Another experience - reduced energy, personality loss

[katrinika]

Not long ago I accidently dropped the dogs' PetTab vitamins in their water bowl and ruined the whole bottle.  While I was waiting for the new bottle to come in the mail I noticed that their eyes stopped gunking up and they had more energy and their personalities were more like they used to be (loving, playing, asking for petting and attention).  As soon as I resumed giving them the vitamin their eyes gunked up again and both dogs lost all energy again.  I had wondered, years ago, why it seemed like all the dogs lost their energy and normal personalities at the same time.  I thought it was the weather or pollution or age or something.  PetTabs must have changed their formula.  The vitamins are gone.  ..... Several weeks later, both little dogs are back to their old selves - I'd forgotten how much time I spent cuddling them before their personalities changed!  

[katrinika]

On the Virbac website www.virbac.com , way at the bottom on the right hand side, there is a link to get to a .pdf letter that hotly denies that there is enough lead in Pet Tabs to hurt pets.  I don't know what it is in them that hurt my dogs, I just saw what I saw and know what I know because of it.  If it was lead then my dogs are damned by it, because lead accumulates and does not naturally chelate out of the body.  If it's a maximum of 0.5mcg per day for a person - at what average weight? 140 lbs? then 6.45mcg per tablet means 3.23mcg for my 11 pound dog.  

There will be no more Pfizer/Virbac products for my dogs - not their killer dental enzyme products (C.E.T. - sold exclusively through veterinarians) - not their vitamins - not nothing no more.  Pfizer/Virbac does not love my dogs, I don't know what they do love, but it is definitely not my pets.  

[zoe114]

What great information !! I was just looking at pet vitamans and had decided that I would use human pills and cut them down, I will just use cooked oatmeal, banana, pumpkin or something soft to hid the pill in. After that pet food recall that killed so many dogs, I want to buy as little as I can of pet food /treats as possible.
Also, I read Dr. Doods ( I think that is right) information about giving vitamines to our pets, it said that giving too much can harm our dogs as much as giving too little. My thought would be to give 3 days a week, just a though- I really don't know. I am SO glad that you posted this information.  

[katrinika]

I just checked the Pfizer/Virbac website.  Pet Tabs have not been recalled, and they deny that there is enough lead in them to harm a pet.  

However, I know my dogs, I know what happened, and they will never get Pet Tabs again.  Period.  

Now that I know that the same company that makes Pet Tabs also makes C.E.T. Dental Enzyme Toothpaste for pets, I will suspend my experiment to see if the toothpaste does the same damage the enzyme dog chews did.  No more Pfizer/Virbac for my pets.  Period.  

[katrinika]

Wow!  If this is the case, then it has been in the vitamins for years.  They were fine for years, then the change... listless, little or no running, disinterested in things that normally were their lifeblood (like toys, and cuddling, we had a regular schedule!)   :)   Also, I just noticed that Gidget is snoring again.  She hasn't done that in years but it used to be routine (and funny).  It was clear that all three dogs were not themselves.  

My beloved dachsund-mix got the sickest - eventually falling to what the doctor believed was a slow-growing cancer, probably hemangioma sarcoma.  At the same time the tumor appeared her eye on that side bulged and went blind and upon palpitation she showed pain, probably in the spleen.  I had the tumor (in her ear) removed, I barely had the money even for that.  I got medicine to try to reduce the bulge and blindness of the eye and medicine for pain.  I didn't have the pathology test done because if it was cancer I had no money for treatment.  But she had never done well with anesthesia and CLEARLY hated the way the pain medications made her feel.  She just got weaker, until she lost interest in eating.  The vet said she could give steroids to try to stimulate appetite, but rather than have her in pain, or miserable because of the pain meds, I accepted that at fifteen I had to put my sweetheart to sleep.  It hurt terribly, and I miss her, but putting her to sleep was not as bad as watching her suffer.  Now I wonder how much lead-poisoning could have had to do with that.  

It is SO good to have my other two babies back to their sparkling, happy dog selves.  

[Misfits4Me]

I found it...It was lead poisoning in a large number of pet vitamins including Pet Tabs....
The recall was in July of this year.......Karla

[Misfits4Me]

I'm thinking the Pet Tab Vitamins were recalled not long ago.....I'd have to go look that up....I wonder if yours was part of that bad batch?   Karla