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.
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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!
Good. We are lucky. I have seen a few pictures of cats who have worn flea collars with hairless necks. I am not sure about them.
You are lucky, Michael, as are Monty and I. There were HUGE fleas where I used to live, and if not treated our cats would end up covered with them. We did have one cat have an adverse reaction to a flea collar, poor thing. He survived and improved immediately when we realized what the problem was.