Freddy (nearly 10 month old Papillon) has been treated this morning with Frontline. This was the second time he's been treated and the first time he was fine. This time within seconds he started shaking and panting, then started to race round the house like he has gone crazy, then yelping and trying to nip at his back where it was applied, now one hour later he is calmer but shaking and miserable, I have called the vets and they will see him at 10.30. Has anyone ever experienced this before? Will he get over it or will they have to treat him somehow? I am so worried. At first it made no sense because he has been fine the first time, but then maybe it is like an allergic reaction eg to wasp stings when it is the second sting that causes problems?

My last gordon had reactions to both Frontline and Stronghold spot on treatment.  He was younger than your boy, and went as flat as a pancake, so bad in fact I nearly called the emergency vet out.

Since then I never used any flea treatment on him, and would treat the house instead if I saw any evidence of fleas.  If you search on google, you will see plenty on stories around the use of flea treatment in the states.  I rang the drug company and told them about his symptoms but they werent interested and claimed they have never heard of this before.

Jill

Thanks Jill I will do a bit of research. Fortunately Freddy is recovering now. The vet agreed it was an allergic reaction to Frontline and said she will report it. Apparently it is as I thought, the reaction occurs on the second exposure. He obviously won't be getting Frontline again so I'll have to look into alternative flea prevention, have seen people on here mention garlic so will investigate that. Incidentally Freddy's breeder warned me against using Frontline because she has come accross problems with this breed before, but I took the advice of the vet to use it, so maybe Papillons have a tendency to this allergy.

Hi,

I used Frontline last year as a preventative mmeasure and one of my girls suffered an allergic reaction also. She was very swollen and inflamed at the site where I had put it and was very restless. I clipped all the hair around the area and washed it with lots of water.....never again for her though. 

i use frontline with no promblems but i have heard that garlic is a great preventative and also much cheaper.