Replied by Violet (St. Pete, Fl) on 09/29/2009

Elongated palate - this is a condition where the palate is so long that it partially covers the airway. If a dog is active for even short periods it can pant & wheeze, as well as easily overheat as the airway is blocked by the palate. I had a dog with this condition and the only cure is surgery. Since the dog was older when I found out what her problem actually was, I opted to not do the surgery and just keep her indoors in the a/c as much as possible. She lived until age 11, and had to be put down due to a completely different issue (brain tumor).

Stenotic nares - this is a problem with the nostrils, instead of being open they are narrow slits. Unfortunately the same dog I mentioned above also suffered from stenotic nares which also limited her oxygen intake and contributed to panting and overheating. Very likey due to poor breeding, again, the only option is surgery.

I hope this will help narrow it down a little and good luck with healing your pet.

Replied by Kathryn Arnold (Morehead City, Nc Usa) on 12/10/2010

I had wondered, years ago, why it seemed like all the dogs lost their energy and normal personalities at the same time. I thought it was the weather or pollution or age or something. PetTabs must have changed their formula. Those vitamins are gone and I don't know what I'll replace them with. Several weeks later, both little dogs are back to their old selves - I'd forgotten how much time I spent cuddling them before their personalities changed!

Pet Tabs have been found to be contaminated with lead by Consumer Lab in both 2007 and 2009. Pet-Tabs Complete Daily for Dogs was most recently found to be contaminated with 6.45 mcg of lead per tablet. California requires warning labels on supplements for human use that contain over 0.5 mcg of lead per day. Wow! If this is the case, then it has been in the vitamins for years.

They were fine for years, then the change... Listless, little or no running, disinterested in things that normally were their lifeblood (like toys, and cuddling, we had a regular schedule! ) :) Also, I just noticed that Gidget is snoring again. She hasn't done that in years but it used to be routine (and funny). It was clear that all three dogs were not themselves. My beloved dachsund-mix got the sickest - eventually falling to what the doctor believed was a slow-growing cancer, probably hemangioma sarcoma. At the same time the tumor appeared her eye on that side bulged and went blind and upon palpitation she showed pain, probably in the spleen. I had the tumor (in her ear) removed, I barely had the money even for that. I got medicine to try to reduce the bulge and blindness of the eye and medicine for pain. I didn't have the pathology test done because if it was cancer I had no money for treatment. But she had never done well with anesthesia and CLEARLY hated the way the pain medications made her feel. She just got weaker, until she lost interest in eating. The vet said she could give steroids to try to stimulate appetite, but rather than have her in pain, or miserable because of the pain meds, I accepted that at fifteen I had to put my sweetheart to sleep. It hurt terribly, and I miss her, but putting her to sleep was not as bad as watching her suffer. Now I wonder how much lead-poisoning could have had to do with that. It is SO good to have my other two babies back to their sparkling, happy dog selves.

On the Virbac website http://www.virbac.com , way at the bottom on the right hand side, there is a link to get to a .Pdf letter that hotly denies that there is enough lead in Pet Tabs to hurt pets. I don't know what it is in them that hurt my dogs, I just saw what I saw and know what I know because of it. If it was lead then my dogs are damned by it, because lead accumulates and does not naturally chelate out of the body. If it's a maximum of 0.5mcg per day for a person - at what average weight? 140 lbs? then 6.45mcg per tablet means 3.23mcg for my 11 pound dog. There will be no more Pfizer/Virbac products for my dogs - not their killer dental enzyme products (C. E. T. - sold exclusively through veterinarians) - not their vitamins - not nothing no more. Pfizer/Virbac does not love my dogs, I don't know what they do love, but it is definitely not my pets.

Replied by Gina (Iuka, Ms) on 12/19/2010