Arthritis Treatment

[MattB]

I'd posted previously about this and Daisy is very well at the moment but again I'm just seeking advice from other greyhound parents (after coming away from the vets a bit unclear)

 

Brief history - Daisy started limping, we took her to vets and she was booked in for an x-ray, while we waited we were given 7 days worth of Previcox (227mg) = no more limping.

 

The x-rays showed some arthritis and we were given 30 days worth of Previcox (227mg) again and have seen no limping for the last 2 weeks.

 

The vet said that we could try stopping the tablets after 2 weeks (stopping them for a week).

 

I'm just wondering what the aim of this is? If I stop after 2 weeks and Daisy is no longer limping do we carry on as we were unmedicated? (I've added joint supplement as suggested by the vet) or is it important that we give her a whole month's worth of medication?

 

I'm wondering what our plan longer term should be? I'm presuming we wouldn't expect to be using this doseage of this medication permanently?

 

 

 

 

 

[smurfette]

Artrithis is an inflammary of the joint. You can help your dog with taking her for several short walks instead of a long one, cool the joint when you notice the limp, don't let her walk the stairs and try to keep sudden starts and stops to a minimum, like when playing ball.

Sometimes pressure helps with the pain. Dogs often lay on the joint.

 

I don't know if there is someone in your area who knows homoeopathie - phosphorus c30 is known to help very good, 4 doses injected by a vet in the area above the joint.

[Remolacha]

The idea of stopping the meds was probably to see if she could do without daily medication. You always want to go with the least amount of meds that is effective. That said, if arthritis is the cause, she probably will need to be on something on a regular basis, arthritis can't be cured. Are you giving her any supplements, like glucosamine or MSM?

[Guest JJGrey]

I am in search of some arthritis advice for my 8.5 year old boy.

Jay Jay had his first bout of arthritis in his hips a year ago. After two weeks on Rimadyl and Tramodol with short leash walks, he was good as new. Sunday, he started limping again. All signs pointed to arthritis again so the vet told me to put him on the two meds again. He had full body x-rays 2.5 months ago (for an unrelated issue) that came back clean so we decided to forgo x-rays for now. The vet did some blood work on Sunday, which came back normal as well.

He has been on the meds for 5 days now and is showing no signs of improvement but isn't getting any worse either. When I get him up (I have to force him), he doesn't want to put any weight on his right, hind leg. But after I get him moving for about 15 steps, he's fine. Once he's on a walk and moving, he's happy to be out for as long as I'll let him. We went for a 20 minute walk today and he was raring to go! However, when it comes to climbing the 5 stairs to get back into the house he balks. It's obviously very painful for him. What's more interesting is that when on walks, he will put his weight on the right, hind leg to lift his left to urinate. I'm not sure what it is about going up the steps that's causing him so much discomfort except that all the weight is on his hips at certain points.

We have another vet appointment today. He suggested injectable Adequan or oral Alenza. I'm on the fence about x-rays. I contacted another vet about acupuncture but have not heard back from her.

If any of you have been through a similar experience and can offer advice or guidance, I'd sincerely appreciate it. I'm feeling fairly helpless at this point. Thank you in advance.

[Batmom]

Get the x-rays.

[moofie]

JJGrey I agree about the xrays & possibly consider a referal to a specialist. It maybe that it takes time for the meds to build up to have a beneficial effect rather than immediately but i don't know if thats the case with those.

 

 

MattB Throp had cartrophen injections, it was an intial course of 4 x weekly then gradually increased intervals from every 2/3 weeks to 7-8 weeks going by how he was getting on. At the time he wasn't on any other medication & he went from being reluctant to go on walks to happily trotting along, his demeanor also altered which was lovely but sad in that what we had assumed was aging was pain related, damn stoic dogs. It doesn't seem to work for all dogs but if suitable is worth trying as fairly affordable (costs us £13 per injection).

 

We initially saw a sports vet that see's a lot of greyhounds rather than our own vet for a lamness examination & he felt he had arthritis in his wrist & issue with shoulder. He's since been going to orthopeadic referal vets & they did xrays/mri & elbow arthroscopy to pinpoint exactly what was going on, turned out had old self healed fracture to humerus & some bony growth to wrist .He's still having the cartrophen, but with the tramadol & PLT he takes its not possible to see what effect it has but hopefully helping the other joints.

[MattB]

JJ Grey - might be completely unrelated but has anyone checked Jay Jay's neck/back - my dad's (non gh) has hurt his back and is complaining similarly with stairs - might well be completely irrelevant to your situation but it's just happened so thought I'd mention.

 

moofie - thanks for that I've not heard of a sports vet. Daisy's doing well at the moment having stopped the meds for a few days. We think (and I've just posted a thread asking for advice) that her cracked paws may be contributing so are trying hard to get on top of these. If we end up going back to the vets I'll ask about cartrophen definitely, not hear of that before.