Be Very Clear on What Bravecto Does
Sure, you don’t want fleas and ticks attacking your pets. I get it. They are the definition of “pest!”
Not only bothersome, they can carry disease and cause anemia.
And this new drug called Bravecto sure sounds like a slick fix to keep these buggers off your Sadie.
But, let’s get real for a moment. Amid all the glorious Bravecto ads proclaiming flea “prevention” and “control,” you’ll also find the word “kill.”
You just have to dig a bit, and there it is.
*Bravecto kills fleas and prevents flea infestations. Bravecto Chew kills ticks (black-legged tick, American dog tick, and brown dog tick) for 12 weeks and also kills lone star ticks for 8 weeks. Bravecto Topical for Cats kills ticks (black-legged tick) for 12 weeks and American dog ticks for 8 weeks.”
In fact, the rapidity with which this drug kills fleas is one of its top selling points. The killing starts within two hours of your dog eating the chewable!
Now I can’t, in my heart of hearts call this a “preventative,” can you? It’s a killer of pests, in this case, fleas and ticks.
So, let’s use this word instead, shall we: Pesticide.
And let’s be blunt, while we’re at it: Pesticides are poisons.
How Does This Work, Exactly?
It’s the delivery system that should give you pause. In case it’s not apparent in the slick ads, let’s again be very simple about this, fair enough?
If you feed your dog a pesticide, and it kills fleas and ticks, what’s the vehicle for the pesticide to get to the pest?
Your pet’s blood stream!
Does that cause you any concern at all? It was like a cold slap to the face when I first saw Merck’s ads for this.
And, get this, it stays in your pet’s blood, at lethal levels to fleas and ticks, for 12 weeks!
If that’s not at all scary to you, you probably can skip the rest of this article. In my mind, bells and whistles went off reading about how fast it starts poisoning fleas and how long it persists at killing concentrations.
In your pet’s blood stream.
The Undying Hope of Toxic Drugs
All the killing drugs you’re sold by Big Pharma, whether it’s pesticides for your pet, antibiotics for infections, Monsanto’s RoundUp for weeds, or chemo for that darned tumor that popped up, have the same simplistic hope:
We’ll only kill the bad guys. We’ll leave the good guys alone. Promise.”
Good guys here means beneficial flora, crops we desire to sell or eat, or our own cells vs the wildly reproducing cancerous ones.
If only that were the case.
We now know that even one dose of antibiotics can create life long gut flora disruption, aka dysbiosis. And that affects digestion, immunity, and even behavior, all for ill.
We also know we’ve been fed a bushel of lies on how safe RoundUp is supposed to be. It’s residues are following many GMO foods right into your body and causing similar dybiosis and its attendant negative effects.
Ask anyone who’s had chemo how long they felt terrible, and if they were lucky enough to beat the tumors, if they ever recovered from “chemo brain.”
And so it is with Bravecto. It’s targeting insects and ticks, and mammals are supposedly built differently enough that they’ll escape the toxic effects of its active ingredient, fluralaner.
This pesticide, like most of the flea killers and the heartworm larvae killers I teach about in my ebook/audiobook on drug free heartworm prevention is a neurotoxin.
Insects and ticks and yes, even heartworm larvae under the influence of these neurotoxins go into spasm and stay that way until they die of asphyxiation.
And the undying hope continues to falter along.
“Only the bad guys…”
So, How’s That Hope Working Out?
I’m glad you asked. As you might guess, we’re seeing horror stories popping up:
- In Facebook pages dedicated to telling the reality of people and pets’ experience:
Does Nexgard Kill Dogs? (Nexgard and Bravecto, same class of pesticides)
- and in my own inbox:
Hi My dog is sick since receiving Bravecto. Diagnosed w kidney disease and pancreatitis. He Is not throwing up anymore but he won’t eat.I will never again give him or my other 2 dogs and cats pesticides.” – Anita Clark “I live in country rural Queensland Australia and we had a shocker of a tick season starting early….so I weakened as they all (Pomerians) have huge big fluffy coats and made the worst decision in my entire life as a companion owner.The clincher here for me is that TWO had the Bravecto BUT the baby (7 months) was under weight (1.9kgs) to give it to her (even though vet said it would be fine), so I held off for two weeks until her weight was in the correct range…. During the said two weeks the two older girls were a little “off” so to speak…baby was normal and healthy…. However, within a day or so of administering to the baby all three hit the tiles….vomiting blood, repulsive stools ….bleeding from the rectum….a lesion developed on the babies bottom lip and eye lid…Middle girl developed a lump on her tummy region….all three grazing grass profusely. All whites of eyes were going a brownish colouring….gums were blackening beautiful white teeth were yellowing…” – Lillian Oxley, Queensland, NSW, Australia
Common Side Effects
Merck sells the Bravecto but only by prescription.
[Side note: “Be brave! Trust us on this blood borne pesticide against fleas!” Is that where the “Brav” piece comes in, do you suppose? Gotta love drug names…]
They list common side effects, mostly corroborated by those who’ve filed Adverse Drug Event reports. Here’s a third quarter 2016 ADE Report, summarized by Dr. Elizabeth Carney. [ Note: this report covers three similar pesticides, Bravecto, Nexgard, and Simparica, all in the same class]
For this time period, there were 1,875 reports, including 1,867 for dog, 4 for cat, and 4 for human (accidental) exposure. The top 6 reported clinical signs are: - Vomiting and Emesis 787 reports - Lethargy 244 reports - Diarrhea/Loose Stool/bloody diarrhea 214 reports - Lack of efficacy (ectoparasites) 181 reports - Anorexia/decreased appetite/not eating/inappetance 207 reports - Seizure 62 reports Deaths reported total 38 (death by euthanasia + found dead + sudden death).
You now know these pesticides are neurotoxins, so the reports of seizures won’t be a big surprise to you.
And, as you likely know, the number of reported adverse drug effects is a tiny percentage of those that actually occur.
In case you’ve come late to this page, and your dogs are already intoxicated by this drug, here’s my Homeopathic Detox Protocol that you can download and get started today. Full instructions included on what I’d be doing if your dog was my patient.
Better, Safer Options
One of my most popular pages spells out some simple yet effective methods for controlling fleas (and ticks) without the use of pesticides.
None of these will contaminate your pet’s blood, and none of them will kill fleas in two hours after oral ingestion, but now that you know the risks of these drugs, that’s probably no longer top of mind for you.
Here’s that page for you, which, depending on where you live, you may want to bookmark for Spring: Non-Toxic Flea (and Tick) Control.
Let us know in the comments if you’ve experienced Bravecto (or Nexgard, or Simparica, all related pesticides).
Good results and bad, we’re all ears.
