|
Medication Pros & Cons
(Answer)
Let me say first that I am certainly sorry that your dog has lost its hearing following the use of Mometamax. Our society has become a drug-based culture that relies on medication to solve most of our problems from functional issues to disease processes to emotional abnormalities. Fortunately, the Food and Drug Administration has responded to this flood of new drugs with strict testing for both efficacy and toxicity.
With this in mind you need to understand that as veterinarians in clinical practice we must weigh the benefit of a drug to the potential for adverse reactions. We also read the package insert as you did, using it as a guideline for therapy.
We supplement this information with continuing education courses and scientific articles published in various periodicals.
If it sounds like I’m defending veterinary medicine, you are right. If we rejected every drug that has been reported to have an adverse reaction we would have nothing but warm water to treat disease. Again, I am sorry your dog has suffered from the use of Mometamax. I have used many doses of this drug in my practice and have never experienced an adverse reaction with it.
(Question)
I have a three-year-old German shorthair whom at two years was diagnosed with Addison’s disease. She takes a 5mg prednisone pill each day and gets a Percorten injection every 25 days.
When she first got sick her hair grew very long. Her problem now is that she grows very little hair from the center of her sides to the middle of her legs. She gets very chafed and cut up when she hunts because she has so little hair.
My vet says her weird hair growth is due to her disease. She is also very prone to eye infections. Can you please give us any help? --RB
(Answer)
Both the disease and the drugs used to treat it will affect the skin and hair quality. I would concentrate on keeping the disease process under control the best you can and then worry about the thin skin and sparse hair.
Try using a vest during training and hunting sessions. These are not the easiest things to manage but they do work fairly well. Some hair coat supplements might also help. The ones I use are Zinpro and fatty acids. Human skin moisturizing creams can also be used if the skin becomes dry and cracked.
Contact Tom Holcomb, DVM, at: htholcombdvm@qwest.net.
|
