Mel, I teared up in reading about your dog Rowdy's death (apparently from Previcox).   Your story reads a great deal like a neighbor of ours who's vet prescribed Rimadyl and her dog took a nose dive to death and  appeared to be having terrific pain in the lower abdominal area prior to dying.   I was so mad at that drug for killing that dog that, like you, I wanted to choke someone.

But since, I have taken the following stand which I think to be more accurate HOWEVER, it does not address the exposure of giving ANY of these particular drugs to our pets.  I have come to believe that it is impossible to know for certain just what reaction our pets MAY have from being prescribed ANY drugs.  

I think that Rimadyl is very dangerous to a pet which may have other underlying health problems for which we or the vet may not be aware.  The vets or drug company's seem to want to point the cause to liver or kidney problems but quite frankly I don't think that they know.

Our dog, Bogey, is a mix breed which I "saved" from a golf course where someone had dumped him at an early age.  He appears to be Australian shepard/chow mix and about two years ago at the age of 9 he was showing signs of arthritis in his back left leg and he was limping quite badly.  

Then, one summer eve he apparently got bit on the right hind leg by a copperhead snake and his whole leg became swollen .  His paw looked like it could have been something from the macy's day parade.

The vet prescribed Previcox and a medication for infection and within a few days the swelling had gone down and the half inch flesh "rot" spot on his leg healed up.

About four of five days after I had quit giving him ANY medication he started to limp on his left leg again (up until then I had been so concerned about the snake bite that I had totally missed the fact that he had quit limping while taking the pills)

I then did a little research on the pills and discovered that Previcox was being prescribed by some vets for dogs who had arthritis so I called the vet and asked if he thought it would be alright if I keep Bogey on a half dose of this previcox.   He Ok'd this and I have had him on this "half pill" for some time now and it has helped him tremendously with the arthritic problem.

But the reason that I am writing this is twofold.  ONE, to let you know that this drug, if tolerable by the pet, can be quite helpful in letting them continue to take their daily walks past the time that they "normally" would not be capable of this.  Ane TWO, I do not believe for a moment that Previcox would have been out of Rowdy's system in eight hours after he quit taking the med.  Bogey went at least four days before he started to feel the pain and started to limp again.  so based on that I would have to conclude that the effects of the drug stays in the dogs system for many days.

After all this, I suspect you and I are close to being on the same page as to how we should "approach" giving ANY drugs to our pets.  That being, that we should only feed a pill to a pet if absolutely necessary and even then we should keep a close eye on the pet during the time that any drug is being administered.

I would not hold my breath in expecting any great "clarity" about a drug from the drug company's.  I have always felt that they SHOULD list high probability reactions separate from other "potential" reactions but they continue to list every thing as if they all are equally likely.  This is nothing more than a cover their a.. approach on their part and show NO consideration for the taker of that drug.

In the case of Bogey and the snake bite, there simply was no choice but to accept meds for that problem.  I was concerned that the bite might kill him.  We lucked out and, in fact, ended up helping him "fix" his limp problem to boot but still......I really do not like giving him meds of any sort. (nor do I like taking meds myself)

Part of all this "problem" is our own fault.  We try to play mother nature and quite often end up screwing things up.

A dog, left in the wild, cannot check into a vet office for a cut on the paw or a strain from a fall, nor even from a snake bite.  They have a"built in" doctor which tells them how they need to handle such things on their own.  In the case of our dogs, sometimes all they need from us is food, and a place to "recover" which is free from predators.

Don't beat yourself up on giving Rowdy, the Previcox. There was no way of knowing he would have that reaction.

The problem is......this problem is just laying out there waiting to happen again and neither the drug company nor the vets are any closer to knowing which pets MAY experience this same thing.

Sincerely,

Richard H.  (TX)