Warning About Bio Spot

Every year about this time, Kevin and I always labor over the decision whether to use flea and tick prevention on our animals or not. We have always been wary of using them, but have tried several alternative methods without success. A few years back we had a terrible flea infestation and thought we would never get rid of them. We actually had to tear down our old wooden garage and apartment to eradicate the fleas. Ever since then we have been faced with how to handle flea and tick control. We have never liked using the spot on pesticides as my sister De and her cat had a horror story about them about six or seven years ago. We've tried topical sprays and had the yard sprayed with some success, but still always had fleas. A couple of years ago we relented and started using Frontline, a spot on flea control. Kevin and I both felt like the use of all the insecticides and pesticides were what eventually killed our cat Blackie, but we still used them. Fast forward to Monday of this week. We knew we were going to be gone for most of the day, so we decided we would put the flea treatment on the animals. We gathered up the dogs and applied their Frontline. We were supposed to use more than we did, but like I said, we always have reservations about using it so we applied it very sparingly. Next, it was time to treat the cats. We have always noticed that Simon always tried to get away as if the treatment was burning him, but we didn't really think that it was. Last year for one of our final treatments we bought bought some Bio Spot for cats at Gebo's.  We used it at least once last year without a problem. At least we didn't know of any reaction. Well, not this year. We put it on the cats and again, didn't use the whole packet. Neither cat reacted right away,other than the usual disdain for us messing with them. Much later after we returned home all the animals were happy to be getting back in the house. We gathered them up and brushed off their backs and let them in. I noticed right away that Athena was shedding clumps of hair. I mentioned it to Kevin, but we didn't really investigate further. The next morning when Athena came in for breakfast, I noticed this HUGE, bald, red spot on her back right where we had put the Bio Spot. I immediately freaked out and told Kevin to come quick that the Bio Spot had chemically burned Athena. We promptly called the vet and they said to bathe her. We took her to the laundry room and proceeded to give her a bath. (Note to self: It is advisable to wear chainmaille when bathing cats that have claws.) I told Kevin the only cat shampoo we had was flea prevention and I was NOT going to use that. I then decided if Dawn was good enough for oil covered animals, then it would be good enough for Athena. We got her bathed and left her in the laundry to dry out. I later put some vitamin E on her wound. I then decided to look it up on the Internet to see if in fact it could be a reaction to Bio Spot. Low and behold there were tons of sites ( this one is a compilation of the stories http://www.biospotvictims.org/ ) talking about how bad that stuff is. We really felt so bad that we had caused harm to one of our animals. Then this morning when Athena came in, her wound was even worse. We called our vet and they said to bring her in. We took her in and told him all that we had done, i.e. the Dawn bath, vitamin E oil, and he said we had done the right thing. He then took her out to examine her. He said, " We have had a lot of Bio Spot reactions this year." He then gave her a steroid shot and told us to continue what we were doing. If she is not better in a couple of days to bring her back. I did notice tonight more fur is missing and there is another pink, bald spot. Now we are not sure what we are going to do to try and fight the flea battle, but I know for sure we will NEVER use Bio Spot again.