Furry Friday: My Experience with Librela Injections for my Dog
A Cautionary Tale
When I had my blog over on WordPress, I used to do a quick post every Friday which contained lots of pictures of my dogs. I called it Furry Friday. This tradition has not carried over to Substack, but today I’m going to make dog-related post about a recent experience I had with a medication we tried with my little terrier mix, Gidget McFidget.
Gidget is my precious little old lady. According to the DNA test we gave her last year, she is fifteen years old, turning sixteen next month. She came from the shelter in August of 2012, and the vet estimated her to be around two years old. If the DNA test is accurate, she was probably three at the time.
Over the past nearly thirteen years, Gidget has been my baby. She is very dog reactive and doesn’t like most people. The bigger the dog she meets, the more she wants to have a dogfight. Mind you, she’s under twenty pounds, but she regularly acts like she wants to fight the Rottweiler across the street. That’s why I kept her when she came to me as a foster dog. She is uncontrollable for most people, but she behaves like an angel at our house. She is the most loving, loyal dog I’ve ever met.
Gidget repaid my rescue of her by saving me. In 2018, I needed to relocate to Nashville to wait for a heart transplant. My husband couldn’t come to stay with me for the wait because he had to work. We needed to save his time off for my recovery so he could be my caregiver. This meant I would be living alone in a strange city for months while I waited for the call to tell me that a heart was available. Facing this possibility, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go through with it.
Fate has a strange way of altering the course of our lives with the tiniest things. During my search for a place to live, I discovered that the apartment complex across the street from the hospital was pet friendly. This immediately changed my mind. I would move to Nashville and take Gidget to be my companion. I wouldn’t be forced to live in solitary confinement.
This brings me to the point of this story. Now that Gidget is very, very old, she is having problems with arthritis. This past summer, we would take her for walks, but she started limping after a little bit. I got into the habit of bringing a stroller on our walks and placing her in it when she showed signs of getting tired, allowing us to finish the walk while she rode in her royal carriage, barking at other dogs from her throne.
Our vet suggested we try a new injectable drug called Librela. A few days after her first injection, Gidget was running around like a puppy again – bounding up the stairs, chasing balls, and having zoomies. My baby girl was back to her younger self!
This is the description for Librela from the manufacturer website: Librela is a monoclonal antibody that specifically targets a key driver of OA pain. It works to reduce pain signals, making it easier for your dog to move and play.
This drug requires monthly injections, but it’s not terribly expensive. The cost was around $60 for each monthly injection for Gidget. After she received the second injection, her youthful vigor continued, and she no longer needed the stroller on our walks. However, I found her a few times just standing in the middle of a room with an expression that said, “Why did I come into this room?”
Although I was concerned about her moments of spaciness, I let the improvement in her arthritis symptoms sway me toward taking her in for the third injection. At this time, I mentioned her moments of confusion to the vet, but she had heard no reports of such side effects. She gave the drug to her own elderly cat, so why shouldn’t I trust it?
That third shot pushed Gidget over the threshold. Her instances of looking puzzled when she entered a room descended into aimless pacing, like she didn’t know where she was going. I squeaked a toy right in her face, but she only gave me a blank stare. The final heart-shattering moment was when I scooped her up in my arms and she looked at me as if to ask, “Who are you?”
My heart-dog soulmate didn’t recognize me anymore.
Shortly after, she began to lose control of her sphincter. She would be walking across the room, and, without warning, she would defecate. It seemed to come as a surprise to her. I could almost hear her saying, “Whoa, whoa, what the hell?” as she squat-shuffled toward the door but didn’t make it, leaving a trail behind her. This happened daily, sometimes multiple times per day.
I hurried to the internet to see if these were reported side effects, but I found nothing on the manufacturer site or other official sites. As I traveled further down the online rabbit hole, I stumbled onto groups where owners mentioned terrible effects from this along with many other drugs. Some pet owners were bashing the routine vaccinations we give to our pets to keep them healthy, and I know firsthand from my time in animal rescue that vaccines save lives. So many unvaccinated dogs have died horrible deaths from parvovirus and distemper, and their lives could have been saved if they had been vaccinated.
Most of the stories I read with a wary eye. I did not want to fall into any anti-vax hysteria. As I read, I did find stories from other owners of very old dogs who had similar reactions. At first, their dogs responded well and seemed rejuvenated, but then they began to show symptoms consistent with Canine Cognitive Dysfunction, or doggie dementia. There were also mentions of the unexpected pooping.
Just to be clear, I am not a veterinary professional, and what I’m writing here is my own lived experience and personal opinion.
According to my internet research this is the mechanism of action for Librela:
“Librela for dogs works by targeting Nerve Growth Factors (NGF), which have key involvement in osteoarthritis pain. NGF is a protein that plays a role in the transmission of pain signals in the spinal cord, and by inhibiting its action, Librela can reduce pain and inflammation in dogs with osteoarthritis. It is a monoclonal antibody that recognizes and attaches to NGF, preventing it from attaching to receptors on nerve cells and interrupting the transmission of pain signals.”
Again, speaking as a layperson, I can see how this could present a problem with very elderly dogs. The drug can’t specifically target only the NGF on the dog’s painful joints. It’s going to go after all of the NGF, including those necessary for cognitive function. That might not make a difference in younger or middle-aged dogs, but when you start using it on dogs who are pushing the limits of their lifespan, they’re probably already losing a lot of the nerve cells necessary for cognitive function. If you start taking away from what little they already have, my guess – only a guess – is that it will increase any manifestation of CCD.
A Happy Ending
Gidget’s last injection was in early September, and I’m happy to report that the spark in her eyes has returned. She is back to playing with her toys and biting Bruce, our other terrier, on the face. He knows that’s her way of showing affection and they chase each other around the house, barking up a storm. She is limping again, but this time I’m giving her oral pain meds.
She feels so much better that she wants to fight the Rottweiler across the street. I’m overjoyed that she has returned to being Mama’s Little Psychopath.
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“Mama’s little psychopath.” 😂😂
Glad to hear Gidget recovered. I have worked in pharma for 20 years and was working in animal health when Librela launched. It was marketed as a "natural" drug because of the word "antibody." Unfortunately, this drastically underestimates the actions of monoclonals. They've been around for 20 years in human medicine and are used widely, but only after multiple other medications have failed. And the side effects can be varied and severe. Librela was one of the first monoclonals available in veterinary medicine and Zoetis really dumbed down the mechanism of action to make vets more comfortable using something new.
For transparency, I worked on a rival drug that is oral and works directly on the pain receptor in the joint. It's called Galliprant. It has similar efficacy to metacam, but is more targeted so less side effects (mainly GI) and can be used long term. I have my 11 year old psycho terrier on it and have been really happy. Again, so sorry you had to go through this.