# strange reaction to Drontal Plus



## EllieJ13 (May 29, 2016)

Hello, I have two miniature dachshunds. They have been wormed with Drontal before but this time one has reacted very strangely. He seems not quite with it, has been scratching and sneezing but most worrying he stares at things (especially patterns on cushions etc) and tries to eat imaginary things from the floor. His appetite is ok but you have to take the bowl to him to show him it's there, which is not like him, he is usually first in the queue. He seems a bit spaced out and not with it, has been going on for a few days now.
Anyone have any ideas ? Ellie


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## SixStar (Dec 8, 2009)

What has the vet said?


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## Blackadder (Aug 25, 2014)

Are you sure this is a reaction to the wormers & not just a coincidence? There is nothing like your dogs symptoms listed in possible Drontal side effects.
A trip to the vet is needed IMO, the little lad needs looking at.


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## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

EllieJ13 said:


> Hello, I have two miniature dachshunds. They have been wormed with Drontal before but this time one has reacted very strangely. He seems not quite with it, has been scratching and sneezing but most worrying he stares at things (especially patterns on cushions etc) and tries to eat imaginary things from the floor. His appetite is ok but you have to take the bowl to him to show him it's there, which is not like him, he is usually first in the queue. He seems a bit spaced out and not with it, has been going on for a few days now.
> Anyone have any ideas ? Ellie


I have had a couple of dogs over the years not do well with Drontal but that used to really be confined to vomiting not that long after taking it and they may not have seemed hungry for a while after maybe due to still feeling sick but that was about it and back to normal quickly, but I haven't had more extreme and long lasting effects like yousr seems to have had.
It could be a coincidence, with dogs often, something occurs health wise and it seems to tie in with something else that's happened and could be put down to certain things and it ends up being totally unrelated to what we thought, I have had similar happen myself, or perhaps there is something in the drontal that has caused an issue unique to him because of something else underlying, if that makes sense.

The sort of things you mention aside from the scratching, reminds me of the sort of confusion and things you see in old dogs due to cognitive dysfunction. Or some of the things he is doing sound a bit like you get in a form of seizure that only effects part of the brain connected to things like behaviour, and you do sometimes see things like snapping at imaginary flies or that's how its often described. I know that certain things like drugs and plants and even things like certain essential oils can be triggers for seizures so certain things in a susceptible animal or human even can act as triggers, which may explain why this has happened after giving the drontal and only to him, unless of course as mentioned it is just a co-incidence.

I know Dachshunds can have various spinal and vertebrae issues, sometimes certain types can cause neurological implications too, and things like epilepsy is known in I think the longhaired. There is also something known as Laforas
which I think is mostly seen in the Wire haired Minature and that causes neurological problems too in some dogs, like the things you have described.

He does though by the sounds of it need to see a vet, as he clearly isn't right, and it seems to have been continuing and not letting up at all.


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## Magyarmum (Apr 27, 2015)

There is a condition called Flycatchers, Star Gazing or Gazer's Syndrome which affects small breeds and has symptoms very similar to what you're describing with your dog. It's quite rare and difficult to diagnose as the causes are uncertain. A Mini Schnauzer belonging to a friend developed it a couple of years ago which how I came to hear of it.


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## smokeybear (Oct 19, 2011)

EllieJ13 said:


> Hello, I have two miniature dachshunds. They have been wormed with Drontal before but this time one has reacted very strangely. He seems not quite with it, has been scratching and sneezing but most worrying he stares at things (especially patterns on cushions etc) and tries to eat imaginary things from the floor. His appetite is ok but you have to take the bowl to him to show him it's there, which is not like him, he is usually first in the queue. He seems a bit spaced out and not with it, has been going on for a few days now.
> Anyone have any ideas ? Ellie


Correlation does not equal causation. 

Be extremely careful you are not adding 2 + 2 and making 5!

I would consult my vet if I observed a behavioural change in my dogs such as you describe.


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## EllieJ13 (May 29, 2016)

Thank you all for your replies. I was hoping that these effects would go in a couple of days but if he is no better by Tuesday I will take him to the vet. I had a greyhound that had somewhat similar symptoms but only at night as if he was sleep walking. They appeared a day after he had annual inoculations so I am a little wary of medications being trigger factors (although I do take the point about correlation)
I will let you know how we get on.


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## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

Hope you find out whats going on and get it sorted quickly.


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## Yorkiemorkiemum22 (Dec 12, 2015)

Definitely take him to your vet ASAP! Not saying it's the same but since Denzil had meningitis if he is near a dog that has had Advacate flea and worming treatment he goes like that and staggers about very worrying. I checked it out with the vet at the animal hospital and Denzil is sensitive to it and as it kills parasites via the spinal chord and nervous system it makes sense. You are leaving a gap of one to two weeks between worming and flea treatment? As you are talking about worming treatments not flea treatments I now Denzils case is different but these chemicals can cause sensitivity but please check with your vet. Immunisation can cause similar issues.


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## SixStar (Dec 8, 2009)

Your dog needs to go to the vet. Two days ago would have been ideal, but since you didn't, then certainly NOW!

Do not wait until Tuesday, your dog is displaying horribly worrying and potentially very serious symptoms.


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## SusieRainbow (Jan 21, 2013)

Yes, agreed, these little dogs can go down hill so quickly.
What coat are they, wire,smooth or long ?


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## Yorkiemorkiemum22 (Dec 12, 2015)

Yes believe me they do! My 12 year old Yorkie was diagnosed with Cancer last Monday at 2pm. He was discharged at 4.10 and I took him to the emergency vet at 10.30 pm because I wasn't happy with him and he died in my arms at 10.55!
NEVER leave a dog untreated when they are ill! I would sell my soul for my boys. When my other boy was ill my daughter and son lent us money to pay the bill until I got it back from the insurance and you need to get insured too. It's cheap with certain insurers I only paid £20 a month for my 12 year old and they insured him first time when he was 8 years old and I have life policies. Some vets will let you pay them back so much at a time. My husband is retired but I get sickness benefit whilst I'm off having treatment for my tumour so I wouldn't be without it.
As I said the PDSA are very good too. Please get your little baby seen by a vet? My mother used to say that ' if you would take your child to the doctor with those symptoms why won't you take your dog?'


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## SusieRainbow (Jan 21, 2013)

Have you been to the vet ? What did they say ?


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## Judy Weintraub (Mar 11, 2019)

EllieJ13 said:


> Hello, I have two miniature dachshunds. They have been wormed with Drontal before but this time one has reacted very strangely. He seems not quite with it, has been scratching and sneezing but most worrying he stares at things (especially patterns on cushions etc) and tries to eat imaginary things from the floor. His appetite is ok but you have to take the bowl to him to show him it's there, which is not like him, he is usually first in the queue. He seems a bit spaced out and not with it, has been going on for a few days now.
> Anyone have any ideas ? Ellie


Hello, this is an old conversation now, almost 3 years ago, but i googled neurological reactions to dontral plus and this was the only link i found. i first tried looking at the mechanisms of action of the medication but the link i was at was not detailed enough.

I'm writing about something that happened a long time ago, in early 2006. i'm just writing to add my voice and my experience to this lone conversation. When i first got my dog, a cavalier king charles spaniel named Zack, he was 4 months old and he had bloody diarrhea which got worse despite treatment with Flagyl, and then included vomiting throughout the day and after eating, and also he vomited in his sleep, he would be sleeping and i'd see him starting to vomit, and it woke him up and he'd climb down off the couch he was sleeping on to the floor where he could vomit most easily. He vomited in the car on the way to the ER at midnight, he vomited on the exam table. this was going on for weeks and worsening, he was the first dog i'd had in 28 years, i wasn't experienced. i went through 5 vets before i found one who wrote a prescription for Dental Plus and said "I'd hate to miss that diagnosis." The instructions were to give him one tablet and then a week later to give him another tablet.

After the first dose, all his symptoms were totally gone like they never happened. But after i gave him that pill, around 4pm, not anticipating any problem, expecting a normal night ahead, after not very long, Zack started getting hyper---like not in a normal excited puppy way but continuously hyper to the point of trying to climb up the walls, and climb on me, not to be held or petted but just this compulsion to try to climb up things, and so hyper, wild, i never saw him that way before or since. i've never seen any other dog that way. It got increasingly intense as time went on. I didn't know that there was anything wrong with him, at first i thought it was normal behavior, but as time went on, it was clear that he was reacting to the medication, apparently, since the symptoms started less than an hour after he took it. it was a very difficult night for me, i had work the next day, i had missed a huge amount of work in previous weeks because of his vomiting and bloody diarrhea and this created serious problems at work.

Then around 4am, he calmed down. i noticed that it was 12 hours since he first took the medication. I guessed that this was a known if uncommon side effect of the medication. I went to sleep, i called in sick to work. i called Zack's vet and told her. She said to call the drug company that makes the medication. She said probably they would tell me to cut the medication in half before giving him the second dose. i called them to report what happened and she was right, they said to cut the dose in half. Honestly, i don't like the one size fits all dosing of a lot of medications and vaccinations. i don't think human children are treated that way. I was happy to tell his vet that i hadn't seen a vomiting or diarrhea incident since he had the medication. The end of that ordeal was a huge relief and i was a permanent loyal patient-owner of that vet who cured his gastro condition, correctly diagnosing it after four others had failed, one suggesting exploratory surgery, another suggesting barium studies.

But the reaction Zack had to the medication scared me enough that my maternal instinct would not allow me to give him the second dose. Since that dose was apparently way too big for him, i think it's as if he had two doses the first night so he didn't need a second, those worms were annihilated.

I just wanted to include this experience in a conversation about neurological reactions to Dontral Plus. No one, not his vet or the drug company questioned that he could have had this reaction. it may be an uncommon one but it made him very abnormal. thank god he was back to normal when it wore off and never showed that or any other neurological symptom again, and also no more worm symptoms, those worms met their maker, including their eggs and any related debris.


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## Woah (Dec 24, 2018)

Interesting what is written in reply above by Judy.
My dog reacted terribly to Drontal Plus, vomiting and a few days of diarrhoea to follow. But as well as that he went hyper for a day after the dose and my husband and I did wonder whether caused by the wormer as was out of character for him. However nothing listed on side effects.
I now worm him with a different brand.


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## niamh123 (Nov 4, 2018)

Wormed Sally and Floyd with Drontal plus 2 weeks ago Floyd whas hyper for about 18 hours but poor Sally had awful diarreah for about 3 days and was sick twice,never thought it was the wormer until I have read this,I thought Floyd was being a typical JRT and thought Sal had eaten something nasty on our morning run,I will not be using Drontel after reading this


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