From: rivkin@watson.bms.com (Teresa Rivkin)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats
Subject: Fleas and the Hazards of PetCor
Date: 11 Sep 92 19:23:00 GMT
Organization: Bristol Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.4-b1

I've been meaning to post this, but I've been extremently busy recently 
fighting the war against fleas and the resulting illnesses to our kitties 
because of fleas.  Our cats will NEVER leave the house again!

About two months ago, we found out our cats had fleas when the long-haired cat 
was taken to the groomer to be shaved.  Up until February, the cats had always 
been indoor cats, but since my husband and I moved to a farm-like area and the 
house had a fenced in back yard, my husband decided they should be let out.  I 
tried to warn him, but.....

Anyway, we immediately stopped letting the cats out and contracted with an 
exterminator for a 90 day flea clean-out plan.  By this time, the cats were 
scratching themselves raw in places and pulling out clumps of fur!  The first 
time the exterminator came, we took both cats to the vet for a flea bath and 
dip.  We waited three weeks, and then had the exterminator come back again to 
do the house.  During this time, my husband was combing the cats (sometimes 
getting 15-20 fleas off them at a time!) and we were bathing them with stuff 
the vet gave us.  The bathing part sounds all well and good, but we found 
there is no way to prevent the fleas from crawling to their head when the 
water hits them.  We even saturated their heads with flea spray prior to 
starting their bath, but that didn't help.  We could see fleas all over their 
face when we took them out of the tub.  Gross!!!!!

The second time the exterminator came out, my husband didn't think we needed 
to take them back to the vet for a flea bath/dip (much to my opposition).  The 
exterminator gave him a bottle of something called PetCor (not PreCor!) to use 
on the cats.  He said it would kill the fleas dead.  So, when the cats came 
back into the house after the 2nd extermination, we literally drenched them in 
the PetCor the exterminator gave us.  I sure as hell did kill some fleas, but 
it also caused a severe neurological reaction in one cat and a slight one in 
the other!  We had to rush Arpeggio to the vet the next day because he was 
soooo hot.  The vet had to bath him to get the PetCor off his fur and give him 
a shot to counteract the effects of the PetCor.  We then noticed that both of 
our cats ears were twitching uncontrollably.  The vet said this was part of 
the neurological reaction.  We had to bathe the other cat at home to get the 
stuff off of her too.  To make a long story short, my husband called the 
exterminator to warn them about what happened.  The exterminator then put him 
in touch with the company that makes the product and we are trying to get them 
to reimburse us for the vet bills.

I've had several conversations with the vet and groomers about fleas and how 
to get rid of them.  The long and short of it is that they are not dying 
easily this year for whatever reason.  We just had the exterminator out to our 
house a third time (this time the cats were taken to the vet for a flea bath). 
I'm hoping this is the last time it will be necessary, but I'm not gonna bank 
on it.  By the way, the new vet we started taking our cats to WILL NOT give 
cats a flea DIP, because they say it can be toxic to cats.  They will, 
however, give them a flea bath.  There is a definite difference in the 
products used!

Sorry this got so long, but with all the postings I've seen recently about 
people trying to get rid of fleas I thought it was necessary to warn everyone 
about PetCor.  I also want to wish anyone who is trying to get rid of fleas 
luck.  The past couple of months have been hell!  Oh, and I forgot to mention 
that both cats got tapeworms from the fleas too.  Of course, I was the one to 
discover those wormy rice-like things hanging off their asses while they were 
sitting in my lap!  Yuuuuuccckkkk!

Terri Rivkin
Bristol-Myers Squibb
Princeton, NJ
rivkin@bms.com
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats