Caution About Convenia- Antibiotic Shot

[kudzu]

The world isn't black & white. There are times when the seemingly ideal thing is not actually an ideal solution because other conditions are far less than ideal. I know of a number of situations where injectable antibiotics where the better solution for reasons other than "lazy" ones. Just because someone has not experienced such does not mean they do not exist.

[Guest mee23]

I am late to this discussion, however I think no one should use convenia at all, it should be taken off the market. My cat recently passed on wednesday. she became ill with a cold. we treated it at home with antibiotic left over and an antihistamine as instructed by our vet. when it did not respond we took her in- a different doc saw her and gave her a convenia shot and fluids. she became much worse. the injection was on a monday- she was anemic by sunday, and she passed the next wednesday. She was seen by 7 different doctors in 3 different hospitals in 1.5 wks and no one could save her. We believe she also had lymphoma or liver cancer due to an ultrasound exam and she had tested positive for felv that week so she may have passed anyway, but there was NO sign of anemia until one week after convenia and her health deteriorated rapidly after that.

 

I plan to make a report to Pfizer and I will ask my veterinarian to do the same. Convenia isn't safe, please don't risk your cat or dog's life with this drug. Btw I am not lazy, I was hesitant about convenia when her doc first mentioned it and we went with another antibiotic instead, but she had a hard time with pills, so I thought this would be easier for her, but I wish I had never let them give her that shot regardless of the outcome. It did nothing to help anyway, she ended up with a sky high fever while she was on it.

[tbhounds]

I'm sorry your cat passed :-(. But, to completely blame it on the convenia injection is unjust. You stated your cat may have had lymphoma and was positive for felv. Either one of this two could cause anemia as theY are both very serious diseases.. I understand that a very, very rare cat may develop anemia after convenia use but, to make a blanket statement that the medication cause your cats death just might not be true.

[philospher77]

First off, I have used this drug with my cats. I have one that is very wiggly, with a very sleek coat, and she is very difficult to contain when she wants to get loose. Even the vets sometimes have issues with her, and we have learned to do some of the physical checks with her in very odd positions. Trying to get pills in her is pretty much impossible. So yes, I go with the shot so that she gets the full course of antibiotics, rather than the spotty, occasionally skipped days, shorter course that she would get if I tried to pill her.

 

As to saying that the drug shouldn't be used to treat most animals, because it's only approved for skin infections, welcome to the world of medicine. Many, many drugs are used off-label, because the costs of getting approved for all the various things that they can treat is astronomically high. Convenia is a cephalosporin class antibiotic, and it is perfectly reasonable to expect it to treat the same sort of things that other cephalosporins do. So companies get a drug (or device) approved for a certain indication, knowing that they have to have some sort of proof for FDA to approve it, but also knowing that the doctors will decide to use the product off-label. (FDA doesn't have the power to regulate the practice of medicine, so there is nothing they can do about that.) In some cases, the "gold standard" medical treatment for a particular issue is an off-label use of a particular drug.

 

And finally, while my heart goes out to the families who have lost pets, I know how easy it is to say "the last thing done is what killed them", when that may not be true at all. And four deaths, while tragic, has to be compared to the number of pets who have taken the drug and not died (which, I admit, I don't know). Hundreds, thousands, millions? And then you have to consider how many of those pets might have died without the drug (once again, numbers that I do not know).

 

No drug, device, or medical treatment is 100% safe. We hedge our bets by trying to make sure that we don't have the predisposing factors for the adverse events (in this case, penicillin sensitivities, which can, unfortunately, appear in people/pets who weren't sensitive previously), and, quite often, just assume that we are not going to be in the 0.0001% that have the serious adverse reaction. But someone is, and the fact that you happen to be the one person who suffers serious adverse affects, does not change the fact that, in general and for most people, the outcome is good.

 

I'm not saying you should blindly trust every medicine. It's good to be informed, and to make decisions based upon the risks and benefits of the product. Newer is not always better, but neither is older. It's just as bad to say that Convenia should be banned because of the four deaths as it is to say that everyone should use it because it is more convenient.

 

I will say that I strongly encourage anyone who thinks that they, their pet, a family member, etc, has suffered an adverse event due to a drug or device, that they report the problem to the manufacturer and FDA. Try to supply as much information as possible, which may mean a necropsy is needed. "Your drug killed my pet" does not give a company much to research, and it will be reported, but will, quite likely, be written off as "not enough information provided to determine if the drug was the cause." "After using your drug, my pet went into convulsions, and eventually died. Here's my vet's phone number so that you can get the records." is much more likely to be acted on. Here's the link to how to report adverse reactions: http://www.fda.gov/Safety/ReportaProblem/ucm059044.htm

[Guest OPointyDog]

We've used convenia with one of our cats after her dentals. She has horrendous teeth (only 6 left!). It's made a huge positive difference for her care and recovery because every other antibiotic we've ever given her has given her raging diarrhea to the point that her anal area gets red, inflamed and infected. She's had to have sub-Q shots from not wanting to drink after the dental, and yet having diarrhea so losing fluid. With convenia, we have no diahhrea. It's made it so much better for her recovery. Our vet recommended convenia because it's known to have many fewer G/I issues for sensitive animals.