Convenia: A Dangerous Veterinary Drug: Please don't ever use this drug for your cats and dogs!

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41

I have not made any personal attacks here, as have the two of you. How is that lacking tact? I have not said “you are not welcome here” as has been said. How is that lacking tolerance? No, I didn’t develop the drugs in question, nor on the FDA board reviewing its double blind controlled studies. Never said I was. But I am not just “giving the drug” without knowing anything about them. Far from it. My drug reps would tell you I am a royal PITA because I question and research every drug to the point that I don’t give certain drugs they swear by, like ProHeart, Rimadyl, Deramaxx. I don’t vaccinate for every known disease when the pet is not at risk for the disease, and I never, never take at face value all the promises the drug companies make as to the efficacy and safety of their products.

My only point, and I am going to say it for the 3rd and final time before I delete my account: every drug has side effects. Every single drug. There is always a risk vs. reward choice.

The pet in question had cancer, by the necropsy results posted. Yet, somehow Convenia caused all the problems.

Of course, I, like logic and truth, are not welcome here.

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42

Do not use Convenia long acting antibiotics for your dogs or cats i took my dog to the vet for her skin problem and was only there 2 weeks before as my dog took a seizure and she insisted on giving Convenia l asked if it would cause a seizure she said it should not with in hours my dog had 9 seizures within 24 hours they were controlled by naturpath medicine and they went and gave her this Convenia I will never take my dog to vets again tablets would if cost 20 but injection cost 360 it was greed that was the motivating factor why not exercise caution and give tablets which you can stop my dog had ataxia as well for nearly 2 weeks! It has been heartbreaking to watch my dog suffer it nearly killed her! Animal naturpaths have formula for skin problems and nearly everything else!

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43

Hello all,

Registered because this seems to be the only thread on the internet I can find discussing Convenia.

Our cat (3 years old) had an abcess on the side of the face after getting into a fight, so the vet gave him anti biotics (oral liquid) which the cat would not let us give him, so they gave him the Convenia injection (even though he was fine in himself and the abcess had nearly cleared).

After a couple of days he would not eat (not like him) and was drinking a lot, and started urinating in strange places. We took him back to the vets and they wanted to keep him in to run some tests.

Got a phonecall to say his kidneys had failed (over 70% failure), but after 2 days on drips he has come back around and is eating again. We have just picked him up and they said this is “make or break” to see if he will be OK or if he will go back to not eating), but they have still not admitted it is related to Convenia.

We are in the UK so not sure if it’s a new drug here or not?

Any advice, thanks all.

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I have no experience with Convenia, but when I had a dog go into severe kidney failure from an antibiotic we had to lower his protein way down, extremely so to save his life and do fluids once a day for a couple of weeks. It wasn’t an IV per se as it was subcutaneous administered fluids at home… His kidneys did start working again although they were permanently damaged. He had to stay on a restricted protein diet after that.

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45

Hello,
I’m reading this thread freaking out!
Ok so my cat had a tooth infection so the vet gave her convenia

She was lethargic already the day before I’m guessing because of her tooth

So after the convenia she was lethargic and wasn’t eating much
She pretty much didn’t get up the entire day

Next day(today) she got up ate a good amount and went outside walked down the fencline ect. So it’s like she had energy

I’ve also taken her Respiratory rate and heart rate several times and everything has been normal

So my question is would she be lethargic the entire time would she even be eating or going outside

Anyways idk if I’m Overreacting or not I’m just reading how some people’s cats died nine days later so I’m wondering how their behavior was in those nine days

46

I would be careful, lethargy can be a sign of a few side effects, some serious.

47

Sounds like the lethargy was most likely still because of the infection, if she’s doing better now. Antibiotics take a little while to work. Keep an eye on her of course, but if she seems fine now, I’d guess she’s probably fine and it’s working as it should be. (Not a vet, so not veterinary advice.)

48

Hi, I am from Brazil and in 2015 I lost my cat to CONVENIA.
She had a urinary infection and had CKD at the time but, although she was refusing to use the litter and to eat on the day, she was acting normal.
I took her to the vet and she was prescribed amoxicilin which had done the job up to the 7th day of treatment when she developed high fever again.
As she was a very nervous cat, they decided to give her CONVENIA and I had no information on the drug. I wish I had.
The following day she was drooling and completely miserable, not eating or drinking, so they decided to put her a feed tube.
This very same day at night they run a blood test that turned out to be a nightmare, she was very anemic! How could this happen if some 5 days before the bloodwork was fine except for the creatinine and BUN?
She had to have a blood transfusion urgently at this very same night. Between ten days she was hospitalized and received 6 blood transfusion, one every other day. At that point her kidney started to give up and on the 10th day she was gone.
She went from a perfect CKD cat (10 years old) to death within 10 days of the CONVENIA shot.
I am not a doctor, I am pharmacist, and sorry, its too much evidence and too much cases related to this drug to not connect the dots.
In my cats files now I wrote: NO CONVENIA UNDER ANY CIRCUSTANCES!

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49

Dear pet lovers: my cat was put on convenia for a really bad urinary tract infection 8 days ago now, which got him dehydrated as well. I can’t begin to explain my frustration on this issue. They did blood work, gave him fluids and kept him overnight. They said his bloodwork came back pretty good, with him being slightly anemic and a high white cell count due to the infection and that I could pick him up in the morning and they would send him home with some antibitoics.

I went early the next morning to pick him up, because the last thing I wanted him to feel was that I may have abandoned him in a strange place. I paid them their $350 and they gave me his crate without any meds…so I aksed weren’t they suppose to give me his antibiotics? This is when they told me they are using an injectionable antibiotic so pet owners don’t have to try and pill the cats, less stress for everyone and he’s assured his dose for the next 14 days without interruption, so we went home.

I noticed right away that all he wanted to do was sleep and was/is pretty lethargic, so I continued syringing him his water, vitamins called rebound, and offering him food all throughout the day/night, getting very little sleep myself, but he’s my cat! After a few more days, I thought I would see an improvement, yet he was not doing any better and still would not drink on his own and eating less, so I called on that Saturday morning and let them know he’s still not drinking on his own and is very lethargic and still dehydrated! I told them that a friend said that many pet owners actually IV at home and if they could do this for my cat…I had to wait until his vet got back in on Monday!! Financially I could not afford another another vet to start this crap all over again, so I stayed up with him like I had already been doing because I felt like I was about to lose him… giving him water, vitamins and even some oxygen drops (biomolecular) that I keep handy for whenever we get sick ourselves. On Monday I call early and they get me in and show me how to IV him and I have been doing this for the last 3 days. My sweet boy is hanging in there, but I decided to start him on a natural antibiotic and still syringe him water until he does this on his own. I’m also giving him probiotics.

What I find very unacceptable is that I was never given a choice nor were ANY sideffects EVER mentioned to me so I could decide for him! Our pets rely on us, and for these vets to not bother saying anything…I’m sorry, but that should be a crime, as they are suppose to care enough to save a life, and not destroy it!

Please keep my boy max in your prayers for me. That he pulls through this nightmare!

Thank you and I pray your furr babies are healthy and get healthy!

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50

I am so sorry @virginia. I pray your cat pulls through and gets better. Big Hugs.

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Thank you so much Marie :two_hearts: I take him out each day for a bit of sun and he loves messing with the grass, then I bring him back in. I’m mama cat right now for him because he can’t exactly clean himself and I know how cats demand they stay clean, so I do it for him. He’s still with us, so I am blessed to have such stewardship for this beautiful bengal cat!

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52

Hello, first of all I’m so sorry for your loss & thank you for taking the time to post info about this.
My 3 y/o dachshund developed a nasty cough about 9 days ago. The vet prescribed cefaloxine which cause him to vomit any food he ate. His caugh was not improving & after 2 days he got a shot of convenia. The next couple of days he’s been lethargic & started drinking more water than usual but his appetite is still pretty good.
At night he starts whining & seems uneasy. As soon as I read this forum I poured fortiflora over his diner. I’m worried about his liver since he’s been drinking more water & have been lethargic. Before he was shot with convenia his bloodwork came out fine as well as the X rays. Just not sure what to do or how to help his body get rid of convenia. He’s 15 lbs, not sure how much apple cider vinegar should I give him.

Thank you

53

I just lost my baby, Boo early Wednesday morning. He would’ve been 14 in Dec. We took him to the vet initially on the 28th(Friday) for weight loss and loss of appetite. The vet did blood work and took X-rays. Couldn’t find anything that would cause him to not eat but said he was anemic and had Spondylosis and part of his spinal cord was inflamed and was nothing he had ever seen before. We specifically asked about all his organs especially his heart and the vet said they all looked good. They gave him a B-12 shot, an Epogen injection and Convenia injection. Sent us home with prednisone and an appetite stimulant. We were to take him back a week later. Friday night after the vet visit he was fine, playing, running, just his happy little self. After that night he went down hill fast. He started not wanting to walk, we carried him everywhere. He was very lethargic and would only eat table food. Tuesday night when I got home from work I noticed he was breathing fast and seemed worse. He tried to walk to his water bowl twice and his legs gave out both times and he just laid there. I had to carry him to get water. That night I took him to bed with me around 9:30 and intended to take him to the vet the next morning. Around 11:30 he woke up and wanted water. I carried him to his bowl and set him down where he collapsed completely, I scooped him up and his whole body was limp. His face was froze and his heart and breathing completely stopped for about 30 sec. He came back around and we rushed him to an emergency vet in Memphis. They told us there he had a heart murmur, congestive heart failure, an enlarged heart and a mass in his stomach that was likely cancer but they couldn’t be sure. We decided to take him home still intending on taking him to his vet the next morning. I laid down again with him around 2am, I woke up at 5am and he had passed within a few min before me waking up. There was nothing I could do for him. I’m now wondering if it wasn’t the Convenia injection that killed him, or an incompetent vet that missed all the things we were later told he had. My heart is completely shattered and I don’t know what to do. I feel like my baby suffered unnecessarily. Am I making too much out of this?!?

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54

@Stefani Huge hugs. I don’t know why your precious Boo died. I have now lost a couple of pets to vet incompetency. I just lost a precious pet last December to a vet saying my dog needed immediate preventative emergency surgery and it turns out she didn’t and she died from surgery complications a couple of days later. Something was going on with her and she might have died anyways, and if I hadn’t done the surgery and she died I would have been wondering if I should have done the surgery? All we can do is try to make the best decisions we can with the information we have and unfortunately that includes relying on a vet.

They say as we get older the death of pets hits us harder and that a death of a pet can be as bad as a death of a loved one. I am still reeling from the death of mine and can only rely on time to help. There was a woman here that handles pet cremations and does brief grief counseling as she lost a beloved pet too and felt guilt and loss and said there was a need for people to talk to someone. And one of the first things she said is to let go of the guilt as much as you can because you were trying to make the best decision you could. But the other thing is it can take as long as it takes to deal with the grief that she was a total mess for over a month of constant crying and not sleeping well (I was too) and that grief can take a long time and everyone deals with it differently.

So many hugs your way, I can’t help you about the vet, but you’re not alone in feeling the guilt about what your pet went through and how devastating it can be.

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55

I could really use some external views on what I have been dealing with these last few days when it comes to convenia.

On Friday 12/29 I took my cat Mr. Max (13.5yo M) to the vet for a suspected UTI and abnormal weight loss. They ran a urinalysis which they said showed an infection and a thickening of the bladder wall. I was told there was some RBC in his urine but not enough to be of concern. They gave Mr. Max an appetite stimulant, anti nausea injection, and a CONVENIA injection. I asked about symptoms of side effects I should look out for and was told not to worry about it. I paid and went home. It was Saturday 12/30 around 9 pm when Mr. Max finally ate on his own again and I thought he was getting better.

He was still looking fine at 3am on Sunday 12/31, but I was woken up at about 7am to the sound of him under my bed, writhing and crying out in pain. His hind legs had stopped working and he was breathing rapidly with his tongue hanging out of his mouth. I wrapped him in a blanket and held him and within 20 minutes he passed away in my arms. I am completely and utterly heartbroken. My mom drove 5 hours to be with me during the aftermath of this ordeal.

Since it was a Sunday and holiday weekend the vet wasn’t going to open till Tuesday 1/2 all my mom and I could do was head to google. And all we found were horror stories about Convenia. Horrible side effects, over prescribed for convenience and used off label.

After much research we compiled our notes and went to the vets office to discuss it Tuesday 1/2. We got nowhere with them, they basically tried to shift the blame off of themselves and said that none of what we read was proven as true and there’s no way to truly identify what killed my cat. But that they would have their medical director call me later to discuss more. We also discovered that the vet we saw on Friday was a recent graduate and had only been practicing a few months.

When I talked to the medical director, today 1/2, she did answer all my questions, albeit a bit defensively. I described everything from the vet appointment up till that moment. Based on what I told her, she would guess that he had a “saddle thrombus” blood clot that then traveled to his lungs or brain which is what then killed him.

But as we were going over his urinalysis results from Friday, something stuck out to me. She said that his RBC level was significant and of concern to her. But as I previously wrote, I was told on my 12/29 appointment that is was of no concern. His results said it was “greater than 50 hpf” RBC. My googling says that a range of 6-10 hpf is normal, so why did my Friday vet say it was of no concern?

So after everything, I think I may have pieced together a possible sequence of events that lead to Mr. Max’s death.

  1. Mr. Max had developed kidney disease over time due to age.
  2. Urinalysis showed high RBC count which inexperienced vet may have misread as 5 instead of 50.
  3. Misreading of results failed to identify kidney issue.
  4. Convenia antibiotic was prescribed and administered (Apparently it should not be given to cats who have kidney issues.)
  5. Mr. Max developed saddle thrombus/ blood clot as an adverse reaction to Convenia due to kidney issue.
  6. Blood clot caused hind leg paralysis and writhing pain.
  7. Eventual death from blood clot.

I could use some reassurance that I’m not crazy sounding and that based on everything that happened and has been talked about, that this sequence of events makes since.

All I can say is that I will ensure any future pets will NEVER be allowed to have Convenia for any reason. I went from a relatively healthy cat to a dead one in 36 hours. And now my soul pet is gone and there is nothing that can be done except advocate to others about the dangers of Convenia.