Has anyone had any experiences with this drug? I would appreciate your comments/stories as am researching this. It is an anti infammatory drug. Celia

Hi Celia, yes I have. I have a 5yr male Lab who was diagnosed wiyh ephyseal at the age of 3/4 mths. By the age of 11mths he had it in 3 limbs, bearing in mind that his dam was boostered the day before she was mated on the advice of my vet. When rimadyl first came out out over here my then vet put him on it & he was on it for a couple of yrs. It`s a long story but last yr I changed all my dogs over to natural/raw foods, took him off the rimadyl & never looked back. He now has a love of life & actually runs about in his own way.
Christine2

Hi, there has been quite a lot of discussion about Rimadyl, if you do a search on this site for it you will find lots of info/opinions.

Welcome to the forum Celia :-)

WL, is right. If you run a search on 'Rimadyl', several threads are available.
Here is one of them: Rimadyl Medication

Hello:

I am new to this board. In 1997 my beloved labrador retriever, George, had to be euthanized after sustaining severe and irreversible adverse side effects of the drug Rimadyl. Since that date I have been in contact with hundreds of other dogs owners (here in the U.S. and in many other countries) whose dogs have suffered and/or died - from suspected Rimadyl adverse side effects.

More and more veterinarians are using Rimadyl "off label" for everything from minor sprains to post surgery (spays/neuters) pain. The Adverse Drug Event Reports from the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine (U.S.) show the following with regards to deaths in Dogs:

Year 1997 - 195 Deaths
Year 1998 - 456 Deaths
Year 1999 - 371 Deaths
Year 2000 - 470 Deaths

See: http://www.fda.gov/cvm/index/ade/adetoc.htm

The ADE report for the year 2001 has yet to be released by the FDA CVM.

Though Rimadyl has helped many dogs, that is small consolation to the hundreds of dog owners whose dogs suffered and/or died before their time. Had I known beforehand what the adverse side effects were, and had my dog been pre-tested to see if he were even a candidate for the drug, he may not have suffered so. Instead, with my own hand, I continued to give him his medicine - the medicine that I was convinced would ease his arthritic pain.

Kind regards,

Jean Townsend
Johns Island, SC USA
(Always for George - Always for the Rimadyl Dogs)
B. A. R. K. S.