It’s Day One since a story came out questioning the safety of the Seresto collar. There is an unfathomable amount of information that still needs to be collected and verified before anyone can determine what is correct and what is not quite accurate.
At this time, we would like our clients to know that as a hospital, we are always searching for the best, safest, and most effective medications, supplements, treatments, and foods for our pets and our clients. As our clients know, we take chemical toxicity very seriously and are frequently treating animals for chemical buildup and sensitivities caused by the over-use or over-exposure to a variety of products. Like anyone with hypersensitivity or an allergy, you don’t know something will cause you a problem until you try it.
Any product that kills fleas and ticks is a pesticide, and all pesticides can have significant risks. At this hospital, we have refused to carry several products because of some of the reported risks or because of some reactions that we have seen in pets. Seresto is not a product we have seen issues with since we opened in 2013. Of course, this doesn’t mean that there are no side effects. It does mean that we have not had a problem with this product, and we feel it is still well within our requirements for safety that we not only recommend it for pets who need protection against flea and ticks but also that many of us have used it on our own pets.
Side note – the products used on pets for flea and tick control are much safer and more thoroughly tested than the yard chemicals sprayed in your environment. I’m already worried people will stop using pet-approved products and run to their local pesticide company. Please don’t do that without talking to your vet!!
The question that needs to be addressed when you are considering the use of any pesticide to kill fleas and ticks is: Does your pet have a higher risk of contracting a known life-threatening and chronic disease from these pests, or does your pet have a higher risk from exposure to chemicals? Our daily mission is to keep your pet as healthy and strong as possible through appropriate lifestyle choices. Every year at your annual appointments, we discuss what vaccines are necessary, what preventions are needed, and what diets are the best for your pet’s individual needs. Healthy pets have a better ability to process toxins. Some pets with certain pre-existing conditions should not be taking certain types of chemicals. We check what preventions, diets, medications, and supplements your pets are on every time you arrive for an appointment at our hospital so that we are always aware of your pet’s health changes and how their medications might affect them. We recommend blood work for every single patient every single year so that we can detect developing health concerns before the body has time to break down and show you symptoms at home.
The stories that we have seen so far about the Seresto collar do not answer enough important questions for us about the poor animals and people who believe they were negatively affected by Seresto. Where did they get the collar? Was it the appropriate size? Did these pets have pre-existing conditions? Were they up to date on their recommended blood work evaluations? Counterfeit preventions and supplements and medications are a multi-billion dollar scam. We ONLY recommend getting your preventions through reputable sources. Regulated pharmacies directly source their products through manufacturers. Veterinary offices directly source their product from the manufacturers. Miscellaneous online sales and third-party sellers (yes, like Amazon) do not deal directly with the manufacturer and have been found to regularly be selling counterfeit products. Counterfeit products have been tested and shown to have no chemical, toxic amounts of chemical, or completely different chemicals of unknown safety found in them. I have personally seen counterfeit heartworm prevention being sold online, and I spent the better part of one of my days off last year reporting the issue to the seller in as many ways as I could. At one point, I was restricted from posting because I had not purchased the clearly counterfeit product. In our opinion, the stories we have seen have a lot of sensationalism and not a lot of facts at this time. Facts will be coming, and we will all have to wait for those.