Justice and Brenda’s Story - One Injection and Gone

This 9.5 year old (young) German Shepherd, Justice, got his one and only 1st Librela injection on October 5, 2023. He spiraled into a host of adverse reactions/events and his untimely death, 17 days post injection. To name a few, he developed severe thrombocytopenia, anemia and neutropenia; multiple organ enlargement/failure; mental decline, urinary incontinence and lethargy; rapid and extreme muscle wasting; and complete loss of the use of his hind legs. Justice was vibrant, engaged and active with none of these maladies prior to Librela.

Justice was living his best life and treated 1-2 days a month, on average for mild to moderate pain with Dercoxib. As he rapidly deteriorated I felt helpless, scared, angry, defeated and cheated at the suffering and untimely loss of my precious dog. I also felt unsupported, dismissed and abandoned by the veterinarian who administered Librela, because of their initial reluctance to attribute it to this injection. I believed before prescribing a new drug, especially one still in clinical trials, veterinarians would have done their own “homework”. In this case, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Before my vet would even begin to associate Justice’s side effects with Librela, I spent many sleepless nights printing package inserts from other countries, FIOA documents pertaining to Librela and published research outlining what NGF does in the body and the risks and dangers of altering/blocking NGF.

The vet who prescribed it was not even aware this drug was still in clinical trials until I informed him. I did all the research while in a hellish state of panic, trying to care for my very ill and dying dog.   I didn’t deserve that and Justice certainly didn’t deserve it. I accumulated around $4000 in vet bills during that 17 day period and would have spent whatever it cost to save him. Sadly, that wasn’t to be. The vet finally agreed to report the incident to Zoetis and the FDA after Justice died.

The use of Anti-NGF in pets is truly in its infancy. In the US, Librela is still in clinical trials and is FDA approved ONLY for treating pain from confirmed osteoarthritis. It is wildly reckless and counterproductive for some veterinarians to refuse report AE’s and to be inflexible in denying sudden or long term adverse events from Librela. This is the “real world” portion of the clinical trial for Librela, meaning NO ONE yet understands fully what it can and can’t do. Veterinarians and owners will never know how safe/unsafe Librela is or what prescribing precautions should be added if all potential adverse events are not reported.