With over 500 comments and tens of thousands of unique visitors, my article about topical flea and tick treatment SentryPro XFC and my dogs’ allergic reaction is unfortunately one of the most popular posts on Gibberish. If you Google for SentryPro you’ll get this site as a top result. It’s horrible to log into Gibberish and read everyone’s experiences. I have read all of these, and it is not the kind of popularity I was hoping for.

Mike P lost his dog after it had an allergic reaction to SentryPro. Glenda, another reader, also lost her dog.

Because the overall “damages” have been small, no class-action lawyer has volunteered to take on the case. In the meantime, Gibberish readers have tried to support each other and give advice. While no advice on a message board will take the place of a licensed veterinarian or pet health practitioner, it does give me some solace to know that scared people find this page first if they have a problem. I was terrified when Porter and Rosie had their reaction, and there was no Web page to go to.

Mike P has put up a petition urging Sergeant’s to pull the SentryPro XFC product from store shelves. The intent is to get as many people as possible to sign the petition, and then Mike P will send the results to Sergeant’s via certified mail.

Even if your pets have not suffered from a SentryPro XFC dosage, please sign the petition. There is no requirement to register other than your name, email address, and zip code. Please spread the word about this petition to anyone you know who may be interested.

Maybe Sergeant’s will do the right thing.

In the meantime, we’ll go back to helping each other when our pets need us the most.

I wrote a post about Sergeant’s SentryPro XFC topical flea and tick product almost a year and a half ago. The treatment threw Porter and Rosie into an allergic reaction that consisted of trembling, panting, scratching, and “air licking.” I made the post because I was upset. I was upset at Sergeant’s for putting the product out. I followed the directions and BOTH of my dogs has an adverse reaction. I was also upset at myself for not using my usual Frontline (which I’ve never had a problem with before or since the SentryPro incident).

So, I made the post in May of 2007. I had no idea that thousands of people would read the post, hundreds would comment, dozens would email me personally, and the post would be the number one Google search result for “SentryPro XFC.” I got mentioned on The Consumerist. Some of my readers started a class action lawsuit.

It took all of that an sixteen months, but Sergeant’s finally responded.

People who have posted a comment in the past are automatically emailed when someone makes a new comment, so hundreds of people got an email tonight with Sergeant’s reply. A few people have already started to reply …. I have a feeling this isn’t over by a long shot.