What are DDog’s options for pain relief?

[Iheartmysmart]

DDog is a 12 year old cocker spaniel. He’s had arthritis in both hips for almost two years. Was on Metacam but it stopped working effectively a few months ago and was irritating his stomach.

On the vets recommendation we switched to librela injections but they’re not helping. He’s gone from enjoying his walks and being relatively happy to being unable to manage the stairs, lots of paw licking and scratching which in him are signs of stress. He’s not overly bothered about food and is generally unhappy and unsettled.

I’m back at the vets with him tomorrow morning and wondered if anyone had any idea what other pain relief options we might be offered? He refused point blank to take dog paracetamol!

DS is distraught and thinks that our only option will be PTS. Obviously that’s the last thing I want but I’m not going to let poor DDog be in pain.

@Pasithean...sadly painkillers are frequently abused by humans (I worked in a substance misuse centre) a problem you don't encounter with pets.

I don’t know that it is easier to get dog painkillers than human ones though.

There’s only pardale that I know of that you can buy without a prescription and you’d still need to see a vet because dogs don’t tolerate paracetamol as well as humans and to get a prescription for a dog you can’t go longer than 6 months without the vet having to examine them.

I’m on longterm painkillers, I actually haven’t ever seen a GP in person about it, only phone appointments, I’ve seen physios and I was admitted to hospital once, but both after I was first prescribed painkillers and I get medication reviews by phone with a pharmacist.

It seems easier to me to get painkillers than a dog tbh.