Please talk to me about your arthritic dog and experience of nsaids.

[TheHappinessTrap]

Just that really. Am thinking I need to go to the vet as it's taking my old girl a long time to heal this time. Normally a period of shortened and easier exercise sees her back to normal in a week. I would be curious to know what your vet recommended and how you found it. She takes yumove, and in addition I've ordered some salmon for her in the weekly shop.

My dog was on Metacam for about 18 months, they work very well for arthritis type issues and if they don't upset their stomach then there are very few other side effects.

Unfortunately mine is one of the few where it did upset his stomach (quite severely) so he can't have them anymore and it's taken nearly 8 months to find a cocktail of other drugs to replace them.

We've had several oldies on Previcox, one of the widely used NSAIDs for arthritis, and think very highly of it indeed. Currently have a nearly eleven year old grey on it, who's doing brilliantly.

One of our previous oldies also had hydrotherapy which was very beneficial when the Previcox needed some extra help.

We also do all the usual things like ensuring they are kept lovely and warm in the winter, and make sure they have a choice of comfy beds. We have previously given Synoquin as a supplement, can't say I noticed much difference. Our twelve year old has a little bit of stiffness, not enough to be taking Previcox, and she's taking Arthri-Aid, a supplement recommended by the vet, and Flexidin for her and the grey taking Previcox.

I would say that we've had some really cold, raw weather in the past few days and that's one of the biggest problems for arthritic dogs. We really notice how they react to it.

My coming up 17 old collie x has bad arthritis. She was still running about madly until the day before her first stroke a couple of years ago, but gradually started to get stiff and sore after, so had x Rays that showed bad joints, and vet amazed at her fit she seemed considering! SHe was on tramadol at first, vet didn't want to use metacam for as long as possible to avoid side effects, but eventually she ended up on both, she also has high dose of yumove which made a noticable difference at first, not so much now.

She really starting to have troubles with her back legs now, but it's been about 4 yrs (and 2 strokes) since first diagnosed, an she is getting on, but I'm dreading having to make that hard decision when her back legs get any worse she's also quite senile now too, but it's the bad legs that are biggest worry, and can't give her anything more / stronger as now on most she can have for her size

Thanks for telling me about your experiences. It's so sad seeing them struggle, isn't it? Ours is on a high dose of yumove and it seems to really help, but when she hurts something it takes such a long time to heal. Adara, sending you a big sympathy hug for your old girl.

I will look into the side effects of different meds, I hadn't considered that. I just want to be as ready for the vet conversation as I can be so I don't walk out of the appt with something unsuitable.

Tramadol has been brilliant for ours, Metacam made him sick and par dale did nothing! We are on a mix of tramadol and you move advance. The advantage too is that tramadol is much much cheaper than metacam for the amount a newfoundland needs!

Tramadol does nothing for mine, not even on a pretty big dose. Amantadine made him aggressive - god knows why, he's a complicated dog, lol. He's currently on pardale and gabapentin.

NSAIDs are usually the first drugs they try and they are pretty effective...there are some nasty potential side effects, but, most dogs are fine on them and it's obvious if they don't agree with them.

Exactly which one they prescribe seems to vary by the vet's preference and if they don't suit Metacam for instance a different one may be fine.

There are also things like cartrophen injections (though they're not given at the same time as NSAIDs), hydrotherapy and laser therapy that can be helpful as well.

DDog1 was on Loxicom for about a year I think (he was on copious heart medications as well, it's hard to keep track of the order he was put on them) but it started to affect his stomach so he was swapped onto Onsior which he did really well on for months. Eventually he needed something stronger and for the last few months of his life he did very well on Tramadol.

He had also had Yumove which definitely seemed to help a bit with stiffness. Another thing that definitely helped him was getting him an Equafleece dog suit to help keep him warm. He loved it, asked for it to be put on as soon as he got up in a morning, and he was definitely more comfortable when he was wearing it.