Convenia®

[alexia642]

Originally Posted by eculbert

My newly adopted old lady cat had it, apparently Normal Saline would have worked better. No problem with her..luckily from what others have said. She had a MDR strain of bug and after I finally got a vet to C/S her, culture and sensitivity test, found out $$$ wasted. Now on a different med, first dose last evening, so no 'report' on it yet.

Why wont vets almost routinely do that test when the 'first' tried med doesn't work? Had to threaten to grab cat and run to lawyer to get them to do that.

So, first in response to this quote, I understand your frustrations as we in the veterinary field typically have the exact same frustration but in reverse. It is so uncommon for us to find owners who are willing to spend the time and money to allow us to send out C/S's that they are frequently not even offered. Most of the time, when we are presenting estimates and an option such as this is on there, I am either a. stared at dumbly, b. told that I am a money grubbing b***h, c. screamed at until I leave the room, d. actually physically assaulted, or e. told that I am insane. It is rare that we get owners with enough stability in their lives to be able to do such options. This is a fault with veterinary medicine in general. We are typically expected to "just know what's wrong" and give the medicine now.

I also am new to this thread of thought about convenia. It is still a fairly new drug in our world, but it is very commonly used (especially in emergency medicine for how many abscesses we see). I have not once seen an adverse reaction to the drug myself, but was confronted with a phone call from a concerned owner the other morning describing the symptoms listed on this forum the other morning. I decided to research myself as none of my other co-workers had any experience with any side-effects of the sort either. I would like to point out that we have to keep in mind that while these side-effects (while quite horrid) may seem common as they are all on here from different people, we must think about the fact that this drug is given to innumerable cats each day who do not have these side-effects. I will, however, continue to look into this matter, as I have cats myself and love them dearly.

[RUSTYcat]

Welcome to the forum, alexia642!

Originally Posted by alexia642

It is so uncommon for us to find owners who are willing to spend the time and money to allow us to send out C/S's that they are frequently not even offered.

Quite frankly, I take from this that some of "your" clinic's standards of care are determined by the least caring/educated customers who come through the door...and that just leaves me shaking my head in disbelief.

You've cloaked yourself very generally as "we in the veterinary field".....are you a Veterinarian/Technician/other?

While you may not have received reports from your clients of serious side effects associated with Convenia, my understanding is that such reports/discussions exist - some on VIN - and I am aware of others in open discussion boards/forums. I give you one example http://www.felinediabetes.com/phorum....php?8,1964921

Without the benefit of any veterinary education, even I can recognize from the generally available literature that this is NOT a drug to be given willy-nilly (as appears to be the general practice now) (and quite obviously peddled as such by the manufacturer - read the name of it again!)...the "official" info from the maker listed on drugs.com states "Warnings: To limit the development of antimicrobial resistance, the extra-label drug use of cefovecin is not recommended http://www.drugs.com/vet/convenia-in...phile-can.html From the UK's National Office of Animal Health: "It is prudent to reserve third generation cephalosporins for the treatment of clinical conditions, which have responded poorly, or are expected to respond poorly, to other classes of antimicrobials or first generation cephalosporins. Use of the product should be based on susceptibility testing..." http://www.noahcompendium.co.uk/Pfiz...ts/-43050.html

Finally, inconveniently burried in the manufacturer's data sheet is this

FOREIGN MARKET EXPERIENCE: The following adverse events were reported voluntarily during post-approval use of the product in dogs and cats in foreign markets:
death, tremors/ataxia, seizures, anaphylaxis, acute pulmonary edema, facial edema, injection site reactions (alopecia, scabs, necrosis, and erythema), hemolytic anemia, salivation, pruritus, lethargy, vomiting, diarrhea, and inappetance. http://www.pfizerah.com/PAHimages/co...ill_041108.pdf

Only in "foreign markets", huh? Not bloody likely!

[chico2]

Thank's Rusty,I think we all need to be informed,to be able to make the right choice for our cats and question any treatments we are unsure of.

[ancientgirl]

The last time I took Oksana in for a UTI the vet gave her this. She's so incredibly hard to pill and even giving her liquid oral medication gets hard after a day or two, as I wind up chasing her until I grab her and she winds up spitting out most of it. She's not had an incident since last November and I've never seen any adverse reaction from the medication in her.

[RUSTYcat]

I knew that Dr. Lisa Pierson (catinfo.org) frequently rails against the indiscriminate use of Convenia - today I noticed that she now has a page dedicated to Convenia on her website - it's easy reading and can be found here http://www.catinfo.org/convenia.php

[catnmouse]

I'll throw in my two-cents worth regarding my experience with Convenia. I have a 16 year old, hyperthyroid cat named Rupert with a chronic sinus infection that's been ongoing for the past 18 months. A sinus culture suggested nasal lymphosarcoma but all these months later it has shown no sign of progressing so my vet suspects it's quite likely a deep seated bacterial infection lodged well inside the sinus cavity and perhaps not cancer after all. It responds well to antibiotics but, till recently, symptoms would re-occur once the antibiotics wore off.

Before the cancer diagnosis, I had struggled to give Rupert oral antibiotics for several rounds (we know how hard it is to get that horrible liquid pink stuff into a squirming cat). Once we had the cancer diagnosis from the lab (it was vague; it said the culture "indicated a condition consistent with nasal lymphosarcoma"), the vet suggested Convenia to keep Rupert comfortable, thinking it would be only a matter of time till the cancer progressed. So for more than a year, Rupert received an injection of Convenia every 6 weeks. It seemed to be a wonderful treatment for keeping his symptoms under control -- after each injection he would have 4 or 5 symptom-free weeks and then the sneezing and discharge would start again, and soon after that he'd get lethargic and miserable, so we'd go back for another shot. However, as of this moment, he hasn't had an injection for 8 weeks and there are no signs of symptoms flaring up, so I'm crossing my fingers!

I know there are all kinds of reasons why long-term treatment with antibiotics isn't ideal. Initially, because we thought he had cancer, it seemed like a good way to help keep him comfortable. As time wore on, my fear was that he would develop a resistance to the antibiotics. I guess only time will tell as to whether the problem is permanently gone, but Convenia offered us a way to keep Rupert's quality of life high without the trauma of oral antibiotics.

[Koteburo]

I'm so glad it worked for your dog. What a relief must be for you that not only he didn't have an adverse reaction but it was good for him as well.
Scully had it once and she never had any side effects from it either, sadly that's not always the case.
But good thing Dodger is fine.

[grandmahodie]

Hi all, I just wanted to say something positive about the Convenia injection that my 60 LB dog received on Saturday.
Dodger was diagnosed with IBD ( inflammatory bowel disease) 1 year ago, we have finally managed to control his episodes with diet and a daily low dose of Prednisone. With IBD in some dogs comes a skin infection called Pyoderma (took me forever to find out what these sores were) because their immune system is compromised, Oral antibiotics are out of the question for him as it will cause a flair up of the IBD going through his intestinal tract. Last Saturday I took Dodger to the Vet because he has skin sores on the trunk of his body that the topical ointment weren't helping, so I asked my vet about this Convenia injection...WHAT A GOD SEND THIS STUFF IS to my dog..I watched him carefully for the first 48 hours, and to my amazement, his stools are nice and solid still and the sores are healing and no longer red and irritating him..Yes the injection was pricy ( for a dog his size it was about $200) but well worth every penny, the antibiotic injection stays in their system for 2 weeks. It hasn't upset his system whats so ever, which makes both my husband and I are very happy and the dog is even happier

[Twocents]

People whose pets have suffered adverse reactions or death and called the drug manufacturer are reporting that the company is telling them there have been NO reactions. Info is on the FB page "Convenia adverse reactions in cats/felines and dogs/canines"

Disciplinary hearings for vets who have given this drug for extra/off-lable uses have been disciplined. One vet association said that Convenia should not be given without obtaining the clients "informed consent".
.................................................. ................................................ Whatever "informed consent" means (are they going to tell you that the drug ay kill your pet if there's an adverse reaction because it can't be removed from your pet? .................................................. .................................................. ............. I'm concerned about ANY injectable antibiotics being given to pets. Did you know they don't normally give intramuscular antibiotics to people anymore because it's too painful? Even when giving antibiotics via an intravenous (IV), the rate has to be slow so it doesn't cause discomfort to the patient. (This info is from my mother, a nurse, who has also received IV antibiotics.)

Due to risks outlined by Dr. Lisa Pierson and adverse reactions and deaths of pets posted here and elsewhere online, it's extremely unlikely that a long-acting drug like Convenia would EVER be approved for use in people, so why should pet owners be putting their animals at unnecessary risk?

Dr. Pierson's info on Convenia - http://www.catinfo.org/?link=convenia

Article on ConsciousCat.net (can subscribe to comments as comments are still being made there) - http://consciouscat.net/2011/09/26/c...r-convenience/