dear Babs, I share your grief over the loss of your doggies. I lost one of my cats to kidney failure. He was the only one that was getting canned food in the house (to gain some weight). I do know his food was on the list. I kept him going for 6 weeks with home dialysis praying that the poison would wash out of his kidneys. But it did not. I do not think Metacam was responsible for your dog's deaths. I would blame the food. I have little Maltese dogs and have used Metacam on them and on my cats and never had a problem.