6 years ago
If you have a dog, then you know how important it is to give him heartworm medicine. But a new drug to fight deadly heartworms may be hurting some canines.
ProHeart 6, which is given by injection has been on the market for three years. It was designed to make things easier for dog owners who may forget to give the medicine. But now some dog owners, including one in Herndon, say ProHeart 6 killed their pet.
Madeline Shrader and her daughter Gabby have been heart broken ever since losing their fluffy White American Eskimo Rocco.
When the puppy was 11 months old, their veterinarian in Sterling gave Rocco a new heart worm medicine called ProHeart 6. The injection has to be given by a vet every six months, as opposed to the more common monthly chewable tablets given at home. Shrader says the injection left Rocco lethargic, and two days later the seizures began.
A Great Falls vet helped calm down and temporarily stop the seizures. They started again.
On March 15th, one month after receiving the ProHeart 6 injection, Rocco had his most violent seizures. At the vet referral center, South Paws, the seizures got worse. His condition got so bad he had to be put to sleep.
South Paws neurologist Dr. Betsy Dayrell-Hart says there's no way to determine whether ProHeart 6 caused the seizures. Dr. Juan Valar of McLean Animal Hospital says they don't carry ProHeart 6 anymore -mainly because his clients didn't want it. But he says any kind of medication can have side effects.
The FDA has logged some four thousand complaints alleging adverse reactions to ProHeart 6. Of those - 400 dogs have died, but the company says only nine of those deaths have been conclusively linked to ProHeart 6. The company says that's out of 16 million doses sold.
Written by 9 News
