Hi. My name is Juno. I’d like to tell you my story.

I’m a 14 year old Labrador. I have had a wonderful life. I was adopted by my family when I was 12 weeks old. The son belongs to me. My human mom makes sure that I get my shots and my walks.

I absolutely love to go to the vet! They have the best treats I have ever tasted. Even the shots don’t hurt that much. Every time I go to the vet, the doctor checks me over really well, including my joints.

When I was 11 years old, I started to hurt after I played too long. Sometimes I hurt after my naps. I had no way to tell my humans this. The doctor could tell though. When she did my exam and stretched my legs, I couldn’t stretch them as far as before. She told my human mom and she was quite upset that I had pain and she didn’t know it. There is good news in all of this. I can be helped. I got to have tasty treats twice a day that made the pain go away. I didn’t even know that I was taking medicine.

After I was taking my treat for a while my human mom brought me back to the vet. I was surprised to be there because I usually only visit them every 6 months. My favorite nurse was there and she took a blood sample and gave me a treat. I was happy.

I knew the next day I knew was something was wrong. The phone rang and when my human mom hung up she was very upset. She didn’t tell me what was wrong. During dinner that night my human family was talking about me. Human mom told the family that my blood tests came back but weren’t good. Apparently my tasty treats weren’t good for my liver. I was surprised. I felt great! I didn’t hurt any more. The good news is we caught it in time. If I stopped my tasty treats for a while and tried something different I would be fine.

Here is the moral of my story: If my humans hadn’t followed my doctor’s recommendations and monitored my blood work, I could have gone into liver failure and died. Please do your therapeutic monitoring. It will save your pets life.

Helpful Links:

http://www.fda.gov/animalveterinary/safetyhealth/productsafetyinformation/ucm055434.htm