Am I going psycho here? So this OTC treatment for fleas ++

[LanguidLobster]

Ahem! Which shall not be named might actually be damaging to cats?

Right. I'll try to sum it up.

The old BM's formulation contained permethrin, which did indeed kill some cats. We saw quite a number in our clinic. I had to collect two one Christmas Day that were having seizures as a result of being treated. They both died. However a few years ago they changed the formulation to being the same as Frontline. Frontline used to work, but fleas have acquired resistance. So now it's not harmful to cats, but unfortunately it's not particularly harmful to fleas either.

I'm not sure about other OTC treatments. Certainly none of them work, and some may still contain the dangerous permethrin, but I don't know for sure.

Advantage can be bought without seeing a vet, but it has to be sold by a qualified person, such as a pharmacist. That isn't dangerous and does work.

It's so worth having a sticky about various things. I'll write this all down and try to summarise and people can add to it, if all approved, MN said they'd be happy to see how a sticky goes

Other things to add:

Fleas collars also don't work, and can cause skin problems, and can react with other flea treatments. And of course all collars are a strangulation risk. And flea collars are never 'safety' collars, so should always be avoided.

For treating the house Indorex and Acclaim sprays are the ones that work.

Even indoor only cats need flea treating.