Animal Drug Investigation Reveals Pet Medication Often Doesn't Work

KentuckyFC writes: "Americans spent an estimated $14.2 billion on veterinary care for their pets in 2013 — and that doesn't even include proprietary health diets and food supplements. Put another way, pet owners pay about $850 annually in veterinary expenses per dog, and about $575 per cat. Factor in the emotional energy we invest in keeping our companion animals healthy, and you'd hope for high confidence in the end results. But when one journalist investigated the science behind the meds being used to treat his aging dog's osteoarthritis, he was in for a nasty surprise. Glucosamine and chondroitin food supplements? Next to useless. Tramadol to kill pain? It's probably just getting dogs high. The one treatment that's been proven to help, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug called carprofen, is often left on the shelf because of fears — likely overblown — that it might damage dogs' kidneys. In part, you can blame this sorry state of affairs on a lack of financial incentives for drug companies to run clinical trials on animals. But often, vets aren't paying attention to the studies that have been done. If we want our dogs and cats to receive the best possible medical care, we need to ask our vets some tougher questions about why they think the drugs will work."

Comments

What else is new?

[Anonymous Coward]

So? Often the HUMAN drugs don't work either, but we still pay billions out each year for them, and don't get me started on the "homeopathic" and "vitamin" crazes.

Re:What else is new?

[bluefoxlucid]

What's worse is we push profitable drugs. I put myself on phenotropil (a high dose--people recognize the stimulant effect at 100mg, but reading ADHD research and doing molecular composition and mass analysis I've figured out it should be about 20-25mg twice per day), and that's had miraculous effects on the ADHD--and the dissociation (which I've tended to use as a tool--but holy shit being a part of the real world is overwhelming), and even the sociopathy (emotional centers of my brain are hooking back up). Of course, Dextroamphetamine and Methylphenedate are more profitable... oddly enough, since they're also insanely generic. Adderall is multiple Dex salts and a 12.5% load of Levoamphetamine salt, which have widely varied half-lives so not really a good idea.

The worst part? Phenotropil's side effects include a headache from my brain starting to cannibilize itself for required acetylcholine--this is the same headache you get from studying too hard--so I'm also intaking a crazy amount of choline supplements (about 1200-1500mg/day)--and insomnia. Methylphenedate? Psychosis. Dex? Also psychosis, but less severe than Methylphenedate. They're both systemic toxins, as well as neurotoxins; phenotropil is well-tolerated and is neuroprotective. The dosage window is pretty narrow--high enough for a clinical effect, but not so high as to induce nasty side effects or toxicity, is hard with MPH and Amphetamine; Phenotropil it's just avoiding tolerance to the stimulant effect, which is why I said the dosage should be lower (I'm taking 100mg every day, but 25mg twice per day would be better; the same low-dose tactic is used to avoid Dextroamphetamine tolerance, which follows the same mechanism).

In short: the drugs as prescribed are horribly bad for you; the drugs that aren't prescribed have fewer side effects and are probably (not proven, but believed with rather high confidence) actually good for you. Phenotropil is neuroprotective: it prevents brain damage.

I take a B vitamin ... out of habit now, I guess. I was previously using SAM-e to maintain a hypomanic state, which requires B9 and B12 to prevent headaches and other side effects. Megavitamins are useless, and vitamin supplementation is only useful if you're deficient. Choline supplementation is probably the only universal one for that--250mg CDP Choline/day supplementation would be good for most people--but even that's not strictly necessary.

Re:What else is new?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a perfect example of knowing enough to be dangerous. You're making all these blanket statements decrying prescribed drugs that are well understood while promoting drugs that are not prescribed based upon some unproven beliefs, and creating and promoting a cocktail of vitamins and supplements that you believe might counteract negative effects of these drugs that no doctor prescribes for what you're doing... Danger, Will Robinson! I sense someone about to fall off the cliff into quack-land!

Re:What else is new?

[sjames]

Of course, arguably the homeopathic drugs are just as effective as the prescriptions with less harmful side effects at 1/100th the cost.

If you're going to buy placebos, buy the cheap ones :-)

Re:What else is new?

[arglebargle_xiv]

Of course, arguably the homeopathic drugs are just as effective as the prescriptions with less harmful side effects at 1/100th the cost.

DANGER DANGER DANGER DANGER!

Homepathic pet medicine can be extremely dangerous. I gave some to my cat once. Two days later she died of an overdose while drinking from her water bowl.

Just bought a puppy

[GodfatherofSoul]

I felt like our initial visit was almost like getting cased by a grifter; like they wanted to see how much I was willing to shell out. They started me out with a sample of a deworming med then asked for a stool sample from the pup which of course showed some parasite that had to be treated with another med. So, I've had her 2 weeks and besides vaccinations she's already been exposed to 2 medications. And, each visit has been a setup for another visit in the weeks to come. I just feel like i'm getting sucked into a merry-go-round of perpetual medication and unnecessary care. But, I'm not a professional so I don't have much ability to make judgements.

A human doesn't need that much attention if he's healthy.

Re:Just bought a puppy

[Anonymous Coward]

Um what are you talking about? A human absolutely DOES need that same kind of attention if they're healthy. You're talking about the equivalent of a child in the first year of life, not a 20-year-old college kid. Kids go in to see the pediatrician about 4 or 5 times in their first year for routine check-ups, vaccinations, boosters, and more. Then, after that, they pretty much see the doctor for a checkup each year indefinitely. How is that different from what you're seeing with your puppy? You also have to remember, for a dog seeing the vet once a year, that's equivalent to a human going every 4 or 5 years or so based on how rapidly their body ages in relation to a human's lifespan.

Also, most human children don't come from a puppy mill or spend time eating dirt, plants, and bugs outdoors- if they did they'd also be tested and treated for parasites as necessary.

If you're feeling like you're being grifted at this point when your vet is just offering you appropriate and practical medical care for your pet, you're setting yourself up to be a difficult, irresponsible pet owner. Please don't go that route and at least, as this poorly though-out original article mentions, at least ASK your vet why you need to do something and how/why it works if you're not sure rather than just assuming you're being scammed and doing a disservice to your pet.

Re:Just bought a puppy

[g0bshiTe]

There's the option to seek another opinion too. If you are unsure consult another vet.

Re:Just bought a puppy

[cold fjord]

You could always get a second opinion. Know anyone that could recommend someone they trust? Maybe a farm vet?

Re:Just bought a puppy

[gurps_npc]

Humans that live like most dogs do in fact need that much attention.

The typical human living in an area that is poor enough to never use toilet paper has multiple parasites living in it. Often the human gets it by eating whatever food is in front of it.

Now, some dogs do in fact only eat gourmet meals. But quite a few eat anything they can - including things that used to be in their body but are no longer.

I am not saying the Vet you saw was not pulling a fast one on you.

But there is at least a chance he was being a good vet.

Re:Just bought a puppy

[FuegoFuerte]

The best thing I can suggest is to go to your local farm supply store instead of the vet, for anything but the most serious symptoms. They typically have the medications readily available for a reasonable price, and will often have people knowledgeable enough to point you in the right direction.

Case in point: My cat had a nasty eye infection, and I decided I didn't want to spend the time, effort or money to pack up the cat and go to the vet. So I went to the local farm supply store and said "hey, my cat has goopy eyes that aren't clearing up, and in fact seem to be getting worse. Do you have anything for that?"

They sold me a small tube of ophthalmic antibiotic ointment intended for cats/dogs, gave me brief instructions on how much to use and how to apply it without putting the cat's eye out, and about $10 later I was on my way home. It cleared up the cat's eyes in a couple days, and I had plenty left over and have used it on a couple occasions since then. In total, I probably saved at least $500 in vet bills, since I've used it to treat 2 cats on 2-3 occasions each over the past several years.

The same type of store will often have good wormers, earmite meds, etc., so as long as the animal has classic symptoms that are easily diagnosed (and again, if in doubt just describe the symptoms to someone working at the store), they ought to be able to help you.

Most of the small animal problems that only a vet can fix, can instead be fixed for about $0.06 at home. Large animals like horses, cows, etc. are different, and may warrant a call to an actual vet. Just about the only thing that's probably worth a visit to a vet for a cat/dog is to have them "fixed" (which really ought to be called "broken" in my opinion - not because it shouldn't be done, simply because it's removing functionality).

Re:Just bought a puppy

[Antipater]

most human children don't...spend time eating dirt, plants, and bugs outdoors

I'm not so sure about that one...

Re:Just bought a puppy

[pooh666]

Hopefully you don't live an an area where you are short on options, otherwise RUN. We ran into a vet very much like you are talking about. I won't go into the details of the $2000 fart when we though our dog was dying and we took him in OVERNIGHT, they gave her pepcid ac.. Our new vet just told us the dog needed to lose weight, got us on a great food to help do that along with our own being careful to not supplement with treats/dinner scraps, no such issue for years now. What was worse, it is like you said, you could feel you were being taken, almost massaged, their bent was on herbal everything, they acted like every animal needs its concoction of suppliments. Right after our first visit we started getting emails from their list pushing all of that, including the standard scams of small dog teeth cleaning, basically everything they could think of to make a penny.

Re:Just bought a puppy

[Anonymous Coward]

There are a lot of bad products alongside the good ones at the local stores. At many farm supply stores, they have none of the good products. The ratio of good products to bad products is not in your pet's favor if you haven't asked a vet which ones are actually safe. (A phone call to the vet to confirm doesn't cost anything, by the way.) For example, commercial off-the-shelf flea & tick medicines and collars that cause anything from minor skin infection to major problems like necrosis and skin sloughing off under the collar are very commonly sold for a few years and then disappear/get recalled under mysterious circumstances. You're gambling on whether you're going to cause huge damage to your pet if you just do what you feel like doing with medications!! Don't just go there and assume that the stock boy is going to know more than a vet!

Re:Just bought a puppy

[sandytaru]

I used to think that until I watched Nat Geo Wild. Even predators get body parts bitten off, get infections, and die from diseases.

Re:Just bought a puppy

[sh00z]

2.) My dog isn't from a puppy mill; she's from a reputable breeder

There's your problem. Get a shelter mutt. They are healthier, more easygoing, and you can feel like you're contributing to the solution, not the problem. Says the former owner of a cocker spaniel from a "reputable breeder" that developed cataracts at three years old.

Re: Just bought a puppy

[Anonymous Coward]

There is no routine screening for peek pancreatic cancer. No check up would have picked it up.

I'm a palliative care MD and see this cancer far too often. Almost always stage 4. Easy to blame someone for 'missing' this (either MD or patient themselves) but it's just crappy luck.

That being said, unexpected weight loss, sweats, pain = see a doctor!

Re:Just bought a puppy

[lancelet]

So wait, you're advocating going to people with even less knowledge than an average vet?

The main problem with your suggestion is that, in the early stages of virtually every disease, you and your farm supply store buddies will have no idea whether a condition is serious or not. In fact, in many cases, neither will a vet without the aid of special equipment or serial monitoring. Are your cats "goopy eyes" an infection or a corneal ulcer? Is your supply store dude just gonna whip out his ophthalmoscope and some staining compound to check that for you? What about lumps on your dog? Gonna change its diet, or actually get a biopsy done to check for cancer? How about grass seed injuries? You just gonna whip out a flick knife and cut that bastard out, or do you think your dog might want some pain killers with its skin incision? Etc, etc, etc.

On another topic, your advice won't work in countries like Australia or the UK, where antibiotics are unavailable without prescription (you know, because of this annoying thing called antibiotic resistance).

Re:Just bought a puppy

[AdamHaun]

Wild animals often live in dirty environments and eat questionable foods, and yet they are usually just fine.

No they aren't. They die in large numbers. Take housecats, for example -- indoor average lifespan is >12 years, outdoor average lifespan is 5 years. Stray dogs live 1-2 years on the street, but average 11 years in a home.

Re:Just bought a puppy

[Dahamma]

2.) My dog isn't from a puppy mill; she's from a reputable breeder

You previously stated your dog had worms. If this is the case, then it's not a reputable breeder. Or perhaps you have found a crappy vet. It can't hurt to go to another for a second opinion. At least you'll know.

Wrong. Most puppies, no matter where or how they are born, have roundworms. They are fairly endemic in small numbers and transmitted by the mother in the womb. It's normal, and not a big deal to treat. You can leave it alone and hope your puppy manages to gets enough nutrition to thrive and fight them off, or you can spend a bit and deworm. But why anyone would want to get a new puppy and play survival of the fittest with it is beyond me (and pretty horrible). Not to mention roundworms can potentially spread to people is it worth a bit of money to *you* not to get worms? :)

Re:Just bought a puppy

[The Grim Reefer]

2.) My dog isn't from a puppy mill; she's from a reputable breeder

You previously stated your dog had worms. If this is the case, then it's not a reputable breeder. Or perhaps you have found a crappy vet. It can't hurt to go to another for a second opinion. At least you'll know.

Wrong. Most puppies, no matter where or how they are born, have roundworms. They are fairly endemic in small numbers and transmitted by the mother in the womb. It's normal, and not a big deal to treat. You can leave it alone and hope your puppy manages to gets enough nutrition to thrive and fight them off, or you can spend a bit and deworm. But why anyone would want to get a new puppy and play survival of the fittest with it is beyond me (and pretty horrible). Not to mention roundworms can potentially spread to people is it worth a bit of money to *you* not to get worms? :)

I didn't say that they didn't have worms at any point. A reputable breeder will have wormed them already and have detailed records of this and all vaccinations and a vet schedule and records for the parents as well. . I've never heard of any good breeder that would send puppies home that have not been wormed. You sure as hell aren't going to take a dog home from a good breeder and have to go to a vet to discover it has worms.

Re:Just bought a puppy

[pepty]

For decades now reputable breeders have been turning dogs into unhealthy freakshow breeds that can't breathe, can't jump, can't run, and can't give birth without a c-section. I'm not sure that's a recommendation.

Re:Just bought a puppy

[Reziac]

Erm... actually there is no DNA test for hip dysplasia, nor is it a single gene (tho it appears, per pedigree analysis, to be largely the result of one dominant and one recessive). You can xray and evaluate hips that way, but it will not tell you which dogs are 'carriers'.

Nor is it necessarily wise to cull out all the carriers from a given gene pool (ie. breed). Sometimes such culling unwittingly removes necessary genes as well, and leaves you in a worse state than before. This happened in one breed that had assiduously culled inherited blindness ...and wound up with a fatal disorder becoming prevalent instead. It's best to breed away from problems as much as you can, but sometimes you can't replace the rest of the dog. This is especially true in rare breeds whose gene pool is already too small (and steadily shrinking thanks to the spay/neuter craze).

Also, individual status is not very informative. A dog with excellent hips but several dysplastic littermates is usually a much worse breeding risk than a dog with marginal hips but no dysplastic siblings. Ditto for not so much parents, but the grandparents.

In short, you have to know your bloodlines, or that OFA certification is just groping in the dark. In one rare breed I was involved with for many years (then rare enough that most fanciers knew every dog of that breed in the U.S.) a particular stud dog who was himself dysplastic proved to be THE best source for normal hips in the breed as it then existed in the U.S. Conversely, the lines founded on a dog that had certified normal proved to have, on average, terrible hips.

[I am a canine professional. I breed working dogs, 14 generations of my own line to date. I founded the OFA and CERF breed club representative programs and was a breed club rep myself for 19 years. I think I might have a few more clues than average.]

Animal Testing

[WoodstockJeff]

Why would you want to risk getting attacked by PETA and other animal rights organizations by doing testing on animals? Heck, you can't even shampoo a dog without someone getting upset!

Re:Animal Testing

[mythosaz]

I only use pet meds that have been tested on human prisoners.

Yikes.

[mythosaz]

I'm not sure I spend $850/year on my own medical care.... ....although I'm sure that'll go up as I get older -- before ending abruptly.

"A woman in England paid over $17,000 for her cat to spend six days in an oxygen tent to cure its paralyzed larynx. The cat showed its gratitude by briefly holding eye contact."

Re:Yikes.

[the eric conspiracy]

You hope it ends abruptly. All too often it's a slow death from cancer or Alzheimer's that bankrupts your family.

Re:Yikes.

[mythosaz]

The adults in my immediate family (parents, siblings) all have medical power of attorney documents and clear instructions to never leave us in a situation where we're left to suffer or "burden" the family. We're all slated for cremation, with the ashes to go to anyone who might want them. None of us have a special desire to be remembered by a pile of cremains.

There are situations like Alzheimer's which could quite likely suck for everyone, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

We've dealt with a few cancers now, and we've (as a family) made the decisions to take treatments based on expected quality of life around it.

Pet related, I've had a few animals put down. Sad, but death is (mostly) a fact of life.

[With only 100 billion humans ever having lived, 7% of us are still alive today, making "being human" only 93% lethal to date...]

Re:Yikes.

[g0bshiTe]

We had a cat go anemic and the vet said transfusion or the animal would die, we took him home and after 4 days of not eating and 2 of not moving and us force feeding him iron supplement and chicken soup we thought he was done for. I made one last call to the vet cause I knew if the animal didn't eat and drink it would die, the nice assistant I talked to said the cats that won't eat sometimes responded to baby food you know the gerber first stage chick or turkey, so I hit the grocery store on the way home and picked up a jar, got home popped the jar open in front of him and placed the lid that had a bit on it in front of him, that tongue came out like nothing I've ever seen before, over the next two days we fed him a bit every hour from the jar, he made a full recovery, this was 8 years ago, he still lives with us.

Total cost, $40 vet visit, $0.60 for the baby food.

I have no doubt this is true in the whole

[colinnwn]

But or dog has had hip trouble for 6 years. The first 5 we did nothing but keep him on glucosamine. The few times we took him off due to laziness or questioning it worked due to the Vet mentioning conflicting research, our dog noticeably declined. And within 2 weeks of him going back on it, he got better.

Re:I have no doubt this is true in the whole

[Gothmolly]

Also, glucosamine tablets seem pretty tasty to the dog, so we use them as once-a-day treats after the morning walk.

Painkillers are effective _because_ of the euphori

[Anonymous Coward]

The primary reason why opioids work as painkillers is specifically because they get you high. They dont really kill pain so much as they make you not care that you're in pain. So tramadol getting the dogs high means its working. Except the biggest problem with tramadol is that it works as an SSRI/SNRI first, and then its primary metabolite, O-desmethyl-tramadol, is what works as a pain killer (affecting the kappa and mu receptors). Tramadol is more of an antidepressant than a painkiller, which makes its addiction significantly worse (ask anyone who has withdrawn from antidepressants).

Re:some people also need to accept...

[g0bshiTe]

Which is why I had my dog put to sleep when she had a seizure, probably treatable, but she also had cancer and was 14 and had lost hear hearing about a month prior to the seizure. At that point all I could picture was leaving for work in the morning the dog having a seizure upstairs and taking a tumble down the stairs in the dazed and confused moments afterward and then lying there in pain broken for 8 hours until I got home to find her.

She went to the emergency vet that night and was put to sleep.

She is loved and missed, this was 4 years ago.

Re:Owners spend that much?

[EthanBernard]

I'm a cat owner. This average sounds about right to me. But keep in mind that this is an average, not a median, and the average is skewed upward by a small number of people* who spend thousands a year to fix problems that inevitably arise in their older pets. Cat chemotherapy, for example, costs about $100 a week.

*Who are these people? The wealth distribution of the united states is also highly skewed, with a long tail at the high end.

Rimadyl = carprofen

[LNO]

When I read this, I was surprised that there was no mention of Rimadyl, as that's been the go-to NSAID for our dogs after surgeries. One google later let me know that Rimadyl was, indeed, carprofen, and I read the article again with that in mind.

Three times does "carprofen" appear in the article:
"Its examples include one relevant to Kaleb, considering the effectiveness of glucosamine and chrondroitin versus an NSAID called carprofen in treating dogs with osteoarthritis. The bottom line: “Carprofen is superior to glucosamine/chrondroitin supplements in reducing the clinical signs.”"
and
"We plan to get some fresh tests to see how stable his kidney function is, and talk to our current vet in San Francisco about whether it’s time to try carprofen. "

If you're using non-proven supplements to treat your pet's pain instead of veterinary-recommended NSAIDs, then, yeah, perhaps it's time to talk to your current vet about whether it's time to try the painkiller that is clinically superior.

"supplements" don't work

[umafuckit]

This is a bullshit article. The basis for it is that food supplements didn't (and don't) work but an NSAID would probably have worked. No shit. It's well known that the supplements industry for people is mostly snake oil. Of course it will be more so for pets. There are plenty of references on the net if you search, but in case you're lazy I just found this one. If a drugs works, there may be side effects (as with the NSAIDs in the TFA). This doesn't mean that "pet medications don't work." It means you need to do your research and not believe the crap it says on the packet. If people stopped buying this shit, the companies would stop selling it.

Re:Fish antibiotics

[DarwinSurvivor]

Honestly I hadn't thought that far ahead

Gotta love someone who has a bunker full of fish antibiotics but forgets to think ahead...

Re:700+$ per year ?

[lancelet]

The figures come from a "pet owners survey", run by an association of pet product manufacturers. They aren't actual veterinary industry figures and have nothing to do with professional veterinary bodies.

For reference, my wife is a vet (in Australia), and her practice charges $45 for a consult. Even including routine meds, a client would probably have to visit her four times per year to reach the "non surgical" amount quoted in that survey, which would be quite rare except perhaps for puppies and geriatrics.

My wife is a veterinarian

[Arkham]

My wife is a veterinarian and I cringe when I see stories like this. Some sensationalist with no medical knowledge skims a few studies or reports and makes a sensationalist article that has no basis in science or fact.

Tramadol is a good drug that helps a lot of animals with chronic pain. Cosequin helped my dog with hip dysplasia to be more comfortable for his last few years. Like many human drugs, efficacy varies by the patient, but the reality is that veterinarians as a whole are great people who truly love animals and would not prescribe things that did not work.

Re:Fish antibiotics

[grogdamighty]

And this is how I plan to survive the zombie apocalypse: advertise loud and proud that I'm a board-certified pediatrician and can tell you when to use all these cool drugs you looted.

Re:Fish antibiotics

[Immerman]

I was about to say the same thing. Expecting the internet to remain readily accessible while you hide in your bunker from the collapse of civilization seems... optimistic at best. I have no doubt many dedicated people will go to great lengths to try to keep the main arteries functioning and the most important data archives online, but that doesn't do you much good unless your bunker is in the basement of a major university or other internet nexus. I don't expect the phone/cable/cellular technicians responsible for bringing access to individuals will have anywhere near the same level of visionary dedication.

Re:Fish antibiotics

[ColdWetDog]

How do you verify whether they are still effective? Shelf-life is a serious concern, and antibiotics are stored under specific conditions to maximize their effective lives. Dosing with an expired drug can have all sorts of unpleasant effects because the resulting chemicals may be worse than just nonfunctional.

In general it’s true that animal antibiotics are largely the same as those intended for human delivery, and many a veterinarian uses their office supplies on themselves. But even animal antibiotics are stored under specific conditions and are disposed of when they expire. That’s not just for commercial gain, it’s to ensure that the drugs do what they’re supposed to and not something unpredictable instead.

Bullshit. Expiration dates are randomly created in order to push products through. There is ** very little ** science about long term storage - most of it from the military and most of it saying that the shelf life is quite a bit longer than advertised.

And there is one class of antibiotic that is known to breakdown into something (relatively) toxic - that's the tetracyclines. Don't stockpile those. The rest of the drugs just get a little less potent. The bigger issue for most people in Scenario Zombie is 1) When to partake of your precious antibiotic store 2) which antibiotic 3) how much and how long. The Merk Manual is a good start, but best to friend your neighborhood doctor (or ICU nurse).

Re:some people also need to accept...

[dryeo]

I really wish we could have put my dad down a couple of weeks before he died. Riddled with cancer, those last couple of weeks were not pleasant for him. Why is it that we treat our pets better then our old people?

Re:Fish antibiotics

[arglebargle_xiv]

Bullshit. Expiration dates are randomly created in order to push products through. There is ** very little ** science about long term storage - most of it from the military and most of it saying that the shelf life is quite a bit longer than advertised.

The military has to stockpile medication for long periods of time, so they have an incentive to find out what the real shelf life is. Our military (deliberately obscuring who "our" is since I don't know if this was made public and couldn't be bothered checking) did long-term ageing tests on commonly-stockpiled stuff and found that medication stored for a decade was still 98% as effective as fresh stock. They're still waiting for the 20-year time period to come up to re-check it again.

Re:Fish antibiotics

[pepty]

There is ** very little ** science about long term storage - most of it from the military and most of it saying that the shelf life is quite a bit longer than advertised.

Actually there's quite a lot.Talk to a formulation chemist. Every drug formulation that is legal to sell has been left in storage at various temperatures and tested over time. Companies that have faked doing this have been banned from importing drugs to the US. Most drugs do just lose potency over time, but manufacturers have the goad of liability lawsuits when setting expiration dates. In general if you want something to last as long as possible: seal it tightly, put it in the dark at a constant temperature of -20 C. No defrosting.

Re:Our dog died shortly after Rimadyl/Carprofen

[glaucopis]

Rimadyl kept our last lab mobile for eight years as her arthritis got progressively worse. We understood that it does suddenly kill some dogs so we used the lowest dose that provided relief, but the quality of life it gave her was worth the risk. She was still taking her daily walks up to the day her body gave out at 14 and we put her to sleep. Maybe the Rimadyl finally caught up to her, probably it was just old age, but either way she had a good life thanks to the drug.

Vets absolutely should warn you that it can kill your dog. I've heard it compared to Vioxx -- a miracle pill, if it didn't kill you. And if someone's dog's arthritis is minor enough to be managed on glucosamine, they should be thankful and go that route. But if your dog's in serious pain, Rimadyl works. If it shortens your dog's life, a short, pain-free, mobile life is preferable to an animal than a longer, painful, immobile one.

I find it sad that in all the hoopla over Rimadyl some people are now choosing to give their pets a longer life over a higher quality one, prioritizing their fear of losing their pet over treating their pet's pain. Losing a pet hurts, but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I knew that I had chosen to let my dog live in unnecessary pain.