Please be advised:
We have recently lost our 8 year old German Shepherd, Harry and are absolutely devastated.  Up until January of this year, Harry was an active healthy dog, apart from an occasional flair up of his skin in his ears, under his chin and in his groin area and in worse cases the nibbling of his feet.  This usually happened around the time he was moulting.  A visit to the vet usually sorted it within a few days and he was his usual self again.
In January of this year we took him for his booster.  His skin was causing concern and our vet prescribed Atopica (1 a day). There was no examination apart from his skin. Within two weeks we noticed a big difference, he had developed a limp on his left front leg and was very lethargic.  We cut down on the Atopica as we thought this might be making him poorly. After a few weeks there was no improvement.  His feet were also a little swollen at that time and his breathing and heart rate was rapid. We took him back to the vets where he had a blood and urine test. The usual checks were done but it was discovered that Harry's white blood cell count was extremely high (57) Neut + Mono and raised Globulins.
We decided to get a second opinion from another vet after he suddenly lost the use in his back legs. His breathing was rapid and heartbeat very erratic. An xray was arranged for the following morning but sadly we lost Harry a few hours later. We have since read lots of information about Atopica and realise all the positive effects it has but we are however extremely upset about the fact that Harry was given the booster at the same time as being prescribed Atopica and that in the 'side effects' of Atopica it states that malignant tumours and any heart disease can escalate.  We were unaware of any problems he may have had beforehand, if any and just want to warn people to be careful.  As you can imagine it has been a horrendous two months and we are terribly upset.

Pippa
So sorry, what a tragedy for you.

Sorry you have had such a nightmare, have you asked your vet to explain the situation to you? Perhaps book an appointment and ask for them to go through it.

My dog is on Atopica nad its an absolute godsend, no adverse effects, however it can cause dogs problems.

I am not a vet but worked in admin at a veterinary hospital. Vets can fail to explain things fully to us non vets, they forget we dont know everything they do, most vets are brilliant if you ask them to go through things with you so you can fully understand whats happened.

If you suspect things have gone wrong make an official complaint, your vet should pass that to the VDS who can look into it.

Thank you for your kind words. I did contact my vet who says it was an oversight on his part that the booster was given at the same time - he has refunded the cost of Harry's Atopica!  £75 does not even begin to ease the distress of losing Harry.  I have written to the tablet company with no reply.  I know in my heart that the tablets had something to do with Harry's rapid decline. We were enjoying the beach in early March, two weeks later we had lost him.  My Insurance does not cover any legal costs and I am unable to prove any health problems before taking Atopica as I asked for his medical records.  I just wanted people to be careful before starting Atopica and definately no booster at the same time, I would hate this to happen to anyone else. Still heartbroken.