Madison is a 12 year old Boxer/ Standard Poodle Mix. On 1/7/16 Madison had some tan goop on her ear. I told my husband Chris to mention it to the vet tomorrow at her annual check up. 1/8/16 he asked the vet to check her ears. The vet tech took a swab of both ears, Madison jerked her head. Vet looked in her ears and said that both ears looked good, but one was a little pink. He told her that was the ear that Madison moved when the tech was swabing. Madison is 12 years old. She has never had an ear infection. She did not have any hearing issues. She heard perfectly. Most of the time we call her by simply making a psst noise. When my husband was paying the bill the vet intern came out with a box, he said it was for Madison's ears. My husband asked if she had an infection. The intern said not really, this is just to be safe. Intern told him to use 8 drops in each ear, once a day, for 1 week. 1/9/16 we started the Mometamax ear drops as directed. On Friday 1/15 Madison was asleep by the door and didn't hear us come home. We thought she was just sleeping soundly. Saturday she seemed lethargic. Sunday 1/17 she wasn't listening when we called her. We realized that she was completely deaf. She was sitting between my feet and I screamed her name but she didn't respond. I went online and found out that a lot of other animals have gone deaf using Mometamax. I called Merck, they were closed for the weekend, and Monday they will be closed for Martin Luther King Holiday. We read the warning paper in the prescription box. It said to flush her ears out. We went to the pet store and bought Nutri pet ear wash. We flushed out her ears 2 minutes on each ear, gave her 2 - 25mg Benedril and rushed to Emergency vet. She checked Madison. She said this is a known rare side effect. She prescribed Prednisone steroid twice a day for 3 days, then once a day for 3 days, then 1/2 pill for 3 days then 1/2 every other day for the rest of the 4 week period. She recommended that we do not use any more ear wash, just give it time to heal, and it may take a few months. She said they would fax a report to our vet and we should call our vet to follow up. We called out vet on Monday, she said they use Mometamax all the time, and she has only heard of animals going deaf two times. We told her we would call Merck on Tuesday. She said to let her know how Madison is doing on Wednesday. She said she may want to change the course of the medication. 1/19 I called Merck and Spoke to Dr Sylvester, got a case # & gave her permission to talk to my vet. Dr Sylvester said that 80 percent of animals recover. I was very upset to learn that no one is keeping track of the remedies or solutions that worked in the 80 % of animals that recovered fully. 1/20 I spoke to my vets office and they said after speaking to Merck, my vet agreed that Madison should be on the 5 day cycle of Prednisone instead of the 3 day cycle. I also called the FDA and left a message. I read online that people have been reporting deaf animals from Mometamax since 2010. I want to know what is being done to stop this. Maybe vets need training on what animals are at a greater risk for loosing their hearing. I think that someone should be keeping a database of successful treatments to help more animals make a full recovery. 1/21 I called Merck again because I read online that another case in 2011 also said that 80% of animals recover. I wanted to know if this is the stock answer or if more research has been done since 2011 to increase the odds that Madison will hear again. I also wanted to make sure I was not missing out on a critical window of opportunity to expedite Madisons recovery. Dr Sylvester was out today so I spoke to another doctor. I explained that I did not want to wait 6 weeks and then find out that I could have, or should have done something differently. She assured me that we were doing everything right and unfortunately we can only follow the vets instructions and wait. I called the FDA again and left another message. I strongly encourage anyone affected by Mometamax to contact Merck co 800-224-5318 and get a case documented. Then contact the FDA & fill out Form No. 0910-0645 Veterinary Adverse drug Reaction / Lack of Effectiveness or Product Defect Report. The form has to be sent in the mail. You can also call the FDA and leave a message 888-463-6332 or you can email them
AskCVM@fda.hhs.gov. I want everyone in the world to be aware of the devistating effects we experienced from this medication and I would like some assistance on the collected data to give Madison the most successful chance of recovery. We are praying that she will recover.
Thank you
Mary O