photo: ian.m.phillips
Today, I read a blog post by Ashley of Reinventing Modern Mommyhood and learned about a vaccination named ProHeart 6. Ashley’s family recently lost a dog due to this drug and her story is heart breaking and informative. I appreciate her taking the time to educate other dog lovers about the dangers of ProHeart 6.
Here is an excerpt from Ashley’s post…
We googled the shot he had received a few weeks earlier, ProHeart 6. The drug was orignally made by a division of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, but is now distributed by Pfizer, a huge drug campany. Their own website lists side effects of the drug as lethargy, loss of appetite, vomiting, and death. (Source: Pfizer) Jack had exhibited exactly all of those symptoms… in that order.
After doing further research, we also discovered that the drug was pulled off the market in 2004 for a high rate of adverse reactions to the drug. “According to an informed veterinarian, ‘Proheart caused more deaths in one year than all of the oral heartworm preventives combined did in ten years. When the FDA notified Pfizer that their drug was causing a problem, the manufacturer claimed it was due to the vaccines’ being given at the same time. The FDA looked at the data again and told them the dogs involved had been getting their vaccinations all along and the only difference was the Proheart. That’s when the FDA informed the company of their intent to pull it and the company then voluntarily took it off the market.” (Source: The Senior Dogs Project)
Pfizer was only allowed to re-market the drug after it agreed to add additional warning labels to the packaging requiring that the drug not be administered with any other vaccines. Pfizer also added that consumers must be given a fact sheet on the side effects and be made to sign an “informed consent” document Pfizer went even further as to mandate web-based training for veterinarians who gave the drug, and issued several “Dear Doctor” letters to all veterinarians regarding the adverse effects of the drug. (Read one of the “Dear Doctor” letters here.)
Read more of Dog Owners Beware…
April 13, 2013 at 2:59 pm
“In memory of “Sam”
We lost our 9 year old healthy golden retriever to the Proheart 6 shot back in 2005. He received the shot just weeks before Fort Dodge had taken the drug off the market. I was shocked when I heard that it was back on the market. Our golden had received the shot more than one time. The first time he had a minor reaction of vomiting, but, we had not attributed that to the shot. We merely thought he had eaten something that hadn’t agreed with him. When it was time for the second shot (6 months later) it was a different story. Briefly, our story started out much like yours. Fort Dodge agreed to pay all the vet bills for our “Sam” at Tufts Vet Hospital in MA if we would agree to a neocropsy of “Sam” if he died. Of course we agreed never believing that could be the end result. They had to treat him with steroids to get him to begin to eat and gain a little weight back and to assist in normalizing his blood cell count. It appears the Proheart 6 shot had caused an auto immune response. The suffering the Proheart 6 shot caused our healthy dog was unspeakable. We had hoped that if we could keep him alive and eating that 6 months later the shot would wear off and he would be ok. That is not what happened. The steroids that were keeping him eating and alive eventually (after 5 1/2 months) caused some kidney weakness and he suffered clotting of his blood. A blood clot travelled to his lung and we were forced to put him to “sleep”. We agreed to have the neocropsy in the hopes that we would never see this Proheart 6 shot on the market again. The neocropsy was completed by Tufts Vet Hospital and conclusive that “Sam” had in fact died from side effects/reactions caused by the Proheart 6 shot. I hope that out story reaches many caring pet owners that are not aware of the side effects of the Proheart 6 shot, as I would never wish to see anyone go through what our “Sam” had to go through and the suffering that Proheart 6 caused him and our family.
April 13, 2013 at 4:36 pm
Thank you so much for sharing your story. I saw this morning that there’s another heart worm recall. When I read the story this woman shared, I was so thankful that we don’t have to worry about heart worm in our area of the country. It breaks my heart that these companies can be so cavalier with the health of our dogs!
Kimberly
Twitter: thefurmom