Popular flea collar linked to almost 1,700 pet deaths. The EPA has issued no warning.
 

Rhonda Bomwell had never used a flea and tick collar before. Pierre, her 9-year-old Papillon service dog, was mostly an indoor animal.

Still, her veterinarian recommended she purchase one, so Bomwell went to the pet store near her home in Somerset, New Jersey, and selected Bayer’s Seresto collar.

A day later, on June 2, 2020, Pierre had a seizure, collapsing while Bomwell was making dinner. Lying on his back, the dog stopped breathing and his eyes rolled back.

Bomwell tried giving him CPR. Then she called the police. An officer helped her lift the dog into her car, and she rushed him to the hospital. Pierre died before he could receive medical treatment. Bomwell didn’t think to take off Pierre’s collar.

“I just didn’t put it together,” she said.

Bomwell isn’t alone. Seresto, one of the most popular flea and tick collars in the country, has been linked to hundreds of pet deaths, tens of thousands of injured animals and hundreds of harmed humans, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency documents show.

Yet the EPA has done nothing to inform the public of the risks.

Seresto, developed by Bayer and now sold by Elanco, works by releasing small amounts of pesticide onto the animal for months at a time. The pesticide is supposed to kill fleas, ticks and other pests but be safe for cats and dogs.

More at:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ow/4574753001/

I am still surprised how many people use these collars.
Thank you for the heads up.

A tech at my vet’s office has recommended a seresto collar for Jax several times times. Not because he has fleas (which he doesn’t) but because I’ve said that I don’t like the idea of giving internal poisons to small dogs to kill external parasites.

I keep resisting the recommendation because I’ve heard scattered reports of bad reactions in small dogs. I guess I will keep resisting...

I have never been thrilled with any kind of flea collar even these which were supposed to be safer then the other ones that were killing dogs for years. Not a fan and really not shocked to be honest.

My vet’s office sent out a mass email today, giving this article in support of the use of Seresto collars.

https://news.vin.com/default.aspx?pid=210&Id=10129480

Just my opinion, but the article seems to be a pretty wishy-washy defense of the product. The collars causing the problems might be counterfeit ... federal regulators are unable to say whether the collars are authentic ... the EPA doesn’t have any information about possible counterfeiting. It really doesn’t make me feel any more confident the collars are safe.

At the end of the day seresto is out to make money and will try to blame everything else in my opinion.