Cat Chat Feline Forum

Hi ,
I have a white / ginger boy ( OGGY ) who acts very oddly when I put Advocate flea treatment on him. The 1st time I used it, he went BONKERS !! running around, bolting all over the garden, didn't look happy at all and he went walkabout for a few hours. When he returned he was wide eyed and salivating. I guessed he must have somehow licked the place that I put the spot on ? ?

I told the vet who said " well it feels very cold on their skin, so next time warm the little bottle up in your hand for a minute or 2 prior to application."

Oggy has a few fleas again, so I warmed it up, and again, put it on and he went berserk again. He has just come home and it ears flat, eyes like saucers and not happy , is flinching when I go near him .... I feel terrible now....

Am very worried because I have just read some horror stories on line about this product...causing kidney problems etc ? Oggy is already on daily Cystophan for granuals that block his wee pipe ?

Just wondered if anyone else has had a problem / similar reaction with their mogs ?? .. and is there anything ( hopefully not a silly question ) that can be put in food , rather than 'spot on'..

A very worried mummy

Thanks xx

Ah I'm sorry to hear about Oggy.
My cat reacts like that to Frontline - because I was fleaing him so infrequently (once every 6-9 months) I hadn't worried too much about it as he seemed to get over his reaction within about 30 minutes and the vet told me it wasn't anything to worry about. However, the last time it happened it was more severe and I feel so awful doing it to him so I've decided not to use spot on treatments anymore. I'll find another solution but I'm not prepared to do that to him as it's clearly not doing him much good...

I'm going to speak to the vet about alternatives but at the moment he has other health issues that we're dealing with - but once they're sorted then I'll be discussing alternative flea treatments. Sorry I can't be much more use though but Oggy is not alone!

Three of my cats reacted strangely to Avocate, subdued and off their food for a couple of days, so are now on Stronghold with no side effects. The other two cats are fine with Advocate.

We use Advantage rather than Advocat because it had a similar effect on one of our cats a couple of years ago.

thank you all for your replies. Oggy still a little subdued...or is it a ploy to get mummy to feed him poached chicken ? .....will let him 'recover' and try stronghold or advantage......

I think some cats have a reaction to one or another spot-on. I have never heard of this kind of reaction though - often skin irritation. Stronghold does fleas and worms and is similar to Advocate, but Advantage only does fleas.

You can also get a 6 month injection from the vet for fleas - so no spot on treatment at all - but it will only cover fleas so you'll need a good oral worming tablet regularly as well. Might be an option if he really reacts badly to spot-on treatments.

I had to stop using spot ons altogether on one of mine (I do rescue so treat scores of cats with spot ons) so it wasn't a decision I took lightly, but he used to go mental and vet could only think the liquid was actually hurting his skin given his reaction. I even tried putting water alone in an empty pipette incase he was just being naughty and doing that when I did something to him but there was no reaction at all to the water.
Thankfully as I had 13 other cats at the time herd immunity seemed to be enough to keep him flea free. But if not I would have used the flea injections or capstar tablets.

Hi,

I wanted to know if your cat is okay? We have just given our cat advocate as he caught fleas (long story even though the vet said he hadn't).

Anywho, he is really lethargic and not eating his food, is this normal? Also hiding a lot

Thank you

My vets changed Bella's flea and worming treatment suddenly earlier this year. They said it was due to issues getting the usual one overseas but they have assured me it has the same ingredients in, just a different name. I'm not so sure as Bella goes darting around the house and sulks for hours after

My Cat also had a very bad reaction to the Advocate for large cats spot on (she's 5kg)

Not long after application she was hissing at me (totally out of character) and making really pained sounds. She also went on a long walkabout the next day (common to some other bad reactions I have read about online) and when she came back hours later she was off her food, shivery and not herself

I have given her spot ons before with no bad reactions (not advocate) it just seems like the local vet switched to advocate recently and I will be asking some questions of them

Looking online it seems that some Cats have a SEVERELY bad reaction to this particular spot on and in my opinion, Cat owners should be cautious with this remedy