Comments on The Great Trifexis Hoax: 6 Ways to Spot the B.S.

Recently lost our dog 3 days after taking trifexsis and vomiting, becoming dehydrated and showing a very high creatin level. She was fine before this and has taken trifexsis before. What i'm trying to find out is what happens inside dog's metabolism when this pesticide is working. ?? What pharmacological action happens?? What organs are taxed when metabolizing this?? I have recently put up another petition to the FDA on change.org for what it's worth just to keep the issue in the public eye and I need to be more informed. What is the relationship between trifexsis causing pancreatitis because that is what the vet said she all of a sudden had??
Thanks

We have a 3 year old lab mix that has suddenly begun to have seizures. We got him from a lab rescue when he was about 1 1/2 years old. He was vet checked & has had a clean bill of health. He had his annual checkup in April. All was good. He has been on Trifexis for a little over a year & has not presented any abnormal symptoms until a couple of months ago when he began to have seizures. We took him to his vet & had blood tests run to check for any abnormalities (i.e., cancer, brain tumor, etc.). Nothing, blood work was great. Now he is having cluster seizures (2 about 15 min apart) every 9-10 days. Doctor has summized that it is epilepsy & has prescribed phenobarbital. We are not convinced that it is epilepsy & have severe reservations about dosing him with phenobarbital. Could the Trifexis possibly build up in his system & cause the seizures now? He is due to start on a new round of Trifexis but his vet has said that he is now recommending 2 other medications in place of the Trifexis, which makes me wonder if they have reservations about the drug themselves & just won't tell us. We are wondering if the seizures will subside, if we do nothing, or will they increase. Thankfully, the seizures only last about 15-20 seconds but take about an hour to fully recover (back to normal). Above all, our dogs health matters & if the only solution is the phenobarbital, then that's what we will do but until someone can prove to me otherwise, I would rather not start him on the drugs. Any suggestions/advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Thank you very much. Five minutes ago I was ready to pay about $100 on a website, but something stopped me. I am glad I found this website with your article, I was searching the web for good prices for Trifexis. I am too lucky because I have been treating my 1 1/2 years old lab for several months, following my ex vet doctor advice who never mention a word about side effects or the risk of causing harm on my dogs. Also, I have been using Brand Frontline Plus (Known as Frontline Combo) on my 5 years old mini schnauzer all these years, and now I have questions and will appreciate highly any advice. Should I stop using Frontline as well? Are there other options? Blessings

Hm. I guess I'm the only one who had positive experiences. Nice weather hear round where I live and trifexis is the only medication ive used that actually helped. Tried a few other methods like vegetable oil or apple cider vinegar or vitamin e oil - they eased some mite symptoms mildly, but were no solution.
One trifexis dose on each of my dogs regularly as instructed by my vet has worked wonders with no adverse effects. Just my .02

I have tried unsuccessfully to join and to purchase via credit card, Vital Animals Don't Get Heartworms. Neither activate button engages. What gives?

My cat developed hemangiosarcoma of the spleen & had a splenectomy due to bursting of the tumor 6 months after his first dose of Comfortis. It is 3 months later & he died this past Saturday. It had metastasized to his liver. The people who make this stuff & market it as safe are monsters. I will never get the sounds of his pitiful cries while he died those final hours out of my head.

I’ve been medicating with Rick Simpson oil for many years, it has brought me from 50+ seizures a week to almost none. I owe my life to it. more information on cannabis oil, cure for cancer. https://youtu.be/POnA5t8Vtnc

Thank you for all the amazing facts. I am SO glad I read this before purchasing another 6 doses for my fur kid! But BIG QUESTION now: What should I give my dog to protect him from fleas, worms and such?????

I started our dogs, both Dachshunds, on Trifexis in May 2015. In July 2015 one dog developed serious dermatological issues. However more alarming our other dog developed a very high fever and lethargy. We took her to the emergency vet and after blood tests they discovered she has no platelets and hardly any white cells. After many tests and procedures the vet determined she also was not producing red blood cells either. This was followed by a bone marrow test and those are being reviewed by specialists now. They have ruled out bone marrow cancer; however, what she's left with can eventually lead to leukemia. What is interesting to me is one of the first things that the vet asked is if she had had Parvo or any tick bites as the symptoms mirrored that. I may be way off base but I keep thinking of starting Trifexis in May 2015 and our dog got very sick in July 2015. I keep asking myself - could they be related? I have searched websites to see if anyone else's animals have the same symptoms or have developed blood cell production disease and haven't located any. I know I'm not explaining what happened to her very well. I'd really appreciate any input. Thank you very much.

The drug company can shove their bought desired reports. Every time within hours of giving my dog Trifexis he gets lethargic, starring up at the ceiling, loss of appetite, and looks totally ill. I am so afraid he could die from the next pill that I decided to quit giving him this dangerous drug.
I basically put him on Trifexis because the fleas were biting him really bad and nothing I was doing stopped the fleas. He doesn't have fleas or ticks now but he sure acts like he could die after taking the pill. I don't want this dang drug killing my dog. No doubt with hundreds or even thousands of reports from dog owners being ignored shows money profits speaks louder than a dead dog. WOOF!

Interesting article. I've been giving my dogs trifexus for almost a year and fortunately have had zero issues. However, this is still extremely concerning to me and I want to switch to something else now. I just wish this article offered some safe alternative options to give our animals. Any suggestions?

I'm so glad I started looking into this drug before giving it to our dog. I'm currently in Med school right now because I want to work in Phase I-II clinical trials. The drug companies are ruthless....they will do anything to push a drug because well to them it's a "cash crop". I want to go into this field because I'm not a "pill pusher" I'm a scientist. I would never work for a company that would want me to "adapt" my results in order to get something on the market quicker. Unfortunately people do not all have the same morale as I do....and I believe that this drug was pushed out into the market before all conclusive data/analysis was researched. It's sad and it completely breaks my heart because in med school you make an oath to practice medicine HONESTLY. I guess some have lost the meaning of that word along the way and exchanged their morales for fraudulent behavior. I'm really curious about the research and testing results they have conducted. They say that they haven't made any corelation between the dogs who have taken trifexis and died. But I don't think they are looking in the right place. Sometimes in research your mind gets overwhelmed by conclusive results and it leads you to stop asking questions. I'm a naturally curious person though so I like to even question my own results to see if they are lacking any substantial material that could lead to problems down the road. My question is have they looked into the corelation between the dogs that have died from taking Trifexis and the previous medicine they were on? I know that Interceptor and Sentinel were very popular before the shortage happened and were taken off the market to only be replaced by Trifexis. What I want to know is how many dogs have died from Trifexis that were previously taking one of these medications. I honestly think that is where they need to be doing their research. Maybe the two medications have severely adverse effects, if one medication taken previously had changed something in the make up of the dog then the next medication used could've killed them because of this. This should've been taken into account when doing testing/trials. It's like a human currently or previously using warfarin, it's a heavy blood thinner. They are NOT I repeat NOT suppose to be using OTC aspirin because both medications do the exact same thing (blood thinners) and it would lead to a server reaction. If you think about it Trifexis and the previous medications are "essentially" used to treat the same thing so why wouldn't this do the same thing if the other meds permanently inhibited the dogs system? Anyways sorry for the rant I'm just really curious about this and my heart sincerely goes out to all of the fur babies that have been taken away because of this. I hope that justice is brought to you soon.

Dear Dr. Falconer, The AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) had opened a page on their website for discussion about Trifexis: and although the opening statements by the AVMA indicated that the "rumors" about Trifexis were absolutely false, MANY pet owners and some veterinarians contributed to the discussion about the tragic things that they had experienced. Today, I noticed that the AVMA's page about "Trifexis Rumors" was missing on their website and emailed them. This is their reply:
We welcome opportunities to provide a discussion forum for our members and the general public, and we believe our post about possible concerns related to Trifexis reflects our desire to help educate and inform about pet-related issues. As time has passed since we posted the blog item in November, most of the recent posts are individual, anecdotal comments that may not be a fair reflection of the actual situation. We simply don’t know, and therefore we are concerned about not portraying a fair and factual representation of what is happening with the product. If you have comments or concerns about this product please contact Elanco at http://www.elanco.us/contact-us/default.aspx.
Kim
Kimberly A. May, DVM, MS
Assistant Director, Professional and Public Affairs
Communications Division
American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)
1931 N. Meacham Rd, Suite 100
Schaumburg, IL 60173
847.285.6667
Is that a jaw-dropper? They "welcome" discussion about Trifexis as long as nothing negative is said about the product. And how do you like the sentence: "most of the recent posts are individual, anecdotal comments that may not be a fair reflection of the actual situation." !!!! They are dismissing pet owners actual experiences saying they are not a fair reflection!!!
I'm honestly speechless. I wish I had copied the stories and discussion that the pet owners and vets had contributed - now they are gone forever.

Took the dogs to the intramural fields to run and play frisbee. Met a nice lady that said her dog wasn't feeling well bc she gave him his Heartworm meds last night...he was sick all night...everytime she gives it to him he gets sick (it was comfortis or Trifexis I think bc she said it's his flea pill too.). She had a dog with heartworm in the past and that coupled with the heartworm model on the vet's counter scares her enough to have to shove the pill down her dogs throat every month (he's learned not to take it willingly...likely bc he's made the connection with how it makes him feel).
As her dog moseyed along sluggishly, my dogs on the other hand looked strong and healthy and were tearing up the fields snagging the frisbee outta the air.
She commented on how great they looked. I told her how we stopped all the chemicals a few years back ever since we switched to a raw diet. She said that was the first she's heard of someone doing it, asked what that was and where to buy it. I told her a little about it and pointed her in your direction so she could get a vet who would support her. I urged her, at the very least, to just give HW meds (Heartgard) every 45 days and stop the combo pill. I also introduced her to nematodes. It was nice to run into someone so foreign to this other way and not immediately met with resistance. But we are seriously killing our pets with love. I was guilty too. Fozzie absolutely refused comfortis 2 years ago so I switched to Heartgard and the spot on. Thank god we've finally found the path to true health (Toxic free pest control and a species appropriate diet) because I truly have some vital looking dogs. And she noticed. That's something you can't argue with.

It is so good to see an ethical Vet take a hard stance against dangerous oral insecticides and put dogs' welfare above profit. Thank you for coming forward.
After my young dog went into a non stop cluster seizure lasting 90 minutes until I got her to the ER,(where she was put on an IV drip of Phenobarbital and Valium for 24 hours ) i was shocked to learn the ER Vet had many dogs who had cluster seizures. These Vets had plenty of experience with these horrible seizures that would result in death without ER intervention.
Later when I realized that it was the Trifexis that is causing the seizures, i was surprised that the Vets refused to see the relationship between seizures and this oral flea poison.
I asked the Vet how many of his cluster patients were still on Trifexis, and he said, "All of them".
25 years ago you rarely heard of dogs having seizures or getting cancer, unless they were very old. Now, it is common place.
I've read Trifexis costs less than ten cents a pill to make, but retails for $20+ dollars a pill. That's a lucrative incentive for both Vets and drug reps to pocket the profits, accept the drug company's reassurances, and refuse to see the obvious link between Trifexis and the poisoning symptoms in dogs being brought to their ER's.
The profits to an individual Vet's practice in selling Trifexis must be huge.
How much markup/commission does a vet make off each six pack of Trifexis they sell? What is wholesale cost of Trifexis to the Vet compared to the MSRP?

This may sound pretty simple, but in answer to Scott's question, I'd have to share what Dr. Falconer shared with me when I was living in a flea-prone area of the country. If you suspect your dog has fleas, just comb her with a flea comb and keep a bowl of soapy water next to you. Should you find a flea or fleas, swish the comb in the soapy water and they're dead. Do this daily through a cycle, which I believe is about 2 weeks (was that the Rx, Dr Falconer?) and you've rid your dog of fleas with a natural method, no chemicals, and have had a chance to get close to your pup at the same time.
I believe there's also a way to naturally rid your house or carpet of fleas. Is it Borax sprinkled on the carpet, DE or something else? I can't recall.
Also, Dr. Falconer has an ebook that covers the heartworm issue. What he said to me about that is once a year, have your dog tested for heartworm rather than poisoning his system just to prevent the possibility. If your dog contracts heartworm, then you can give him the medicine that removes the disease.
Please correct me where I'm wrong, Dr. F. Thanks for everything and for all your wonderful advice over the years. I have the healthiest, happiest dogs in the world as a result of you.

Dr. Falconer,
Thanks so much for the article. I took my 1 year old Weimaraner off Trifexis earlier this year, after reading so many suspicious reports on the drug. Your article helped confirm my decision!
Do you have suggestions for alternative prevention of fleas and heartworms?

after reading all that i will never give my beautiful 4 legged friends Trifexis ever again!
now what to do about flea, tick or heartworm ???????????????
thank you!

I live in Europe & have used milbemycin tablets for small dogs per vets instructions but normally only 3 times each summer. I would like to know where this milbemycin is sourced? How do I find out?