Anyone have any experience with reactions to flea products or suggestions?

[rydra_wong]

I have an ongoing flea problem (Frontline did not work) so have been premise spraying, repeatedly applying frontline then advantage.

Aside from things like causing various body parts to swell they are causing extreme nerve problems for me...
I cannot STAND to be touched, or to have my wrist rub the table from using the mouse, etc.
I can barely stand to sit still for 2 minutes.
I feel like I have a bit of ataxia.

None of these problems are new for me but I had them diminished or beat under Fredd's protocol. (They used to happen for me only under pms, not continual anyway). Any suggestions of extra help I could or should do to help me get through this flea situation? I can't stand myself right now - I want to crawl out of my skin! Help! Help!

Also joint pain, water retention, very dry skin (it messed up my thyroid), and less attention span (due to swelling of the brain feels like). But the neurological symptoms are ataxia, can't stand to touch anything (hypersensitive - if even a hair on my arm blows), extreme irritability.

Thanks everyone

 

[Esther12]

My deepest sympathies. A flea problem caused me a lot of problems... itching making sleep worse, the work of cleaning, etc, etc. It was a total nightmare.

We found that 'flea traps' were a good follow up measure: very sticky paper under a light/heat sources to attract the fleas. Having them scattered around managed to get the last few fleas that escaped spraying.

Our final solution was to move away from the neighbour whose cats had given us fleas.

Good luck.

 

[rydra_wong]

thx but I meant more for supplements to help with my symptoms. Thanks again

 

[Mya Symons]

Are you allergic to Borax? If you sprinkle a layer of Borax on your rug before you go to sleep and then vacuum it up in the morning, it will smother the fleas and eggs. Just remember to throw the vacuum bag out. As for something to put on the animal, have you tried Revolution. Perhaps you won't have an allergic reaction to that.

 

[little_bird]

I haven't specifically had any reaction to flea products, but fly sprays / insect sprays etc make me incredibly ill. Sore throat, relapse, the whole lot. I am very leery of insecticides and non-organic produce as a result.

 

[rydra_wong]

Dunno - I am sensitive to most chemicals...I avoid them like the plague. But you cannot ignore fleas. I am afraid to kill the cats with Revolution -- I put it on a cat once and she went into convultions and died. It was horrific and I will never use it again. I would be MORE likely to be sensitive to it since it absorbs through the skin, which is why it is so dangerous. I do not have a vacuum with a bag so I am afraid to vacuum! The fleas will jump out at me when I dump the cannister-! (Don't u think?) I am getting a steam cleaner - it will kill everything and is supposed to be a big help to allergy sufferers anyway. Meanwhile Advantage II seems to be working whereas Frontline did not. But I have a lot of work to do and I can't stand to be touched so it is excrusiating and I was hoping for suggestions on calming down my nerves...

Thanks for the borax tip though -- if Advantage II doesn't do the trick I may be desperate! It seems to have stopped my cats from itching for the time being.

 

[penny]

Just wanted to offer my sympathies. We're in the middle of a flea battle as well and it is miserable even without chemical sensitivities. I seem okay with the spray we used, but just the bites/bugs themselves leave me itchy, sensitive, and touchy all over. For me, my sensitivity comes and goes with the fleas - so hopefully once they start dying off you'll feel a bit better.

We're using Advantage II as well, but it seems that during an outbreak we have to apply it more often than normal. I believe the instructions say you can put it on every two weeks if needed - and our animals started scratching again at a week and a half. I'm not sure this frequency will be sustainable (cost or pet health wise) but if it helps us break the cycle it'll be worth it.

Also we have a bagless vac and we haven't seen fleas jumping out. We did try spraying the empty canister with the flea spray and letting it dry - hoping this would kill any that got sucked up. Oh and we did the borax on Saturday, no clue about whether it works or not yet.

Good luck!

 

[leela]

Ack! Pesticides are neurotoxins! Very bad for PWME, I'm afraid.

Try Diatomaceous earth.
http://wolfcreekranch1.tripod.com/diatomaceous_earth_fleas.html

I'm still not clear how you get the food-grade DE (not the tuff from the garden shop) on the pets without getting it in their eyes (which is harmful)--but there is lots of good info on that site. I take DE internally, so I know it is safe in that regard.

 

[Mya Symons]

Dunno - I am sensitive to most chemicals...I avoid them like the plague. But you cannot ignore fleas. I am afraid to kill the cats with Revolution -- I put it on a cat once and she went into convultions and died. It was horrific and I will never use it again. I would be MORE likely to be sensitive to it since it absorbs through the skin, which is why it is so dangerous. I do not have a vacuum with a bag so I am afraid to vacuum! The fleas will jump out at me when I dump the cannister-! (Don't u think?) I am getting a steam cleaner - it will kill everything and is supposed to be a big help to allergy sufferers anyway. Meanwhile Advantage II seems to be working whereas Frontline did not. But I have a lot of work to do and I can't stand to be touched so it is excrusiating and I was hoping for suggestions on calming down my nerves...

Thanks for the borax tip though -- if Advantage II doesn't do the trick I may be desperate! It seems to have stopped my cats from itching for the time being.

That must be why they took revolution off the market in the U.S. for awhile and only sold it in Canada. How horrible. Now I am feeling guilty for using it on my kitties. One nice thing about living over 7,000 miles above sea level is no fleas. The fleas pop once they get high enough. Maybe you could go for a road trip and drive your kitties up the mountain. Wouldn't that be nice, two cats howling the whole way.

 

[ixchelkali]

I know this doesn't help with your current bad reaction, but for the future you might try diatomaceous earth, combined with vacuuming. It's inert but it dehydrates insects. Best used at the very first sign of fleas, because it's most effective against flea larvae.

That being said, a few years ago we had a huge, horrible investation in our yard (apparently an opposum died and its fleas went looking for new hosts...and multiplied) and we did resort to insecticides. Sometimes you're between a rock and a hard place.

 

[rydra_wong]

Ok, a quick reply to y'all.

(1) I discovered Advantage II kills ALL stages of flea, including eggs. I applied it to all but one feral cat (I hope I can get away w/o doing him, but f not it means a vet visit and he has to be put out). The problem SEEMS 99% gone. I still find a flea or two about, such as in the pet water bowl drowned, but none when I flea comb my cats. It says you can apply every 7 days at first if necessary. Frontline apparently only kills live fleas so IMHO it is WORTHLESS.

(2) borax is a toxic chemical so I would not use. Diotemacious earth can be inhaled by cats and ruin their lungs. Both of these chamicals are on floor level and cats aren't far from the floor so they would be inhaled. Kind of hard to avoid inhaling a dust.

(3) If you are allergic to flea bites, mosquito bites, or any bites, you are not following Fredd's protocol correctly. The first thing it does is eliminate swelling from biting insects. You should itch for no more than 10 minutes and then GONE. If you tell me what you are taking exactly I may be able to help you figure out what you are missing.

Thanks everyone. I am slowly improving from chemical warfare but not rid of it yet.

 

[rydra_wong]

o anyone else encountering chemical sensitivities like this, I think this is happening because pyremethrum is an antiandrogenic and it is knocking out my supplemental DHEA (in fact that is the symptom - I am finding I need to take more and more DHEA to function and it's not doing tat well - because antiandrogenic druhs work by blocking the androgenic receptors. Here's a recent study showing this: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045653506007351

I also read this drug works by damaging the nervous system of the insect but is not supposed to damage the nervous system of humans because they supposedly break it down faster via the P-450 pathway. But I have suspected for a long time (ever since I heard of it) that I have one or more genetic defects in the P-450 path which is why I am sensitive to every drug known to man. I know there are tests for this but I can't afford it right now. I spend thousands of dollars on testing each year and that one has never yet made the top priority list. Anyone else who can affrd to and wants to test for that, here is such a test you can order: http://search.aruplab.com/search/?I...BOOST=10&IW_BATCHSIZE=20&IW_DATABASE=ARUP_all