and sentinel isnt' worth crap as far as flea treatment, it just sterilizes the adults, it doesnt' kill them

6/12/2006 7:30:47 AM

i've never heard of this problem, but my dad (a vet) always recomends advantage over frontline (not completely sure why)

6/12/2006 9:03:26 AM

My pets (three dogs and a cat) have always hated having Frontline put on them. I don't know why, but they freak out whenever they see it. Once it's on they run away and hide for an hour or two.

Never really have figured out why.

6/12/2006 9:09:27 AM

For one, I've heard that it initially drives the fleas into a frenzy, and they start biting like crazy. Briefly.

And yeah, I thought you always put the whole dose on your pet.

6/12/2006 9:15:25 AM

We had a cat that foamed at the mouth and started spazzing out when we put frontline on her. It really had us worried but the cat was back to normal in a minute or so.

6/12/2006 10:00:33 AM

Advantage has less irritants to cause allergic reactions (how my vet explained it for my cats). My cats never had a problem with either.

6/12/2006 10:09:57 AM

i bet they had a pretyped response that says what to do if your pet starts trembling post application

6/12/2006 11:08:59 AM

^Okay. I give up sweetie. You win. I should have called the hotline instead of asking a vet.

Quote :

"Quote : "yeah, we try to be cautious and the vet told us the amount to put on him was 2 drops." i'm confused, they come in pre-measured containers? it shouldn't be "two drops" you should put the entire container that corresponds to the weight of your dog??? "

My mom has three Shelties who are all different weights so instead of buying three flea treatments, the vet back home suggested a bottle for dogs who weigh 100 lbs + and they weighed and wrote out directions for each dog. My dog gets one drop, Rocketman gets two and so on.

6/12/2006 11:20:55 AM

did your dog die?

6/12/2006 11:34:58 AM

^Now that was a shitbag post.

6/12/2006 11:58:03 AM

Quote :

"My mom has three Shelties who are all different weights so instead of buying three flea treatments, the vet back home suggested a bottle for dogs who weigh 100 lbs + and they weighed and wrote out directions for each dog. My dog gets one drop, Rocketman gets two and so on."

thats what i figured...it is cheaper to buy the 89-132lb dose, but "1 drop" or "2 drops" isn't that accurate...after you open the container, are you using the entire tube or does it stay open until next month...the stuff is alcohol based, so it'll evaporate quickly, so if it sits for awhile, some can evaporate out, possibly leaving the rest really concentrated maybe which could cause a reaction

you also said you had put on the meds way before your dog started shaking...how much earlier, 10 mins, 30 mins, 6 hours? is this the first time this has ever happened with this dog, is this the first time you've ever put frontline on this dog?

6/12/2006 1:40:20 PM

We had put it on him earlier in the day and this was night time...so possibly 5 hours before. We have used frontline on the dogs before. Thanks for the helpful info. I'll be sure to pass it along to my mom.

6/12/2006 2:08:37 PM

Quote :

"I should have called the hotline instead of asking a vet"

sorry, i didn't notice you had called a vet, i wasn't trying to be a dick

[Edited on June 12, 2006 at 2:38 PM. Reason : *]

6/12/2006 2:38:18 PM

all that med shit (frontline) prevents ticks, but causes cancer. that shit is dangerous

6/12/2006 2:40:43 PM

Go go misinformation

Just out of curiosity, did the vet recommend the Frontline spray bottle or did they actually tell you to dose smaller dogs out of the individual vial?

[Edited on June 12, 2006 at 3:33 PM. Reason : ?]

6/12/2006 3:32:07 PM

Quote :

"We had put it on him earlier in the day and this was night time...so possibly 5 hours before. We have used frontline on the dogs before. Thanks for the helpful info. I'll be sure to pass it along to my mom."

i don't think the frontline was the problem...it's possible your dog had a seizure...would not be a bad idea to take her to the vet...i have a small dog and a medium dog, and i'm going to start pulling out the amounts from the large vials, there is 4.02 mls in a large vial and .67 in a small, so if i keep it airtight, one vial should last my little guy 6 months (i can draw it out in 6 syringes and cap them, i work at a Vet, so i have easy access to this stuff)

Quote :

"all that med shit (frontline) prevents ticks, but causes cancer. that shit is dangerous"

though it is a "pesticide," there's no evidence of causing cancer

6/12/2006 4:15:05 PM

Based on the circumstances, I'd say it was most likely the Frontline. It's one of the most common things to see if the dose applied is too high for the dog/cat's bodyweight. That's why I was curious about how the vet had suggested dosing the medication. Dosing out of a single vial from a stronger concentration just doesn't seem like the greatest idea.

Luckily enough, something like Dawn or a good soap-based shampoo will usually help to take care of it.

6/12/2006 4:33:55 PM

Quote :

"Just out of curiosity, did the vet recommend the Frontline spray bottle or did they actually tell you to dose smaller dogs out of the individual vial?"

Recommended dosing out of the vial.
We used a lot of shampoo and rocketman perked right up immediately after.

Quote :

"i don't think the frontline was the problem...it's possible your dog had a seizure...would not be a bad idea to take her to the ve"

The seizure idea crossed my mind. He was acting a lot like our other sheltie did when he went into seizures around age 10 before he had a heartattack.

6/12/2006 4:36:35 PM

Quote :

"Based on the circumstances, I'd say it was most likely the Frontline. It's one of the most common things to see if the dose applied is too high for the dog/cat's bodyweight. That's why I was curious about how the vet had suggested dosing the medication. Dosing out of a single vial from a stronger concentration just doesn't seem like the greatest idea."

there is no "stronger concentration," the stuff in the large vials is the same concentration as what's in the small vials, there's just more of it (frontline for cats is different) there are acutally a LOT of vets that only sell the largest dosage and instruct clients how to dose out because it is significantly cheaper, however, i feel that it lends to too much user error and wouldn't suggest it (although, i will be doing it myself, but will HOPEFULLY be more controlled)

i've actually never seen or heard of a dog acting like this directly from a frontline dose, i asked one of the vets at my work this afternoon and they said they had never heard of it either unless it was WAY over dosed...and if the concentration was increased because the alcohol evaporated out, then it's a whole new story...

honestly, to me it sounds like your pup had a small seizure, he may have "perked up" after the bath because he was getting more attention or he was no longer having his seizure and was just perked up

[Edited on June 12, 2006 at 6:35 PM. Reason : .]

6/12/2006 6:35:38 PM

We actually had one come in about 3 weeks ago from an "overdose" of Frontline. Granted, you generally see these types of reactions on cats who get K9 Frontline applied to them but it's not quite that rare.

On the other hand, you never really know. There's always the possibility it was a petit mal seizure.

6/12/2006 7:17:01 PM