Updated: Adverse reactions to worming with Drontal Plus

[Jennifer Martin]

Has anyone else had this problem?, -  Wormed Rio yesterday afternoon with Drontral, he has had it before without any ill effects,  he was OK for an hour, then started to be sick and it continued with retching and salivating for over 2 hours, he also had diarrhoea.
 I certainly do not want to repeat the experience, - after all I had given him the tablets!, it was very distressing for both of us.
Recommendations please.

[Jennifer Martin]

Thank you for your reply, I will try next time, I also wondered as it's rare that you get the information leaflets with 'pet med's' especially from the vet's, all mine told me was to 'give whole' no information as to time of day, with or without food etc - have to say if I had given it to him at night I would have been up with him for most of it!.

[Ossian]

PLEASE get the batch number (it should be on your vet record) and write to the manufacturer yourself describing the symptoms that you saw.
i would also encourage you to write to the dog press. If two people have had this reaction it is a strong possibility that more have and the manu should be aware.

[Jennifer Martin]

Just rang my vet and was told that dog's can have an adverse reaction but it is 'quite rare' anyway got the 'batch Number and will be writing as suggested to Bayer about their product, from now on I will try to avoid 'chemicals' and feed him garlic!.

[Catherine Carter]

Well I have had problems with Drontal when it first came on the market....all my dogs threw up and I think at the time I had the six of them! So since then I don't use it anymore! I have reverted to much more old fashioned brand. I have just asked my vet if it is safe to worm a bitch once she is in whelp as usually I worm bitches before they are in whelp and he recommended this new brand Milbemax....I don't know yet whether I will use this or not as she is not in season yet! I told him about my experience with Drontal and his reply was that if they did not throw up for one hour they would have kept the tablets long enough for them to work......yes! But who wants dogs throwing up all over the place anyway!!!!!!???

[Angela Roberts]

Like Catherine we had problems years ago when Drontal was first introduced with our Irish Setter and two Dachshunds vommitting for hours. I never used it again until a couple of years ago and thought that was years ago I will try it again on one of my youngsters, she was ill, vommitting all night. So I have never used it since and tell all my puppy purchasers never to use it. My vet advised that some dogs do have reactions to wormers and it is a matter of trial and error, she says some have problems with Drontal, some with Panacur etc and you have to keep with the ones that seem to suit your own dogs. I worm puppies with Panacur liquid at 2 and 4 weeks and then when they are old enough to give tablets give Milbemax for small dogs at 6 weeks and onto the normal size tablets at 8 weeks, I now use Milbemax for all my adult dogs and that seems to suit them.

[Sue Randle]

hi guys .. always used Drontal and just treated my babies at 2, 4, 6 & 8 weeks with no problems at all .. wonder if it could be individual dogs or a bad batch as suggested.

[Barbara]

Years ago my Billy have had problems with Lopatol. With Drontal Plus no problems, but I use now Milbemax. I for myself wouldn´t feed garlic or onion - to much is toxic (www.vetpharm.uzh.ch).

[Pat]

Hi all,
I always use Drontal on Ray and have had no problems at all.
This may be a bad batch as been stated on this topic earlier and I think besides contacting Bayer then the weekly dog papers should be informed as well.

[Gayle Sheridan]

My Irish have always had adverse reactions - vomitting and diarrhoea with Drontal. This has happened with successive generataions so I use alternate products. Unfortunately Drontal had to be used for the export requirements when I brought my dogs back to NZ from the UK and I had exactly the same experience as in the past.

[Melinda Auld]

My boy, Fionn, can't tolerate Drontal either. My bitch and Labrador seem okay with it, though. I use Popantel for Fionn, and always give half a dose on one day, and the rest on the next day with a full meal each time.

[Dušan Rauški]

Same here, with Storm. Until about two years old it was no problem, but now as soon as he sees me holding this tablets he stats to salivate enormosly. The very moment he swalows the tablets he starts to drool like crazy and gets diarhea within couple of minutes.
So i thought it was psihological problem and tried to hide it in a piece of meat (unsuccessfully) or even to crush the tablets and pour the powder in capsule - this way he swalows it with no problem but i guess as soon as the capsule is digested he starts to vomit and has huge diarhea. Apsolutely the same effect i have with both Drontal and Cestal. So my guess is that there is something in this tablets that upsets stomack of some dogs.
Unfortunately on our market there is almost no other products for worming except these two.

[Maggie Smith]

Drontal did the same to my girl so I use Panacur. These are chemicals that are designed to kill parasite in a specific way so no surprise that they can be nasty to some dogs . Check out the Bayer web site and a quick Google confirms what the side effects are - also it gives an interesting (if you are into chemistry and biology) description of how the agent works on the parasite! Hope Rio is feeling better