As you can read in other blogs on my site I walk my neighbour’s dog Henry twice a week for a good few years now (with other odd days where I look after him). Henry is a dear old Golden Retriever and is a real gentleman of the doggy world, who loves his walks – especially when it is warm and sunny. Although he is nearly 12 years old, he was fit and healthy and could go on lengthy walks. However in late 2013 when he was 10 his owners bought him a new flea collar and suddenly his health deteriorated. He became very lethargic went off his food, became very stiff in his joints so his owners took him to the vets. He was examined and although they could not find anything specific he was put on various medication including some for arthritis, painkillers and even steroids and it was all really put down to him getting older. He gradually got worse over the coming months with continuous visits to the vets where more medication was prescribed. His walks got shorter and shorter and he was going downhill fast and we all feared the worst. When out walking he started to collapse on all fours every few paces and his walks just got shorter and shorter. He desperately wanted to go out but couldn’t manage it. His owners as you could imagine were very worried about him, and so was I, and it was very sad to see him like that, but we all thought that he wouldn’t last much longer.
However one day just after Christmas 2014 his owners were searching the internet just to see if there was anything else they could do for him, and came across a lady who’s cat was showing similar symptoms to Henry. It transpired that it was the cat’s flea collar that seemed to be causing the problems. After reading this, they decided to take the flea collar off and after a short period of time, Henry seemed to be showing signs of improvement, so much so that his owners started reducing his medication, which didn’t seem to effect Henry and he seemed to be managing on lesser dozes. He even started to go a little bit further on his walks even with the reduced medication. Henry appeared to be improving and his walks were gradually being extended as he seemed to be enjoying them once more, so we walked a bit further each time I took him out.
Over the next few months Henry changed from being what everyone thought to be on his last legs to a very different dog now and looks so much younger. His walks have now increased and is really enjoying them again. Instead of lagging behind and falling to his feet every few paces, he breaks in to runs and most of the time is ahead of me waiting for me to catch up – quite unbelievable, you would not think it was the same dog. His medication kept on reducing and quite amazingly now April 2015 he is not taking any medication whatsoever. I dread to think how much his owners spent on vets fees and medication but I know any pet lover would do anything if there was pet was suffering, but in Henry’s case it appeared to be for nothing. Just a simple thing like taking off a flea collar was all it needed.
I do not know what make of flea collar it was, but I have found many articles on various flea and tick repellants where pets have developed various symptoms, so please be warned that although the fleas and ticks do not like the flea collars, they could actually be poisoning and affecting your pets with various adverse symptoms which could even kill. If you take a look at the forums people do provide alternative natural remedies for flea and pest control.
Henry is going to be 12 (which we never thought he would reach) in a couple of months time, and is enjoying life again.
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