I found the Cartrophen works almost immediately to reduce the pain and stiffness in Mojos elbows...However I tried the same course with Tara (arthritis in her spine) and it made no difference at all. Why this is though, I have no idea.
Mojo started the course of Cartrophen as soon as we realised there was a problem (she was hopping lame)....before we had even seen the Ortho vet...and to be fair she was almost sound again by the time our referral came round 2 weeks later. She can have the jabs every six months for the rest of her life...more often if need be and as long as she has no side effects I shall carry on with them. Mojo can't take any oral Anti-Inflammatories (well none that the vets have prescribed so far) as they all make her ill, so the Cartrophen was our only option of trying to settle the inflammation....Luckily it worked really well for her.
John, I think you're getting mixed up with Carprophen, which is another name for Rimadyl....An easy mistake to make though.
Sorry, probably completely off topic, but I was wondering about what you said on the diet aspect. I have a pup who is currently fed Royal Canin (Waltham) puppy food, which I thought was one of the better foods out there. Please could you recommend me one of the more suitable foods for a growing pup, which are less likely to predispose him to joint problems?
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____________ Georgia, Honey Bear, Obi and Rosie XX
BJ was prescribed Rimadyl previously, and it made him very poorly. Metacam at the start of this lameness was no help at all after 3 weeks, so we are keeping our fingers crossed for the Cartrophen injections, (course of 4 over 4 weeks) though our vet did say not to expect any improvement for at least 3 weeks.
Thanks again Jules.
xx
(Edited) - Just read that link, great information, thanks. x
Hi
I was also going to ask about diet.
I have a 10 month lab who has been diagnosed with OCD when he was 7 months in both his elbows. We bought him when he was 13 weeks old and he had been fed on Dr John's adult food since he had been weaned. I switched him to Burns Mini-Bites, gradually weaning him on adult food when he was 6 months old.
I try to feed my dogs on recommendations but on the otherhand was brought up with dogs who were fed on a mixture of tinned food, household scraps and doggy bits from the butchers. All these dogs were healthy and lived to their mid teens.
I am just curious as to what is considered the "old way" and what seems to be the "right way" nowadays. By the right way I dont mean what the dog food manufacturs say.
Thanks
Eileen
I personally think most "puppy" foods are too high in protein, fat and so calories. Now whether all that happens is the pup gets heavy quickly and so this affects the joints, I dont know.....or whether the extra protein and fat make the puppy actually grow more quickly, so causing a problem, is equally difficult to judge....I mean there is no evidence that puppy food affects anything and maybe it is just a coincidence that with the popularity of feeding puppy food came along at the same time as an increasing incidence of joint problems...who knows .
What I *do* know is...Oyster was the first pup I have ever fed a puppy food to...She was on Hill's to start off with, then moved onto Royal Canin...both had over 30% protein and were high in fat.
Although Oyster was never fat, in fact she always looked a little too lean, she grew at an alarming rate, putting on 1kg every single week until she was around 28 kgs...and at that time she was only 28 weeks old ....She literally grew before our eyes. She stopped going upwards fairly early...at around 8 months, whereas my other dogs have continued growing slowly upwards until they were around 18 months old.
This fast growth didn't seem to do her any harm....as John said if the HD or ED isn't there the food can't make it....But I do wonder if Mojo had grown at that rate just how bad her elbows would have been.
If your pup is doing well on RC, then maybe just switch him to the adult version early, if you want to be careful. If you want to switch to something different, then maybe shop around for a food which is lower in protein and fat...Failing that there is the old fashioned way that I favour....raw tripe or chicken, mixer biscuits, raw eggs and Goats milk. It probably isn't the most balance diet....but neither I, nor my sister or parents have ever have any problems with this.
Oops, Your right Jules. I must be nearer asleep than I thought! Noah says:-
Pentosan Polysulphate Sodium is a semi-synthetic polymer with a mean molecular weight of 4000 Daltons, with anti-inflammatory activity, and modulating effects on cartilage and synovial metabolism and an affinity for cartilage. In addition, it has fibrinolytic, lipolytic and mild anti-coagulant activities. The therapeutic activity of the product arises from the action of Pentosan Polysulphate Sodium on the underlying pathological processes of osteoarthritis (disease modifying osteoarthritis drug or DMOAD) and results in analgesic and regenerative effects. Cartrophen Vet has been shown to produce equal improvement in the clinical signs of osteoarthritis when compared to the NSAID, carprofen.
Cartrophen Vet is indicated for the treatment of lameness and pain of osteoarthritis (non-infectious arthrosis) and related musculoskeletal disorders in the dog.
Thanks Jules
My two other dogs are raw fed, similar to the traditional diet you describe but my pup's breeder, who is a close friend and a vet sounded horrified when I suggested I feed him the same way as the other two. He said, 'Oh no, you must feed him puppy food or he won't get enough calcium'! I'm not really comfortable with the Royal Canin, he seems healthy, but he has very soft stools alot of the time and is quite 'roly poly'. I've given him chicken pieces including bone before, and he's been fine, in fact he'd rather eat the other dog's food than his dry biscuits!
Thanks again for the common sense advice!
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____________ Georgia, Honey Bear, Obi and Rosie XX
Hi Georgia and Eileen. Remember, there is no such thing as puppy food in the wild, nor was there for domestic dogs until very recently. Certainly puppies grow so much faster since puppy food came out Jules. You only need to look at six month old puppies in the ring these days to see the difference to yesteryear. Waltham were telling me that this proved the success of their product. But my argument is that it proves the risk! Faster than natural growth.
My only reason for using puppy food is that it’s smaller pieces than adult, and as soon as the pup can take the adult food I change. Certainly by 6 months at the latest. In Amy’s case she decided at 12 weeks old that she wanted the same as her mum, so I saw no good reason not to give it to her. As it happened, I had plenty of puppy around so she had half and half for about another 6 weeks until I ran out of puppy.
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....She literally grew before our eyes. She stopped going upwards fairly early...at around 8 months, whereas my other dogs have continued growing slowly upwards until they were around 18 months old.
