General Info
The following information is an excerpt from the Librela – the Truth Facebook Group (from the featured page, written by the founder of the group).
LIBRELA is a monoclonal antibody treatment that is designed to block "nerve growth factor" (NGF) in the joints to prevent it from sending pain signals to the brain. You would think this sounds like a great idea. But what the drug reps don’t tell us is that it doesn't just block it in the joints, it can block NGF throughout the body which can be very dangerous! NGF is responsible for repairing and protecting the nerves throughout the body. So I'm sure you can imagine how many things can go wrong if your body stops sending or receiving nerve signals from your nerves throughout the body! Countless issues can arise!
A geriatric dog’s body likely has degraded nerves throughout the body. So if you block this protein from keeping those nerves repaired and healing, then eventually these nerves can start to die. Well, if the nerves die, the dog can completely stop receiving signals from these nerves. So if a dog has degraded nerves in the spine, and you block NGF, then it can lose control of its legs or its entire body. If the dog has degraded nerves in the bladder or bowel (not rare in geriatric dogs), and you block those nerves from healing themselves, the dog may eventually no longer be able to tell when its bladder is full, or if bowel is full and can become completely incontinent.
So anywhere the nerves die or stop sending signals, that part of the body can no longer function properly. Dead or blocked nerves in the spine can paralyze a dog. Dead or blocked nerves in the joints can make a dog wobbly because it can no longer tell where the pressure is coming from in their joints. Dead or blocked nerves in the bladder or bowel can make them incontinent.
So this is how blocking NGF can cause dogs to completely lose control of their bladder, their bowels, their legs, some of their organs, and how it causes seizures and hemorrhaging and so forth.
Additionally, some veterinarians are not reading the literature and just prescribing it for anything while it is only meant to be used for OA. Dogs that do get success with this drug can end up developing extreme osteoarthritis much more quickly because they can't tell how much damage they are doing because their joints are basically numb.
They did 40 human trials and after phase 3, the FDA stepped in and voted 19-1 against it because the side effects were so severe in humans! One of the main side effects in humans was the development of super fast progressing osteoarthritis. It was so severe in some that they had to have their joints rebuilt surgically!
This drug is still in Phase 4 trials (which are allowed to be sold to pet owners). And no independent safety studies have been done on the drug!
The half-life of the drug is approximately 12-16 days, which means it can take months for any side effects to wear off.
Common Symptoms Reported After Injection:
Sudden onset paralysis of hind legs
Sudden onset paralysis of the entire body
Seizures
Ataxia, dizziness, stumbling
Loss of control of hind legs
Loss of control of bladder
Loss of control of bowels
Worsened vision, loss of depth vision
Organ damage from massive amounts of cortisol produced from the adrenal glands
Polyuria, polydipsia
Tachycardia, restlessness, anxiety, insomnia, changes in behavior, etc.
Cardiac arrest
Brain hemorrhages
And I could name many others I've seen fairly commonly in these other groups.
Too many veterinarians are not reading up on the literature that warns them that it is "highly likely" that this can cause multiple downstream pleiotropic effects in multiple different areas of the body! Which basically means… There are many other symptoms it can cause elsewhere in the body that aren't listed in the literature! Vets are not supposed to prescribe it with certain medications, and especially not in dogs with any kind of neurological issues or degraded nerves.