This is Asti. She too was harmed by Rimadyl, but she was one of the lucky ones. She survived.

Asti is an 8 year old Labrador Retriever. When she was 1 year old, she tore a ligament in her knee and needed surgery. Ever since the operation Asti always had arthritis in her knee. As she got older it worsened.

We took her to the vet to see if there was anything we could do to ease her pain. The vet prescribed Rimadyl and glucosamine (a natural supplement). The vet mentioned in some dogs Rimadyl can damage the liver and we should come back in 2 weeks for a blood test. During the 2 weeks, the pain seemed to ease up, but after the 2 week blood test, there showed slight liver damage, the vet said it wasn't necessarily the Rimadyl. She said it could be a tumor and she mentioned a few other possibilities (we found this a little too coincidental that she's never been sick until she started the Rimadyl). She said to continue the Rimadyl and come back in a month for another blood test. Although at this point it was so difficult to get Asti to swallow the Rimadyl pill. No matter what food product it was in, she spit it out. Which was rare for her because she loves food. We think she knew it was harming her.

The day after the visit to the vet, Asti refused to eat anything. She started throwing up. It was a Thursday and we called the vet, she said to continue the Rimadyl and if she doesn't get better by Monday, we should bring Asti in. Each day she was worse and we called a family friend in New York who is a vet. He said to stop giving her the Rimadyl immediately (which we had already done because she couldn't keep anything down). The vet in NY told us that he doesn't prescribe Rimadyl anymore because of how many dogs have gotten deathly ill from it.

We brought Asti to the vet on Monday and told the vet we took her off the Rimadyl and won't ever give it to her again. At this point the vet still wouldn't admit it was the Rimadyl making her sick. The blood test showed serious liver damage. After just a few days off the drug, Asti was starting to eat again and returning to her normal self.

Although she recently tore her ligament in her other knee, needed surgery again and she still has some liver damage due to the Rimadyl episode, luckily she is pretty much back to normal.

In almost 3 weeks, we believe that the drug almost killed her. Later on we found out that 1/3 of all dogs with side effects from Rimadyl are Labradors. If we had known this fact from the beginning, we may not have given her the drug in the first place.

We are so lucky Asti got a second chance. Our hearts go out to everyone who lost their loved ones from this drug.

You know your dog best. Be aware. Ask questions. Trust your instincts.

- Caryn and Michael Shaw, Rockville, MD

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