Comment from Bonnie Rae

On Mar.13, 2025, my seventeen year old female cat was given Zorbium after eleven dental extractions. Even though my state (Washington) has a law in place that requires informed consent from pet owners before any medication is given by veterinarians, I was not asked ahead of time nor was I given any information. I first became aware of the word "Zorbium" by seeing it on the bill. The only information I was given was by a receptionist who laughingly told me that my cat was "gonna be loopy" when I picked her up and she said not to touch the back of her neck because it would be "sticky for awhile". The veterinary clinic was Audubon Veterinary Clinic. Their address is 2120 West Northwest Blvd., Spokane, Washington 99205. Their phone number is (509) 328-7120. The vet that administered this poison is Dr. Olivia Young. As I discovered later, she had used Zorbium off-label three different ways. She administered it minutes before she was sent home. The instructions say it is to be used BEFORE surgery. The instructions also say that it was never tested on cats older than five. Mine, as I've stated, was seventeen. And the instructions clearly state that it's not to be used on cats with underlying medical issues--renal disease is the first one listed. And Dr. Young had been treating my cat for Stage 2 renal disease for several months. She came home just as you'd expect from a cat that just had eleven teeth pulled. She used the litter box, meowed, drank water, and jumped on the couch. Within an hour her breathing was almost imperceptible. I couldn't feel her heartbeat. Her eyes were dilated to a point that no color was visible. She could no longer hold her head up. And wide awake. Unable to move. She didn't eat, drink water, or sleep for five days. She spent four and a half days at our pet emergency clinic and multiple doses of Narcan are clearly what saved her life. I will never forget what the vet at the emergency clinic told me when I brought her in: We don't have Zorbium on the premises. We deal with the effects of Zorbium all the time". That's a direct quote. She never recovered. Zorbium put her into complete kidney failure. Prior to Zorbium she was diagnosed with Stage 2 kidney disease. She never reached that threshold again. After two months of intensive treatment she stayed at Stage 3. And she never ate right again. I guess it could be called anoexia. It was a nightmarish challenge. She had a stroke May 26, 2025, and had to be euthanized. The stroke was 100% the result of the kidney disease that had advanced because of the Zorbium. My new vet said strokes are frequently linked to renal disease. In people, too. Dr. Olivia Young couldn't have been sorrier. At least that's what she kept saying. She admitted the off-label use but kept saying "We do it all the time". She wasn't sorry enough to give me a credit on the first day of my cat's treatment when I took her back. That was an additional $500.00 before they gave up and sent us to the emergency clinic. I can't even begin to list the expenses of the following two months. Elanco, the company that makes this poison did reimburse me for about 1/5 of the expenses. This is apparently something they do on a regular basis. Zorbium should never have been approved. Period. And should be taken off the market immediately. This nightmare should never have happened.