I used this on my little pom, he is 6 years old and never had fleas, I saw one on him so I got this product. That is the worse thing I could have ever done. He started losing his fur and scratching himself till blood came out and now his left ear has no fur on it. He has sores on his body and he takes off running for no reason, bites at us (I am sure it is because he is so aggravated), kicks his back legs like a bucking horse and goes off and hides. I could not find him in my house for 6 hours one day. He was hid in the back corner of the closet. He will also get behind the toilet and on the bottom shelf of my bookcase. It is like he is trying to hide from something. He has never acted like this before. I put this on him about 3 weeks ago. I think these people need to have charges or a lawsuit filed against them. This product should not be on the shelf.

My cat is 12 years old and I have never seen him this thin and losing hair. He’s had the big swaying belly and weighing in around 12 lbs., with a thick coat of  beautiful orange and white hair(hence the name Shaggy) Now weighs 8-9 and hair is thining very quickly. I have been treating Shaggy with Sergeants Flea and Tick spray for more than 3 weeks now, and although he is eating ok, his behavior has changed. His meow has changed to almost a yowl(don’t know if he is in pain or if his vocal chords have been affected). He is mainly an inside cat and now prefers to remain outside. He cries to come in and runs when the door is opened. He’s started sleeping on kitchen counters(never), I’ll find him in the dryer, in the bathroom, these are places he has never been. He has also disappeared for over 24 hours. None of these behaviors showed up until he was treated. Thank you for the information and will be passing it along!

Oh my goodness, I, like everyone else on this website, cannot believe this is happening.  Why is this stuff still on the market??  If Hartz was truly trying to help cats and owners, they would fess up to their mistakes and pull their products.

Yesterday morning, I put Hartz Ultra Guard Pro Flea and Tick Drops on my 5yr old cat.  Let me also say that she is my best friend.  I cherish the time we spend together and always welcome her to company.  So, a few hours after the application, I noticed that she was strangely kicking/shaking her back feet.  It almost looked like it hurt for her to stand on her back feet.  She is also vehemently licking her back paws.  I just thought that she had scratched her neck with her back feet and gotten some of the Hartz (evilness) on her back feet - so I though she was just trying to get it off.

THANKFULLY, she has not had any seizures or problems with balance, so I think she will get over it.  I’ve washed her neck a couple of times with plain water, but I’m contemplating whether to take her to the vet.  I’m in nursing school and I really don’t have the money to take her to the vet.

Please, pass this message along to other pet owners.  Don’t take chances with the cheapy flea stuff.  DO NOT USE HARTZ!!!

I honestly thought I was doing something good for my dog.  She had gotten some fleas, and although we bathe her twice a week she was still suffering.  So I went to walmart and bought this.  It looked appealing, and was not the cheapest thing they had, it was 12.00 for the box.  I truly thought I was doing good.  I brought it home and put it on her.  She acted strange about an hour later, really itching at her back.  I though that maybe it just felt weird on her fur, so I didn’t think anything of it.  She got to where she was flopping, literally flopping like a fish on her side when she was laying down.  Still I didn’t think that the flea medicine could be doing this, I thought that maybe she was just feeling really itchy.  Finally at bedtime when she was just twitching and jumping around, and still doing the fish flopping, I thought maybe that medicine was the problem.  I got her in the tub and washed her with some shampoo, and prayed that she would be ok.  She didn’t get any sleep, she was miserable.  This morning she was still having muscle twitches, and her back leg just kicks randomly by its self.  I called my vet, who told me to give her benadryl and watch her, if she doesn’t get better bring her in.  I only pray that she will be better, as I have lost my job and it was a stretch for me to buy the stinking 12.00 medicine for her.   I can’t afford the vet, I just pray to God that my good intentions haven’t cost me my best friend in the whole world.  She seems to be resting well now, the benadryl is helping some.  She’s only twitching every now and again.  I complained to the better business bureau, and don’t know who else to contact to get this stuff off the market!  We have to do something, if someone was poisoning our kids, we sure wouldn’t let them get away with it!  I tried to contact the sergeant’s company through their website, but strangely enough the link for contact them doesn’t work.  How funny, guess they don’t want to hear about what their poisons are doing to our pets.

I’ve never used any Hartz product on my dog, a six-year-old, medium-sized mixed breed, before. She has had fleas in the past, once we used Frontline. I saw Hartz in Waldbaums and, being cheaper, I figured it was worth a try. I wish I had done my research first. After applying the drops exactly as directed, she began scratching and biting uncontrollably, particularly in one spot on her left rear. She was losing hair behind hear ears, near her shoulders, and under her collar. Within a few days, she managed to wear a quarter-sized hole in the spot that she was biting. It was pink and inflamed and kept getting bigger, so I took her to the vet. The doctor said she probably had a flea bite, had scratched it, and it was infected. But he couldn’t explain her hair loss. We got antibiotics and an inflammatory shot. The kicker is, as I was paying my bill, the receptionist asked if I wanted to purchase Frontline. I told her, no thanks, we did a flea treatment recently using Hartz. She and the other woman at the desk were like, “Oh my god, no, that stuff’s no good.” They didn’t explain further, but that made it all click - of course! This behavior had only started after the treatment, and she’s never done anything like this before. Now I’m stuck with $233 vet bill and a very unhappy dog. Luckily, the infection appears to be on the mend thanks to the antibiotics.

Very glad to have found this site so I know that I’m not alone. I’d love to be part of some sort of action or cause to stop this company from selling such obviously harmful products!

I put Hartz flea drops on my cat Henry about 3 weeks ago.  He didn’t seem to mind.  Gradually he got more and more lethargic.  Last week I noticed a mass in his abdomen.  I took him to the vet who told me it could have been from the drops.  I had no clue flea meds could cause such illness in pets.  His temp was 104 and they’ve kept him ever since.   His temp finally dropped and they were considering sending him home but this morning he had a seizure.  Again the vet told me it was probably from the drops.  I’ve been looking online and have discovered that Henry’s not the only Hartz victim.  I cannot believe this dangerous stuff is on store shelves!!!  I know I’m responsible but I assume that if something is openly and legally for sale to the public and used as it should be it’s not going to cause harm.  I am outraged that Hartz still sells this stuff!  I am so mad that my poor Henry is having to suffer and may not even survive because of my ignorance but moreso because of Hartz’s greed and disregard for pet safety.

Of course, after seeing the effects of this “medication” on my dogs (normally we do Frontline), I immediately searched the internet and found this site.  Thank God I did because I was able to do our dogs a lot of good by following the advice on here (bath several times with dish soap like Palmolive or Dove and administering 100% pure Benadryl (at the dose of 1-2 mg per pound of DOG weight).

After 15 minutes both dogs (Chihuahua and Italian Greyhound) were coughing and gagging.  Their eyes were watering.  They obviously looked very uncomfortable.  We called the 1-800 number on the package and were told “don’t worry, just give them some chicken soup because it got into their throats and that’s why they are coughing - they don’t have a respiratory problem”.  I didn’t know that Hartz could give veterinarian medical advice over the phone….

We did as advised and the coughing calmed down a little bit, but next came the jumpiness and constant itching!  Of course, we wanted to wash this crap off but didn’t want to make it worse by spreading it and we didn’t know if trying to wash it off was okay.  So off to the internet to search at 11 pm on a Saturday night.  Believe me, if we suspected that our dogs were on death’s door we would have rushed them to the emergency vet - but luckily our dogs didn’t have as bad of a reaction as some dogs have in here.

So I found this website and like I said, thank GOD!  I bathed each dog three times in dish soap to get this crap off of them.  I used a new towel each time (so that I wouldn’t recontaminate them).  After each bath I would smell them to see if that foul Sergeants smell was still on their necks.  After the third bath the smell was faint.

They itched and twitched all night long.  I didn’t sleep!  I spent the whole night watching after them.  Unfortunately, since I am not a vet I waited for my husband to come home from his night job because he has a healthcare background and could determine the proper dosage of the Benadryl tablets that we had.  He said it was very important to make sure it was 100% Benadryl and not Benadryl combined with any other type of medication (i.e., Benadryl + a pain reliever, etc…)

He cut a 25 mg tablet into 1/4 for the 5 pound chihuahua and only gave her 1/4 of a tablet.  He gave the 20 pound Italian Greyhound a single 25 mg tablet.  They slowed down on the itching and finally were knocked out enough to be able to sleep.  We have been giving them a new dose of Benadryl every 8-10 hours.

During the time when they don’t have it they are still itching the back of their necks.  Unfortunately this crap also got on their hind paws so they are constantly biting at their hind paws too.  They are breathing normally, very rarely coughing and their skin is not red where the “medication” was applied.  They LOVE it when I gently scratch their necks.  We even cut their back toenails to prevent them from doing too much damage from the constant scratching.

We are bringing the packaging back to our local Walmart and filing a complaint with the manager.

I think the biggest thing about this product is that with people medications and animal medications - I can accept that there will be rare instances when a bad side effect will happen.  This is part of life.  Unfortunately, the proof that this Hartz Sergeant’s Gold Flea and Tick medication is so harmful is that SO many dogs have become sick (or died) AND that these effects are NOT RARE.  If the side effects were rare, then BOTH of my dogs would not have been affected the same way at the same time.  One is a Chihuahua and the other is an Italian Greyhound.  They are in perfect health and both are adults (not seniors or babies).

In other words, I could understand if one of them had a poor reaction due to a rare adverse event - but what I don’t understand is why BOTH of them would have a poor reaction.  That only tells me that the problem is with the “medication” and not the dog!

Just like everyone else here - my question is WHY IS THIS PRODUCT STILL ON THE MARKET!!!

I sent a complaint to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) already.

Thank you for having this website up and running so we could help our babies

Shannon

Just found this website.  I had twice bathed my cat with hartz ultraguard foaming flea and tick shampoo.  I also used an ultraguard one spot flea treatment on her.  From time to time, she had had seizures and convulsions that would last a few minutes and then go away.  Two weeks ago, she went into such a terrible seizure that she could not move for over an hour…she just dragged herself along the floor, trying to hide.  I had to take her to the humane society to have her put to sleep.  The vet I took her to after the first episode diagnosed her problem as thyroid related and tried to sell me a plan to treat it for a discounted price of $500.  I am a poor man and could not ever hope to pay that.  They charged me 90 bucks.  I asked if it could be related to flea medicine and they said nah.  Then today, two weeks after I lost my best friend of ten years, I find this site.  I feel like I just got punched in the gut.  I am angry at the vet, at hartz and at myself.   What a heartbreaker.

We normally use Frontline, but I thought I saw fleas on one of my Shih-tzu dogs. It was Saturday night and

I bought this stuff from Wal-Mart. Big mistake. Applied as directed and within 20-30 minutes,the dogs

were scratching the area and extremely agitated. We saw this and washed the medicine off with two baths.

We gave them Benedryl and took them to the to the 24hr vet hospital at 4 a.m. Vet said that they seemed

generally  OK and gave them more Bendryl. He said that it was a good thing that we washed them that

quickly.  They seem somewhat better today, but are still being affected by this junk.

my dog had fleas extermely bad so we used the flea dip from hartz and he became really sick puking and had the diahrea really bad. we got so worried that we called the vet and they said that it was the dip. with in weeks to days he started loosing his hair and he was restless and he hurt all the time.  at first we thought it was the mange but we knew that if he had the mange that the other dogs would have it and they were fine. so thanks to hartz my dog lost his hair and it has been almost two months and he is just now getting his hair back. i am looking to file a lawsuit against the hartz corporation. any information would be helpful.

Thanks

Kendra Mowery