Sorry Gina, couldn’t resist. I finally came down with the nasty URI that my kids had and am wheezing, hacking and coughing my way through. With lots of nice asthma meds. And loads of self pity ‘cause I don’t get any sympathy from anyone here.

Jay in fact just started laughing at me because if I feel the cough coming, I instantly squat to take the pressure off of my lower back while I’m trying to hack up a lung. Doctors have ALWAYS seen people sicker than you.

I guess what I’m saying is I feel your pain. :) Get better quick!

What does this have to do with Rabbits?

Well, anytime Coco had health issues my bff and I mull over why, how, what do we think of the vet, we recap every nutritional aspect of our pet’s care… and generally support each other’s worries. Tonight I was speaking with my bff who knows everything about dogs, cats, rabbits, etc. She said her partner’s dog also was diagnosed for epilepsy after seizure cluster. But…it turned out the seizures were caused by a worm from their pet bunny. Weird. I have rabbits who live outside in hutch (so we nixed the theory my dog caught this worm.) I’ll have to check the HRS webpage to see if they have any info.

p.s. I love the House Rabbit site. I am so glad Petconnection also likes it. When I first started taking in rabbits who have head tilt I went to the House Rabbit site and loved it.

I don’t. I am flat-out and completely dependent on a combination of asthma drugs for my being alive and staying that way. My “choice” isn’t one, unless you consider “death” to be a viable option.

As for pain, well, not only have people who “never take anything” likely not known real chronic pain, but also as we’ve written on this blog, “toughing it out” prolongs the healing process. Effective multi-modal pain control is good medicine, for humans and animals.

My brother was one of those “tough out the pain” characters, until he caught Guillain-Barre syndrome which triggered cascading diabetic neuropathy. His pain was so bad that he kept his finger on the morphine button for days watching the clock for when it would let him get some and prayed for death to relief him of his suffering.

He survived, but he isn’t anti-pain meds anymore.

What Lis says is also true: No drug can ever be 100 percent safe. We need to discuss medications with our doctors/veterinarians/pharmacists, do our own research and get our questions answered, and then make informed healthcare decisions for ourselves and our pets.

I do normal precautionary things. If a dog needs more pain control and we are considering a prescription NSAID, we do a full work up. In an elderly dog, we ultrasound and xray too.

I only give the drugs with food. I watch the dogs closely and do any follow up testing is recommended.

We had one rescue we adopted who had a severely arthritic elbow that went on rimadyl at age 5. Under the orthopedist care, we ended up on a rotational schedule using all the big gun oral NSAIDS. She lived 13 years and was active until her last few months.

I was in the “no nasty prescription painkillers for me” camp. The I had a bout of meningitis. Then I severely ruptured a lumbar disc. Neurogenic pain will make you rethink your convictions

I realize that I could have an NSAID disaster, but I can honestly say that other than one friend whose young dog had a gastrointestinal reaction on Deramaxx, I can’t recall anyone I know having a serious issue.

One thing not mentioned so far, MANY of the severe and fatal events related in the thread involve elderly animals. A “normal” BUN or other normal readings on blood work do not mean that these organs are always normal or fully functional. Neither we nor our pets need much functioning kidney tissue to have normal blood work. Digestive systems are more friable in the elderly. It’s why we do the extra ultrasound and films in oldsters.

My heart goes out to anyone who has lost a pet, young or old, to an NSAID reaction. But chronic or severe pain must be addressed. I will always discuss the risks with my vet. always be nervous at first with new meds, but there is a lot of good done by this same class of drugs for both people and pets.

What I should have written above is that I didn’t realize Metacam caused such serious side effects and so quickly. Again, I knew about the potential for ulcers, which is a pretty bad thing, but in rabbits at least it seems to take time for that problem to develop. The immediate reactions described in this thread really surprised me.

You need to ask about possible side effects, and what symptoms would be signs of serious side effects. For ANY drug. For yourself, too.

But the fact that Really Bad Adverse Effects are possible in some cases, does not mean that prescribing the drug is never justified.

http://www.petconnection.com/blog/?s=NSAIDs+FDA