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| Golly Gurl lived a terrific, well-loved, and fully actualized life. |
A friend just lost a very good dog, Golly Gurl, the love of his life, to the flea and tick medication Trifexis. Back in 2014, I wrote of the alarmingly high deaths and adverse reactions from this particular flea and tick preventative:
A huge chunk of veterinary pharmacology is dedicated to getting you to NOT use cheap, over-the-counter flea, tick and heart worm treatments like simple pyrethrin-based shampoos (pyrethrin is so safe it is FDA-approved for food plants) and low-cost ivermectin.
To be clear, I am OK with folks using whatever they want, but I always advise caution with newer branded medications, whether for humans or for dogs. Cox-2 drugs like Vioxx have not proven more effective than Cox-1 drugs like aspirin, but they did leave over 20,000 Americans dead. Whoops!
The latest heads up in the world of dogs is Trifexis, a two-year old flea and heart worm preventative that is already linked to 7,000 dog deaths and an estimated 30,000 illnesses. Do these numbers mean Trifexis is the culprit, or that Trifexis is going to harm your dog? No. Remember that all animals present with a wide variety of reactions to everything, and as a consequence honey bees kill more people in this country than terrorists. That said, is Trifexis a medication I would stay away from for now? It is.
Please spread the word that Trifexis is VERY BAD NEWS.
I am sorry for your friend's loss to this insidious threat of dangerous meds.
ReplyDeleteI recently lost my 18 year old Jack Russell Terrier, Abbott the Wonder Dog to Cancer. He was my snake killer, my personal defender and staunch Velcro dog. But he'd had a good long life in spite of his enthusiasm for killing dangerous snakes.
But, we nearly didn't make it that far. When he was 14 years old I changed vets because our previous vet had passed and his replacement put Abbott in a seizure from stress and over inoculation. This after I advised them not to give anything but the state required rabies vaccine. That of course is another issue.
The new vet was good but she had a younger vet who worked with her. She came out with a spiel about this wonderous new wormer. As she went off to gather the wonder drug I sat down and read the flyer she had handed me. In plain, large print it stated the Trifexis was not recommended for older dogs or dogs who where prone to seizures. Abbott was both. So I called the older vet, pointed this out and the young lady was dismissed and I was apologized to by Primary Vet.
So, two lessons learned. Always read the information (I wonder how many people do.) and be an advocate for your dog. I don't know what would have happened but I didn't want to take the chance. Later, I did change to another vet clinic when this same office docked some pups tails like a Rat Terrier when I had requested the longer JRT tails. That was the last they saw of me but, though it was not terminal, its a sad reminder I see every day on the pup I kept.
I changed to another vet who actually has Jacks and is not afraid to pick them up with confidence, asked who screwed up the boy's tail and is much more holistic in her treatment.
So the moral to my story is some are untrained even with a degree. Some don't listen to you as the owner and ultimate responsible human, and some are in it for the money.
If you find a good one stick with them, but don't be afraid to walk out the door.
And yes, Trifexis kills but vets do too.