Dog owners all face similar challenges. It is every pet lover’s nightmare to unknowingly give something to our pets that will harm them. We NEED to know if something is potentially dangerous or even outright toxic and we do not trust hearing safety studies directly from the manufacturer or anyone employed by the manufacturer.
When the story about Trifexis (a monthly pill labeled to protect dogs from heartworms, intestinal parasites and fleas) broke about the product causing acute death in dogs, I was very concerned. I had Trifexis on my shelves and IN my patients! Everyone was raving about loving the product and how happy they were with its effectiveness, so veterinarians were understandably concerned. I think I first heard the claim a few years ago. At that time, I did some digging and I tracked down the specifics on the actual cases.
Here are the facts that I have uncovered:
The cases that were initially cited when the news story broke were three pups. According to a postmortem report published by an independent pathology review, the pups were all found to have cardiac lesions. The pathologist suspected bacterial etiology. One of the pups was not even reported to have an owner, so I am not sure who filed the report or sought the veterinary care for the pup at initial presentation. Because of his lack of medical history, I wonder if that pup should have even been included in the report at all – which would mean that perhaps there were only two cases in question.
It is important to note that over 70 million doses have been dispensed of this medication. The cases in question were only three in number. The independent pathologist concluded that there was no indication that Trifexis played a role in the death of two of the pups and the third pup’s exam was considered incomplete at the time of the report. Although I am so sorry that the pups died, I do not see a correlation between their deaths and Trifexis.
There is no agent that can cause a bacterial infection except a bacterium.
The FDA (the government agency responsible for managing patient reaction complaints) has not enforced a recall of this product and (trust me) if there were substantiated reports of death from this product, they would act swiftly and remove the product from my (and everyone’s) shelves. This is a fact. I have had FDA recalls enforced before and we boxed up all of our products and shipped them immediately.
Here is my opinion:
For whatever reason, this sensational story has been resurrected to create a panic among people who love their dogs. Every time we read and share something, we create buzz. We as consumers help the story succeed when we read and share. Search engines start to recognize the “buzz” and the story creeps up the search results whenever someone starts to type something. It is actually not a function of the truth contained in the story. It is a result of media fervor. Try not to be dragged into this kind of thing. If you are not sure, ask me. Enough people have asked me that I wrote this article. I am not employed by or affiliated with the manufacturer and I am the final authority responsible for what products appear on my shelves.
I stock Trifexis in my hospital. I feel comfortable prescribing it and I have no qualms about giving it to my own dogs. I feel like 70 million doses is enough for me. Unless something changes, I plan to keep it as long as it continues to be effective, safe and requested by my clients.
