I've not had experience with Comfortis, however I have had plenty of it with numerous vets who completely missed the boat on mis-diagnosis.

I had a dog, she lived to be 14 and had what a very trusted vet said was a "mild" heart murmur. She was a Shepard/Lab, about 70 pounds. It didn't cause her any problems, so I did nothing.

I may be wrong, but it's to my understanding that a murmur can be difficult to detect, even with the most experienced vets. My dog saw at least 6-7 other vets prior to the one who detected it, and none of them picked it up.

As far as the Comfortis goes, your experience is a major reason I research medications and diagnosis issues before making a decision about what to do. I want to educate myself about what is going into my dog and develop a plan. I ask tons of questions along the way, and my current vet, who I love and trust without any question, has no problem with this. Doing this has saved me tons of time, frustration and money.

It's to my understanding that most treatments for fleas have a poison in them, that's the way the fleas are killed. I did Google Comfortis and information indicates that vomiting could be a natural side effect. I didn't have time to read beyond the first blurb.

As far as fleas goes. I know I am in the minority here, but I don't have a problem with them, never have and I have three large dogs. I attribute it to the fact that they are very clean, their surroundings are clean, and they have a good diet.

Good luck!

SG

Thank you for the response.

I hope your dog does well. Heart murmurs can be difficult to find or they may appear as the dog ages. Is Comfortis the product that has the same ingredient as the old Pro-heart 6 injections? I know one of the new ones does but I don't recall which it is. I'm usually leary of new products until they have been on the market for a few years. A product that seems to work well as a flea repellent that is safe is Avon's Skin So Soft bath oil. mix about an ounce in sixteen of water and spray the dog with that. You may have to play with the amount to keep the dog from getting greasy and keep shaking to keep the oil/water mixed.

Lisa

My dog Jessup passed away last week. My point in this e-mail is to pass the word along about what happened. There as been no direct explanation for his sudden passing, but I have my suspicions.
Last Monday July 13, 2009, I took Jessup to the vet for his annual check up. He had his 3-year rabies shot, yearly physical and tests everything was perfect. There were no concerns by the vet at all for my 8-year-old mixed lab/chow dog. As I was leaving I remembered I needed more heartworm and flea medicine for him. They had a poster in the wai ting room for a new pill flea medicine called Comfortis. The vet said as long as Jessup has not had a history of seizure or heart issues he should do well with this flea medication. Jessup has never had either of these. So, I decided to try it with him because I was tired of fighting him over the liquid flea medicine each month. The vet told me to give him the medicine after he had food in his system, so on Wednesday evening as Jessup ate his dinner, I thought now is a good time to give it to him. Around 8:00 pm, I gave him his Heartguard and Comfortis pills. My husband and I went out for the evening. We returned home about midnight, Jessup acted normal and he showed no signs of side effects. Jessup slept in the bedroom with us, and around 12:30 am we all went to bed.
At 3:30 a.m. Jessup woke us up as he whimpere d and made other vocalization sounds. In the beginning, it sounded like he was having a bad dream. Occasionally, he would do this when he is in a deep sleepÂusually he will snap out of it within a minute or respond to us when we call his name by shaking his head and he goes back to sleep. Not this time his vocalizations became louder and louder.. even growling and flopping his tail around. I continued to yell his name .. at that point my husband clapped his hands and said his name repeatedly. When we realized he wasnÂt responding my husband jumped up and turned the bedroom light on. At that point, he realized he had defecated on the floor. Jessup was unresponsive and my husband could feel his heart beating rapidly. My husband pumped his chest a few times with no response. We rushed Jessup to the emergency vet office.. from our house we were there within 10 minutes.. However, he was dead on arrival.
Around 4:15 a.m. the emergency vet called the 1-800 number for Comfortis, she was hoping to receive any time sensitive information about this medicine, for instance, areas on JessupÂs body to check or fatality information about the medicine. The Comfortis operator had little to no helpful information. She told us that the company hours were at 8:00 am, she said weÂd have to call back then.
At 7:30 am I went to my regular vetÂs office. My vet contacted the company for Comfortis, which is Lilly. They offered to do a full autopsy with Jessup to see what could be determined about his death. However, the nearest university to do this was in Gainesville, which is 2 ½ hours from where we live. The company offered to pay the fees, but we had to get his body there. I was not willing to UPS my dogÂs body and we were unable to drive him ourselves, so my husband and I opted not to do the full autopsy. Also, my vet spoke with the doctor at the hospital in Gainesville. The doctor said there is very slim chance that he would find any information to directly link the medicine to my dogÂs death. Typically, these autopsy are inconclusive. My vet was able to do a brief autopsy and look for any abnormalities within Jessup that we may have been unaware of. He found nothing inside Jessup abnormal.
In conclusion, the only difference in JessupÂs life was the Comfortis medication. The emergency room vet told us she has seen dogs come in with seizure like symptoms from this medication. Typically the side effects begin after the second or third dose. She flushes their bodies out and they are fine. Never has she seen it cause death. My vet said the same thing. Since Thursday I have been researching this medication a little more in depth. I have come across about 5 stories very similar to mine, which resulted in the death of their otherwise healthy pet after the Comfortis pill has been given. Also in one of the stories I found,, Lilly paid for the full autopsy it came back inconclusive "the gray area", they called it.
Pets are a wonderful addition to a family. I cherish the memories I have with Jessup and plan to have other pets in the future. This information is just food for thought. I know some people use this medication without a problem in the world. I just wanted it to be noted about my first and only experience with it.
Jennifer
e-mail: Jena0525@aol.com

Jena, so sorry to hear about your Jessup. I never give my animals any new medications until they have proven themselves for at least a year without reported deaths. This Comfortis could be another "too good to be true" medication. I passed your story on to a friend who is treating her hard to handle dog with the Comfortis.

My dog was fine until i gave him Comfortis, he was throwing up and then he passed away. I wish i never gave him that pill. More people need to know what can happen, and should be given warnings, but the vets dont do that. I wish my dog was still here. He was part of our family.

hello, im sorry to hear about the deaths. it is worth noting that it is extremely dangerous to administer spinosad(comfortis)with ivermectin(various worm medications). death is the case in many, many cases. the correct way to administer these two medicines is two weeks apart so they can each be digested separately. after full digestion, comfortis remains in body fat for an estimated month and will not react with worm meds. it is extremely important to do research on your own because incidentally a lot of vets are just like other people who are lazy at their "jobs". many doctors, at times, forget they are dealing with lives and/or get too comfortable and don't do research/tell people things themselves. in many cases the lack of research causes death. it should also not be administered to patients with heart problems, seizures and in my opinion old age. if anything gets weak at old age its the heart(rare exceptions always of-course). much of this information can be found on the comfortis faq page which was most likely put there from the very beginning. this is sad because the simplest research, by a vet who might have just heard about this break through drug(or even paranoid k9 owner) going to the medicine's site might have saved a lot of lives. granted it does not mention death but does warn against administering those medicines together. which any responsible vet, reading that, would have investigated further. under normal, healthy dog conditions, which is the only way any medicine should be given,(without worm meds) the worst effects should be rejection of the drug by vomiting. i have observed countless dogs take this with no problem as long as there observation for side effects. as with any medicines, this should be done.

https://www.comfortis.com/about-comfortis/faqs.aspx

My dog Samson was 12 years old, but was very healthy. He still ran trails with us, played hard with our 18 month old Rottweiler and was a happy, energetic dog. I had him on Comfortis from age 5-7, then back on Frontline until he had a seizure a few hours after I administered it. So for the last year, Sammy had been back on the Comfortis. Yesterday, I gave him the pill around 3pm. At 5pm, he let out a cry, dropped to the ground and let out his last breath. There were no warning signs, nothing. Fleas and ticks are awful, but these medications are poison and they're dangerous. I wish I had done more research on these medications. Never again. I hope this can help another family keep their best friend around for a long, healthy life.

So very sorry about losing your dog. I know you’ll miss him a lot. Keep the good memories close at heart.

It’s hard to say if the Comfortis was the fault or not. My dog has been on it nearly 10 years with no problems. I think it’s been around a long time and most dogs do OK with it.

Comfortis says, "Following concomitant extra-label use of ivermectin with Comfortis, some dogs have experienced the following clinical signs:
trembling/twitching, salivation/drooling, seizures, incoordination,
excessive dilation of pupils, blindness and disorientation.
Post-approval experience continues to support the safety of Comfortis
when used concurrently with heartworm preventatives according to label
directions."

Some number of folks posting above seem to be saying that their dog was on Ivermectin, but they for the most part do not say the dog was receiving it as the primary ingredient in a heartworm preventative. Again, as seen above Comfortis specifically warns of using Ivermectin in an off-label use while simultaneously giving Comfortis!