What Is Flumethrin And How Does It Work?

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Dogs and cats can easily pick up ticks and other ectoparasites (little crawlies living on skin and fur) that can transmit diseases to our pets. Preventing tick infestation concerns every responsible pet owner to protect our pets from tick-borne diseases. Spot-on treatments or flea and tick collars are a practical method of tick protection.

A spot-on product brings an active ingredient directly onto the fur, and a pet collar slowly releases an active ingredient. In both applications, the active ingredient is slowly distributed over the entire fur and skin, effectively protecting against parasite infestation. Flumethrin is a highly effective ingredient used in many products.

What is Flumethrin and how does it work?

Flumethrin is a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide commonly used to protect livestock and domestic pets against ectoparasites such as ticks, fleas, flies, etc.

At a low concentration, it causes hyperactivity in insects and at high concentration paralysis and death of insects. It works by opening the sodium channels and disrupting the transmission of nervous impulses in insects causing a depolarization of membranes which leads to over-excitement and eventually death.

Does Flumethrin repel ticks?

Flumethrin has a repelling (hot feet) effect and is poisonous for all types of ticks, including the particularly common kennel tick. After putting on a collar or applying the spot-on drops, the active ingredient is distributed over the entire coat of the animal. Fleas and ticks that come into contact with the treated fur fall off and, depending on the dose, die.

Products with Flumethrin?

Flumethrin formulations come as a spray or dip and as a ready-to-use pour-on used mainly on livestock. It can also be used for domestic pets in products such as impregnated flea collars, spot-on, shampoos, soaps, and sprays.

Pet collars that protect against fleas or ticks like the very popular Seresto Flea and Tick Collar use Flumethrin as one of the active ingredients, the other is Imidacloprid. These collars have a toxic effect on ticks and fleas and kill them within 12 hours of infestation.

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Flumethrin in Pet Collars

Flumethrin in cat collars or dog collars effectively combats tick infestation and repels ticks. It works against larvae, nymphs, and adult ticks for 7 to 8 months. In addition to ticks, the active ingredient is also highly effective to prevent flea infestation.

Is Flumethrin safe?

  • Do not administer Flumethrin topically (spot-on, shampoos, soaps, sprays, etc.) in case of extended skin lesions: this can lead to an excessive absorption through the damaged skin.
  • In small dogs paresthesia (skin sensation of tingling, tickling, prickling) can happen at the therapeutic dose, which usually disappears in 12 to 24 hours.
  • Toxic effects can be potentiated after simultaneous exposure to organophosphates or other synthetic pyrethroids.
  • Only use such products on cats that are specially approved for cats.
  • Never use spot-on for large dogs on small dogs. It happens that some users want to save money and buy large spot-on for treating smaller dogs twice or more times. The risk of overdosing is considerable, either due to erroneous calculations or through an unskilled application. The remaining products in opened spot-on vials can deteriorate.

Source and more to read:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3353155/