Coles and Woolworths under fire for selling toxic flea spray for pets

ANGRY pet owners have called on Coles and Woolworths to stop selling a toxic flea spray after a cat suffered a severe reaction.

‘He started foaming at the mouth’

ANGRY pet owners have called on Coles and Woolworths to stop stocking a brand of flea spray which is potentially lethal to cats.

Exelpet Fleaban, a flea spray for cats and dogs, contains pyrethrins, an insecticidal substance produced from the Chrysanthemum cineraiaefolium flower that is toxic to cats at high concentrations.

Chris Chambel says his 10-month-old cat Sasha started “foaming at the mouth” just seconds after he applied Exelpet. He only found out from his vet afterwards that pyrethrins can be highly toxic to cats in high doses.

“It was almost immediate,” he said. “We noticed drooling at first but then it turned into an excessive amount of frothing. He was restless, shaking, refusing to eat or drink for a 30-hour period.”

The 21-year-old from Redcliffe in Queensland was angry there were no warnings on the bottle. “It’s generally only bad for cats in excessive amounts, but the bottle doesn’t say how much you’re supposed to put on,” he said.

“The vet didn’t seem too surprised, he said it was not that uncommon. If he had started seizuring, as some cats do, it could have caused brain injuries. He said the best thing to do was bathe him and try to get as much off as possible.”

According to the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority, there are nearly 200 products containing pyrethrins registered for use in Australia, of which around 50 are registered for use on cats.

Flea treatment products registered for use in dogs generally contain high concentrations of permethrin at 400-650 g/L, and so are considered highly toxic to cats. Exelpet Fleaban contains 1.8 g/L of pyrethrins.

“The pyrethrin-containing products formulated as sprays or powders contain a much lower concentration of active constituent (1.8 g/L for spray products and between 1.0 and 2.5 g/kg for powder products) which means the potential for exposure to toxic amounts of pyrethrins is very low,” the APVMA says on its website.

Exelpet is marketed to both cats and dogs.

But customers have reported similar side effects on the ProductReview website as far back as 2012 and are angry at the lack of warnings.

“Why the hell [haven’t] the health authorities gotten on to this?” wrote one user in January. “There are valuable pets and much loved pets that could die as a result of this stuff.”

A Change.org petition started by Mr Chambel calling on Coles to recall the product has attracted more than 2,600 supporters.

“I bought this product at my local Coles,” he wrote. “I trusted Coles and assumed products stocked there would be safe. They need to stop stocking this poison before more loved pets suffer!”

Mr Chambel’s petition incorrectly identified the active ingredient in Exepet’s sprays, pyrethrins, as “pyrethroids”, a similar but synthetically made compound also used in flea treatments.

An Exelpet spokesman said in a statement that its FleabanTM Insecticidal Spray “remains an effective treatment for fleas in cats and dogs”.

“Our first priority is always the health of pets and we fully investigate any reported issues that may arise with our products,” the spokesman said.

“As with all medications and treatments, it is important to follow the directions on the label

and use with care. Just like people, some animals may be more sensitive to certain ingredients and may experience mild to moderate symptoms after use, known as side-effects. If these symptoms are worrying then we advise people to seek immediate veterinarian advice.”

The statement said that Exelpet products were “extensively tested before they are released to market” to ensure compliance with national standards, and that pyrethrin had been used “as a safe and effective insecticide for over 100 years”.

A spokeswoman for Exelpet’s parent company Mars Petcare Australia told news.com.au there was a risk of “adverse events” such as seizures only in very rare cases.

“It’s exactly like human medicine, you’ve got to look at the risk versus the benefits,” the spokeswoman said.

Asked why there was no warning of potential side effects on the bottle, she said the product information sheet with warning information was “all available on the internet”.

“There’s absolutely no way that Mars would stock a product that’s harmful to pets,” she said.

Coles and Woolworths, which also stocks the product, both declined to comment.

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