Previcox for dogs anyone?

[spamoose]

My vet just put one of my labs on this medication for a sore hind leg anti inflamatory anyone ever had this med for their dogs? He said it was new however I am not seeing good results yet, after a week the first couple days he seemed better now he does not want to put weight on the leg once again .This is my first time at this vet because our vet retired after we have been going to him for 20 years he sold his pratice to a vet I really know nothing about our vet said he had a PHD but does not always mean everything,or does it? Is a vet with a Phd better than a regular vet?What is the exact difference?Was just curious if anyone had used this Previcox.Also if you have a good vet you are lucky,not saying my new one is bad,had not seen him enough to really judge him.Any replys will be appreciated..spamoose

[FJH1]

Our 12 year old Golden has been on Previcox for about three weeks now. She has a torn ligament and it is not worth repairing due to her age. We had her on Rimadyl (sp) but after several months she developed very bad diarrhea. We eventually traced it to the Rimadyl and pulled her off - the diarrhea cleared up. We put her back on Rimadyl after a week of normal bowel movements and a day later she was back to diarrhea. Our vet switched her to Previcox and things are back to normal. She has a slight limp, the same as with Rimadyl, but not as bad as without meds.

Best Regards,

FJH

[vetspet.ind]

previcox is just another in a long line of what we call cox-2 inhibitors..(nsaids...non-steroida anti-inflammatory drugs).sorta like celebrex and viox...these products are much safer than a comparable pain dose of aspirin or tylenol or alleve...stay a long way from tylenol or alleve or ibuprofin as these tend to have a much higher side effect rate of kidney/gastic problems...the first cox-2 that was dog approved was rimidyl which has sold over a billion doses...very low side effects altho you will read about them at certain internet sites, primarily because of its much larger use than any of the others...probably used by more than 100x any of the others..literally...they have the lions share of this market...our clinic has 6 vets and we use rimadyl a lot and have seen almost no serious problems...previcox, which i also dispense is literally the new guy on the block and therefore we dont know nearly as much because there is no track record of it...on paper, it is much less likely to affect the good cox sites(cox-1) than cox-2's vs rimidyl...now, rimidyl is kinda going to the opposite side of this whole arguement by saying that some cox2's are actually good for you and a drug should not be too selective...who knows which drug is really the best....there have been reports of young dogs suffering acute death due to cerebral hemorrhages...but that may not be 100% the truth...something i heard from a competitor drug co....there is a warning about young dogs on the previcox label...i believe its safe and effective but have not dispensed to enough dogs to get a real feel.....is your lab old?...maybe there is a problem which needs to be worked up...there are some conditions which just wont respond well to any nsaids...if your dog is young, sometimes they get diseases like panosteitis, osteochondritis and other metabolic bone disorders which take time to get over and some do not respond to nsaids...as well as to steroids and vice versa....if she is old, there are some other serious things like bone cancer (just amputated a leg on a lab for this last wk at my clinic...we amputate not attempting to stop it from spreading as that is almost a certain thing...we amputate because its the only means to stop the pain...even morphine wont do this and it will give the dog sometimes 3-9 months of pain free living..which is worth the amputation for some people...not if it were my dog but to each his/her own.)...so x-rays may be next step...for plain old arthritis these drugs work wonders on some dogs...science diet just came out with a new diet for arthritis called "jd"...my partners wire hair pointer just went on this diet and he says it has really helped his dog...better than rimidyl, and several other things..incl surgery for the knee...acl...he is sold on jd...i put my brotherinlaws wirehair on it because his dog developed cruciate disease(not a rupture...the ligament is just damaged and unless he has a complicated surgery at purdue with a bone specialist...called a tplo...for 2,500 bucks it wont get better...too early to say as i just put him on jd a month ago and i keep forgettin to ask him how the dog is..guess he will tell me when hunting season starts as i usually tag along...steve

[vetspet.ind]

previcox is just another in a long line of what we call cox-2 inhibitors..(nsaids...non-steroida anti-inflammatory drugs).sorta like celebrex and viox...these products are much safer than a comparable pain dose of aspirin or tylenol or alleve...stay a long way from tylenol or alleve or ibuprofin as these tend to have a much higher side effect rate of kidney/gastic problems...the first cox-2 that was dog approved was rimidyl which has sold over a billion doses...very low side effects altho you will read about them at certain internet sites, primarily because of its much larger use than any of the others...probably used by more than 100x any of the others..literally...they have the lions share of this market...our clinic has 6 vets and we use rimadyl a lot and have seen almost no serious problems...previcox, which i also dispense is literally the new guy on the block and therefore we dont know nearly as much because there is no track record of it...on paper, it is much less likely to affect the good cox sites(cox-1) than cox-2's vs rimidyl...now, rimidyl is kinda going to the opposite side of this whole arguement by saying that some cox2's are actually good for you and a drug should not be too selective...who knows which drug is really the best....there have been reports of young dogs suffering acute death due to cerebral hemorrhages...but that may not be 100% the truth...something i heard from a competitor drug co....there is a warning about young dogs on the previcox label...i believe its safe and effective but have not dispensed to enough dogs to get a real feel.....is your lab old?...maybe there is a problem which needs to be worked up...there are some conditions which just wont respond well to any nsaids...if your dog is young, sometimes they get diseases like panosteitis, osteochondritis and other metabolic bone disorders which take time to get over and some do not respond to nsaids...as well as to steroids and vice versa....if she is old, there are some other serious things like bone cancer (just amputated a leg on a lab for this last wk at my clinic...we amputate not attempting to stop it from spreading as that is almost a certain thing...we amputate because its the only means to stop the pain...even morphine wont do this and it will give the dog sometimes 3-9 months of pain free living..which is worth the amputation for some people...not if it were my dog but to each his/her own.)...so x-rays may be next step...for plain old arthritis these drugs work wonders on some dogs...science diet just came out with a new diet for arthritis called "jd"...my partners wire hair pointer just went on this diet and he says it has really helped his dog...better than rimidyl, and several other things..incl surgery for the knee...acl...he is sold on jd...i put my brotherinlaws wirehair on it because his dog developed cruciate disease(not a rupture...the ligament is just damaged and unless he has a complicated surgery at purdue with a bone specialist...called a tplo...for 2,500 bucks it wont get better...too early to say as i just put him on jd a month ago and i keep forgettin to ask him how the dog is..guess he will tell me when hunting season starts as i usually tag along...steve

[spamoose]

Thanks for the response I am taking him to another vet right now we`ll see what happens.Vetspet he is 4 years of age and I have his brother as a pet also adopted them together.they are the same height but the one with the problem is 114 lbs and his brother is 87 lbs.They eat the same amount of food it just must be his metabolism that causes the weight difference ,again thanks for the response...spamoose

[spamoose]

Thanks for the response I am taking him to another vet right now we`ll see what happens.Vetspet he is 4 years of age and I have his brother as a pet also adopted them together.they are the same height but the one with the problem is 114 lbs and his brother is 87 lbs.They eat the same amount of food it just must be his metabolism that causes the weight difference ,again thanks for the response...spamoose

[spamoose]

Got kind of bad news from the vet he said my dog has a torn cranial cruciate w/ probable meniscal tear he also xrayed the hip said grade 2 and 3 hip dysplasia.The surgery to repair would be about 1500.00 does that sound about right for such a surgery?He is sceduled for next Thurs. I hope all goes well.The vet said it could take up to six months for full recovery,he would stay at the Hosp. for two days after surgery then he could come home.said he might carry the leg for the first month then slowly start walking more on it.Thanks for your replys !,,, spamoose and Moose

[spamoose]

Got kind of bad news from the vet he said my dog has a torn cranial cruciate w/ probable meniscal tear he also xrayed the hip said grade 2 and 3 hip dysplasia.The surgery to repair would be about 1500.00 does that sound about right for such a surgery?He is sceduled for next Thurs. I hope all goes well.The vet said it could take up to six months for full recovery,he would stay at the Hosp. for two days after surgery then he could come home.said he might carry the leg for the first month then slowly start walking more on it.Thanks for your replys !,,, spamoose and Moose

[Juls_OH]

Jack, my Golden tore the cruciates in both his back knees...pretty bad too. The knees are now held together with 150# mono. Is this the same surgury your vet is talking about? The cost of the surgeries for Jack's knees were $800.00 each and a recovery time of a minimum of a month and a half between surgeries. His total recovery time, before he was feeling really good again was right around 6 months.

I don't let him run, or walk long distances anymore, but I do take him swimming almost everyday. That gives him the exercise, without putting a lot of pressure on the knee joints.

He's on Rymidel and Synovi-G3 (a Glucosamine combo product in a chewy form...I call them, "chocolate chews", because they kind of smell like choc.)

It was pretty scary before I knew what was wrong with him, because he never let on for a long time that he was hurting. It wasn't until the day came when he wouldn't just "get up and go" when I called him. That's when I noticed something was really wrong. The first few visits to my vet were unproductive, because they just felt that he was getting older and said it was probably arthritis. On my third time back to the vet, I demanded x-rays and an answer....then they finally found the problem. Poor dog...he had suffered a lot by then.

He's doing great now, since he had his surgery. I would recommend it.
Your dog will need help the first few days going outside to go to the bathroom. Well in Jack's case he did, since the only good leg he had was actually his "bad" leg. He had to wait a month and a half before he could get the second bad knee done, because of his height and weight. They couldn't do both knees at the same time, because of his size. Unfortunately, because I didn't know he had hurt himself the first time, he was using his good leg to do everything, and because of that, he injured that knee too. ugh.

Your dog might have an easier time than Jack did, since he will still have one good leg to help him through the recovery.

Best wishes....I know how hard it is to see your pet in pain.

Juls

[Juls_OH]

Jack, my Golden tore the cruciates in both his back knees...pretty bad too. The knees are now held together with 150# mono. Is this the same surgury your vet is talking about? The cost of the surgeries for Jack's knees were $800.00 each and a recovery time of a minimum of a month and a half between surgeries. His total recovery time, before he was feeling really good again was right around 6 months.

I don't let him run, or walk long distances anymore, but I do take him swimming almost everyday. That gives him the exercise, without putting a lot of pressure on the knee joints.

He's on Rymidel and Synovi-G3 (a Glucosamine combo product in a chewy form...I call them, "chocolate chews", because they kind of smell like choc.)

It was pretty scary before I knew what was wrong with him, because he never let on for a long time that he was hurting. It wasn't until the day came when he wouldn't just "get up and go" when I called him. That's when I noticed something was really wrong. The first few visits to my vet were unproductive, because they just felt that he was getting older and said it was probably arthritis. On my third time back to the vet, I demanded x-rays and an answer....then they finally found the problem. Poor dog...he had suffered a lot by then.

He's doing great now, since he had his surgery. I would recommend it.
Your dog will need help the first few days going outside to go to the bathroom. Well in Jack's case he did, since the only good leg he had was actually his "bad" leg. He had to wait a month and a half before he could get the second bad knee done, because of his height and weight. They couldn't do both knees at the same time, because of his size. Unfortunately, because I didn't know he had hurt himself the first time, he was using his good leg to do everything, and because of that, he injured that knee too. ugh.

Your dog might have an easier time than Jack did, since he will still have one good leg to help him through the recovery.

Best wishes....I know how hard it is to see your pet in pain.

Juls

[vetspet.ind]

1500 is a bit steep...we would charge about 800 dollars...a board certified surgeon would be double us...as far as i know there is no such thing as a phd in veterinary medicine...there is board certification for nearly every discipline...pathology, neurology, surgery, dermatology...etc...even the hard sciences are still just board certification...ie physiology , anatomy etc...so if he/she is a phd, that would be in another field...like a phd in biology, went to vet school and now is a vet, with a phd in biology...other than that he/she is giving you a "snow" job...we used to have a foreign vet in our area who said he had a masters degree in vet med but i never knew what that meant...maybe in other countries they have that labeling status...the master degree vet did work at my clinic for 8 mos...every patient got a shot of cortisone and a shot of antibiotic!!!!!!!...so much for his expertise.......he was sub-average on nearly every case he dealt with....the smartest guy in my class went belly up in practice so intelligence is only one factor in what makes a vet a good vet...yu should ask what exactly the vet is going to do....open knee surgery or closed....(a study at purdue showed the open knee was best because you can then see what, if any, damage is done to cartilage etc..at our clinic we do the closed technique in spite of what i just wrote as i is very effective on most cases..but we are not "purdue", nor are we boarded surgeons...another factor is how many knees he does a month/yr...our guy did 8 in one wk once but most of the time is doing 1-3 a month....he can get good by doing the surgery more often...high price does not equate with good results or ability...board certification is a good reliable reference that the surgeon has passed certain, very strict, testing that he/she is able to perform a multitude of surgeries which most of us regular surgeons are not as experienced at doing...)...thats one of the things i love about being a vet...we get to do anything we want or feel capable of doing...but we gotta know our limitations or we get out of our level of expertise....the more you do a particular medical proceedure, the better you (hopefully) become, the more you see the atypical cases etc...yu should get that dog thyroid tested as she/he is obese...the only excuse for obesity that is leget is if the dog is hypothyroid( i'm not preaching to you as my pappy is obese! ..my clinic yells at me every time mickey comes into the clinic)...if yu do thyroid testing you need to do at least a T4/TSH...not just a t4...the t4 by itself can be very low in 100% normal dogs if the dog is sick for any reason or wore out etc....the school with the best "credentials" for testing thyroids is michigan state , but i totally do not trust that lab...i can tell you all about it if you want but it would take a bit of time and if you test the t4/tsh i wont need to tell you why i dont like mich state...just had a case today that purdue sent to msu and they totally blew the test...steve

[WigWam]

You guys are going to laugh but I got a canine "drug" that has preserved my Lab for 12 years.

Diagnosed with severe hip displasia at 18 months, Zeke was always in pain when he walked and if he ran faster than trot, he carried his left rear leg for 3 days until the swelling went down. Over a 4 year period, I tried rymadyl, glocosomine and all that other expensive junk with little effect. Finally, I read in the newspaper that the Indian spice "Tumeric" had anti inflammation qualities. Not reallly believing it, I thought for 3.00 for a 3 oz bottle I would give it a shot. Holy Molly, after a week Zeke walked and climbed stairs without painful whinning and while he could trot but not run, he never carried his leg anymore.

That was 6 years ago, and since then I give him a teaspoon of the yellow spice "TUMERIC" in his food and he walks just fine. I doubled the dose and took Zeke to Nebraska pheasant hunting and got 1 hour in the AM and 1 hour in the PM of hunting out of him for 8 days without pain. He doesn't run faster that a trot but he is pain free. One time I had a hard time getting more tumeric and ran out of it and after about 4 days without tumeric added to the food he was back to whinning and crying when he climbed stairs and after he swam he carried that left rear leg for 3-4 days. I now buy tumeric 6 -3.oz bottles at a time for 3.59 per bottle and each bottle last about 6 weeks.

Laugh all you want, but I have owned more pointers, setters, Brittanys, and Tennesee Walking horses than 1000 people on this site and have accumulated over 100 field trial placements all over the country. I know what works and I know what doesn't. Tumeric works for anti-inflmatation better than any drug I know of. If you don't beleieve it as I didn't, try a bottle for 3.59 for a displastic dog and see what happens. I will only cost you 3.59.

[vetspet.ind]

i will check that one out...until then, i have some snake oil i want to get rid of for 3.58 cents

[Juls_OH]

Don't be so hasty Steve...

I found this on an internet search, his comments have some merit to them. I might just have to check into this a bit further for my dog, and heck...maybe for myself!;)
I found it interesting.

Juls
_______________________________________________
TUMERIC OR KURKUMA
Not only is this beautiful yellow spice culinarily pleasing , it is a pharmacy unto itself. In the many scientific studies that have taken place around Turmeric , it has demonstrated it's health-promoting effects on the cardiovascular , digestive , rheumatic and immune systems , while remaining at high safety without any serious side effects at usual doses.

Turmeric has a very soothing effect on the digestive system ; studies show that it helps to reduce the risk of ulcers due to stress and drugs by increasing the mucous protective lining of the stomach . It can also help to reduce elevated blood cholesterol levels and has a protective effect on the liver. Yet , one of turmerics most common medicinal uses involves its anti-inflammatory powers. One of tumeric's traditional uses has been in the treatment of arthritis, and scientific studies suggested that, alone or in combination with other herbs, it can reduce pain and stiffness. Tumeric has long been used as natural antibiotic agent. Studies from around the world have confirmed that components of this multitalented spice can inhibit the growth of bacteria, yeast and viruses.

In Avurvedic medicine, tumeric is an important cleansing and detoxifying agent.

[WigWam]

You vets are all the same....If you and the drug companies can't make money off a problem all other solutions have no merit?

[skr]

I couldn't resist not jumping in on this thread....

Steve, I had a friend that couldn't get into vet school in the US. One of the places he looked into was in Ireland. When you finish (5 years) you don't have a DVM but rather a Masters of Vet Science. When he came back he had to have a "mentor" for 6 months before he could take boards.....Of course he does not have DVM behind his name....

Wigwam, Not all vets are out to screw people, believe it or not. I get ask all the time about alternative treatments/drugs. All I can do is look at the science behind the product. Show me the studies that prove it works....Anybody can claim anything about a product. They always have glowing testimonials (of course). I am open mined on stuff like this. If it works and safe wonderful! A few years back one of my clients tried some "kidney herbs", dog got sick as the devil! Took a while to figure out what was going on (owner didn't tell what he was doing) we took the dog off the herbs and voila!, dog got better.

$1500 sounds steep. One of the vets in our practice gets $800 for the MRI. He just finished the TPLO course(has 6 surgeries under his belt) He does them for 1200-1500. If the dog ruptured the cruciate, doing not thing is not much of an option....pete

[skr]

I couldn't resist not jumping in on this thread....

Steve, I had a friend that couldn't get into vet school in the US. One of the places he looked into was in Ireland. When you finish (5 years) you don't have a DVM but rather a Masters of Vet Science. When he came back he had to have a "mentor" for 6 months before he could take boards.....Of course he does not have DVM behind his name....

Wigwam, Not all vets are out to screw people, believe it or not. I get ask all the time about alternative treatments/drugs. All I can do is look at the science behind the product. Show me the studies that prove it works....Anybody can claim anything about a product. They always have glowing testimonials (of course). I am open mined on stuff like this. If it works and safe wonderful! A few years back one of my clients tried some "kidney herbs", dog got sick as the devil! Took a while to figure out what was going on (owner didn't tell what he was doing) we took the dog off the herbs and voila!, dog got better.

$1500 sounds steep. One of the vets in our practice gets $800 for the MRI. He just finished the TPLO course(has 6 surgeries under his belt) He does them for 1200-1500. If the dog ruptured the cruciate, doing not thing is not much of an option....pete

[vetspet.ind]

it may have merit, but a few yrs ago it was vita c...a writer/editor from outdoor life printed an article on the merits of vita c...larry mueller....he writes lots of dog articles...i took about 30 days of intense research...contacted a dr vansickle at purdue...sent the article to purdue for any assistance they could help me with...got a ton of stuff...showing double blinded studies on using vita c for hip dysplasia etc...none of the studies supported the claims of everything from difficult birthing(dystocia)...remedy for distemper...remedy for parvo...the list was disgusting on the claims they stated were achieved from vita c...there wss a vet from california who insisted it had to be a specific purified vita c..which he sold...mueller claimed in the article that this vet was well respected by the california veterinary assoc....i even contacted the president of his local group to verify he was an entity...the vet i contacted laughed...they called him the "vita min c doc"....he was a local joke...had a terrible practice...horror stories etc....and the local president had never seen this vita c doc at one meeting!.....so i gathered all my information, sent it to 10 different editors of outdoor life...was a fairly extensive/expensive project...i had all kinds of scientific double blinded studies that did not show any beneficial effects of vita c which the outdoor life article stated it helps (i acknowledge it may be very beneficial for sore muscles in humans and dogs that are hunting...i use it when hunting and give to our hunting dogs when hunting and it does seem to make a big difference in this one usage)...bottom line i did not get one response from any of the 9 editors...not one...and about 2-3 months later larry mueller did respond...he called me a water buffalo!!....really...because i "follow the herd" of vets out there that are not independent thinkers!!...he really said this after i spent the better part of a month digging up anything/everything i could find on studies of vita c in dogs....at least larry responded but i was upset that he called me a buffalo when i am not that kind of vet...all the local vets laugh because i'm the guy who challenges the speakers nearly every meeting with stuff other "experts" are saying which may disagree with something they just said...its kinda "my thing"...i love debates (i got kicked out of my sunday school class a couple yrs ago for the same reason...)...i like to hear anything thats new...i also looked up a bunch of stuff on tumeric yesterday...seems like all the stuff i found described studies on multiple schlerosis and other neurological diseases...they created an animal model using rodents and fed them tumeric and it may help for that specific problem...i already plan to ask several of my ms clients if they have any experience with it...so i have a sorta open mind...and will ask around but doubt it is the cure-all on some of the claims...hope i find out i'm wrong...that would be cool in my mind as most vets would not have the info and i will check it out to the best i'm able...that is my kick in life...steve

[vetspet.ind]

it may have merit, but a few yrs ago it was vita c...a writer/editor from outdoor life printed an article on the merits of vita c...larry mueller....he writes lots of dog articles...i took about 30 days of intense research...contacted a dr vansickle at purdue...sent the article to purdue for any assistance they could help me with...got a ton of stuff...showing double blinded studies on using vita c for hip dysplasia etc...none of the studies supported the claims of everything from difficult birthing(dystocia)...remedy for distemper...remedy for parvo...the list was disgusting on the claims they stated were achieved from vita c...there wss a vet from california who insisted it had to be a specific purified vita c..which he sold...mueller claimed in the article that this vet was well respected by the california veterinary assoc....i even contacted the president of his local group to verify he was an entity...the vet i contacted laughed...they called him the "vita min c doc"....he was a local joke...had a terrible practice...horror stories etc....and the local president had never seen this vita c doc at one meeting!.....so i gathered all my information, sent it to 10 different editors of outdoor life...was a fairly extensive/expensive project...i had all kinds of scientific double blinded studies that did not show any beneficial effects of vita c which the outdoor life article stated it helps (i acknowledge it may be very beneficial for sore muscles in humans and dogs that are hunting...i use it when hunting and give to our hunting dogs when hunting and it does seem to make a big difference in this one usage)...bottom line i did not get one response from any of the 9 editors...not one...and about 2-3 months later larry mueller did respond...he called me a water buffalo!!....really...because i "follow the herd" of vets out there that are not independent thinkers!!...he really said this after i spent the better part of a month digging up anything/everything i could find on studies of vita c in dogs....at least larry responded but i was upset that he called me a buffalo when i am not that kind of vet...all the local vets laugh because i'm the guy who challenges the speakers nearly every meeting with stuff other "experts" are saying which may disagree with something they just said...its kinda "my thing"...i love debates (i got kicked out of my sunday school class a couple yrs ago for the same reason...)...i like to hear anything thats new...i also looked up a bunch of stuff on tumeric yesterday...seems like all the stuff i found described studies on multiple schlerosis and other neurological diseases...they created an animal model using rodents and fed them tumeric and it may help for that specific problem...i already plan to ask several of my ms clients if they have any experience with it...so i have a sorta open mind...and will ask around but doubt it is the cure-all on some of the claims...hope i find out i'm wrong...that would be cool in my mind as most vets would not have the info and i will check it out to the best i'm able...that is my kick in life...steve

[vetspet.ind]

i also have some cool stories on non-conventional treatment disasters of my clients who sought that type medicine...funny those stories never get printed

[vetspet.ind]

i also have some cool stories on non-conventional treatment disasters of my clients who sought that type medicine...funny those stories never get printed

[Juls_OH]

Cool Doc! Don't forget to let me/us know what you find. I'm leary of keeping Jack on Rimadyl for the rest of his life, since my vet said he should have his blood tested every 6 months, for any liver problems that the Rimadyl might cause. He's a BIG dog, so his life span is not that of the average dog, and I would like to keep him around as long as possible. He's already 8 years old....

I'd be very interested in what you find.

Thanks,
Juls

[Juls_OH]

Cool Doc! Don't forget to let me/us know what you find. I'm leary of keeping Jack on Rimadyl for the rest of his life, since my vet said he should have his blood tested every 6 months, for any liver problems that the Rimadyl might cause. He's a BIG dog, so his life span is not that of the average dog, and I would like to keep him around as long as possible. He's already 8 years old....

I'd be very interested in what you find.

Thanks,
Juls

[Rick Wy.]

Vetspet:

My GWP that is 6 show some signs of slowing down after hunting. Seems like normal behavior as he is in good shape - just getting older I suspect.

So to provide him the best care I can, anything else you might suggest
other than the special science diet indicated. I do think I will switch from IAM's lamb/rice to it.


Thanks for your time.
Rick

[Rick Wy.]

Vetspet:

My GWP that is 6 show some signs of slowing down after hunting. Seems like normal behavior as he is in good shape - just getting older I suspect.

So to provide him the best care I can, anything else you might suggest
other than the special science diet indicated. I do think I will switch from IAM's lamb/rice to it.


Thanks for your time.
Rick

[vetspet.ind]

not much to add....i hunt over two 10 yr old gwh's....both have cruciate problems but still were hunting fairly well last yr....we have the j/d diet by science diet for both of them and one is my partner's and he thinks the j/d has done more than anything else...rimidyl and surgery had been done...dog was doing decent, but he thinks the j/d has done really the best results...steve

[vetspet.ind]

not much to add....i hunt over two 10 yr old gwh's....both have cruciate problems but still were hunting fairly well last yr....we have the j/d diet by science diet for both of them and one is my partner's and he thinks the j/d has done more than anything else...rimidyl and surgery had been done...dog was doing decent, but he thinks the j/d has done really the best results...steve

[spamoose]

Well I learned alot from this post one more dilema my vacation is to start next week the day after surgery,we were thinking of boarding him after the surgery for a week he would be there two days post op I wonder if it would be better to stay home bring him home after the two days and leave him recoop at home never boarded my dogs always took them where dogs were welcome plus I do not know how much his brother would affect him ,might get him up and running when he should be resting ,but sitting in a kennel for a week might be bad also.I would only loose my deposit on the cabin in the boundary waters,I could just take my other dog out fishing with me for the first week he is recooping on some local waters so he could rest.Well thanks for the info if I don`t go up north I could get you a discount on a cabin for a week..Good health to all...spamoose

[spamoose]

Well I learned alot from this post one more dilema my vacation is to start next week the day after surgery,we were thinking of boarding him after the surgery for a week he would be there two days post op I wonder if it would be better to stay home bring him home after the two days and leave him recoop at home never boarded my dogs always took them where dogs were welcome plus I do not know how much his brother would affect him ,might get him up and running when he should be resting ,but sitting in a kennel for a week might be bad also.I would only loose my deposit on the cabin in the boundary waters,I could just take my other dog out fishing with me for the first week he is recooping on some local waters so he could rest.Well thanks for the info if I don`t go up north I could get you a discount on a cabin for a week..Good health to all...spamoose

[vetspet.ind]

the #1 cause for cruciate ligament repair failures is the dog does too much...too soon...#1....the best medicine is to be bored out of their mind....so i would strongly recommend he be boarded...nothing can go wrong...ps...take me to the bwca while the pooch recovers and i can fill you in on all kinda dog stuff...steve

[vetspet.ind]

the #1 cause for cruciate ligament repair failures is the dog does too much...too soon...#1....the best medicine is to be bored out of their mind....so i would strongly recommend he be boarded...nothing can go wrong...ps...take me to the bwca while the pooch recovers and i can fill you in on all kinda dog stuff...steve

[Rick-Wy.]

Steve,

I was thinking of approaching my GMP inflammation - like I do for myself by taking some antiflammatory pills prior to and after strenous activity. Certainly they can have some side effects.

What medications might be possiblities on that basis? I thought baby aspirin was okay - but you indicated otherwise.


Rick

[Rick-Wy.]

Steve,

I was thinking of approaching my GMP inflammation - like I do for myself by taking some antiflammatory pills prior to and after strenous activity. Certainly they can have some side effects.

What medications might be possiblities on that basis? I thought baby aspirin was okay - but you indicated otherwise.


Rick

[vetspet.ind]

i'm not sure what a gmp is....baby aspirin, given infrequently probably will do no harm....not sure if every day would cause a problem....10mg per pound is the unofficial dose but i never go that heavy....in order to get the equivalent pain relief from aspirin as yu would for rimidyl you would certainly see more side effects on the aspirin...but a 65 mg baby aspirin is not achieving the same pain relief as 200 mg of rimidyl on a 100 lb dog...if the baby aspirin really helps you should be fine...i have just had too many problems with people using alleve or tylenol on dogs (worse on cats) so i'm afraid to even recommend any of that stuff incl aspirins due to client misunderstandings...we get misquoted all the time when/if a problem occurs....steve

[Mike W1]

We've had my 10 year old Lab on Royal Canin dog food for joint problems for several months now and I have to believe it's doing the trick for the old boy. He also gets 2 SynoviG3 tablets a day and I wonder if he actually needs them but hate to stop and find out he does. He's a big old fella at around 95 pounds and trim but had gotten to where you could tell he was hurting. He's been back to putting his front feet on my bed in the morning to say hello and it was a couple years since he'd done that. It's not an inexpensive food but he is worth it to me. It's available through vets only far as I know.

[WigWam]

To VetsPEt,

I didn't say Turmeric was a "cure All". All I said is it worked better than any prescription medication on the market today I have tried for inflamation due to hip displasia. One does NOT cure a genetic bone disorder like HD but only manages the syptoms. Larry Mueller is a literary joke in the field trial canine world and I have often wondered for a ton of years on how this guy charaded himself to be the dog editor of a major prestigious outdoor magazine. Anything coming from Larry Mueller is similar to getting factual news information by watching Mary Hart on Entertainment Tonight.