Angel Is On Deramaxx

[LadyGrey]

A while back Angel started limping. After a couple of days, I took her to the vet. After the vet took X-rays, she had a clean bill of no Osteocarsonoma or any other bone cancer. However, she has a little arthritis in the right back hip joint area. She is on a half a tablet a day of 75mg of Deramaxx chewable tablets. It seems to be working well for her. The vet told me after a while I could try to give her the half a tablet every other day to see if she does well with that. Well when I tried to skip a day, she was limping by that night as I give the half of a tablet to her in the morning. Since the disease is progressive, why whould the vet suggest that? It would be wonderful if she could back off a day, but it does not seem to work.

 

Any testimonies or advice or anything?

 

Thanks

Edited May 26, 2011 by LadyGrey

[tbhounds]

You always try to use the least effective dose possilbe. I'm not a huge fan of deramaxx- I personally have seen more gi upset over other NSAIDs with deramaxx. Of course I'm sure there are others that would disagree, however, there was a recent study done which showed rimadyl the most renal friendly over the other NSAIDs. I would recommend starting your dog on a joint supplement-- everyone has their favorites--- mine is Dasaquin.

[GeorgeofNE]

George takes a half Deramaxx every day. So far, so good.

 

In my experience, supplements don't work in any but the mildest of cases.

 

You can find studies that say they do work, and studies that say they don't work. Suppose they can't hurt! I used them for over a year for my last dog and they did nothing--but he had a bad case.

[Remolacha]

I've just recently "upgraded" Fletcher's supplements to a high dose of glucosamine. I am hoping it will be enough, but I think he's going to need to upgrade his pain meds too I have arthritis myownself, and find the supplements to be a help, but mine isn't too bad yet.

 

To answer the original question, the lowest dose of meds possible is always best, especially for something that you will be giving long term, but obviously, it needs to be enough to work.

[tbhounds]

I forgot to add- I just attended a pain mangement seminar were they couldn't recommend gabapentin enough. It's safe to use, doesn't interact with other drugs and the dosage can be increased as the discomfort/pain is increased. If you think that your pet (dog or cat) may benefit from this drug please discuss this with your vet.

[Guest TDotGreys]

What about Metacam?

[JJNg]

Metacam and Deramaxx are both in the same family of drugs (NSAIDs) so they can't be used together. If a dog isn't doing well on one NSAID, sometimes they may do better on another, but it is safest to wait several days after stopping one before starting the other to make sure there is no 'overlap'.

 

I did attend a presentation last year where weaning down the dose very gradually allowed dogs to maintain well on a lower dose than if a more abrupt drop in dose is attempted. Since Metacam is a liquid, it allows you to step down the dose very slowly. All the other standard veterinary NSAIDs are tablets that limit how slowly you can practically decrease the dose.