Rag Files Of A Fashion Diva

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Rimadyl

Distance Run: 4 Miles
Other Exercise: 20 Push ups, 100 Crunches, and 20 Leg lifts

Well, because Blogger decided to be a hungry little bastard whore by eating the second part of my post last night, I figured I would do a rewrite tonight. I think I am going to look into the MSN version of Blogger. I'm kinda fed up with it and Google so if I like it, I might just move my shit over there even though I'm not keen on "pimping" Microsoft products.

Anyway, on to the topic of the night - Rimadyl.

For those of you who don't know, this is a anti-inflammatory medication Pfizer introduced back in 1997 mainly to treat arthritis in older dogs. The other night I was watching the local news and they had a report about this drug. According to this woman they talked to, she had a perfectly healthy dog who had been put on this medication. A year later, the dog was dead. The vets up at the ISU veterinary hospital told her that her dog's death was caused by toxicity from the Rimadyl

When the story first started, I didn't think too much of it other than it was really sad that the woman's dog died and having experienced unexpected sickness and death of a pet more than I ever expected to, I could feel her pain. As the report went on, however, I got to thinking that the name of the drug sounded kinda familiar. It then dawned on me that it was something that was prescribed to one of my dogs (Sophie). I then went into the other room and asked Ant if he could remember if that was what it was and he confirmed it. Once I had a look at the website they gave out that listed the symptoms of toxicity, I knew it had to be it because my puppy experience nearly all if not every single last one of them right before she died.

In 1999, Sophie (or Soapy as I called her because she loved to splash around in the bath) wasn't quite a year old and she had developed eye ulcers. The local vet I took her too had tried a couple of different treatments (both including Rimadyl) which proved unsuccessful so they referred Sophie to the ISU teaching hospital's opthamologist. They started her on some meds - I can't remember all of them but one of them was Prednisone (a drug that should never be mixed with or given right before/after Rimadyl without a waiting period). For awhile, she seemed to be doing better but the ulcers just wouldn't clear up. Over the next couple of months she really started slipping away. She went through times of drinking non stop to not wanting to eat or drink at all and her kidneys going into failure along with a long list of other problems. At one point, she appeared to get better and I was able to bring her home from the hospital but a week later, I had to rush her back up there because she started getting spots all over her that looked like bruises and just touching them would make them ooze blood. I couldn't believe what was going on and what was even more frustrating was that none of the doctors seemed to have a clue either. Unfortunately, it wasn't long after this that she went into cardiac arrest. The doctors did CPR on her for a few minutes but it didn't do any good. They had called me at work to tell me what was going on and it was at that point I knew it was time to let go so I told them to stop.

I asked the hospital to do a necrospy on her if for no other reason so the doctors could better learn what to do in the future should there be another dog that presents with the same problems. When the results came back, I found out that she had ulcers all over the inside of her body but the doctors were still no closer to an explanation as to what happened. After months of driving back and forth to Ames and $4000 only to have my little baby die in the end, I was completely dumbfounded and numb.

Not too long after "Soapy" died, I got a call from one of the doctors at ISU and was told that Pfizer had offered to put $700 towards my bill because I had used their drugs (Clavamox was one of the ones ISU used and Pfizer also makes that one) and it was ineffective. I thought this was a little strange and me being the cynic I can be from time to time had to wonder if they were trying to cover something up. All the while Sophie was sick and going "up and down" I couldn't help but wonder if maybe I should take her off all the meds, however, I'm not a doctor and I wanted her to get well so badly I didn't want to chance it. I think I probably asked the doctors three or more times if there was any chance that the meds could be contributing to her problems and they assured me they weren't. I had been doing research on the web all the time but I couldn't find anything that would really contradict them so I went ahead with her treatment.

After seeing this news report, it kind of put all the pieces into place and basically told me what I always thought - "Mommy knows best". I now am 99.99% sure that it was the Rimadyl that killed Sophie and the $700 was to "keep me quiet". I can't even begin to say how completely pissed off I am. Here you have a huge drug company putting a potentially lethal drug out there which I can only imagine that at least some of the side effects had to have been known at the time Sophie was taking it and I'm being told that it couldn't possibly be making my precious little puppy who was barely a year old sick. What's more, they don't want a hassle so they give me $700 toward a $4000 vet bill and make it look like they are noble. I am angered to no end thinking that they actually thought money could take the place of my baby. They could have paid me a million dollars and it wouldn't have changed anything. All I wanted was a healthy puppy.

It is because of my experience that I want to give anyone who is a dog owner a warning about this drug. Please please please whatever you do, avoid this drug at all cost. Should there be any reason you do have to give it to your dog, make sure you watch for any signs of toxicity and stop administering it ASAP if any of them become apparent. I would hate for you to have to experience the death of your dog from something so senseless.

For those of you wanting more information, please have a look at this website:

http://www.srdogs.com/Pages/rimadylfr.html

Til next time.....

This post was made in loving memory of Sophia "Soapy" Malteser. See you at Rainbow Bridge little one.

Knocked Off By The Fashion Diva
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