My dog ate topical flea and tick medicine. Is she safe after 24 hours?

It would be helpful to know what specific type of flea medication is was, since different brands have different active ingredients. But in general, if he only ate a single dose, I would not expect this to cause any serious problems - these medications typically have a wide margin of safety, even if they are ingested rather than applied topically. You may see some mild stomach upset, but I would not expect any serious toxicity issues. To be safe, you should monitor for any neurologic issues such as muscle tremors or seizures, and take Oscar to the vet right away if he is acting abnormal.

Place an e-collar (cone) on her to prevent licking. Some of these products can cause GI upset, excess drooling or irritation around the mounting if licked or ingested. These products typically dry in several hours. Apply it before bedtime, place the e-collar and by morning, she should be fine. As an alternative, there are oral flea and tick preventatives that can be used instead of topicals. Discuss options with your veterinarian.

In general, we do not want dogs to lick the ingredients in the topical flea products. Therefore, most products will contain a "bittering agent" which makes the liquid taste bad, so the dogs will not lick it. If they lick a small amount, they may drool a little due to the bad taste, but they will not lick enough to cause a problem. If you have any concerns about a particular product, I always recommend speaking to the company. I hope that was helpful and answered your question. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Most flea & tick medications have a pretty wide safety margin, so most likely Willie will be ok, but we need to know specifically what medication and what dose he received. If you know the name of the medication, the active ingredients, and the mg it contains, please post again with that information and we can get you more accurate feedback.

No. Unfortunately the topical product will get on their hair. It’s almost impossible to prevent this. It is best to prevent them from licking it but it shouldn’t hurt them. I would just watch them for any abnormal behaviors. If that product doesn’t seem to be helping much I would consider an oral flea preventative next time. These sometimes work better due to a faster kill time. I hope this helps!

Hello, sorry to hear about your accident. Yes the medicine will work on her and she should be after receiving the wrong dose. This medications is reported to have more toxic effects when ingested than when applied topically. Things you can consider is to bathe your dog if you believe she is feeling unwell to wash the medication off her coat. Call the ASPCA poison control line for better information about the toxic dose of imidacloprid, one of the active ingredients of this medications. Their number is (888) 426-4435. Hope this helps and best of luck.

An immediate check up is needed. This kind of toxicity can lead to severe side effects and treatment should be initiated as soon as possible. That would include IV fluids, gastric decontamination and medication to decrease gastrointestinal absorption. Please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.