An Unassuming Hero

This is the story about a very special patient. It begins overseas, in the Czech Republic, where a litter of German Shepherds was born in 2000 and sent to a police dog training center in Connecticut. One of those dogs was assigned to John Lamantia of the Cranston, Rhode Island police department. Officer Lamantia named the dog Keaura, from a thunderbird in an indigenous story who saved an entire tribe. Keaura was a smart, easily-trainable dog who excelled both at patrol school and then narcotics detection school.

Also in 2000, Dr. Tiffany Tapp moved to Rhode Island and became the first, and still only, Board Certified Veterinary Dermatologist in the state.

On September 14, 2001, Dr. Tapp met Officer Lamantia when he brought Keaura in with a history of recurrent bacterial infections that had started when he was only 6 months of age. Dr. Tapp, excited to help Keaura, made a differential diagnosis of allergy and started down the road to try and help him. A food trial along with antibiotics and specialized shampoo therapy failed to improve him. Not to be deterred, Dr. Tapp then moved on to allergy testing and found Keaura allergic to a number of weeds, trees, grasses, dust mites, molds, and fleas. But even after starting immunotherapy, Keaura still failed to respond.

Meanwhile, on the job, Keaura was performing spectacularly assisting Officer Lamantia on a daily basis, whether it be searching for drugs, looking for missing people or finding crime scene evidence. In fact, Keaura went on to indicate over $300,000 worth of contraband in his career.

But Keaura was now four years old and still very pruritic, with escalating signs and further outbreaks of bacterial and yeast skin infections. For the next 5 years, Dr. Tapp tried other medications including antihistamines, antibiotics, antifungals, cyclosporine, shampoos, and even corticosteroids—but none of these treatments effectively relieved his pruritus without side effects that kept him off the job. Finally, unfortunately, Keaura had to retire from the police force due to intractable pruritus. He was very unhappy, inflamed, itchy, and lethargic—too uncomfortable to work or play, having suffered with his allergies for almost 9 years.

A Fresh Chance and Renewed Heartbreak

In a happy coincidence at just that moment, Zoetis called Dr. Tapp because they were looking for trial candidates for a new drug to treat canine atopic dermatitis. Dr. Tapp enrolled Keaura in the trial and, after only a week(!) Keaura's lesions and pruritus started responding, and for the first time he was completely itch free. During the trial, he had 112 days of joyful relief from his suffering.

Then, the trial ended and almost immediately all Keaura's symptoms came back. Officer Lamantia had to contemplate putting Keaura to sleep to ease his renewed suffering.

A New Solution and a Happy Ending

Dr. Tapp, as a last resort, wrote a letter to Zoetis asking them to considerate compassionate use of the trial drug for this special German Shepherd—something that had never happened in the US before. This set off a flurry of meetings and conversations at the drug company, and ultimately resulted—for the first time ever—in the FDA letting a dog use an as yet unapproved drug for compassionate relief.

In essence, continuation therapy for dogs in America was created for Keaura.

With this wonderful news, the drug arrived three days before Christmas in 2009. The treatment not only gave Keaura two-and-a-half itch-free, happy years, but cleared the way for 200 other dogs to get the drug as compassionate relief. (Apoquel® was ultimately approved by the FDA on May 16, 2013.)

May 3, 2012, was Dr. Tapp's final visit with Keaura. He was starting to show signs of age, weakness, and arthritis—but had no skin problems. During their visit, Keaura put his paw on Dr. Tapp's hand, which was something he had never done before. He looked at her as if to say thank you and goodbye. A month later, Keaura was put to sleep from old age, leaving a legacy as both a hero for his police work and for pioneering compassionate relief drug use for dogs across the country.

Officer Lamantia’s Letter

Here, you can read or listen to the letter that Officer Lamantia wrote thanking everyone who touched their lives.