Flea collar on cat: Can I pet her? Is she safe if she groomed herself?

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. If she is licking the flea and tick collar occasionally, this should be fine. She should not experience any adverse side effects. I do tend to find that the flea / tick collars are not as effective as the oral preventative medications such as Bravecto. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

These flea collars are extremely toxic and one should not use them anymore. Tetrachlorvinphos toxic to the nervous system and likely to cause cancer. The collar could indeed have caused these signs in your kitty. There are quite a few flea and tick medications on the market, such as spot-ons that are not detrimental to the health of your cat. Here are safe flea products: Spot-ons and/or chews Advantage, Advantix Advantage Multi (Advocate in the UK) Frontline (ticks as well) Bravecto spot on (ticks as well) - for cats, Simparica, Nexgard Revolution (stronghold in the UK) Tablets: comfortis (will only kill fleas once) Collar: Seresto (ticks as well)

Cats are exquisitely sensitive to flea treatments, so there is a potential this could cause problems in Monty. I would wash him off thoroughly with warm water and Dawn dish soap. Watch him for signs of toxicity which include excessive salivation, paw flicking, ear twitching, vomiting, diarrhea, depression, incoordination, and muscle tremors. If you see any of those, rush Monty into a vet immediately.

It could be the flea collar, as this frothing at the mouth can be a sign of flea treatment toxicity. Take the collar off Molly. Wait a few days, and apply a spot on treatment like Revolution or Advantage.

Oh that's not good! If it's a topical medication, wash it off now and monitor your kitten for signs of toxicity. Signs include tremors, excessive drooling, ear twitching, vomiting, or diarrhea, take her into a vet immediately. Best of luck.

The safest thing to do is remove the collar and bathe her. If she is having a contact reaction removing any of the residual from the collar may help. There are some flea products that are not safe in cats so if you want to take a picture of the packaging including the ingredients in the collar and upload in a second question we can let you know more about the collar. I hope this helps and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

You were very smart to wash the medication off Cookie. If you did not use dish soap, I would recommend to rewash the area using dish soap as it is very good at stripping the coat. While I cannot be 100% positive that everything is ok (as I cannot physically examine her), it's generally a good sign that she has calmed down and is acting more normal. You have two options, take her into the veterinarian or monitor her. If you want to be as safe as possible, you could get her into the veterinarian tonight for an examine as they would be the best ones to determine if there are any neurologic abnormalities or any other causes of concern. If you choose to monitor her, you need to watch her closely for increased respirations, open mouth breathing (panting like a dog would), stupor, dizziness, trouble walking, seizures, hyper salivating or other abnormalities that involve her central nervous system. If Cookie displays any of the above abnormalities, I would recommend to take her straight away to the veterinarian. Make sure that she is eating and drinking. When in doubt, take her in as its better to be safe than sorry. Go with your gut. I would not recommend to use this product again on her to be safe. Although reactions can occur with any product, I think Revolution is generally well tolerated and I routinely recommend it. You may also talk to your regular veterinarian about appropriate products to use in your area if you have specific risks like ticks. I noticed that you listed her weight as 4lbs (which would be very small for an 8month old cat) and the product is labeled for 5lbs. While it may be a typo, make sure to always use the appropriately sized product to decrease the potential for side effects. I hope this helps and that Cookie recovers normally! Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.