"Noodles", a Golden Retriever, 9 ½ years of age, was brought into our veterinarian on January 11, 2001 in mature but apparent good health .... except for a limp due to apparent arthritic soreness in her left shoulder. There had been no previous indication of arthritis. After a normal x-ray, she was treated with a prescription of 112 mg of Rimadyl per day, the Pfizer non-steroid anti-inflammatory. Noodles was given the medication for only a day and a half, a total of 187 milligrams. Noodles limp stopped almost immediately and we stopped giving her the medication.

Fourteen days later, on January 25th, in less than a two hour period, both of her eyes hemorrhaged, filling her eyes entirely with blood, causing complete blindness. We rushed her to the animal emergency hospital where a blood test was run, finding that her platelet count was 68,000 vs a normal of 175,000 and her red blood count was 24 vs. a normal of, I think, 40. The next morning her eyes were 80% cleared and she was acting fatigued but fairly normal. Our veterinarian immediately put her on 125 milligrams of prednisone daily to boost her platelet and red blood cell production but did not mention the option of giving her anti-rejection drugs to reverse the trigger of her auto-immune system, only that the Rrimadyl had possibly caused an adverse reaction and only that she needed prednisone to stimulate her blood cell production.

Probably ........ if we would have had a blood test prior to the prescription of Rimadyl, we would have known that the blood count had not been a lingering problem ..... that the Rimadyl reaction needed some anti-autoimmune treatment immediately. After blood tests, approximately twice per week, and continually dropping blood counts over a 2 week period, on February 13, 2001 she was prescribed 50 milligrams of Cytoxan daily and 300 milligrams of Danazol HCL daily to possibly preclude the production of more anti-bodies and stimulate the production of red blood cells.

After three days of those drugs and continual non-response to the drugs, resulting in a red blood count of 10 and a platelet count of 10,000, on February 16, 2001 .... a transfusion with either blood plasma or an enhanced oxygen carrying agent was considered, but all parties concluded that her heart and mind were now too damaged to expect a recovery.

We put her to sleep at 1:00pm Saturday, February 17, 2001.

My family is distraught over the loss of our beloved companion and the sick feeling that the Rimadyl, administered simply for a limp ....... triggered an inappropriate reaction by her immune system.

Possibly ...... if we had known to treat her auto-immune reaction immediately with anti-rejection drugs administered Intravenous on January 26th, maybe .... she would have had a chance.

Subsequent to putting her to sleep, I learned from my vet that Pfizer had requested a full blood workup of 7 or 8 tests to eliminate all other possibilities causing the auto-immune problem.

All tests were negative.

John Skalet