Anyone's dog have arthritis?

[Still Invisible]

Just wondering, my six year old dog may have arthritis, going to take him to the vet tomorrow and find out.
Anyone have a dog with arthritis and if so what sort of treatment are you using?
And does it work?

 

[Kronikal_kiwi]

Gidday mate.

My biggest girl (5 year old Rotty) has had arthritis since she destroyed her cruciate ligaments, and had surgery at 2 years old. It is manageable. Try to keep up a routine with exercise like half an hour a day, as opposed to no walks during the week then a two hour walk in the weekend, as this will hurt the dog. Also I use a glucosamine/chondroiton supplement, which is really good stuff and helps rebuild cartiladge in the joint. I also, on bad days (in the winter) use Rimadyl which works WONDERS she plays liked a 6 month old puppy again.

Arthritis is not a death sentence by standard. My girl is still incredibly healthy and going strong at 5 years (6 in september).

 

[Nog Onsigbare]

Good info Kiwi; I'm sure Still Invisible will find that very helpful.
One of the problems with owning big dogs I suppose.

 

[Mia]

Glucosamine/choindritin has a lot of anecdotal support so it's worth a shot.
Look into hyaluronic acid as well, they use it a lot for horses. I've spoken to people who swear by it.
Both are very safe as far as I know.
Keep him moving, don't let him become too sedentary or things will only get worse,good mild walks a few times a day at least.
Doggy massages never hurt either!

 

[Green Supreme]

My dog has hip dysplasia. She has learned to ask for vapes when she is hurting. I used to give her butter and same thing, she learned to ask for it. Then she would not accept it when she was not hurting. Peace GS

 

[Newd]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Nog Onsigbare Afrikaan for Still Invisible?

Best regards,

Newd

 

[Stoner4Life]

glucosamine chondroitin first regularly, if that doesn't help then try the Rimadyl, I understand Rimadyl can be tough on a dogs liver. The link to the entire article is below:

http://www.preciouspets.org/newsletters/articles/rimadyl-warnings.htm

If you decide to use Rimadyl (I've seen it work wonders) be careful to monitor your dogs health immediately after starting therapy.......

You might call it a made-for-TV drug. Approved for human use in the U.S. but not marketed that way, an arthritis medicine called Rimadyl languished for nearly 10 years in developmental limbo, then emerged in a surprising new form: Instead of a human drug, it was now a drug for arthritic dogs. And it became a hit.

With the aid of slick commercials featuring once-lame dogs bounding happily about, Rimadyl changed the way veterinarians treated dogs. "Clients would walk in and say, 'What about this Rimadyl?' " says George Siemering, who practices in Springfield, Va.

Today, those TV spots are gone. The reason has to do with dogs like Montana.

A six-year-old Siberian husky with stiff back legs, Montana hobbled out of a vet's office in Brooklyn, N.Y., six months ago accompanied by his human, Angela Giglio, and a supply of Rimadyl pills. At first, the drug appeared to work. But then Montana lost his appetite. He went limp, wobbling instead of walking. Finally he didn't walk at all. He ate leaves, vomited, had seizures and, eventually, was put to sleep. An autopsy showed the sort of liver damage associated with a bad drug reaction.

Pet drugs are big business -- an estimated $3 billion world-wide -- and Rimadyl is one of the bestsellers. It has been given to more than four million dogs in the U.S. and more abroad, brought Pfizer Inc. tens of millions of dollars in sales, and pleased many veterinarians and dog owners. But the drug has also stirred a controversy, with other pet owners complaining that nobody warned them of its risks.

Montana's owner, Ms. Giglio, is among them. After she informed Pfizer and the Food and Drug administration of her relatively youthful dog's death, Pfizer offered her $440 "as a gesture of good will" and to cover part of the medical costs. Insulted by the offer and a stipulation that she agree to tell no one
about the payment except her tax preparer, she refused to sign and didn't take the money. "There's just no way in my conscience or heart I can release them from blame," she says.

After reports of bad reactions and deaths started streaming in to the FDA, the agency suggested that Pfizer mention "death" as a possible side effect in a warning letter to vets, on labels and in TV ads. Pfizer eventually did use the word with vets and on labels, but when given an ultimatum about the commercials -- mention "death" in the audio or end the ads -- Pfizer chose to drop them.

Pfizer's director of animal-products technical services, Edward W. Kanara, says that when reports started coming in, "we acted extremely promptly based on the information we had." Pfizer points out that reported adverse events involve less than 1% of treated dogs.

Since Rimadyl's 1997 launch, the FDA has received reports of about 1,000 dogs that died or were put to sleep and 7,000 more that had bad reactions after taking the drug, records and official estimates indicate. The FDA says such events are significantly underreported.

While the numbers include cases "possibly" related to Rimadyl, it is hard to be sure. Many dogs given the arthritis drug are older, and few are autopsied after they die. Pfizer says it analyzed cases of Rimadyl treated dogs that died in 1998 and found a link to Rimadyl to be "likely" in 12% of cases and "not likely" in 22%; it says there was too little information for a judgment about the others.

 

[Nog Onsigbare]

.

 

[Nog Onsigbare]

Stoner4Life
Medicinal Advocate





Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: wandering further down the path less travelled
Posts: 9,765


glucosamine chondroitin first regularly, if that doesn't help then try the Rimadyl, I understand Rimadyl can be tough on a dogs liver. The link to the entire article is below:

It must be a Cortico Steroid; from what I have read on the net Cortico Steroids used to treat arthritis can cause liver problems in dogs.

 

[barletta]

I had good luck with 2 dogs with glucosamine/condroitin/MSM/hyaluronic acid (I think the brand name was 'flexamin') & also a high epa/dha fish oil tablet with each meal. It made both dogs limber enough to get moving, which did more for the arthritis than anything.

The onset of fall/winter was rough. Keep them covered and warm. The times where the dogs were in pain, I had better luck with 1 regular uncoated 325mg asprin than rimadyl. If I had to give every day , I'd try something else, but for occasional use (I think I gave each dog asprin less than 3-4x's) it worked to get them walking up and down the driveway.

The dogs were a ~70lb female akita mix & ~80lb pit. The fish oil pills were I think 180mg epa, and 220mg dha each. Here's the label for the joint pills. I asked my vet if these joint pills were cool to give the Akita even after seisures and a phenobarb regimen, she said no problem, no interaction issues. Hope your doggie feels better

http://www.flexamin.com/product/015282
Supplement Facts
Serving Size 2 Tablets
Servings Per Container 30
Amount Per Serving %Daily Value
Calories 10
Total Carbohydrate 2 g 1%**
Vitamin C (as Ascorbic Acid) 60 mg 100%
Vitamin D (as D3 Cholecalciferol) 2,000 IU 500%
Manganese (as Manganese Sulfate) 4 mg 200%
Sodium 15 mg 1%
Glucosamine Hydrochloride 2,000 mg (2 g) ***
Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) 1,000 mg (1 g) ***
Boron (as Sodium Borate) 6 mg ***
Flex Proprietary Blend 36.5 mg ***
Silica and Hyaluronic Acid (HA) (as Sodium Hyaluronate)
**Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
***Daily Value not established.
Prod. No. 15282
Other Ingredients: Vegetable Cellulose, Povidone, Calcium Silicate, Titanium
Dioxide Color, Vegetable Magnesium Stearate.
Contains shellfish (shrimp, crab, lobster, crayfish) ingredients.

 

[Nog Onsigbare]

I had good luck with 2 dogs with glucosamine/condroitin/MSM/hyaluronic acid (I think the brand name was 'flexamin')

There was a study done in 2010 that found that Glocosamine didn't work.

I think is is just made of shark cartilage; from a scientific point of view I'm not sure that eating shark cartilage would make dogs grow cartilage.

My dog is not that bad that he can't make it down the driveway; he can walk gently for half an hour but I can tell that it hurts sometimes to walk.

 

[Anti]

Subbed for future lurkitude. My dog is only a year and a half but she'll eventually need me to know about these things. Might as well start.

 

[gtgio]

My dog has hip dysplasia. She has learned to ask for vapes when she is hurting. I used to give her butter and same thing, she learned to ask for it. Then she would not accept it when she was not hurting. Peace GS

That's pretty cool. How exactly does your dog hit a vape, do you just blow the vapour at it?

 

[Nog Onsigbare]

Subbed for future lurkitude. My dog is only a year and a half but she'll eventually need me to know about these things. Might as well start.

Good idea; apparently one in five dogs gets arthritis.
They say one of the most important things you can do if your dog has arthritis it to keep it's weight down so there is not so much stress on the joints.
My dog has had a really active life so I guess there has been a lot of wear and tear on his joints.

Originally Posted by Green Supreme
My dog has hip dysplasia. She has learned to ask for vapes when she is hurting. I used to give her butter and same thing, she learned to ask for it. Then she would not accept it when she was not hurting. Peace GS

Yes, hip dysplasia is pretty serious. I think they might be able to do hip replacement surgery, but I'm not sure.
I would ask the vet about getting her stoned though.

 

[PetFlora]

Vitality Science has an all natural product for pet arthritis

 

[B.B. King]

I know this is off subject, but I thought you all might find my story interesting. I made up a batch of canna-salve awhile back. It's similar to making budder, except that I cooked the trim down in coconut oil. To that I added aloe, vitamin E, peppermint oil, and bees wax (to thicken).

Anyway, it's great help for the arthritis in my hands, as well as general aches & pains. So I acquired a lab puppy who had a fatty tumor on her leg. It was smaller than a dime when I got her, and it grew to bigger than a quarter within a month. I took her to the vet, he diagnosed it as a fatty tumor, and said we needed to have it removed soon, as it would only continue growing. We didn't have the cash for the surgery, but I'd read that cannabis was affective in treating some tumors and cancers. So, I started applying the salve twice a day, and 2 months later, it's virtually gone. I don't doubt it would help their arthritis too, but a greasy dog is a whole nother thing. Maybe vaping is the better plan. Maybe some doggie edibles would be a good thing too!


Grow well,
B.B.

 

[Green Supreme]

Yes, hip dysplasia is pretty serious. I think they might be able to do hip replacement surgery, but I'm not sure.
I would ask the vet about getting her stoned though.

To be truthful dude, I doubt vets know much about cannabis, in the same way doctors don't. It is just not what they are trained in. I see no side affects and she literally asks for it when she is hurting. Where my dog is concerned I have diagnosed all the issues she has had from a pup on. I even called the dog food scare before it got out. I will continue using my intuition to help her. Peace GS

 

[Anti]

AFAIK, the receptor sites in the brain are a remnant from the sea squirt. Which means that virtually all animals that evolved after sea squirts (all vertebrate life) should carry those receptors as well in some form.

I still don't blow bong loads in my dog's face or force cats to inhale one (as I've seen recently in a picture on this forum.)

 

[Green Supreme]

My dog hates combusted cannabis. She barks at people, when they blow bong hits or joint hits at her. Only butter or vapor for her. Peace GS

 

[barletta]

A study may have proven that glucosamine didn't work, but my own experience with those joint pills (glucosamine, msm, boron, HA) and fish oil was that it prevented the 1 dog from biting at her hips & whimpering because she couldn't stand, and it kept the other dog from just saying fukkit and not attempting to move till he wet himself. The dogs were old, and both showed signs of hip dysplasia. The signs lessened with the pills, and daily 'workout walks'. If I slacked on either, I could see the pain and limited range of motion return.

I had another dog that had a fang removed, I just metered out doses of hash in peanut butter to him. I kept him borderline wobbly for the first day, then just red-eyed for the next few. I think it worked out to ~1.25g per day broken up over 4-5 doses of a 50lb male pit.

Really, if you connect with your dogs like they are family, you can tell what does and doesn't work.