Angel is very energetic and very, very sweet.

Angel is a 5 year old Jack Russell - Poodle mix.
She just loves people and of course any attention.

Angel lost her two playmates, April and Daisy (Cougy) to ProHeart 6. Just between one and two weeks after getting the ProHeart 6 shot in July 2003, Angel’s hair on her back and rump started to fall out. Just like her playmates … April and Daisy! We brought her to the vet too see what was wrong. After blood work and examining her, the vet could not find out why this was happening again..

A short time later…. Angel also developed a cough, just like Daisy.

As of today, she still has the cough, but her hair has finally grown back. thank God! It has been six months, so we pray this one will make it.

Joanne

I can't believe what's transpired in the last few months. It's hard on the kids, all they wanted was a dog. I don't wish anyone to suffer the heartbreak and the financial hardship this has caused our family

Millie, a 'rescued' Black Lab.... was heart worm positive in Jan/Feb of 2003. I was told it was a mild case. In June when they spayed her, she received the six month heartworm injection (from the rescue vet) and I believe the same day they gave her her last heart worm treatment and I was told that the two blood tests she had had showed that she was clear of the heartworms.

Since then, she started having tummy problems, alot of gas noises, diarrhea and would throw up quite often. I just figured it was her, since she was 2 1/2 years old and from a rescue society I thought who ever had her previously, hadn't taken care of her and these were some of the side effects and we just dealt with it.

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Millie started squinting her eyes like something hurt her. It was a Saturday and my vet is not in on Saturday nights. I thought I would take her to the local ER vet in case she was having an eye infection and I didn't want to wait until Monday. That is exactly what the ER vet thought it was and gave me eye medication.

We went with Millie to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving. Millie started acting lethargic and the day after Thanksgiving just couldn't even eat. Being out of town, we had to take her to the local vet in Wisconsin. The first vet who saw her on Friday afternoon thought possibly, it was neurological but Millie was dehydrated and they needed to get fluids into her. By Saturday morning she was rehydrated (which actually masked everything that followed ... but we didn't know it at the time). The vet who took over on Saturday morning found a dog whose "gut" had stopped working. They gave Millie barium to drink, it should have passed within a few minutes but instead, stayed in her stomach for hours indicating a blockage of some kind. Millie underwent emergency surgery to find that there was nothing blocking her, but just the massage of the intestines started them working again. Even the vet was confused by this one as he said it was nothing he did to get the intestines working again. He did a biopsy and sent it out to pathology. The vet wanted to keep her until the pathology report came back so we could be sure what we were dealing with.

We had to leave Millie in Wisconsin because we have children who needed to go back to school on Monday. The pathology report came back on Wednesday and showed a highly allergic reaction to "something" and believe me, no one can say what. The Wisconsin vet thought maybe we were dealing with an IBD problem because of the pathology report, she did have diarrhea quite frequently and vomited quite often too (this was before the surgery) but he even said she's not acting like an IBD dog. He thought also that she was depressed because she was in a strange place for almost a week and said that we could come and get her. We should change her food and he hoped she would be O.K.

Now this is where it really gets crazy. Just a note here: The encephalitis was masked because the rehydration process reduced the swelling but once the IV's were removed the encephalitis would increase again pulling the fluids from her body. This is what kept happening.

My husband and I drove back to Wisconsin on Wednesday and brought Millie home. She seemed O.K., tired but not bad. Thursday she started to "fall" over again. I took her to my personal vet. This is the first time she ever saw Millie and we have had the dog since February and now it is November. Millie was already dehydrated again (less than 24 hours since leaving Wisconsin). They kept Millie until Saturday when she was rehydrated again, which they couldn't figure out why she was dehydrating so quickly and wouldn't rehydrate very fast. On Saturday they thought her well enough to come home. Within 6 hours, Millie had her worse collapse yet. I called my vet, but they are not a 24 hour care facility. I had to take Millie to the local 24 hour emergency vet. They were not sure what to do. Millie just kept pacing, walking into walls, her eyes looked like she was in pain, the ER vets thought maybe it was her heart and they kept her overnight. On Sunday morning they called and their only suggestion was that they now thought it was neurological and if I wanted, I could take her to a neurologist that works in a critical care facility. Otherwise, there was nothing they could do. You can only guess my choice at this point.

Bob and I drove Millie to the critical care facility. They admitted Millie on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning the neurologist called and told me immediately that he suspected encephalitis. They needed to do an MRI and some other tests which were done and proved he was right. Millie was treated with high doses of steroids. I was told the encephalitis was basically determined as caused by an auto immune disease (which is where the injection comes in). As the neurologist said, "can't prove it, but is a possibility." As far as the pathology report (in his opinion), he thought she was allergic to a protein (her old food was chicken based -- she is now on lamb/rice and doing well in that department) but could the injection caused that too? Possibly.

Millie stayed in critical care until Wednesday (we are now 2 weeks after her original collapse). She did quite well and the neurologist actually released her. However, a month ago she started having seizures. The encephalitis has come back now and currently this is what is happening. Millie has been on steroids and a chemotherapy drug everyday to suppress her immune system. As of yesterday the steroids and the chemo drug are on alternating days. So now we sit back and watch and wait to see if she responds to this treatment. Millie is also on anti seizure medicine and I give her Pepcid AC to help her stomach due to the drugs. The neurologist is monitoring her very closely. She spent two weekends ago .. at the critical care clinic, because she seizured 3 times in 24 hours, but hasn't had any since. The medication plan is for 3 - 6 months providing she responds O.K. She will have to be monitored by blood tests due to the chemo drug because it affects white blood cells and kidneys.

Millie 'seems' to be okay. She doesn't move as fast as she used to, but still runs and barks at the door when the bell rings and loves to eat. We just hope and pray she responds to this routine. Millie cannot be around other dogs right now because of the suppression of the immune system and the steroids have weakened her legs. My husband has to help her onto the bed at night.Then we can't get through the night without going "potty" a few times due to the medications, but we are hoping that as the decrease of these comes about, she will sleep for longer periods at night.

Millie is only about 3 1/2 years old and to be honest I just reread what I wrote. I can't believe what's transpired in the last few months. It's hard on the kids, all they wanted was a dog. Millie is so attached to me and the kids see me with the tears. My husband has been wonderful throughout this ordeal because he sees how attached I am to Millie. Our bills are at $6,500+ right now and we will be paying on this for a few years and still may or may not have our dog.

Millie is holding her own .(March 12, 04). My personal vet does feel that the Moxidectin injection could have caused this, however, the problem being...... she never saw Millie until after the collapse. My personal vet told me that when she was in vet school and they administered the this injection ... all the dogs seizured and had to be put down instead of adopted out. She will not give the injection.

So, in closing ... can I prove that this six month injection did this? No, but you know how sometimes in your heart you know what happened, I truly believe this drug did this. I just want people to know that under no circumstances give your pet this injection, it's just not worth it. The once a month pill won't hurt your pet. Just mark the date on your calendar when to give it to them.

From the bottom of my heart, I wish I had done this.

Bonnie

In August 2003, I took my two healthy Jack Russell Terrier siblings who were 2 years, 10 months old to our vet for their annual shots/check up. The vet recommended ProHeart 6, a heartworm injection that lasts 6 months because "it's easier than remembering to give the Heartguard chewable tablets." (And it was much more expensive!)... I thought I was doing a good thing; because heartworm is supposed to be horrible. I take excellent care of my dogs, they are my babies! They get all their shots each year on a timely basis, are fed the best food and are cuddled, pampered and dearly loved. Within 2 weeks, my female JRT became lethargic and started vomiting, wouldn't eat and couldn't move. My husband and I were on vacation at the beach at the time and my mother was watching the dogs at her house. There were three dogs there, my two JRT's and their sister from the same litter. Only Bailey was sick - they all eat the same thing and are constantly together in a pack. I rushed home from the shore and found Bailey was barely conscious and unable to stand on her own. We immediately took her to our vet (this was Saturday of Labor Day weekend) who ran a series of tests, X-rays, etc. and found her liver enzymes elevated - they thought she had eaten something poisonous. We then had to rush her to an Emergency Vet Clinic where the prognosis wasn't good; we didn't think she'd make it. She remained there for five days, under a 24 hour watch and administered a constant IV and various antibiotics and other medications to help. I visited her daily, spending hours praying, crying and holding her. Begging God to keep her alive; even promising I would forfeit my dream of having a child (we were undergoing infertility treatments unsuccessfully at this time). The vets here ran every test imaginable and yet could not come up with any conclusive reason as to why her liver had started to fail. They guessed she had ingested something but agreed it was unlikely since the other two dogs hadn't gotten sick. The only "odd" thing about this, was the fact Bailey and Taz received the ProHeart 6 shot.

However, I am very lucky because Bailey survived. The vet bills totaled over $3,000 but she is alive. Now, just about a year later, she is back to her healthy, happy, bouncy JRT self - full of energy and sparkling personality. I firmly believe that ProHeart 6 almost killed her as it has killed hundreds of beloved dogs across the country. In fact, I had filed a complaint with Fort Dodge, the company who manufactures ProHeart 6, and the vet I spoke to there didn't deny nor admit that Bailey's sickness was caused from their product but I got the distinct impression that he had heard this before. This is a deadly product. It's like playing Russian Roulette - my male JRT was fine but yet it affected Bailey. I liken it to cancer in humans; some people are prone to it, others are not. But who would EVER take that risk???

If you're reading this, you probably have already experienced problems with ProHeart 6. I hope that you are one of the lucky pet owners whose dog may have gotten sick but survived. Most dogs have not. And yet, the vets continue to prescribe this. Did you know that vets are bombarded with propaganda from Fort Dodge on ProHeart 6 - cutesy little heart-shaped advertisements, magnets, pens and cash awards for multiple prescriptions of this product? More and more vets are not prescribing this injection but many, who haven't done the research and are more concerned with making money than administering care for the animals, still prescribe it. The best advice I can give to any pet owner, is to never fully trust what medications/shots/injections your vet prescribes without doing THOROUGH RESEARCH. Objective research! Look in several places if you're doing this online; contact the FDA and see what complaints have been registered. I hope that this evil drug, ProHeart 6, is removed from circulation before another dog dies, and with many peoples hard work, it may be. But the price that many others have paid, is too much. No amount of monetary compensation can pay for the loss of a much-loved pet. Good luck to all of you; I hope that soon nobody will have to go through this unneccessary heartache.

--JoAnne A.