Frontline causes cancer?

Hey everyone!

So I told the BF that Hannah needed her flea and tick preventative and I've been using Frontline for as long as I can remember. Today I come home to see this Cutter flea and tick preventative sitting on the counter. He told me he bought it next door at the feed store and the guy told him that Frontline causes cancer? Yet the active ingredient in this Cutter stuff is permethrin which I've heard could cause seizures and is deadly to cats (we have 3 cats). I told him he needs to return it but like always I'm the one who is wrong!

Anyone else heard of this cancer scare? I've been trying to google any information but I've come up with nothing.

I've heard of it. However, I think that it's the plain fact that you are putting chemicals on your pet, and chemicals have the chance of causing cancer. I think a competing company started saying "Frontline" so Frontline gets less business.

I have always been uncomfortable with the flea and tick treatments and have avoided them until this year. THe ticks are so insanely bad that even with a lyme vaccine they are still at risk for several other tick borne illnesses so i cried uncle. I got Vectra 3d and used it last month..and then again this month. VIctor's neck is so long that i put it a little high on his shoulders where his collar touched it. I didnt' realize the stuff would melt his collar. IT was a bright orange hunting one. He acted a little sick the day i used it and i don't know if it was just coincidence or if it was the melted plastic added to the treatment and if he absorbed any of it or not. I am just horrified. IT wasn't a lot of plastic, but it left a orange glob on the back of his neck that is gummy and will not wash off. I told myself acetate will melt plastic and yet women use it all the time on their skin to remove fingernail polish. I just hate the whole business of it. Mary has lived to such an old age without any problems tho her daddy had cancer and so did her son. I don't know if that could have made her more likely to be affected by chemicals that would end up in cancer or not. I fed purina too becuase i just didn't know any better and when Bronki got cancer i felt like i had put a pack of cigarettes in his bowl each day. I really don't understand any of it. Just don't like the idea and don't know what to do about it.

I trust my vets and go by their recommendations .

I've never heard that in particular, but you should know what's in Frontline... you are pretty much putting pesticides on your dog. I stretch the applications out to every 45 days instead of once a month and only give them during months when mosquitos are really bad - unfortunately in the Midwest that's usually many months. =P
Read up on it and make a call about what's right for you and your dog... just make sure you are well informed!

i think they're going to be hard pressed to prove that frontline causes cancer. but i *know* that ticks carry lyme disease. i don't like putting pesticides on my dog, but right now it seems that the benefit outweighs the risk, so i do it as sparingly as possible and use the product that seems to me to be the least scary and that's frontline (no permethrin and therefore no risk to my cats).

Agreed. Frontline is one of the better products out there for spot-ons. We use it every month during the season as we track and hike in the woods alot. I find ticks all the time, but i feel much safer using the frontline. I dont feel that makes me a bad pet mom.

They carry alot more then lyme. I can't even spell most of the 5 diseases carry. IT's all bad.

Well, ticks here are rife and they carry billery and some sort of worm. I would rather frontline my two then have issues with parasites. It is ticks in winter and fleas in summer, so they get zapped once a month.

frontline and cancer

hi i also been told that frontline causes kindey failure and i do believe this because i used it on my dog and he ended up with kindey failure i would not use anything on my dog anymore just a flea and tick bath is all that is needed thanks and good luck

flea and tick baths often use pyrethrins or permethrin, which are scary pesticides.

i'm not sure how frontline would cause kidney failure as it doesn't go beyond the oil glands in the dog's skin. it never enters the bloodstream, never gets to the kidneys.

lyme disease can cause kidney failure though.

I'm sorry about your dog, but I fail to see how that's scientific proof. There are so many dogs that get frontline monthly who never get kidney failure, and there are so many things that the dog can have that could lead to kidney failure, that I wouldn't blame it on the frontline just based on that.

Yes, you're putting toxic chemicals on your dog. The reason I prefer frontline over other spot-on flea and tick treatments is that frontline doesn't enter the dog's bloodstream. Not that it can't cause side effects, sometimes severe, but IMO, it's safer because of that.

If people are going to claim that frontline causes kidney failure or cancer, I'd like to see the studies that were done to support the claim. I did a google search and found nothing besides some people echoing the rumor. If you can find the studies, please share them.

There are many things that cause cancer, and
1. I can't protect my dog from exposure to all of them.
2. If he gets cancer and has had frontline put on him his whole life, that isn't proof that the frontline caused the cancer, as he has been exposed to other cancer causing things. Breathing the pollutants in the air causes cancer.
3. Much of cancer, IMO, is a metabolic issue - whether or not the conditions are right for the cancer to develop and grow.

They do.. but they only stay on the skin a short time (I think a few days) where as a spot on treatment goes systemically through the dog (which is how it workd)

ITs a trade off. YES what is in those products are carcinogens... but as far as I can tell not highly so. So you have to balance the risks... here I have only had ticks on my dogs ONCE in my life... so I don't use the spot on stuffs. If I did I would really have to look at the risks and make my decision.

I've used Frontline for over 14 years and never had a problem with any of my dogs.

Thanks everyone! Hopefully I can talk some sense into my BF or at least let him research if I can get him off the video games for 10 minutes.

I know there are risks with any type of flea and tick preventative but we need something. I live in PA and ticks are extremely bad this year. I do not continue it through the winter and have never had a problem. I've been using Frontline on my Midnite for the last 6 years (since we moved to PA) and she's still going strong at 13 years old!

The guy at the feed store said it was all over the news and internet yet I've come up with nothing as well CP.

i was actually looking at some of the flea/tick shampoos online this morning since i'm not very familiar with them, and some of them say they work for up to 28 days (which i had no idea about) on certain flea stages.