To do this "behind his back"?

[Good4u]

Name chance because he knows I'm on here.

My dog is suffering from osteoarthritis. He was managing ok with pain meds and anti-inflammatories but over the past 48 hours has deteriorated rapidly.

Took him to the vet and he's been put on injections to help manage the pain and keep him mobile and comfortable.

Called my ex afterwards who had a go at me saying he "didn't want the dog on that drug, he's told me about it before and has read on Google that it causes all sorts of other problems".

For background, my ex became a conspiracy theorist during the pandemic. He's now an anti-vaxer, and takes all these weird and wonderful drugs purchased from the Internet because someone on Reddit said he should. All of his medical opinions, he gets from Dr Google.

The vet even said to me "you'll see all these things on the Facebook groups, but don't be discouraged by them. The veterinary community is really pleased with how pets are responding to the drug".

AIBU to take the opinion of a qualified veterinary over my ex who is not qualified but thinks he knows best?

I'm upset enough as it is, without him giving me a hard time for trying to give my beloved dog a better quality of life.

To those who are talking about side effects, no caring owner puts their pets on drugs for the fun of it. Vets who know their stuff will want to choose the least risky treatment. Apart from anything else its bad for business if the treatments they prescribe frequently cause harm. I have had my old dogs on various drugs which are believed to be risky because the options were for the dog to be PTS or to live in pain/fear/extreme stress or to try the drug.

He's been on Yumove for years. It was working well but unfortunately age is just catching up with him. I've been looking at hydrotherapy for a while now so I might try him on that. Thank you.

So he thinks it’s ok to medicate the dog behind your back?

I really would be cutting him out of this equation.

I'm a vet nurse ,we have been prescribing librela for years now and it is life changing , there are very few dogs that it doesn't work on and i am yet to see/hear of any reaction to the drug.
A couple of my family members dogs are on it also and are thriving.
Also depending on the individual response sometimes the effects can last up to 6 weeks.
I would absolutely be doing it behind this stupid mans back .
I am very sceptical of the comments about a vet stopping recommendation of it , i work in a very busy practice we use it multiple times daily 6 days weekly , we reorder librela daily from our wholesaler as we use so much of it .
The governing body - VMD informs us regularly of any issues regarding drug reactions that we need to be aware of and librela has so far not been one of them.
Of course there are potential reactions possible with any medicine but i have seen such amazing improvements in the dogs we see i know that its worth using.

Thank you for taking the time to respond. It's good to hear from a vet nurse's POV.

The lovely nurse at my practice gave me a cuddle when she saw me blubbering in reception.

I'm a vet nurse too and agree with all the above. As the dog is aged, why on earth would he object to anything that gets the dog out of pain?

Dump the knobber. Keep the dog until you know when the day is right for PTS.

Don't ask ex' permission whatever you do. He sounds like an awful person.

I'm firmly in the 'better a week too early than a day too late' camp.

I've clicked yabu for consulting your ex when you are the legal owner and pay for all care.

OP I think you should heed the comments about not trusting your ex's care of the dog. Why on earth did you allow him to keep caring for the dog when he admitted to the CBD?! Your relationship is over, you can't trust him to be upfront with you about the "care" he's providing, and it's legally your dog - time to cut that cord. I get dog care is expensive but at least you'll know he's safe.

Are you clinging onto your old relationship through the dog?

@tsmainsqueeze Be as sceptical as you like. As of April this year, 7% of vets have reported adverse side effects from the use of Librela in dogs, including hind leg paralysis. In addition, more than 3400 complaints of negative side effects have been submitted to Zoetis who make librela. The company value has fallen accordingly. 60% of vets in the uk are owned by 6 companies, including Mars. They are in it for the money. Mine is a small independent vet who will “sell her soul” before she sells out to the big 6. She has no targets to meet, no agenda and no head office to report to. A rarity these days.

I am on a rescue forum lots of pets that are on librella have had significant improvement. He is not paying I presume he is worried you might ask for money for these injections. Not his call as he didn’t put the dogs well being first. Certainly find someone else to look after him whilst you are at work.

No. 100% no. Once the dog goes, we'll never see each other again.

It's a combination of things. We had the dog for 10 years together and despite his questionable opinions, I know ex does love him. The dog is also a rescue and has abandonment issues. I work very long hours, and we just thought it would be kinder since he's at the last stages of his life to keep things as consistent as possible without bringing in dog sitters etc.

‘The dog is legally mine. And I fund all aspects of her care. Decisions on her health and care via the vet that I pay for are not up for discussion, at ALL. You have already put her at risk by not letting me know what was going on yesterday. If you are going to start causing further issues then you will not be able to have her in your care any longer’

Just keep your mouth shut and fingers still around your ex, while doing what you think is best. He's a liability. You're paying. You're not a conspiracy nut. You owe him nothing. Nothing! He's lucky you even let him see the dog after the CBD stunt.

@Good4u

why the hell did you tell him? It's a monthly injection at the vets, so not like he needed to know.

it's legally YOUR dog, he's a twat, but if the shared care is working best for the dog I'd carry on, but he doesn't have to agree with decisions YOU make in the dogs interest so just keep things to yourself.

i hope it works well for your dog 😍

I don't question that there will be some reactions that is always the case with any drug but this is not our experience of librela .
My practice is also a small but very busy independent and so far thankfully we have seen no adverse reactions other than the very rare dog that it doesn't work for or stops working for eventually or the odd candidate it is not suitable for.
I wouldn't think twice about giving it to my dogs should the need arise.