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Rimadyl & Metacam


oscarsmum

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I truly would be wary of Rimadyl..

 

Same experience here, although my oldie actually improved to begin with and I thought it was a miracle drug! After about two months he started bleeding and the vet said he was passing his stomach lining :mecry:

 

Don't feel dreadful! You're obviously thinking a lot about Oscar and doing what you think is right for him. I just took my vets word :angry:

 

Good luck with Oscar :GroupHug:

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Thanks everyone :flowers:

 

I rung the vet yesterday - he wasn't available to talk, so I just left a message to say thanks for his suggestions, but I'm going to try changing Oscar's diet and adding glucosamine and green lipped mussel extract supplements and see how we go on ....

 

Both drugs sound like they have their (very) bad points.. I'd only put him on them as a last resort. We're not at that stage just yet thankfully, so I'll see how he responds to the supplements and diet change ..

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Our old dog was on Rimadyl from when he was about 5, until he died (of bone cancer) in his teens. The vet warned us when he went on it that it could shorten his life, but he had been allowed to wander before he came to us and had been involved in several road traffic accidents, and he needed the pain relief. Having said that, I don't think it did shortern his life particularly, and it did make a huge difference to his quality of life.

 

Now Sully, our current dog, is on Rimadyl as well. A combination of supplements and Cartophen injections have kept him off the Rimadyl for nearly 2 years, but now he needs them again. (It is definitely worth asking your vet about Cartrophen, it truly was a wonder drug for Sully.) At the moment he is on maximum dose of Rimadyl (300mg a day) and although it's keeping him comfortable, he still has bad days. We have pretty much run out of options other than surgery though, so we'll carry on like this a while longer and see how he goes.

 

It would be optimistic to the point of foolishness to hope he will still be with us 5 years from now, I'd like to 3 more years is possible though. If a dog does well on Rimadyl (and not all do) then the likely life-shortening side effects happen over many years of use. As that isn't a huge concern in his circumstances, I go for quality of life over quantity and give him the tablets.

 

Good luck, whatever you decide (but do ask about Cartrophen).

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Our darling BC Breeze spent 8 years on Rimadyl for arthritus in the back end and until 2 weeks before he died walked 6 miles a day and played football

 

He had severe arthritus in both his back legs at 6 and spent the next 8 years happy and pain frre with no side effects and I thank our vet for putting him on it.

 

We have used Metacam with the cats and our oldie Bert 21.5 years young) when he went to the bridge and also on the RTA mob and on the older ferals who found winter hard before we trapped and moved them 150 miles and now Miss Gracie is a house cat and not on Metacam but her own fleece on her chair and the electric blanket

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I've read everyone's replies (and links) and have to say I feel dreadful. I'm obviously guilty of being someone who just "picked up his food with the general shopping / not done any research, etc" ..... until now. As I mentioned earlier, his food has always seemed to "agree" with Oscar, but god knows what unseen damage this sh1t could have been causing :( .

 

Oscar's Bakers is going in the bin tomorrow. I've ordered some Runaround online and will get some alternative (I'm thinking Burns) food for him tomorrow.. His green-lipped mussel extract should be here soon and he'll be getting a complete diet change (although I'll have to do it gradually..)

 

To say I feel an unfit mum is a bit of an exaggeration, but not much... :( :( This has been a real shock to me, but thank you all for your comments. I feel pretty stupid, but am grateful.

 

no experience of Rimadyl. Just wanted to say dont feel bad. If you were an unfit mum you wouldnt have made this post :flowers: :GroupHug:

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no experience of Rimadyl. Just wanted to say dont feel bad. If you were an unfit mum you wouldnt have made this post :flowers: :GroupHug:

 

Thank you :flowers:

 

Well - Oscar is "adjusting" to his new diet absolutely marvellously!! :rolleyes: :biggrin: He LOVES the naturediet with James Wellbeloved as a mixer (I know its a complete food, but i wanted to keep him on the meat / biscuit mixture, so he just gets a small handful of dried with his wet food...) His poos have changed slightly (bit squishy at first, but now have become smaller and firmer (sorry!), and he does 2-3 a day now. On the other food, he did 3 - 4 biggish poos a day. I'm thinking that his body is now taking more nutrients out of the food and only getting rid of what he doesnt need.....

 

He's on 1 green lipped mussel extract tablet per day (250mg) and 6 glucosamine "treats" (1 per 5kgs of bodyweight - he's around 27kgs...) His legs seem the same really, no better, no worse - i must say here that he never seems to be in pain as such, just a wee bit stiff now and then. If he was in obvious pain, then I'd re-think the stronger drugs for him, but at the moment, we seem to be not too bad....

 

I should imagine the supplements would take a while to take effect, but I'm pretty sure (although it may just be my imagination) that he seems to have more energy! Bouncing around like a pup a lot more!! :wub:

 

Thanks again everyone for all your tips, pointers and advice :flowers:

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That's fab Rachel :biggrin: :flowers: Naturediet poos are great - and so easy to pick up :biggrin: :laugh:

 

If you're looking for treats/biscuits for him, mine like the Burns Kelties, which you can usually get from the same pet shops that stock Burns (they don't supply to P@H just some independent shops) or you can order online from them: http://www.shop.burns-pet-nutrition.co.uk/...Treats.html#a32. They do pork crackling too but I haven't bought mine that (although I seem to recall someone buying it for their dog and eating it :unsure: :sick01: ).

 

They've also had Holistic Natural Dog Treats recently, which they like.

 

Also, Wendbert is selling dog biccies at the moment to raise funds for Lab rescue :) And Anneski makes biccies and donates some of the money to Sol :)

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Naturediet poos are great - and so easy to pick up :biggrin: :laugh:

 

Yup :laugh:

 

Re the treats - we've stopped his schmakos - and replaced with nature menu beef and chicken treats - always on the look out for different titbits though, so will definitely have a look at these (going on hols for a week from tomorrow, so will have a look when we get back - in the meantime he's got a good stock of nature menu ones to take to his grandma's lol (my mum's!)

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