gave my ferret hartz topical flea treatment for cats...HELP

[karinabelle]

so I was reading on how to get rid of fleas in ferrets and I saw somewhere that you can use a half dosage of the 5-10lb cat advantage flea treatment. I went to the store to pick some up and all they had was hartz in stock, and being lazy I picked that up instead. I assumed they were the same things with the same ingredients, just one was an off brand. hours later (after applying it and it not working at all) I looking up using hartz on ferrets and everything I read was saying how to never put it on your ferrets. what my question is, what do I do? and what could happen to my ferrets? its already absorbed as it was several hours ago that I applied it, so washing it off wont do anything at this point....I know I made a mistake but please no negativity..

 

[JaeG]

The only thing I could find was from 8 years ago so I'd say the company would've improved the safety of their product by now. I'd assume a reaction would happen pretty quickly. Hopefully your baby will be just fine and less itchy.

 

[karinabelle]

Thank you so much. I was worried and needed to hear that from someone lol. They haven’t had any kind of reaction yet so that’s a good sign

 

[dainerra]

no Hartz hasn't improved. wash with dawn dish soap. it will strip the oils and remove as much of the flea meds as possible. it will also kill fleas so that is an added bonus.

 

[dainerra]

if you have more than one ferret interacting, they can also ingest it orally so clean them well. also, it can take a couple days for the topicals to work. and if the environment still has fleas they will simply keep getting on and then dying from the poison.
wash with dawn as I said and you can treat with diatomacious earth to kill the fleas and be sure to clean their entire habitat as well as the house to avoid reinfestation

 

[karinabelle]

if you have more than one ferret interacting, they can also ingest it orally so clean them well. also, it can take a couple days for the topicals to work. and if the environment still has fleas they will simply keep getting on and then dying from the poison.
wash with dawn as I said and you can treat with diatomacious earth to kill the fleas and be sure to clean their entire habitat as well as the house to avoid reinfestation

I cleaned the whole house, all their stuffed, washed them, and then washed them again after reading that Hartz was bad. It’s the next day and they don’t seem to have any kind of reaction or irritation so that good. There are still a couple fleas on them still and I don’t see how that’s even possible after the 6+ hours off cleaning, spraying, powdering, and washing I did‍

 

[dainerra]

fleas are incredibly hard to kill. and if you have pets that go outside or you have cats and dogs that wander into your yard from the neighbors you are going to have to treat your yard as well. also, if you vacuumed the bag (garbage bag if you have a bagless) needs to be removed from the house as well or the little buggers simply hop out and on their merry way.

Depending on the treatment you used on the house, you will have to re-do it all again in 7-10 days when the eggs hatch. And then again in another 7-10 just to be sure.

 

[karinabelle]

fleas are incredibly hard to kill. and if you have pets that go outside or you have cats and dogs that wander into your yard from the neighbors you are going to have to treat your yard as well. also, if you vacuumed the bag (garbage bag if you have a bagless) needs to be removed from the house as well or the little buggers simply hop out and on their merry way.

Depending on the treatment you used on the house, you will have to re-do it all again in 7-10 days when the eggs hatch. And then again in another 7-10 just to be sure.

I used two treatments for my house just for added insurance. I did a powder for the carpet and a spray following that and on every other surface. They both claim to kill fleas at all stages of life and to work for 7 months following treatment.....we’ll see if that’s the case lol