Dogs, Rimadyl, and the liver

[SlowButSteady]

I so sorry that Sara has liver disease. I hope the biopsy will show what is wrong and that it can be managed successfully. The liver has an amazing capacity for healing and regenerating after an insult.

Rimadyl (and generic Novox) is a wonderful drug for an overwhelming majority of patients who take it. It is my opinion that most of the patients with Rimadyl-related disease had pre-exisitent but undetected liver conditions but that some patients just have idiosyncratic "reactions" to it.

Along with other NSAID's (Dermaxx, Previcox, Metacam, etc) it has the potential for GI upset and is used with great caution in pets with compromised livers and/or kidneys. Pre-treatment blood tests to screen for these issues is fairly routine, and pets taking NSAID's should have enzymes checked regularly while taking them.

The bad news is that pre-treatment blood screens will not catch all pre-exisiting conditions all of the time; a patient with a totally cirrhotic liver can sometimes present with normal enzymes.

Many pets that need long term pain & inflammation management are senior dogs with various other health issues. For patients that are not good candidates for NSAID therapy, there are alternatives: glucosamine-chondriotin supplements, Adequan injections and Tramadol can all fit into a treatment plan, as can physical therapy and accupuncture. Tramadol is a wonderful adjunct to NSAID therapy in terribly arthritic patients and it can be my primary pain control in patients that are not candidates for NSAID therapy.

I haven't been involved in the treatment of a patient with liver disease in a long time--but it can be acute and progress rapidly to death with horrible symptoms (vomiting, anorexia, abdomenal pain) or it can be chronic with weight loss and ascites and patients can go along with reasonable levels of comfort for a fairly long time. In the more chronic cases, there are various drugs and diets that can be used to make the patient's life better & longer.

Best of luck and well-wishes to Sara.

PS my 14 year old German shorthair takes Rimadyl. My tech has his same litter sister and she doesn't do well on it but does well on Previcox. In some dogs some drugs work better than others.

[divingbiker]

So sorry to hear your dog is suffering It sounds like you recognized the danger signs and reacted quickly.

I know Rimadyl's got its issues, but as SlowButSteady said, for some pets it's a wonderful drug. I've got a 14.5 year old cocker who wouldn't be alive right now without Rimadyl. Deramaxx stopped working, and he got to the point that he couldn't walk without stronger drugs. He's also operating on one lung (the other is full of some kind of mass, but without surgery they don't know what it is) and has a mass in his liver. Complications from Rimadyl are the least of his worries right now.

So far his appetite is fine, but thanks for the warning...I'll be sure to be on the lookout. Sadly, it's the end of the road for Remy if Rimadyl causes problems.

[LoriO]

I had my Aussie, Harley on Rimadyl for a while but the effects of long term usage on the liver was a huge concern. I know my vet had me bring him back a few times for blood tests to be safe. Harley had early arthritis and other issues from being ran over by a pickup truck before we adopted him.

Thankfully, I found a supplement that seems to really be working for Harley and have been able to take him almost completely off the Rimadyl, I only need it now when he is having a bad day.

For those of you with arthritic dogs, check out Hylasport Canine by Horsetech. http://www.horsetech.com/hylasport-c...roduct%20Pages
I started using Hylasport for my arthritic horse and was very pleased with it. I was talking with the owner of the company at a horse expo a couple of years ago and was telling him about Harley and his issues. He told me he could make a K9 version and sent me a sample to try. It worked great!!!! If you are unsure about wether it will work, give the company a call and talk to them, they will often send a free sample to try out. They are excellent to work with and their customer service is incredible!

[KnottedYet]

We had an arthritic rottie with bone cancer of the spine whose quality of life was better with Rimadyl. Her vet warned us about side effects and monitored her, even though we knew how it was going to end.

It was the right drug at the right time for her, and for that I'm grateful. But we held off on the Rimadyl until other meds no longer helped.

[anakiwa]

Thanks everyone for the kind thoughts.

Sara finally came home yesterday. The vet felt that the biopsy pretty conclusively showed that the Rimadyl caused the trouble (and the good news from that is that Pfizer is paying for all the bills). Her bilirubin peaked at 24 last week, but had come down to 11 yesterday. BF has an medicine chest full of pills, injectable nausea medicines, and fluids to administer subcutaneously. The concerning part is that Sara's weaker and still not eating. So we're hopeful she'll recover from this, but it's going to take a while to know for sure.