Anyone's dog on anything stronger than Metacam?

[CrymbleCrumble]

11 yr old mongrel, always had shitty legs as he's a real Heinz 57 so long body and short legs think corgi x Labrador. He's beaut! Anyway! He on Metacam/ Loxicom for his arthritis in his hips and knees, but I worked a night shift this week and packed the dogs off to day care because I've been struggling to get them out whilst on nights.

Day care lady said he ran around like a 6 month old.. and man is he paying for it! He is so stiff and sore bless him. He's already on Metacam and a paracetamol once a day. However he's struggling to get up the stairs now, I'm installing baby gates tomorrow so he doesn't hurt himself on the stairs as he's so shit at walking up them. I feel like such a bitch doing this as he's slept with us since we adopted him at 2.

How do you know it's the end? He hasn't played with our other dog for a couple of days at home, and hasn't been interested in playing with a ball, but will happily go and chill in the sun outside and bark at birds. Maybe this is a new phase of his life?

As you have a definite cause for the extra pain, I would just treat like you would if you had pulled muscles after a silly gym session. Rest, soft bed in the sun, heat if he likes that, gentle massage. I'd give him 3-5 days to recover back to his original point.

I think your plan to restrict him going upstairs is good. You could always sleep on the sofa for a couple of nights to help him adjust.

My old lab. 13, has over the past 3 years had me thinking he will never go a proper walk again to going out and running everywhere again. He seems to really go through phases. I give him anti inflammatory from vet, cod liver oil and glucosamine.
I think now he will mostly doze in the garden. I hope he gets a nice summer for it. He won't have many more

Sorry to derail the thread. My dog is on metacam for arthritis as well, I was interested to hear your dog is on paracetamol also as our vet said there is nothing else safe we can give.

Excuse my ignorance but is paracetamol ok for dogs and how much effect have you seen with it? Obviously I wouldn't do anything without consulting the vet.

Thanks in advance.

Sorry I should have said at the moment my dog is doing well on metacam but I do worry about it/when his arthritis gets worse.

There are definitely other options vet pain relief we very often use multimodal analgesia in older dogs. There are a whole range of options so I won't second guess what your vet might feel is the best in your situation. Probably at this moment in time they would be able to prescribe after a phone or video consult.

Fantastic thank you!

@blablablablablablabla yeah I called on Thursday and she said that for his weight 1 paracetamol should take the edge off. He slept all night last night so I imagine he felt the benefit. The only issue I have with metacam is he refuses to eat breakfast god knows why as he's constantly scrounging for food any other time but give him breakfast and he walks away so I'm struggling to get the metacam into him other than at night. Might have to go and get some oily fish for him. Then he can have the benefit during the day not at night!

Can I split the dose of metacam over 2 doses?

My dog is on loxicom and tramadol for his arthritis. He also gets Yumove tablet as his treat.

There’s no issue with giving metacam at night... it won’t have work off in the morning, it’s a 24hr dose...

If you’re finding he gets sore before it’s due then he probably needs something stronger anyway.

And there’s a few other painkillers you can add in - ask your vet about pardale rather than just paracetamol, you can order it online without a prescription anyway but they can give you the ok and dosage.

Big Dog had co-codamol (with the vet's blessing) as well as Metacam - it's got less codeine per g of paracetamol than Pardale but that was OK for her. I worked out how much paracetamol was in a dose of Pardale and gave her the equivalent in co-codamol, and the codeine was an extra.

She also had Amantadine, which "has been shown to improve the effectiveness of NSAID medications when combined with them". I had to get that on a private prescription from the vet and order it from local pharmacy. If you do that, shop around because I found quite a difference in prices (and ask the vet to prescribe it in pack quantities, which I think was 56, because that's much cheaper than breaking into a second pack). It cost just over £60 for a month's supply.

I also gave her CBD oil because several local owners said it had helped their dogs but it didn't seem to do anything for her. There is some evidence that it works in high doses, but (a) expensive! Over £10/day IIRC to get enough active ingredient and (b) what's available over here tastes so bitter I don't think I could have got that quantity into her.

BTW, I found the best way of getting her to take meds was mixing them with a teaspoonful of Aldi low-fat Brussels paté, about 49p/tub. At that price I'm sure it contains all the bits of pig their consciences won't let them make into sausages but she thought it was a treat.

I felt the Amantadine worked, but shortly afterwards it seemed she had "something more sinister going on" (vet quote) and we had to give her the last loving gift so hard to know how well or for how long it would have lasted.

Thanks to @CrymbleCrumble and everyone for the information. We are abroad where certain types of painkillers are very restricted but it's good to hear about other options.

@CrymbleCrumble Glad to hear your dog was more comfortable during the night.

Glad you got sorted and he's feeling bit more comfortable. Have read that putting metacam in a tiny sandwich helps some as bread absorbs it but some stinky sardines would hopefully mask smell.

There's a lot of different medications & treatments that can help arthritis and increase mobility. My old girl is on galliprant (anti-inflammatory), gabapentin (for neuropathic pain) & paracetamol, I do give her riaflex joint & green lipped muscle but I don't think any supplement could replace the drugs at her stage. She's a crossbreed that's also conformationally poor, like someone didn't quite mix the gene pot fully.

When not on lockdown she has regular hydrotherapy & see's physiotherapist whose great at pinpointing problem areas which I can then feed back to vet, they also treat with laser & pulsed electro-magnetic therapy (not same as static or spinning magnets)

Canine Arthritis Management are a fantastic resource and there's lots of info about how you can help your dog with a multimodal approach. They also have regular Facebook live's (later on YouTube) with specialists on various topics which are very interesting & informative.
caninearthritis.co.uk/
www.facebook.com/CAMarthritis/

Holly's Army CAM owner support group
www.facebook.com/groups/2161091580843717/