New cat

melorablack

MrsE wrote: »

I don't buy Bob Martin (or any pet shop) meds either, they don't work.

But I'm not convinced they actually are poisonous, surely they couldn't sell them if they were

They are poisonous because they have to be to kill the fleas.

The difference is that sometimes the weight of the cat will impact how effective or harmfull the dose is, just like with some of our medicines.

Sometimes the cat just has a reaction to the chemicals like we do to hairdye or henna tattoos. There is always a risk with any sort of chemical and any sort of animal (or human ).

MrsE_2

melorablack wrote: »

They are poisonous because they have to be to kill the fleas.

The difference is that sometimes the weight of the cat will impact how effective or harmfull the dose is, just like with some of our medicines.

Sometimes the cat just has a reaction to the chemicals like we do to hairdye or henna tattoos. There is always a risk with any sort of chemical and any sort of animal (or human ).

Ah but a does that is harmful to a flea won't necessarily be harmful to a cat. There is a big size difference there.

We have to treat out cats for fleas, to not do so would be cruel.

paddypaws101

Years ago my friend had a cat that suffered a bad reaction to flea powder...and it died. More recently one of my cats had a collapse after application of vet prescribed flea med...vet said it was unlikely that it WAS the meds, but it was quite a coincidence. Personally I believe in minimising over load of chemicals and drugs both for myself and my cats. So I use flea treatments sparingly when they start to scratch, not all year round.
As always, we have to do a bit of research, and follow our own instincts as to what is best for our furry friends. There is no perfect answer, but I always find pharmacists very interesting when they give feed back about drugs..after all they are the real experts rather than GPs or vets!

hazyjo

Might be an idea to check with the rescue centre, not the vet. They de-flea and worm them as a matter of course (so I'm led to believe). I've had several cats from rescue centres and they've all been checked by vets already and had precautionary treatments. You don't want to apply Frontline or anything else if your cat's already been treated this month.

Enjoy! They're so lovable.

Jx

Ruby_Moon

picklepick wrote: »

Yes melorablack, however the difference is, most medicines are given by professionals not purchased from shops. And as soon as it is know that they may cause allergic reactions, the consumer is aware of it via the packaging. Bob Martin continue to deny the evidence and promote these products regardless of the damage they may do.

Your information is not only wrong but its also completely biased.
There are thousands of medicines that are bought over the counter by humans every year that no professional has prescribed and a great number of these people have also suffered extreme reactions and even death.
It doesnt mean that all those medicine are not safe. It means that some medicines react badly with some people. Its almost impossible to bring out a totally safe drug that will not react with other conditions. Its almost impossible to test drugs under every circumstance.
It also means that some medicines are misused: not always intentionally though. Look at people like Heath Ledger, who died from taking his own medicines.
Flea killing treatments do not work by magic. They work by poisoning the fleas. The chemicals can cause nasty reactions in cats and dogs if they are ingested, especially if they ingest an awful lot of the product. But what does happen is that people use the flea teatments and puss runs off to hide and grooms himself because he doesn't like being messed with. So he licks all the stuff off and becomes ill.
The cats need to be watched properly. The treatments need to be used properly. When all this is done as it should be, any other kind of bad reaction is unfortunate and would likely happen with any kind of flea treatment, not just Bob Martin's.
To publicly state that Bob Martin the company deliberatly poisons cats, is aware that it posions cats and does nothing to eliviate the suffering of cats by amending its products is libellous.
There is no proof, even when you say there is. All that is shown is a few comments on a few forums and that can hardly be classed as 'fact'.

loulou123

I dont know if Bob Martin products are posionous or not, as i have always used vets products. Although they are more expensive they do work well (although there have been reports of frontline not being too effective anymore, ive always found it fine.) and the "cheaper" products do not always work out that way as sometimes you have to use more, or reapply more frequently anyway. And with the worming tablets the vets ones tend to be a quick one tablet, whereas with the petshop type you end up with about 10 tablets over a 3 week period.

As for keeping a cat indoors, it all depends upon the cat, my cat now would hate to be outside on her own as she had been badly treated and is scared of everything. If she is outside with us and the door is closed she completely freaks out (even tho she has a cat flap!) so there is no way she would ever want to be a true outside cat.