Pfizer Doesn't Care

Flax Comes Home

2009-03-24T09:35:00.000-07:00

In May Flax came home. The trailer ride was hard on him. Once home, he held his bad back leg up. I called the vet - now Flax would be under the care of the vets where he had his procedures. Their office is only a few miles from my house.

He was experiencing pain. I got him on Surpass, a topical pain reliever in addition to his bute. In time he improved and I was able to give him the freedom to loaf in and out of a large open barn area and small paddock separated from my two older horses. He loved living like a horse.

He was lame but able to move around on his own. I gave him free access to a large paddock. He was enjoying good grass and the early summer warmth. Things were looking up. In June I started letting him out with my two retired guys in the big pasture. This was probably the first time in his life that he had been free in such a big space with such luscious grass and such nice soft footing. Flax was living large.

Eight Months of Stall Rest

2009-01-12T09:59:00.000-08:00

Flax endured his long confinement with daily grooming, hand walking and treats - always a bag of carrots outside his stall for passersby to acquiesce to his noisy begging (he scraped his teeth across the grate of his stall door).

We changed vets. X-Rays showed no rotation from the laminitis. Our new vet gave him shockwave treatment to both fronts and the stifle. She thought it was best to keep him on 2 grams of bute. We fought off bed sores, a shoe boil on his elbow and Surpass skin irritations. I started letting him loose in the indoor arena. He would walk around and play with his favorite toy, a traffic cone. He'd grab the wide end at the bottom and flip it around. I could throw it and he'd go get it. Flax the retriever.

In the spring, he was turned out for an hour or two in a round pen, depending on the footing. We tried glue-on shoes, which seemed to help.

Laminitis

2008-11-14T09:14:00.000-08:00

What a way to end the holidays, knowing my poor horse was in agony. There I was in Florida, unable to see him and help in any way. My trainer was very concerned when she called. He was not eating. He was lying down most of the time. The vet upped all the pain meds. They iced his feet. When the vet called me, my trainer overheard her side of the conversation with me. My vet completely sugar-coated the truth. This was a horse that was on the edge of death. Later my trainer called. He was improving. He was starting to eat.

Flax Improves, Then Takes a Nosedive

2008-07-27T13:52:00.000-07:00

We began our hand walking regimen. Every day I'd go out to the barn, pull Flax out of his stall. I'd groom him and treat bed sores on his hocks, his hips, and his fetlocks. I'd put Surpass on his stifle and give him a shot of generic glucosamine twice a week. He'd get lots of treats- carrots, mints, bananas. I always kept a bag of carrots in front of his stall so other boarders would say hello, cheer him up and give him a treat. His spirits were pretty good, considering he was a horse in some pain and very close to death not so long ago. His will to survive was amazing.

We'd go for a walk around the barn aisle. It was way too difficult for him to walk in the footing of the indoor arena. Around the barn we'd go saying hello to all the horses. Some horses would greet him and others - the mares and the more territorial horses would lunge out, teeth bared. Horses sure can look evil when they want to! All of these horses are usually sweetie pies. It is so silly to see them behave like that. "My stall! Stay away!"

When he was able to hold his legs up, we pulled his shoes. My farrier had to lean him up against the wall of his stall to work on him. He left some foot on, afraid to shock him too much with a major trim.

It was now December and Flax was walking every day, looking better and better. He always started out slow then got warmed up. He was still lying down quite a bit. If I arrived and he was lying down, he'd always get up and and hold up that left rear leg for a while. It was always hard to see that. But, overall he was improving, walking more each day. We started to back off on the pain meds.

Towards the end of December we got some snow. The vet suggested we ace him and put him out in the round pen on the soft snow for twenty minutes or so. The goal was to increase the turnout to about three hours a day. He was doing well, enjoying his turn-out. Soon we were able to skip the ace.

I had plans to go out of town for the holidays. A friend of mine offered to do the daily hand walking and look him over every day. By now he was completely off the bute and going out for an hour or two, depending on the weather. Things were looking good... somehow I was afraid to leave him...

On New Years Day my trainer called me. Flax was looking very bad. He was in serious pain and was extremely lame in both fronts. She could not get hold of the vet. My heart sank... he was foundering.

The Rollercoaster Ride Begins

2008-07-07T13:41:00.000-07:00

Flax stayed at the hospital for ten days. The vet thought it might be the end... that he might not start to show some improvement. Thank God, he finally started to improve and we got the okay to take him home.

After the trailer ride home, Flax was in miserable shape again. It just about killed him. All the progress we had seen at the hospital was down the tubes. I felt so bad for him. The second or third day home, there was still no improvement. We took joint fluid samples again. Sad to say, the white blood cell count was still extremely high. Most likely there was still infection. The vets needed me to decide - trailer him back to the hospital for another round of flushing or wait and see. The vet said that most likely he would never be sound again if we went in for another flush. The trauma of the trailer ride combined with the pain and the stress of going under general anesthesia for a fourth time was too much for me to inflict on this poor guy. He'd been through too much and he was enduring too much pain. He had a 20% chance of making it either way. I decided to keep him still, up the meds and wait and see.

Once again we began to see minor improvements. We got the go ahead for just a little bit of hand walking. Every day I would groom him and dress the bed sores on his hocks, fetlocks and hip. He was lying down so much of the time. When he would get up he'd hold his left rear up for a while. It was hard to watch... but every day he got just a little better.

We continued to hand walk.

(Picture shown is before all this took place.)

Flax Endures Two More Joint Flushings

2008-05-20T09:12:00.000-07:00

Left is a picture of Flax and me at a show last fall.

Well, Flax was still in pain the day after the first flush of his stifle. It was now looking like the right front coffin joint needed to be flushed also. Off he went again to the OR for general anesthesia and and another flush. This time to the coffin joint.

Again, I watched him come out of the anesthesia, quietly and carefully. They led him, all wobbly to his stall.

He was still depressed and not eating well. The doctor suggested I take him for a short hand walk. He was just pathetic. The stifle and the coffin joint continued to bother him. They took another sample and found a very high white blood cell count. They recommended one more flushing to both joints.

I returned to the clinic after the procedure. Flax was already up when I approached the OR door. He heard my voice and came wobbling over to me. It was just so sad. Only two legs were working. He came over to me, put his chin on my shoulder and pressed down.

Flax's First Flushing at the Vet Clinic

2008-05-15T14:09:00.000-07:00

Flax (right) in better days.

Even with all the pain the poor boy was experiencing, Flax loaded onto the trailer like a champ. He arrived at the clinic and was put into a large stall.

I met with the vet who would perform the surgery. I gave him an electronic version of Flax's medical history. He and the another vet took joint fluid samples. The white blood cell count on the stifle fluid was very high. They were unable to get a good sample from the coffin joint. They suggested we flush the stifle immediately.

I returned to the office after Flax came around from the anesthesia. I've heard nightmares about horses going through this. A horse I know tied up when she came round and did a number on herself. The vet said Flax was very smart. He came around but stayed down, did not panic and got up when he was ready. They let me stand in the doorway of the OR to talk with him.

"Routine" Joint Injections

2008-05-13T12:18:00.000-07:00

In November, at the end of show season, I asked my trainer if we should look into IRAP for his problematic stifle. IRAP is a relatively new procedure that uses a horse's own healthy cells to combat and ease arthritis. She said the vet would be hesitant to do it, so I went ahead and asked for routine injection of the pesky joint. Mind you, Flax was pretty much sound with a slight shortness in the right hind. He had been going well and seemed happy.

When my vet came to inject the stifle, for some reason she injected both stifles and both coffin joints. The program was usually three days of stall rest with hand walking, two days of trotting only, a light hack day, then back to normal work.

On the first trot day, he seemed strange. the second day he was in terrible pain. I called the vet. She looked him over and diagnosed a torn muscle. Treat with methcarb and give him a week off.

His pain seemed to increase. He was not getting better, he was getting worse. He started to hold up his left hind leg. Then he started to look sore on the right front.

The vet came out again and checked the fluid in the joint. He had infection in the joint. she suggested we rush him to the hospital for joint flushing.

Pfizer Claims No Responsibility

2008-05-07T09:40:00.000-07:00

My Heart is Broken - Pfizer Could Care Less!

This was my beautiful horse, Flax (below) at a show in September of 2007 and schooling at home.

In late November of 2007 he had joint injections to both stifles and coffin joints. Hylartin V was the only product from individual pre-packaged, preloaded syringes. The Vetalog and Antibiotic both came from common bottles. He got infection in two of the four joints, was rushed to the hospital, underwent general anesthesia three times for joint flushing.

My vet returned the lot of Hylartin V to Pfizer. She suspected something was wrong when another horse she treated had a reaction.

We came very close to putting him down. It was touch and go for a few weeks, then we started rehabbing with short round pen turnout and hand walking. He foundered in January. My vet had me keep a log of how much he was lying down. She asked me to prepare for the worst. Amazingly, Flax pulled through.

Throughout the process, I have kept in touch with Pfizer. My contact was Dr. Emily Graves. They created an official case. They claimed to investigate the lot. They requested all my vet bills and Flax's medical history for the past year. I also sent pictures before and after and some of my recent show records.

My vet bills came to nearly $10,000.00. It does not appear that Flax will ever be physically able to show, let alone be ridden.

Pfizer's response? $395.00 to cover one-third of the initial diagnostic and sign a release holding Pfizer harmless from any adverse effects the drug had caused. This is completely unsatisfactory and insulting, considering my loss.

Pfizer clearly doesn't care about the customer. When I told my contact at Pfizer that this was unsatisfactory, she asked me to contact her superior, Dr. Nancy Postorino Reeves in writing.

I wrote Dr. Postorino Reeves, requesting replacement cost of my horse and reimbursement of my vet bills. I hoped that she would respond with a reasonable response or counter offer. Instead, she wrote me back, "based on the information that we have been provided, we have no reason to believe that there is any liability on the part of Pfizer. Accordingly we are denying your request for financial reimbursement."

They didn't even offer to pay the initial cost of the treatment! What kind of customer service do you call that?

I am a customer. I am profoundly unsatisfied. They could care less!

This is Flax after the flushing. He lost so much weight. He only has two good legs to stand on.

Once Gorgeous Horse Destroyed

2008-05-07T09:29:00.000-07:00

According to Pfizer, Hylartin V joint injections are safe and will cause few side effects. This is what Pfizer says about their drug, Hylartin V:

"What is HYLARTIN® V

HYLARTIN V is a high-molecular-weight sodium hyaluronate that is extracted from rooster combs and purified. HYLARTIN V is used to treat noninfectious joint inflammation. It is found naturally in equine joints, which implies that it will cause few side effects.

How safe is it?

High molecular weight and purity are the most important qualities for therapeutic efficiency and lack of side effects in sodium hyaluronate treatments.

HYLARTIN V replaces the low-molecular-weight hyaluronate found in inflamed joints with high-molecular-weight sodium hyaluronate. This re-establishes the normal function of the synovial fluid. As with all intra-articular injections, occasional mild side effects may include heat, transient edema and pain around the injection site." (From Pfizer web site.)