Did flea spray hurt my cat?



This cat did not die!

I can't say for sure that Sergeant's flea spray caused my cat Luxor to have a seizure and nearly go blind, but I will never use it again.

Maybe you wonder why a responsible pet owner who spends way too much money on premium, grain-free pet food would use a flea repellant available at the grocery store. The embarrassing truth is twofold: 1) I favor my dogs over my cat, who has always been prone to sinking his razor fangs into my calves regularly. 2) I succumbed to greenwashing.

Through greenwashing, companies play up the "environmentally responsible" or "natural" aspects of their products. Sergeant's spray does contain some natural ingredients, including peppermint oil. However, hyping the use of these naturally-derived ingredients seems disengenous if those same substances are potentially very dangerous when sprayed on an animal that grooms itself with its tongue.

What Sergeant's packaging doesn't say -- but the ASPCA does -- is that peppermint oil, although naturally occuring, is toxic to cats.

Sergeant's (and other makers of similar products) skirts the safety issue with the fine print. According to the label, the spray is "safe for use around children and pets when used as directed." Yet, the directions say to apply the spray onto the cat. Of course, the directions also warn of "Hazards to humans and domestic animals" and suggest contacting a veterinarian in the event of persistent "sensitivities."
Again, I can't be certain that my use of this spray is what made my cat very, very sick about 30 hours later. After seeing the bottle and considering that I had used the product on him before, the emergency vet seemed confident that his sudden seizure, glaucoma symptoms and frighteningly low platelet count were attributable to a systemic issue, most likely lymphoma.

To our great relief, a couple days and some powerful meds later, Luxor was almost back to himself. The rapid recover, though, does seem consistent with a poisoning or severe allergic reaction. The vet at our regular animal hospital agreed, although he did not discount totally the lymphoma possibility. It's just nearly impossible to know for sure.

My gut says the problem was the flea spray. And despite what my neighbor says, I'm not just trying to take on guilt. The simplest answer is usually the right one, and given the time elapsed and the cat's age (roughly 5), a reaction to flea spray seems more plausible than lymphoma or a tick bite or a rare immune disorder.

The truth is, I probably very nearly killed my cat. That sucks. It sucks so much that I can't believe I'm admitting it in public.

But if there is any silver lining to this scenario, it's this: If the flea spray was to blame and not lymphoma, then Luxor seems to have made a complete recovery, which means he still has a lot of years left to terrorize me. With a lymphoma prognosis, the future would be a lot more grim.
But I still wish this had never happened, and I promise to be a more conscientious cat owner from now on.

What's going on with my cat?

Luxor and me. Blue-eyed and bright in our first year together.

Last night marked my first foray to an emergency vet. I feel lucky that I never needed to take one of my pets there until now. I always expected I'd be taking one of the dogs first...

Luxor did not come to me in typically wayward fashion. Rather, I sought him out via Craigslist. I had impulsively decided that I must have an oversized cat -- to go with my microscopic dog. In the photo and description provided by his former owner, Luxor seemed like the perfect candidate. With his arresting blue eyes, pink nose and creamy gray and charcoal Lynx Point Siamese markings, Luxor was undeniambly handsome. He had also spent the first two years of his life with a dachshund, so it seemed likely that he'd manage to get along with my miniature pinscher Scooby.

For the most part, they are friends. Scooby and I have both sustained many painful catbites over the past three years, and I swear that Luxor has framed Scooby for a few "accidents." But I have caught the two of them snuggling -- by themselves and with our other dogs -- on many occasions. My own relationship with the cat has been rocky. As I said, he's a biter, and I am his most frequent target. He has also done more damage to my house than any of the dogs. But when Luxor is being good (and that's most of the time, especially when weather permits him to get adequate backyard time), he's a dream. And he's definitely always on his best behavior around guests, so he happens to be one of those cats that all of my friends and family go ga-ga over.

Luxor's illness came on suddenly last night. He had been puky for about a day, but that's kind of a cat thing, so I didn't think much of it. Around midnight, I searched for him and found him lying in a clearly distressed state, huddled against a door in the darkest part of the house. Thinking I could comfort him, I brought him into the bedroom. On the bed, he seemed to go to sleep but his body seemed more limp than usual, and his legs, ears and muscles kept twitching. A few minutes later, Scooby scared him, and he took off but seemed unsteady on his feet. I actually thought he was going to fall backwards from the top step of our staircase.

Terrified that he might be experiencing an allergic reaction to some flea spray I had applied to him the night before (against my own better judgment), I rushed to the vet. By the time we got there, one of his blue eyes was clouded with blood.

The actual diagnosis is still not complete. According to the vet, it seems to just be a coincidence that I happened to apply flea spray shortly before this episode. Rather, it seems that some underlying unknown issues are coming to a head -- glaucoma and likely lymphoma. He can't come home until tomorrow at the earliest. And we have a lot to think about.