Rimadyl and It's Side Effects

Lesley came to see me after a ‘bad experience’ with another veterinarian…

Her dog Angel was a high energy, 3 year old black Labrador, who loved people, food, walkies, and playing! Your typical high energy Labrador.

One day Angel started to limp… her pet parent Lesley thought she had strained a muscle…. so she didn’t think much of it, and slowed down the walks.

Some days Angel would wake up and be fine… but after a bit of running or jumping, she was stiff.

Angel was having a harder time jumping up on the couch, and she just seemed off… as it had been 4 weeks and Angel was not improving. 

Lesley decided it was time to go to ‘the vet’...(not me 😔)

A veterinary exam, blood tests, further sedation and X-rays,…the cost for all of that was in excess of $1000… Based on the test results the veterinarian suggested that Angel had moderate Hip Dysplasia, secondary Degenerative Joint Disease... otherwise known as Arthritis.

The vet suggested that Angel start on an anti-inflammatory drug.…Rimadyl.

At first Angel seemed better - Rimadyl is an effective anti-inflammatory and provides good pain relief.

This lasted for about a month… then Angel seemed ‘off’ again... she had less energy, was not really into going for walks, and then the alarm bells *really* went off when she didn’t want to eat her supper.

An emergency trip to the vet clinic.

Exam and blood tests revealed that Angel had liver disease- her liver had been damaged from the anti-inflammatory medication.

The vet was shocked and Lesley was crying.

What?

Medication that was meant to help Angel was actually hurting her?

Unfortunately anti-inflammatory medication, such as Rimadly can have side effects. In my experience Rimadyl (veterinary drug name is Carprofen), seems to have a higher than typical incidence of side effects.

This information comes from the Wikipedia page on Rimadyl (Carprofen).

We have zero cases with this side effect reported from sales here at Dogssuppliesrus.com.