Am I The Only One Who Sees This?
Side effects from prescription meds are harming our best friends. Don’t get me wrong, prescription drugs can be beneficial when necessary. Even then it’s still a balancing act between benefit versus risk.
The FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine states very clearly that “all drugs can cause side effects.” So when they are used inappropriately, or for otherwise preventable problems, it gets me really angry.
Ginger Bear’s Story
We once rescued an elderly female spaniel. Her foster parents told us that she had been incontinent but that was controlled by the drug Proin (an FDA approved drug for urinary incontinence in dogs) which they provided to us and that she was “a little hard of hearing.” When we brought Ginger Bear home we discovered that the Proin was doing little to control her incontinence and that she was actually stone cold deaf. Proin, as it turns out, is the same drug (phenylpropanolamine) as the 1970’s diet drug Dexatrim which the FDA finally took off the market for causing strokes.
See where I’m going with this?
The list of side effects in dogs from Proin is pretty frightening. We stopped the Proin immediately. There wasn’t anything to do for her hearing loss by this time but the incontinence was managed very well by occasional doses of the homeopathic remedy Pulsatilla.
NSAIDs
NSAID’s (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) are one of the most frequently-prescribed drugs for dogs. Certainly, after something like surgery, we don’t want our best friends to suffer. We do what ever to make them comfortable and that could include the short term use of NSAID’s and pain meds. But I see these drugs being prescribed for every type of hip and other joint problems, when there are safe and effective natural remedies that don’t have the harmful effects on the stomach, kidney and liver that these drugs have when used long term.
Next time your vet wants to prescribe one of these drugs, why not ask if there’s a safer alternative. You might be pleasantly surprised. If not, tell your vet about MaxWell Pet.
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