My 8 & 1/2 year old girl, Fiona went in for a surgery on her leg (infiltrating lipoma/adnexal nevis) July 19th. Since I was out of town from July 21st to July 23rd, I left her boarded at the specialty hospital. She was on a Fentanyl pain patch, and was getting injections of hydromorphone, and getting Tramadol orally for pain management. No problems, and they decided to send her home on Tramadol and Rimadyl 75mg. for 5 days. The Rimadyl dose was actually on the low side. I gave her every dose except for one, so technically she was only on it 4 & 1/2 days. Two days later she started vomiting, so thinking it was the antibiotics, I fed her a bland diet and lowered the dose. Vomiting was intermittent, and she seemed fine otherwise, even doing the butt tuck one afternoon!
After she had been off Rimadyl for 5 days, she quit eating breakfast, and vomited several times. I suddenly noticed she was icteric; there was a yellow cast to her gums, insides of her ear, and the whites of her eyes. We did a blood panel, and did an ultrasound. The internist said she just had an irritated liver, and it was most likely Rimadyl toxicity. I asked him if he had seen this from one short-course, low-level dose, and he said yes. Her serum in the blood tube was ORANGE, and she peed bright yellow and her stools were bright gold. This is from severely increased bilirubin that the injured liver cannot handle, so it builds up. We started her on fluids, stomach protectants and liver protectants (SAM-e and Ursodial, both costing about $65 each, my cost, and I work there!). The liver values were sky-high, showing considerable liver damage. JUST FROM 5 DAYS OF RIMADYL!!!! She was very sick.
After two days on fluids and injectible meds, she was lots perkier and we redid the liver panel, which came back markedly improved but she is still a bit yellow. She is eating again, small amounts, and is getting her energy back.
I asked the doctors, how often does this severe type of reaction occur, and they said not very often. It can occur on the first dose of Rimadyl, or the 21st., but there are just some dogs that do not tolerate it well. In my mind, it seems that a lot of those are Labradors, but they felt that that was because Labs are so common, particularly in the surgery department, and those are the dogs that get sent home with Rimadyl. They reiterated to me that there are NO SAFE NSAIDS, and that their value to the general population of dogs far outweighs the occasional severe reaction such as Fiona had.
I guess I would like all dog owners to be aware of the signs of Rimadyl toxicity, and alert your vet and STOP giving it if your dog experiences: Vomiting, diarrhea, inappetance (picky eating or stops eating). Especially, if you notice a yellow tinge to skin, mucus membranes, eyes, or urine or feces, TAKE ACTION IMMEDIATELY. The dogs that die from this were the dogs that were continued on the Rimadyl despite these symptoms.
The only reason Fiona recovered from the liver damage is I only gave it for a short period of time, and acted on the symptoms relatively quickly. Don't do what I did and "assume" vomiting is from something else. In her case, the vomiting didn't start until after the Rimadyl was over, so I learned the lesson I was supposed to learn.
I don't want to start a witch hunt against Rimadyl or Deramaxx or any of the NSAIDS, just know that the potential for severe liver damage and G.I. upset exists, and watch for the signs.
Just passing on some information. BTW, Fiona is "thinking about" butt-tucking today!!
Just passing on some important information.

Thanks for the helpful information Robin. I hope Fiona will continue to recover and resume her "butt tucking" behavior! We very rarely dipense Rimadyl to any of our patients....we mostly use Metacam either injectabley or orally. The patients seem to tolerate it quite nicely with little or no problems.

We learned the hard way. Within days our beloved 11 yr old boy, Ben was dead from kidney failure brought on by Metacam.

I have a 10 1/2 year old lab who has been on Rimadyl for about a year now for osteoarthritis in his knee. We only give him 1/2 tab every day with his dinner. Our vet said he could get up to 1 1/2 tabs a day for his body weight, but we had weaned him down to the lowest dose that he could take and still feel good because of the potential for side effects. Although this class of drugs is valuable especially to our old guys, they can cause severe reactions in some. Thanks for the warning!

I also had a dog that went into auto immune hemolytic anemia from Metacam,he was on the injectable. We lost him very suddenly after he was on Immuran,Cyclosporine and Prednisone for 2 months.

One of our older girls has been on Deramaxx for end stage DJD/arthritis, we took her off after 2 weeks for vomiting/diarrhea too. Just have her on Adequan,MSM,Glucosamine&Chondroitin.
This girl was in the Rimadyl study about 8 years ago when they were going to once a day dosing, she got horrific diarrhea after only a couple of days, they did let me put her on Flagyl and after a few days on that she was fine.but now this dog can't even tolerate prednisone...
Glad to hear that your dog recovered.

I have to say...I have seen very few problems associated with Metacam. It's one of the few NSAIDS that my six year old boy can tolerate. We use it at work all the time with great results. I guess it depends on each individual patient.

One other thing: One of the other surgeons stopped me in the hall with Fiona and cautioned, NO Rimadyl or any other NSAIDs EVER AGAIN for her. Aparantly some dogs lack the ability to break those NSAIDs down and this would happen again.
There was a study done at Colorado State about Rimadyl toxicity which I will get a copy of that may be helpful.

I happen to have the Pfizer Animal Health Technical Bulletin, May l998. It is seven pages long and I won't go into all the details but I will print out the part that applies to Labrador Retrievers.
The subtitle is "First-Year Clinical Experience with Rimadyl(carprofen): Assessment of Product Safety. Hepatopathies in Labrador Retrievers (Page 5)
Approximately one-third of all dogs reported with possible Rimadyl-related liver problems are Labrador Retrievers. Further, Labrador retrievers represented approximately 40% of the reports of those dogs with evidence of hepatic dysfunction, i.e. hyperbilirubinemia or jaundice. Ant true breed predisposition to hepatotoxicity associated with Rimadyl cannot be determined based on these limited data. Labrador retrievers may be over-represented in these reports due to the following reason:
1. Number one AKC registered breed.
2. Labradors are commonly affected with musculoskeletel disorders and are treated with anti-inflammatory drugs
3. Labrador retrievers have been cited as being commonly affected with chronic liver disease.
McPhail, Lappin, et al., have recently reported 21 dogs that developed hepatotoxicity while on Rimadyl therapy. Of the 21 dogs reported 13 were Labrador retrievers. The most common clinical signs reported were anorexia, decreased activity, vomiting and/or jaundice after an average of 20 days of Rimadyl therapy. Liver enzymes including ALT,AST and ALP, and total bilirubin were elevated in these dogs at initial presentation. Hepatic biopsy of 18 of 21 dogs showed histopathologic evidence of mild to severe acute hepatocellular necrosis and cholestasis. Of the 21 dogs, 17 recovered folowing cessation of Rimadyl and supportive care. However, in this report, 3 dogs died and one was euthanized.
Page 8 is the insert that goes in the Rimadyl packaging. Under paragraph: ADVERSE REACTIONS:
It mentions Hepatic problems and sites: Approximately one-third of hepatic reports were in Labrador retrievers.

That was enough for me to find alternatives for my dogs and also to warn my puppy buyers of the potential problems associated with this drug. I hope this helps people make an educated decision before putting their dogs on this product.

thank you for sharing your experience.

So glad Fiona got thru this awful and scary ordeal.

Robin I am glad to hear that Fiona is on the mend. I got away from NSAIDs based on my vet's recommendation. Instead I have used Adequan with great success, and have recommended it to others with senior dogs. A link for more info for you is http://www.adequancanine.us/ The adequan canine injectable, is prescription product injection for the pain and disability of joint damage in dogs and is designed to be effective and adequan canine injectable fast acting with long term results. An intramuscular injection, adequan canine is designed to go to work in all major joints within two hours of administration and has been shown to sometimes provide relief for as long as six months. Adequan for dogs works by binding to the damaged cartilage and boosting it's metabolism, facilitating repair. It also promotes production of the synovial fluid while helping to block the action of destructive enzymes that promote joint inflammation, break down the synovial fluid, and attack the cartilage.

Thanks, all, for your informative responses and concern for Fiona. She actually did follow through on her butt-tuck dreams last night, but laid down afterwards, so she's not completely up to speed yet, but it's a start!