On April 13, 2004, I took Romi, into a local veterinarian, Lawrence Williams at the Burien Veterinary Clinic, (that I had gone to for many years), to have her overgrown toenails clipped/trimmed and to get her vaccination shots updated in response to a reminder card that his office had mailed to me. Dr. Williams examined her eyes, ears, teeth and gums and said that she was 'looking good', but he felt he'd noticed some favoring of her right shoulder/neck area; he did some 'flexion' of her right foreleg and said it was probably a touch of arthritis, given her age.

After giving her the required vaccinations, he said I was to start her on a prescription he was supplying of a drug that would 'fix her right up' and to give them to her, one tablet twice a day. When I questioned whether the tablets should be cut up and put into meat or cheese, he said that wouldn't be necessary, as she'd consider them as 'treats', and gave her one to demonstrate that she'd like them and putting them in food would not be necessary. [The impression I was given is that this was some sort of vitamin or supplement being provided, and that "she'd just LOVE them!."]

There were NO tests run, and no suggestion to me verbally that any tests SHOULD be run before giving her the Rimadyl. When I paid my vet bill at the front desk, I was given a container of 20 Rimadyl tablets with a label that showed the clinic name, Dr. William’s name, Rimadyl, 1 tablet 2 times a day, the date [4/13/04] and "for arthritis"; he'd told me to get back to him and let him know how she did. [There's no doubt in my mind NOW that Dr. Williams knew or should have known full well what was going to be happening next and was already'distancing' himself from the fatal events he'd set into motion by his failure to provide any warning of the risks to me what-so-ever.]

The first couple of days were somewhat uneventful other than her doing a lot more sleeping than usual and seemed to be having some difficulty getting up into the bed that she normally shares with me at night. Then she began refusing regular food [highly unusual as she'd always had a very good appetite], would not come out of her crate [Romi only went into her crate occassionally, mostly when I was on the computer too long in her opinion!], seemed disoriented at times and began having problems walking, as though she was 'drunk'.

On 4/20/04 I called Dr. Williams and asked him if she could be having some sort of reaction to either the vaccination shots or the tablets and he said "that wasn't possible, something else was taking place", and since she wasn't able to walk well enough to go out to my van, much less get into it, and I couldn't physically carry or put her in the van, he suggested that I just 'keep an eye on her' and report to him how she was doing. [At NO time did Dr. Williams ever even suggest any treatment or emergency measures were indicated or appropriate, so I NOW believe that he KNEW what he'd caused and had NO intention of taking any 'responsibility' for it in any way, shape or form.]

On 4/20/04, I went on the Internet to look for the drug, Rimadyl, [when he had not initially been available to talk to me]to see if I could find any information [no information had been provided to me with the tablets, either verbal or written] and located this website: http://www.srdogs.com/ which had a lot information about Rimadyl reactions. [I was absolutely shocked at what I was reading- WHY would he have given me something dangerous like this? WHY didn't he warn me?]

I called Dr. Williams' office, [once again] was told he was not available and left a very long message for him with the receptionist, providing the website address, the drug company's phone number on the site, and the list of 'symptoms' my dog was having, which was basically everything listed [as she sounded extremely 'bored' with the long message, I don't know if she either wrote it down or bothered to give it to him]. He called me back that evening, said that I should keep on giving her the Rimadyl and because by then she'd kept getting worse and additionally now her right eye looked like it was turned back in her head, Dr. Williams gave the opinion that her eye problem was most likely due to a 'third eyelid' being irritated [the eye problem, nystagmus, was yet another classic symptom of Rimadyl toxicity I later learned from Pfizer's own information about the known possible side effects/reactions] and insisted there were no side effects to the Rimadyl, that it was 'totally safe', 'he'd used it a lot and never had any problems'. [I can't help but wonder how many other dogs he's missed the Rimadyl toxicity diagnosis on, how many others who have died as a result of the casual dispensing of Rimadyl and their owners were never told the truth about what their dog died of or were damaged by if they survived]

I told him that she was NOT getting any more of those tablets. At that point Romi had been given a total of 14 tablets, 6 days worth. He told me that was 'my choice' [to stop giving her the Rimadyl; his advise had been to KEEP ON giving it to her which is clearly contra-indicated in the information that Pfizer allegedly provides to veterinarians with every shipment of Rimadyl] and to let him know if stopping the Rimadyl made any difference. [What I had no way of knowing THEN was that too much damage had most likely already occurred, but Dr. Williams certainly should have known, and perhaps that's why he continued to DENY any relation of her condition and symptoms to the Rimadyl and offered no treatment information or suggestions of any sort.]

After a couple of days off the Rimadyl, she began to improve, but only minimally. Then she began to get even worse and at one point when she was trying to walk, she looked like the 'downer cows' shown on the TV video about 'mad cow disease'. I called Dr. Williams again and he said that he'd gone to the website that I'd provided, told me that 'anybody could set up a website and say anything they felt like, but that didn't make it true' and I told him that I agreed with his statement and but felt that it also could apply to the drug company as well. [how many pet owners are going to knowingly give their beloved pet a drug or medication IF they are AWARE of the potential risks/side effects? It would have had to have been a last resort type of choice made by ME to help ROMI for something much more serious and/or life-threatening to her than the alleged possible touch of arthritis, and I now beloeve that the 'decision' to put ROMI's LIFE in danger was NOT made in HER 'best interests', but in the FINANCIAL INTERESTS of both the veterinarian and the drug company.]

About two [2] days after my having stopped giving her the Rimadyl [4/22/04], she seemed to improve, but only minimally and she still couldn't walk very well and there was no way I could pick her up to take her in to the vets to be examined. She had started drinking some water again from a little cup and would eat a couple of bites of meat from a spoon. Her right eye looked a little better and was no longer oozing pus. A couple days after that [4/24/04] she began 'going downhill' again, refusing both food and water, staying in her crate and sleeping most of the time.

On Saturday morning, 4/24/04 I went to Dr. Williams' office, the Burien Veterinary Clinic, he was apparently not available and I didn't have an appointment, and asked if they had any phone numbers or information regarding some way of getting her transported to their office as according to the website, doing an IV drip of Ringer's Lactate and antibiotics might help her. I was told that they closed at noon [it was approximately 9:30 a.m. then], and was given two phone numbers, after the receptionist went to the 'back' to 'see if she could find out the information I wanted' to try calling phone numbers for vets who might make 'house calls'. I went home and began calling but was not able to make any headway on either a 'house call' for Romi or any other way to get her transported to an emergency facility [including Animal Control who informed me they only picked up dead dogs, not sick ones; and METRO's Senior Citizen Access line, where I got a recording giving their office hours of Monday-Friday, 9-5.]

I finally found and asked two burly young men from the neighborhood if they could/would carry Romi in her crate out to my van, and they agreed to do so for 'beer money'. I rushed her to an Emergency Pet facility nearby, told them I strongly suspected that she was having a toxic reaction to the drug Rimadyl and provided them with the website information and what had been happening since she'd begun the Rimadyl on 4/13/04.

Romi was examined by Dr. Hammond, 5-Corners Veterinary Clinic, [a 24/7 emergency facility, that I LATER learned Dr. Williams 'referred' his 'emergency cases' to, but I had learned of them through the yellow pages and calling around to learn what-all facilities had what in the way of services.] and tests were started and after the testing and x-rays were done she was allegedly put on the IV drip [although I was not allowed to see any of that]. The main concern of Dr. Hammond, who examined her there, was her 'eyes', in that it appeared she was very dizzy, disoriented, and there were 'unusual' eye movements occurring that the Dr. Hammond thought were possible indications of a serious neurological problem, 'something bad going on in her brain'. [this is the 'nystagmus', a classic symptom of Rimadyl toxicity, that I later learned about] By this time it was probably around 5:00 p.m. and they told me that I could call them about 9:00 p.m. to check and see how she was doing. When I called them at 9:00 p.m. that night, I was told that she was 'resting comfortably', was on the IV drip and that it was a 'wait and see' matter.

At around 4:00 a.m. Sunday morning, 4/25/04, they called me and told me that she 'was failing fast' and I rushed over there. She was basically 'comatose', totally unresponsive to anything around her and just doing very labored breathing, her muzzle was resting in a plastic cone providing oxygen, although she was not tubed. The vet on duty at that time, Dr. Meyer, said it was time to make a decision as to whether to do CPR or not. Upon my asking, Dr. Meyer told me that CPR would not do anything towards fixing whatever the neurological problem was and that whatever the neurological problem was 'very severe', [while I certainly do NOT have any medical/veterinarian expertise/training, as far as I've been able to learn, CPR is given for the purpose of restarting the HEART, to restart BREATHING; it is NOT done as a way to bring a comatose patient out of a coma - I can only assume now that the 'choice' of doing CPR was offered as a way to MAKE MORE MONEY] so I agreed to have her euthanized with the understanding from Dr. Meyer that they would help me make the necessary arrangements for a necropsy to be performed and that what they used for the euthanizing would NOT interfere or compromise the necropsy in any way. The emergency facility made the arrangements with an [alleged] independent laboratory for the necropsy and the necropsy results should be available by Friday, 4/30/04. I also requested that they run a second set of the tests for comparison before beginning the euthanesia and they drew the blood for that. [the original lab tests done showed 'off the chart' elevations in liver function, another clue of massive toxicity; the 2nd set of lab tests, done 12 hours later, showed a marked REDUCTION of the liver function elevations, which SHOULD have been an indication to a competent/knowledgable vet, that Romi was POSITIVELY RESPONDING to the 'flushing out' of her system provided by the IVs.] At my request took off Romi's collar and gave it to me when Romi had stopped breathing.

I went outside the building for a few minutes to compose myself and when I returned to the building, someone who's name I do not know but who appeared to be an assistant and/or office person told me that they needed to have $1,100.00 right then and there before she'd make any call to arrange for the necropsy. When I asked why it would be more than twice the 'ball park' figure Dr. Meyer had stated, this 'person' said that the extra amount was required in order to properly 'refrigerate' Romi, that they didn't have anything large enough to hold Romi in until the necropsy people could arrive to pick her up and that meant a 'whole lot of ice' would be needed. I told the 'person' to go ahead and make the call to arrange for the necropsy, which she did after I first paid the sum of $990.00 [having been given a 10% senior citizen 'discount'] and I was told that the results of the necropsy could be expected by Thursday, 4/29/07 or Friday 4/30/04 at the latest and I could call into the ER facility at that time to find out what had been determined.

When I got the necropsy report I could not understand what it 'meant' and after a series of phone calls to be able to get an explanation of the necropsy report [I was told by the ER staff folks that Dr. Hammond was THE ONLY PERSON who could/would tell me anything] on 5/3/04 I finally I got a verbal 'interpretation/explanation' on the telephone from the ER vet/Hammond, and when I kept persisting to know what the report meant as to the cause of Romi's death as PER the necropsy report [other than 'death by euthanasia'] I was given the explanation by Dr. Hammond of:

[from the ER facilities OWN hand written records] which the ER vet, Hammond, verbally claimed meant that there WAS no known 'cause' of any of it, that it was 'most likely just old age' and too many problems for Romi to cope with at one time and to 'survive'.

While I do not have any training/expertise in veterinary medicine, the explanation[s] for Romi's death and her conditions did not make any 'common sense' to me. As of date of this posting (9/22/04) I have received no clear answers, have filed a multiple part complaint with the Washington State Vet Board which is pending, was refused to be allowed to speak to the veterinarian who allegedly performed the necropsy, was told by the person who claims that she represents the lab, Phoenix Central Laboratory in Everett, Washington, that she would confirm/verify the location/condition of ROMI's 'bits and pieces' including ROMI's 'frozen carcass', as I wanted a 2nd necropsy and DNA Identification done, and she won't respond to either confirm or deny anything [which I now suspect is due to the evidence as to the real cause of ROMI's death being covered up and/or destroyed]. Feel free to view Romi's full ongoing story at: http://rimadyldeath.com/

Ginger Sanchez