Healthy Pets – Best Dog Food -Pet Information

Please read my warning
November 15th 2005 3:38 pm

My 4 goldens were on monthly heartworm preventive pills. But I was told
all about Proheart6 six month injectable and that it was “perfectly safe”
and I decided to switch my dogs over to it one at a time. Hunter was first.
KayCee got her her first injection Aug. 1, 2003, Hunter his 3rd on Aug. 28,
and Honey her 2ed on oct. 1. This is the story from there.

I noticed Hunters’ pale gums on Oct 9, 2003 & got him to the vet that
day. Diagnosis after tests was autoimmune hemolytic anemia. He was put in
ICU on constant IV of vitamins & other drugs, heavy doses of prednisone.
I visited him later that day & my vet and I went over everything in the
previous 2 months and the ProHeart6 injection was the only thing different.
He said when it came time for the next one, we were going back to the pills.

I visited Hunter 3 times on Fri and 3 on sat, taking boiled chicken each time.
His neck had been shaved to draw blood twice a day, both frontlegs shaved
for IV. Being closed on Sun it was arranged for me to come in at 8 AM and
6 PM to visit. I went at 8, then in the middle of afternoon got a call that
Hunter had had to have a transfusion, his HCT had dropped to 9.7 (he should
have been dead when it went below 11) and they were thinking of removing his
enlarged spleen. I could come right in.

When I got there, just 10 minutes later, my vet had changed his mind. X-rays
and ultrasound indicated Hunter had cancer of liver and spleen. Next day the
other two vets ran ultrasound and looked at x-rays and agreed, cancer.

I visited Hunter 3 times on mon, tues, and wed. By wed we knew the first line
of drugs was not working, so he gave Hunter the cyclosporine, which is the
next step, and ordered more from drug store in next town. I was to pick it
up. I didn’t go see Hunter Thur aAM as i was waiting on call from pharmacy.
It came at noon and I went and got it and went right to hospital.

Hunter looked bad. His eyes were sunken and his belly so bloated you could
not see his privates. It was noted on his chart he had been throwing up, which
was not unexpected with the new drug. For the first time he refused his boiled
chicken.

I went back at 5:45 and my heart sank. That golden boy could not be my Hunter.
This dog sat there with head bobbing up and down, eyes twitching unable to
focus, any movement all jerky. I opened the door and sat there inside the
door of the large cage and I brushed him and told him how bueatiful he was,
how wonderful, how good, how much I loved him. He pressed his head to my chest
and that steadied him some. When I felt my voice was going to break, I hushed
and just hugged & kissed & brushed him. I knew in my heart he would
be gone by morning. They close at 7:00, but the receptionists said they would
stay til i was ready to leave. Three times I went to the front, but had to
go back and tell my “Petey” how much I loved him. I left at 7:15. At 9:02
i got the call. Hunter had gone into seizures and died at 8:40. This was Oct.
16, 2003 Continue Here

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/oln_october_04_proheart6_unava.html

Between June 2001 when it was released and August 4th, 2004 the FDA received
a total of 5,552 reaction reports, an unusually large amount but hard to interpret
in light of the long activity of the product. The FDA’s mission is to protect
the public and these reports cannot be ignored. What do these reports mean
and how many are really drug reactions? The FDA has called for an independent
research group to sort these reports out and until they are finished Proheart6
will be unavailable for use.

Because cancer was detected and we have his littermate
sister, we decided to have a necropsy done. My vet saw cancer in the liver
and spleen. But guess what, when the histopath came back from state lab, NO
CANCER. Just severe damage. I was to learn that liver damage was pretty common
reaction to Proheart6, and so was AIHA. The number of reactions and deaths
concerned the FDA enough they “requested” it be pulled from the market and
it was on Sept. 3, 2004.

As I tried to find info on Proheart6, i started finding people telling their
stories on the web. As we started finding each other a group was more or less
formed and it has grown. One in Colorado took all 3 of hers in at the same
time. In two months 2 were dead–one of liver disease, one of AIHA like Hunter,
and the 3rd is on meds the rest of his life. Several lost 2 dogs, many had
one die, one sick. One lady who almost lost her dog set up a site where information
could be found. There are also several stories and pictures of dogs that died
or almost died. It is found at www.dogsadversereactions.com under the Moxidectin
Section.

The company is trying to bring it back out. They tried in Jan and the FDA
said not yet, to many questions, not enough testing, etc. But they are still
trying. My Hunter and over 600 more are dead because of it, thousands will
be on meds the rest of their life because of it. My Hunter was the the most
caring, gentle soul and it it were possible, he would be writing this warning
himself to try to save other moms and dads the grief we went thru, and to
try to save as many dogs as he could.

He was so popular while in ICU that one day while i was there an off duty
tech came in to check on him. Another time an off duty doctor called to check.
I heard over and over that he was the best patient they had ever had, he never
refused to go back in his cage after blood work or being taken outside. he
never barked or howled, just sat and watched the techs and vets go about their
care of other animals, he never tried to refuse his pills, etc. They all loved
him.

They all agreed that he tried so hard to live and they think it was because
of his love for me. He was my heart dog, my soul mate of dogs and we had a
bond that everyone that saw us together commented on. he might could have
overcome one of them, but not both AIHA and live damage.

I love and miss you so much my “Petey” boy.