There’s a new drug in town, Librela. And it’s a dangerous one! Veterinarians all over Chicago are aggressively selling this new “wonder drug.” They claim it’s a treatment for arthritis. But it has nothing to do with arthritis. It is a monoclonal antibody, which means it prevents pain signals from reaching your dogs, brain by blocking nerve growth factor.
The result? Your dog can’t feel.
We have pain signals for a reason. They alert us when our body is in need of rest or there is an injury that needs to heal. If you block these pain signals, you then continue to move regardless of damage to tissue. There have been multiple reports across the country of dogs, aggravating their injuries and actually walking with fractures as well as other serious injuries because they can’t feel the pain. Sudden death and other severe side effects have also been reported. Just this week the Wall Street Journal reported a rash of dogs dying suddenly, possibly related to this new treatment. Just to be clear, there are some end of life cases, or dogs with severe disabilities that would benefit from this type of therapy as it would allow them to have a few more months of mobility. But this is absolutely not a treatment for young healthy dogs, or dogs with mild osteoarthritis conditions or sprains and strains. This drug masks, those problems which can result in more severe problems down the line. If you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to us. We would love to have a discussion about this.