Mrs. A. Woodward sent us the story about her Cavapoo "Dudley" (Cavapoo is a cross breed between a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and a Poodle):

Drooling, breathing didn't seem right

On the Wednesday teatime I took him for his usual walk and all was fine. Around 7.30pm he wanted to go outside and then came in and got in his bed. When I looked at him I knew something wasnt right. He was lifeless, drooling and his breathing didnt seem right. I phoned the vets straightaway and took him to the Out of Hours surgery. They said he had a temperature and gave him some painkillers and something to stop his nausea. I was told to go back to the surgery the following morning.

When I took him to the surgery the next morning they decided to keep him in, do some bloods and put him on a drip.

The vet phoned at teatime and said they wanted to keep him in overnight.

Passed away

At 10.30pm I received a call to say Dudley had taken a turn for the worse and was in distress and could I go and see him. I set off and when I got to the top of my road I received another call to say Dudley had passed away. I went to see him.

I declined a post mortem but spoke to the Vet a couple of days later as I needed to know what in their opinion was the cause of his death. He told me that he thought it was kidney failure. I told him about my concerns about Bravecto to which he told me gave his own dog Bravecto and it wasn't possible that this drug could be used in this country if there were any concerns like this. He also said the blood results showed an enzyme relating to do with his kidneys and if it had been Acute Pancreatitis this would have shown up on the blood results (which it didnt).

Happy and healthy dog

Dudley was a very happy healthy dog and throughout his life he never needed to go to the vets for anything other than his flea and worming tablets. Incidentally for the first three or four years he was given Frontline but this didnt seem to work one year so he then was given Bravecto.

I read the medical report on my Insurance claim (which to be honest I wish I hadnt). He was obviously in distress, all his limbs stiffened, his head went back and he suffered a cardiac arrest.

As you can imagine I'm devastated by what has happened, I can't bring Dudley back, I know that. 

I would be interested in your thoughts though as I've read quite a bit on your page. Dudley was given Bravecto on the 22^nd December and he died on the 6^th January.

Editors: We have been in contact with Mrs Woodward, and in our vision there could indeed be a relationship with the controversial tick and flea product Bravecto. The vet suggests that renal failure is not related to the "medication", but remarkably, renal failure is very commonly reported as a serious side effect of Bravecto. Kidney failure can be caused by damage to the kidney tissue, for example by an infection, but also by medication or an autoimmune disease. In addition to renal failure, many other types of organ damage have also been officially reported as side effects, such as liver failure, damage to the spleen and pancreas). Acute cardiac arrest is also a very frequently reported side effect of Bravecto. The fact that the FDA and EMA refer to these reported side effects as "not related to Bravecto" does not change that.