"Shelby"
From: Christine L.
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2009 11:50 AM

Hi, I just read your article online. I have a 10 yr old Shelty. Last year she was prescribed Deramaxx for arthritis. Within 48 hrs she was in ICU after having a horrible reaction which included projectile vomiting, not eating / drinking. They were able to turn her around and she was discharged the next day. They then put her on Tramadol with no problems.

We moved from Ohio to Mo last Fall and I took her into my family's vet when she needed her medication refilled. I told the vet about her reaction to Deramaxx so it was in her chart. He didn't feel Tramadol was the best way to go so he gave her Previcox. I asked if it would have any side affects & how bad the Deramaxx made her sick. He said Previcox shouldn't have the same reaction.  He prescribed 1/2 tablet once a day. She seemed to be doing well until this week. On Monday she started vomiting for a day then it stopped. She then quit eating. She would drink small amts of water & chew on an ice cube occasionally but not enough to keep her hydrated. Then I let her outside to potty before we went to the vet and noticed her urine was a bright orange/red color. There's no diarrhea, fever or jaundice.  

The vet immediately kept her overnight to run tests. I called this morning and got nothing but bad news. I knew it was going to be bad when they told me he was in surgery but wanted to talk to me. I was right.

Her bilirubin was off the charts as was her other test results. They gave her water during the night and she began vomiting again. He said for some reason her liver is in seriously bad shape & she's behaving similar to how a human with severe hepatitis would. They also can't get her to eat.  He's worried about dehydration but he's afraid to put in an IV because her liver is so bad.

He said he's going to attempt antibiotics today; but he's not hopeful at all. I asked if it was the Previcox. He said he has no idea if its that or if she got into something or if it's just simply liver disease.  That makes no sense to me. She's a house dog so other than going out long enough to potty and always supervised, there's nothing she could've gotten into and if it's liver disease, why was the onset so sudden?

Initially he considered keeping Shelby there for the weekend. I told him I would call him in the morning, then I changed my mind and told him I would come in before they close after I go to another appt and he said that would actually be better. That has left me with a horrible feeling. He said between her age and the severity of her liver that the expense alone would be major and most likely futile so I'm reading in between the lines to say that I have a difficult decision to make. 

I just can't believe this is happening. I've tried doing some online research because I have to know if Previcox is the culprit and I'm coming up empty...either that or I'm just too emotional to know where to look. I have to know if it could be the Previcox, because if it is I can't just sweep this under the rug. Yet she's been on it for 4 months so is it even still possible for it to be the culprit? Then I saw your site and it sounded as if you unfortunately have more knowledge with all this so I decided to send you an email to see what your thoughts are. I hope you're able to get to this quickly though as I feel tomorrow is going to be even worse than today. We've had Shelby since she was a pup and I can't believe its come to this. 

Any thoughts, advice...anything...would be most appreciated.  

Sincerely,

Christine