Warning of fake, lethal pet medications on sale online, including flea treatment

[Antimimisti]

I just thought I would share this here - a warning to be vigilant if buying pet medications online. The man in this article thought he was buying the usual flea treatment for his Persian cat, but it was a fake product that nearly killed her. Analysis showed it contained an ingredient highly toxic to cats, There's a list of things to check about the packaging if buying online, but it's recommended to source through your vet to be safest.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy9n0y34z14o

Example of counterfeit packaging. Note the very obvious spelling mistake on this fake Frontline -

Also there are fake YuMove tablets on Amazon apparently.

Horrible, and I’ve been duped with those products before too. I don’t think people realise that there are huge amounts of illegal counterfeits on ebay, Amazon, any marketplace.
I’ve now switched to flea pills anyway, because the spot on treatments are bad for the environment.

www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/18/how-can-you-treat-your-pet-for-fleas-without-harming-nature

Apparently it's rife. You can easily see why people might be tempted by what seems like a cheap offer online, but the usual 'too good to be true' caveat applies.

I've bought YuMove from Amazon before and to be honest they weren't any cheaper - it was just convenient, easy to order. No idea if they were fake, I only buy direct from YuMove now.

I saw this and noticed that they were careful not to name the retailer but suspected it was Amazon.

I buy less and less from Amazon (basically just Kindle books in reality) these days because it's very difficult to be sure you're not getting a fake and a lot of the time they're not actually cheap.

The fake medicines is frightening and I think one takeaway from that article is only buy from places that are registered with the Veterinary Medicines directorate.

https://vmd.defra.gov.uk/register/online-retailers

I was coming to say this n line retailers who are registered and inspected will have the blue oval VMD logo on their website often right at the bottom of the home page.