I was referred to ADC by my dog's vet to treat his extreme skin allergies & chronic skin infection. Dr. Werner has been "treating" my dog, Glacier, for well over 6 months now. I've easily spent thousands of dollars at this clinic and all I got from it was a dead dog. Dr. Werner diagnosed Glacier with an antibiotic resistant staph infection. There were two antibiotics that could potentially treat it. One of them that had a potential side effect of leg weakness & Rifampin (known to cause liver toxicity). We tried him on the former and within days, he was slipping on the stairs so we promptly stopped the treatment. My wife and I wanted to avoid using Rifampin at all costs so we embarked on a 5 month journey of a topical treatment that included bathing him once a day with medicated shampoo, spraying him multiple times a day with chlorhexidine solution, changing his diet, etc. After a while, his lesions started to disappear. Unfortunately, the infection returned a month later (worse)-- it spread all over his body and had gotten so bad that he was chewing himself bloody. We brought him back in to discuss starting Rifampin. I made it very clear that my priority was keeping my dog alive so at the earliest potential sign of liver toxicity, we needed to stop the treatment immediately. The doctor did a liver panel, Glacier's results came back normal so we began the treatment. The following week, we did a second liver panel. Results were normal. Third week however the results came back abnormal enough to make the doctor want to cut his dosage in half. The liver panel results were NEVER disclosed to me. I had to call the office to ask for them and was only told that the doctor had recommended cutting his dosage down. That made me worry. I asked if his liver panel was elevated and was only met with vague reassurance that everything was okay and that cutting his dosage was merely precautionary. The following two days, Glacier stopped eating his breakfast. The next morning (Thurs), I called the vet and expressed my concern and asked if we should stop the meds. They spoke to Dr. Werner and called me back saying that loss of appetite was a common side-effect associated with Rifampin, not to worry, and insisted I continue giving him the course of antibiotic, only to stop if he stops eating entirely. Friday morning, he didn't eat, we cooked him some chicken that night and he ate that. This was the last time he would ever eat again. Saturday & Sunday, he ate nothing so we stopped giving him the pills. He was drinking a lot of water, urinating frequently, was very lethargic, didn't even want to go for walks. I knew something was seriously wrong. That Monday morning, I went to ADC for his liver panel. When the lab tech came out, he didn't go into details about what the results showed. He just said his liver enzymes were elevated and that we should get him to a doctor. He said he'll need some support but assured me his enzymes would stabilize in a few weeks. I brought my dog to his vet who was vexed at the way ADC handled everything. She explained in great detail what the liver panels were showing and gave us the horrible news that his liver enzymes were so high, they weren't even registering. He was hospitalized immediately. The following day, his condition worsened and he was transferred to a specialty hospital. He was diagnosed with acute hepatitis. We kept him there until Saturday morning when he was discharged. The hospital told me there was nothing more they could do--his liver had completely failed, his kidneys started to fail too. They ran so many tests to see if there was something else at the root of this, their final determination was that Rifampin single-handedly was at fault for his liver failure. $15,000 in hospital bills, we carried my weak dog up the stairs to my apartment so that he could at least pass away in the safety and comfort of his own home. Three weeks ago, he was completely healthy. A five year old dog, with so much life left to live. I am not blaming Dr. Werner for giving him the Rifampin. Please understand this. I am blaming him for not being attentive to the red flags that were so CLEARLY waving in his face. I'm blaming them for not disclosing the liver panel results. If I had known his enzymes were even slightly elevated, I would have stopped the treatment and my dog might still be alive. His regular doctor, who has seen him only 4 times, approaches him with such thoughtful care & attention because it doesn't take a genius to figure out that my dog has a very sensitive system. So when you're giving him such a harsh antibiotic as Rifampin, I expected his dermatologist who has seen him more times than any other doctor on earth, to approach him with that same level of care. I am devastated. And I have to live with the guilt of his premature death. I wish I could turn back time, I wish I had listened to my gut, but instead I listened to the professionals who kept telling me to continue on. read more