dog pain treatment- your experience

well, seems i have one of those dilemmas of pet ownership. what i thought was a middle aged happy healthy boxer turns out to be a fragile girl, in probable crushing pain.
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even tho i took her in thinking she was in pain, i was so unprepared for was the vet had to say. now i have to revisit that awful place of keeping the whole quality of life equation in my mind all the time.
now, she is a boxer. she does not really care about pain. she is still mostly happy, and engaged in life. but it is clearly wearing her down.

anyway, please tell me about your experiences with keeping a brittle, arthritic, slowly being crippled up dog around and happy. meds you used, accommodations you made, deals you made with yourself, etc.

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the link in the OP still isn't working for me.

Sorry about the pup. I had a two year old Doberman Pinscher who had both back leg knees go out requiring surgery. For the rest of his life (lived to 12) I was under the same type of decision you're finding yourself under. For OTC aspirin, the vet suggested Ascriptin - easier on the stomach than most others. In addition, I had some prescription pain killer pills for 'bad' days and if it was a bad 'week', I'd take him in for a shot. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of either the pills or the shot. I do know it was not a cortisone shot. Whatever it was, it wasn't approved for human use. It worked so well for the dog, my mother (whose hips were deteriorating) asked what it was and when her Dr. told her it wasn't approved for use in humans, she got mad at the Dr.

However, this was about a decade ago, so whatever it was may be approved for humans now. All I know is that after one of these shots, he seemed pain free for five or six months. We also did the Glucos. and Chon. tablets. My vet said that the only ones that were scientifically proven to work were prescription, but that the cost differential between those and the OTC made the OTC pills preferable. To try those and if I thought I would prefer the prescription, she'd prescribe them for me. I went with the OTC option. Seemed to help a bit. Takes about a month before their system is saturated sufficiently that any improvement is noticed. Be warned, though, those things are big - horse pill big.

Best of luck with your pup.

has given me some pain pills for her that she said her mother-in-law takes. These pills work wonders. I'm not at home where the pill bottle is, so I can't tell you the name. But whatever you do, don't let the vet prescribe Rimadyl for your dog. It's a miracle pill, but it has also killed a lot of dogs. My first Rottweiler almost died from Rimadyl.

Here is a good Web site for those who have senior dogs.

www.srdogs.com/

we've used Tramadol in low doses for some time. It's not perfect, but it keeps them happy and much less painful. Did your vet give you a script for an anti-inflammitory for her condition? That alone may be enough.

gave me something called synovial-flex. glucosamine, msm, fish oil, stuff.
i would go for tramadol. supposed to be good stuff for people.

Good luck.

mark

...we kept a close eye on his kidneys and liver function per the vet's orders, but he did very well on it. Chewable too, so easy to administer.

recommend it for any dog.

Our vet is Texas A&M trained and we've trusted her with the care and health of 10 dogs and 6 cats through the years.

when her hips got bad. She made it to thirteen which is pretty old for a rott I think.

I forget what it's called,but you spray it on the food before feeding.

At first, I gave him aspirin daily but that caused his stomach to be upset. He would eat grass to make himself throw up.

After a year or two, he developed kidney problems and I started to cook all his meals; I found a special kidney diet in a health book for dogs. The amazing thing was that the kidney diet helped his arthritis and fur. Commercial dog food is, well, dog food. Before the special diet, his knees had gotten so bad that he had problems going up and down stairs. After two weeks on human grade food, I saw that he was more mobile and didn't have problems going up and down stairs.

If you are interested in cooking for your dog, let me know and I'll give you an idea of the diet he was on.

My mom didn't notice that she's gone deaf or that her hind quarters are losing muscle mass. That means, she's avoided using them because of pain for a long time. :(

We're lifting her in and out of the car now. She's on Glyco Flex and maybe that will help a little. She's still mostly happy, too, and always up for a walk. She compensates somehow and the joy of the walk wins out over whatever pain it causes her to step.

i thought the grandpuppy would start to fit in, but i think she has been reacting to the knowledge that there is something wrong with the boxer. she also took a bite out of one of the terriers. she is a big bucket of bluster and muscle. now i can't leave them alone.
i just wasn't ready for an old dog. i had several old dogs for a while there, and it is hard. i thought it was going to be a while for that. now i have that daily decision. is life worth living for this dog? (or anyone else?)

Probably the easiest is supplements that contain glucosamine and chondroitin. It might take a month or so before the dog starts to see benefits, so be patient. They are easy to find at pet stores or even Wal-Mart has a couple of selections and they are easy to administer in the form of treats that most dogs like.

There's a number of options available for NSAIDs. Some of them work just like a regular person analgesic such as aspirin or Tylenol and others only block the COX-2 enzyme so they are similar to products like Celebrex for humans. They can affect liver function and it's common for older dogs to have liver problems already, so it's best to have blood work done on the dog first.

We gave one of our dogs Tramadol for the last 2 years or so because she had poor liver function. It's an opiate which is just a pain reliever but worked well for her in conjunction with the supplements previously mentioned. She lived to 17 before her kidneys finally gave out.

It's liquid and the pet's version is beef flavored. Cindy weighs 80 lbs, so she takes 3/4 t. every day on top of her food. You start your dog on a double dose for two weeks, then cut back to the single dose. I just put it on top of her food every evening. It worked really well, almost like a miracle! Cindy is just 6.5 years old, so I was surprised she was having trouble already.

It's worth a try, especially if you see an improvement the way we did.

Here's the site I buy it from:

http://www.syn-flex-usa.com/

that my Mom uses on her elderly, arthritic cat. His hind legs were especially bad, to the point he was unable to jump up even on the low couch. After around 3 weeks on this he was jumping again, and was in better spirits -- more animated and more like his old self. It is a "homeopathic" treatment and the website looks cheesy, but it really helped TC

https://www.mypetspainrelief.com/?gclid=CL7UkoSLn50CFRBbagods2oN_A

You could also look into acupunture treatments -- they can be especially good for arthritis and pain.

I've been using Flexicose for years now and it works wonders on my dog. Read up on it here http://www.flexicose-usa.com . Really, it's been a great help to my old dog. Karen