Daily NSAIDS??

sillysally

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#1
Jack has elbow dysplasia with arthritis in said elbow, and has for years. With supplements, swimming, and weight control we have managed to keep the pain pretty manageable. He was limping after exercise, but not normally otherwise.

Then recently he somehow gave himself a soft tissue injury in that area. The soft tissue injury was diagnosed as tendonitis. The tendonitis has gotten significantly better, but it seems to have caused the elbow arthritis to get worse.

I have been taking Jack to an acupuncturist. He says the real issue now seems to be the arthritis. We are doing our best to get the pain under control without meds. However, at this point he cannot even swim short periods of time without being sore the next day.

Jack seems in very good spirits about the whole thing. He's eating fine, still super happy, and he wants BADLY (very badly) to be active, but I'm afraid to let him because he just ends up limping.

I'm seriously considering putting him on daily NSAIDS. He used to get Deramaxx when he had a bad day, but the acupuncturist recommended we stop. He said if we put him on them daily he recommends Metacam or Prevacox while giving him milk thistle and sam-e.

I hate doing web searches for this stuff because I always stubble on the "Drug XYZ Killed My Dog!!!" sites....

Anyone have any advice or experiences giving dogs daily NSAIDS?
 

SpringerLover

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#2
Buzz has been getting Previcox as needed (up to daily for weeks-months at a time) and his bloodwork has always been great. I really like how "safe" it is, and he's tolerated it really well.

Just a supplement thought-Wapiti Labs Mobility or Longevity... it has done absolute wonders for Buzz. He was taking his Previcox daily for months and now he goes days between needing it. I think he got it twice this week instead of seven times...?
 
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#3
Yup. I had an old dog with just about the worst hips ever on Rimadyl, along with some adjunctive medications, for years and years. Years that she wouldn't have had without it. I'd use them in a heartbeat again if I had a dog who I thought needed it. The thing about pain is... pain begets pain. The way that pain pathways work in the body, at a certain point it sort of takes on a life of its own. In the long run it's better to be as aggressive as possible when treating chronic pain IMO.

I hate doing web searches for this stuff because I always stubble on the "Drug XYZ Killed My Dog!!!" sites....
Just to put the risks in perspective, NSAIDS kill thousands of people a year, too, but you can go down to the corner store and buy them OTC. At the recommended doses, reactions to NSAIDS are pretty much individual, unpredictable idiosyncratic reactions. Either an individual is going to have a problem or they are not.

For some reason, certain veterinary NSAIDS have better/worse reputations for safety than others, but the risks of them all are pretty much the same. The big difference is some have more or less leeway with safe doses. Like people, sometimes one particular drug will work better than another particular drug in the class, so I would just pick one and if you don't think it works well, try another.
 

AdrianneIsabel

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I was told by my vet the deaths are rarely instant. Normally you see something off and you stop the med. Its those who miss the change that lose dogs. I am not a vet but Shamoos been on and off rimadyl for the 4 years we've had her.
 

sillysally

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These posts do make me feel a bit better. After the initial elbow surgery to remove a bone chip I took Jack to a physical therapy vet who was VERY, VERY against the use of medications to control pain. By the time Jack was done with his therapy I was pretty scared to use them. He has been on tramadol for years. He was on 50 mg for a long time but we have doubled the dose since this all started, I'm just not sure how much it's helping.
 
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#6
Again, just to put it in perspective... out of hundreds to probably thousands of dogs over the years on NSAIDS, I know of exactly one who had a truly serious problem with them. And as AdrianneIsabel said, it was not any kind of instant thing... the owner noticed some problems, stopped the drugs, and the dog recovered.

Tramadol is a great adjunct drug and a lot of people like it because it is incredibly safe, but IME by itself it's usually not enough unless you have an individual who happens to be particularly responsive to it. I like it a lot combined with an NSAID and/or something centrally acting (for example, gabapentin).
 

Katem

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#7
Bear was recently diagnosed with severe hip dysplasia and the vet prescribed rimadyl. He's only been taking it since June 5th, so it hasn't been long term, but he hasn't had any negative reaction to it thus far. He's going in for bloodwork as soon as the first prescription is up. If all is well he'll stay on the rimadyl and just get bloodwork every 60? days.
 

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