Holden Veterinary Clinic, A Thrive Pet Healthcare Partner

I brought my elderly dog to the clinic as he was having some new issues. While his issues were unknown he was not in immediate medical urgency. We scheduled a time for x-rays the following week and , because of dental issues, he was given a shot of Convenia, a 2 week antibiotic despite not having actually confirmed an active infection. My dog is easy to pill and this shot turned out to be extremely poor judgement given his age and known health issues. He was still quite lively, engaged, eating , drinking when he went in, and within 4 days he was physically destroyed by this drug, as MANY animals have experienced. I don't know why he was given a shot that ,given he was having very sporadic, short seizures, a drug that is acknowledged to cause them.

Here is known, reported adverse reactions to this drug in foreign markets, from the drug label itself:



FOREIGN MARKET EXPERIENCE: The following adverse events were reported voluntarily during post-approval use of the product in dogs and cats in foreign markets:DEATH,TREMORS/ATAXIA, SEIZURES, anaphylaxis, acute pulmonary edema, facial edema, injection site reactions (alopecia, scabs, necrosis, and erythema), hemolytic anemia, salivation, pruritus, lethargy, vomiting, diarrhea, and inappetance.

Research the drug and you will discover many pets of all ages have died from this drug, as mine did. Despite claiming that they haven't seen a reaction to it in their practice, I was told he died of something he hadn't even been diagnosed with, by this or any other vet.



Please do yourself a favor; make sure your pet never receives this drug- even if some animals get it without complication, they haven't determined why some animals both young and old and otherwise healthy have this reaction. While any reaction to a drug can occur, very few that list DEATH as a first reaction should be used lightly.



Barring that, check on every drug your vet wishes to administer and demand informed consent. After speaking with my former long term vet out of state and the emergency vet who euthanized my darling dog, I've since learned that many vets do not use this drug because it is deeply toxic to a lot of animals and they don't know why. One Dr claiming they never saw a reaction to it has no bearing in medicine, and with animals it's very easy to declare a pet died because of something else because very few go forward with an expensive necropsy. I had no choice but to euthanize him as he was so quickly destroyed by a drug that has done the exact same thing to hundreds of animals. It was not a RARE reaction.



My dog suffered horribly before his passing, and while I know he wouldn't have lived forever, he would not have died in the manner he did and would still be here today, sleeping at my feet and being deeply loved.