DD and son-in-law are both vets. I've just emailed them your post to get their thoughts....

I wouldn't hesitate to have a conversation with your vet. He needs to know if a drug he's using can have such a reaction. It's not laying blame; dogs react differently to drugs and unless your vet knew of an allergy, he's not to blame. Your vet will most likely want to report to the drug company if he thinks it could be the cause of her death.
My dog has a reaction to a different antibiotic, but with vomiting, etc.
I'm very sorry for you and your husband.

I'm so sorry about Grace.

When my dog reached the end, she too had similar symptoms: walking like she was drunk, loss of mobility, etc. It all happened within a short period of time. She did not get an antibiotic shot though. I think it was just the end for her.

I agree with annie though. It never hurts to discuss your concerns with your vet.

Sorry your Gracie passed so suddenly. It's an awful thing to go through.

Googling around, Convenia is not something I will let my vet use on my pets. I hope I remember its name if the situation every arises. My vet is very prudent giving any antibiotics anyway and only uses them as a last resort.

Best, thanks. I'm very curious about this. I know that most antibiotics given to dogs can cause a bit of lethargy. But this time, it was boom boom boom. She got her shot about 1:30 pm, and by 5pm she was down for the count. During the night until she died, her pupils stayed dialated.

If I get the courage I'll ask my vet. I just don't want him to feel worse than he already does.

She would have been gone in a few weeks or less anyway, but still, I certainly wasn't expecting it to happen this way.

Thanks for all the caring words, it goes a long way. They really are our children, aren't they?

Oakley,

Losing your girl is so sad. I Googled Convenia's side effects and came up with lots of hits. I'd suggest you read them, as some others have also had adverse results.

I wouldn't let my vet give this to any of my 'kids' either.

Here is a link that might be useful: Convenia side effects

oakley -here is her response. I learned something too -I always choose an antibiotic shot (over pills) because of the convenience, and the feeling that the animal is getting a better supply of the med.... But based on her response, now I'm re-thinking that... Anyway, hope this is helpful...

"Convenia is a relatively new drug ( using it in the us for 5-6 years) but it has been around in Europe for longer. If you look on the Internet, people do blame a lot of deaths on this drug. But look at the rest of the post. The beagle was skin and bones and wasn't eating. She was very, very sick. Someone decided to try an antibiotic to see if it would help and needed to give something injectable because the dog wasn't eating. And the dog dies that day. Of course it seems like the antibiotic--it couldn't have died from its severe illness, right? We use antibiotics in a lot of nebulous illnesses, either justifiably because the animal really does have a secondary infection or because the owner doesn't want to do diagnostics or we really have exhausted our diagnostic capabilities and we don't know what's going on.

That said, this could have been an allergic reaction to the antibiotic (though thats pretty rare in dogs and cats). I can't say without certainty that the injection didn't kill the dog for some other reason-we see problems with drugs all the time once we get them into the wider population of the general public and out of clinical trials. And I always prefer oral antibiotics for the reason that you can stop them anytime and you can't with a long-acting injection. I always tell this to owners as well. We are increasingly using this drug irresponsibly because it makes life easier and it will continue to be blamed for things like this but it would be tough to prove. Given the description of the dog, in this case, I really, really think it is the illness that killed the dog.

I personally have never seen an animal die from this drug and I don't know of any true concerns of deaths from this drug ( where you couldn't exclude other possible causes). But I maybe use it five times per year? I generally only use it in cats that have documented infections that are outdoor only and/or give their owners hell for trying to shove something down their throat.

I have even used it in my friend's cat and would do so again. I can pill my pets so I probably wouldn't use it in my animals."

oakleyok: It appears that you're not even sure what antibiotic Gracie received. Please, for your own peace of mind, ask the vet. You have every right to know and I'm sure he won't hesitate to tell you. It does sound like your Gracie was ready to pass on. But you owe it to yourselves to know what she received at the vet's. Enough said from here. Take care --
Annie

I have had our rescue cats get Convenia a number of times - mostly the ones that won't allow us to give them antibiotics orally. For them, I will continue this practice, but now that I know about these problems, I don't think I would use it for my own pets or rescues that are easily medicated.

That's an interesting reply because my vet said this has never happened before to any of the pets he's given the med too.

We knew in our hearts after the last vet visit when she was given the shot that she only had a few weeks left. That's why the Dr.said to make her comfortable.

That morning she took about 3 bites of her breakfast, an hour later gladly ate 2 milkbones in a row. She was walking just fine. Had even been outside walking around the yard a bit.

It was only a couple of hours after the shot that she became 100% immobile and was on her deathbed & had 3 bouts of severe pain during the night, with whimpering.

I suppose it could be just a coincidence though, but my gut says it was the antibiotic shot.

OTOH, I've never witnessed a dog die of cancer before, so I don't know if this is normal or not. It very well could have been normal, but darn, she died a miserable death. I didn't expect the suffering like that to hit out of the blue. I'm still shell shocked at all that happened in such a short period of time. And I'm royally angry at the first vet we took her too who said it was the arthritis in her shoulder! I'm in a foul mood. lol

I also want to thank you guys for talking about this with me. If any of you have had a pet die from cancer, would you tell me about it?

Our kitty went downhill very fast. He did not get any antibiotic shots, but he was losing weight at a shockingly rapid pace in an already very thin cat and that last 24 hours he was very weak. He would try to walk and then had to stop. He also couldn't hold himself up in the litterbox, hard to believe he even tried to go in there.

GS, so sorry about your kitty. :( Did he have cancer? The past week Grace stopped eating all dog food, and in the mornings she'd always share a can of food with Boone (they have dry sitting out), and she would be so excited she'd keep jumping up and down until it was served, just like a dog in a commercial. lol.

So we gave her human food..meat of all kinds that we knew she'd love. She'd eat something, but not a whole lot, every day. She was very thin, but it was only in her last 15 hours that she literally became stick thin, without even going to the bathroom!

Wednesday when we got the diagnosis, I immediately boiled her a whole chicken because the night before she lapped up some leftover chicken we had. I was so happy! By the time the chicken was ready she was on her deathbed.

This is why I'm wondering if cancer does this to a pet? The night before she ate well, and the next.....I'm just angry at the suffering she went through.

He had hyperthyroid/kidney disease/hypertension but he also had inflammatory bowel which can lead to intestinal cancer. So, the vet believes that is what happened even though we really couldn't see it by bloodwork, x-rays, and ultrasound. They would have needed to open him up or scope him to see, and we were not going to do that. After all these years of borderline and slightly elevated kidney values, that wasn't what killed him. She said cancer causes rapid weight loss in pets like that.

He was normally pretty thin in his senior years. He would go between low 6 to maybe 7 lbs. Then when we took him in for routine bloodwork a few weeks before he died he was 5 which set off alarms for the vet, then 3.6, then 3.4, and those final hours I am not even sure what. He was so light and weak. He probably would have died on his own that day, but he was so strong-willed we took him in. It was also our vet's last day before going out on maternity leave, so we wanted her to be there with us.

We had his ashes returned, and we still haven't opened up the cardboard box yet and he died March 25. :(

I am sorry for your loss. I am not a vet-- and surely all experiences with cancer are not the same. My Grace had cancer. Twice. The first time she declined very very quickly--in a matter of weeks she dropped from 115lb to close to 100. She had a functional adrenal tumor which affects appetite (among other things) so she did eat.. in fact, she had a constant drive for food. A dangerous drive for food-- a few days before her surgery, my father brought me a qt container of vegetable soup-- FROZEN. I walked out to the car with him and when I returned to the house, she'd some how gotten it off the counter, ate through the plastic and ate the frozen vegetable soup.

I opted to surgically remove the tumor-- it was a highly risky surgery but she was young and her prognosis was not good without the surgery. She had a 20-30% chance of surviving the surgery and even then, the mortality rate for the 6 months post surgery was high. She made it through all of the odds -- and a year later, the cancer returned. This time I knew immediately. I knew the signs. Surgery wasn't an option so I treated her with a mushroom extract that prevented internal inflammation (which would presumably limit or slow the spread of the cancer). I also treated her with pain pills and anti-anxiety meds (this because the tumor was basically pumping corticosteriods through her body).

The vet estimated we'd have a few months. I let Grace tell me when she was ready. I had 1.5 yr with her-- managing her pain and her anxiety. When she again lost a large amount of weight.. and this time stopped eating, I chose to end her struggle.

Even the two bouts of cancer in the same dog presented differently each time. The first time, I had no idea she had cancer until it was very far along. The second time I knew immediately.

I can't speak to the antibiotic, but it sounds to me as though your dog's systems were shutting down. Sadly, we've all been there with one or more pets. The key is to recognize the signs and limit their suffering. I didnt see you say what kind of cancer she had-- some are very aggressive, some grow very slowly. She could have had cancer for a few months.. or a year.

I think now is the time to grieve and heal.. we all want to blame someone or something for our losses but cancer is the enemy you are looking for.

I've lost a number of pets to various types of cancer and they have all been different. Yes, it can hit suddenly or take a quick turn for the worse. Sometimes they are able to hide they are sick, for survival, but it can (seemingly) explode with the really aggressive forms.

Cancer is very opportunistic. Antibiotics are known for being hard on the system and making people feel lousy. So the body does react and has work to handle and process them. My thoughts are that they probably made Grace weaker (which would be a common side effect) and that the cancer just took off with her systems falling into an even more compromised state from the antibiotics. Kind of how they won't give vaccines to them if they are sick or even just under the weather. Even the stress of a vet visit can take a toll.

I think it's a valid concern and should be on record as happening shortly after taking that medication. People should not ignore or slight these coincidences. There is a site out there collecting these reports on Convenia. You might want to tell them Grace's story, to help others down the road. It might be that a cancer patient cannot handle such a potent drug.

It's sad that you may have accidentally lost some time together to say your goodbyes, or that she suffered more than you had hoped for her. It's hard to swallow those things. But being angry is also a normal part of the grieving process which can't be denied. You have to process it because you loved her so much. Mothers often blame themselves terribly. Remember she had a happy life and how loved she felt. That's all they really care about and what they live for.

This post was edited by snookums2 on Sun, May 12, 13 at 6:06

Gscience, take the ashes out and complete the process of grieving for your baby. I felt so lonely yesterday but it helped to look out the window and say "hello" to Grace. If you bury the ashes it will be hard on your but you'll start to feel a bit better.

Funky, you had a Grace too? Awww. We have no idea what type of cancer she had because we found the mass about a month or so ago on her shoulder and the first vet said it was a swelling due to her arthritis. I remember telling DH that he was wrong and I thought it was cancer, even though G was still running and acting normal, except for a slight limp.

Snookums, when I was with her that night I also thought her kidney's, etc., were shutting down. I do think the shot exacerbated everything.

And you're right, we missed time together to say our goodbye's.

I'm feeling better today. It's weird going to bed and not having her hog it while trying to push me off. :) Did you know she knew what the words "Scoot over!" meant? I'd tell her and she'd literally scoot over! lol

I'm sorry for your loss, oakley. I know that dog was very dear to you, you mentioned her many times. Take care.

I neglected to give you my condolences when I posted previously about Convenia. I am so terribly sorry. When I have lost pets before, I've had to take a week's worth of vacation time just to make it through the first week. I know how badly it hurts.

While I am suspect of Convenia now, too, I have lost pets to cancer in the past and they have gone quickly, just like your Gracie. In one case, it was a mere few weeks between a cat that was running around acting normally and when she was on her deathbed. With cancer, things can happen extremely quickly.

I talked with my vet yesterday about Convenia. In addition to his full-time practice, he supports at least a dozen rescues and runs a mobile spay/neuter clinic as well, and he said he's not seen any serioiusly negative side effects from the Convenia. Some lethargy here and there, but that is about it.

Thinking of you,
Kimberly

Nancy and Kimberly, thanks so much. I saw a commercial on TV today saying this is National Pet Cancer Month. Ironic, huh?

Last week I think I was in shock and I don't think it really set in. Now it's really hitting me for some reason. Mostly at night when she should have her head under my chin. :(

My gut tells me she would have died within a few days of her diagnosis, only because she got super thin in one day and completely stopped eating, and I think the Convenia probably sped it up a bit.

I'm really not angry at the shot, I'm angry that the first vet blew off the mass. I would have fixed her a Tbone steak every night had I known!