We've had stories before of Viagra saving the lives of tiny babies and toddlers with heart or pulmonary conditions. But now Viagra has moved out of the ICU and into the vet's office. Ingrid the pitbull has been kept alive for the last five years with a daily dose of sildenafil. When she arrived at a Huntington, NY, animal shelter, she was near death, but a vet suggested giving her Viagra to keep her heart going. And it's been going ever since.
After she gained national attention for her daily Viagra dose, the shelter began receiving hundreds of donations of Viagra, with some donors including notes to Ingrid along with the pill packets.
I'd heard before of Viagra being used in a veterinary context, but I assumed it was used for something else. Like if you had a purebred dog you wanted to breed, but it was kind of inhibited or couldn't finish the job. In zoos, there have been attempts to use it to encourage captive pandas to mate, but that experiment was largely a failure.
Anyway, it's not surprising that vets would use the drug to treat their animal patients - many drugs used for veterinary purposes - painkillers, antibiotics, etc. - are exactly the same drugs used to treat humans.
As for Ingrid, she's a lucky dog who just got luckier - she's been adopted from the shelter and "her new owners say they have no problem giving her the Viagra every day."
