Friday, September 03, 2004

ProHeart6 recalled -- unfortunately one week to late

Last Thursday we took our dogs to the vets, today the FDA recalled the medicine we gave our dogs to prevent heartworm. As of right now we are not sure if our puppy (Riley) is having a reaction to the medicine or not. He has been itching feverishly for the last week and this has never happened to him before.

Some of the following are links to the websites and results of the ProHeart problems including the FDA recall:

FDA Recall Order
Local Chicago CBS2 News story
Local Chicago ABC7 News Story (the one that brought our attention to the story)
Warning page for all dog owners
Danny's Death - The Golden Retriever
A Concerned Vet speaks out

posted by t001z at 9/03/2004 11:54:00 PM

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

As a veterinarian my goal is to take care of your pets the best I can using the best meds available. I have been following the
info on Proheart6, and I was using it exclusive of all other heart worm meds. My patients have had some bad experiences with
the pills and remembering to give them to their pets on time. These meds are to protect your dog from a worm that eats their
heart. Something you never want to see or deal with. I ended up using up an entire weekend checking this out.
There have been 600 dog deaths and over 5,000 adverse reactions. That meant nothing to me. I needed to know how many dogs
got the injection. That information would put the deaths and adverse reactions into perspective for me. Dr. Glickman's Banfield report
finally released a report with some of that data. 735,654 dogs got the injection, in his study.
735,654 dogs were protected from worms eating their hearts and 0.29% died, Do the math. That would make Proheart about as risky as crossing the street, same odds.
So why has the FDA asked for a recall on PH6? At a meeting I was able to ask an FDA official about that. He said " we don't
look at the total number of of dogs it was administered to just the number of adverse reactions, and it was greater than any
of the other meds used for heart worm," and."we have never had hearings on veterinarian product before," that he could remember. I found a pdf that reports that half of the Advisory Committee has financial connections to the competition, Dr. John Glisson, Dr. Katrina L. Mealey, and Dr. Mark G Papich, and would be voting. http://www.fda.gov/cvm/Documents/VMACWinter05Trans.pdf
I just stared at him, the FDA was using a flawed methodology. They didn't know if it was given to 5,000 dogs or 100,000,000
dogs. And that makes a big difference.
If I had quit using the other meds and was using PH6 exclusively, then prob ally many other vets were doing the same. Now
stay with me here, fore the sake of argument lets say the three other meds were all having 3,000 adverse reactions EACH,
that would be 9,000 adverse reactions total. Now just for the sake of argument lets say Ph6 got 100% of the market, and the
other 3 had none, and PH6 got 5,000 adverse reactions. That is a significant improvement over the 9,000 previously, but the
FDA still took it off the market!
This just points out the FDA's method has nothing to do with safety, just looking at number of adverse reactions.
Is Ph6 good? Based on the number of dogs that received protection vs adverse reactions and no worry on my part about the
owners forgetting to give a pill, Ph6 is a God send.
A further look around the INTERNET shows almost everyone of the 600 owners that had a pet die put up a web site, strange.
There are many links pointing to a "proheart petition", I read it, nothing to do with Ph6.
http://www.google.com/search?q=proheart+petition&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.netscape:en-US&filter=0
petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/ProHeart/petition.html
And a Dr. Bob Rogers, and many links pointing to a "Proheart Class Action suit"/
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2005-22%2CGGLD%3Aen&q=class+action+%2Bproheart+%2Bdr+bob+rogers&btnG=Search
I read the suit and again nothing to do with
Ph6! http://www.childresslaw.net/CM/Custom/Custom52.asp
It feels like something funny is going on here.
I just want the best meds for heartworm, the statistics indicate it is Ph6.
What is going on, my patients are not getting my best because of the FDA and some wacko web sites.
The thing that confuses me is Fort Dodges's wimpy ATTITUDE to this Internet WHIPPING?
Board Certified DVM

10:45 PM, September 13, 2005  

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