By Rudolph Furtado (Mumbai, India)
For all cat owners here is the account of my 5 year old tomcat Matata almost succumbing to “Shampoo poisoning“. On Friday (25-7-2014) I gave tomcat Matata an anti-flea shampoo bath using “Bayo Pet Brand Bolfo Shampoo” which recommended for both dogs and cats.
After the bath everything was normal and he dried naturally. Next morning I found cat vomit and initially thought that it was cat Matahari that had vomited as she normally did vomit her hairballs.
In the afternoon I found vomit with traces of blood and realized that it was tomcat Matata who was sick. He had vomited after a bath once before and seems that the shampoo chemical ingredient was ingested into his system by fur licking, a normal practice of any cat.
I was worried as unlike cat Matahari I could never ever take Matata to the veterinarian as he was scared and vicious when caged or handled by strangers, akin to a wild cat. Being akin to a leopard, the only method of examining him was by tranquillising him, bizarre for a pet house cat.
I decided to treat him myself and kept him on a more liquid diet of mince meat/soup avoiding adding of carbohydrates like rice, his normal food. The blood vomiting gradually decreased although the vomiting didn’t subside, it just became less frequent.
In my deepest thoughts I thought that I would lose him to accidental poisoning hoping that he would recover with my feeding methods as cats are very resilient animals.
Finally on Monday (28-7-2014) his vomiting stopped and he became his normal self, eating hearty normal rice/minced meat food and also passing normal stools.
Cat Matata has used one of his 9 lives, the closest he had come to death due to accidental shampoo poisoning. Cat owners please beware of the “Anti Flea/Tick Shampoo” that you use for your pet cat as some shampoo’s can be harmful and even kill your cat as it almost happened to tomcat Matata.
Most anti-Flea/tick shampoos are manufactured for dogs and are not meant for cats as their system is more delicate than dogs, besides, cats can’t be thoroughly wiped dry after a bathe unlike dogs.
At times some of the shampoo solution might remain on the cats fur and later licking of the fur by the cat causes the poisoning in the animal.
Check his biography :- http://persiancatmatatacatwalks.blogspot.in/
I have posted a photo of the “Shampoo bottle” that almost killed tomcat Matata. Notice the advertisement of the dog and cat on the bottle!
I am so glad Matata is ok! How horrible for you and for him!
Monty’s vet likes to harp on the fact that Monty does not receive any treatment for fleas. He pushes me to treat Monty for fleas despite the fact that neither he nor I has ever found a flea on Monty or any evidence of a flea on Monty.
Flea treatments carry risks. Those not as lucky as Monty and I have to find ways to deal with flea infestations, because fleas can really harm your pet as well as being annoying. But I continue to maintain that the risks of treating fleas on a cat who has never shown evidence of having even one flea on him are not worth it.
As much as I would love to bring Monty places with me, where he could play on his leash and explore new territory, I have decided against ever doing this since once outside of our yard he probably would pick up fleas, necessitating putting him through treatment to get rid of the fleas. He will have to be content with sniffing around his own yard only. Luckily, he is very content with that situation.
On behalf of tomcat “Matata” i thank Michael for highlighting this “Poisoning Case” for all readers and writers of “P.O.C”.Debating the subject on pet shampoo’s for cats has given rise to various opinions and suggestions but the ultimate conclusion seems that no particular “Anti Flea Shampoo” is totally safe for cats.”P.O.C” is a day to day encyclopedia on cats thanks to all of us being frank in our opinions and suggestions about our pet cats.Tomcat Matata has totally recovered from his near death experience and is his normal self, more of dog than cat behaviour !
We are pleased Matata got over his poisoning. For me the moral is that flea treatments can be dangerous. I am not sure enough cat owners realise it. Thanks for sharing Rudolph.
hi Dee. Thanks for reposting Michael’s article. Yes I have used Advantage with no adverse affects. It suddenly became unavailable so i now only use Frontline and the Turkish equivalent by Teknovet. So far so good, but I don’t have to use it very often except during Spring when ticks get to my outside toms.
Being wary of dog flea treatments on cats is not an issue when the ingredients are the same. One should always read the list of ingredients.