Experience with cartrophen?

by Chaz4455 Tue Sep 19 2017, 13:33

Lola has been prescribed a once a week injection for 4 weeks of cartrophen, synoquin and carprieve. So far no improvement and if anything she is worse than she was. She's had many X-rays and nothing showed up on them however they believe it's her elbow. Have any of you used this and found it helped?

by Guest Tue Sep 19 2017, 18:39

Yes, I had a retriever (Mungo) who had arthritis nearly all his life Crying or Very sad

He was on Carprofen, Syonquin and Metacam. We took the Synoquin out after a while to see if we could see the difference and we couldn't. The Metacam (or Rimadyl, it varied) was the one that made the real difference, without it he went between uncomfortable and barely able to walk. With the Carprofen, though, we were able to reduce it somewhat but never entirely.

How long has she been on this for now?

If nothing's showing up on x-rays and the vet now thinks it her elbow and not her foot, is it worth thinking about physio or maybe a canine sports therapist? I had a fantastic experience with Galen Therapy with Nola, who as Lola was lame with nothing much showing on x-rays - we even had her elbows operated on as the specialist diagnosed mild elbow displaysia. She was no different after that and while we were wondering what to do someone on another forum suggested Galen Therapy - a couple of sessions and some homework later she was sound as a shilling. I also know from personal experience how stretching correctly can help long term muscle pain.

http://www.caninetherapy.co.uk/

I have to say it's the way I would now go in your sort of situation, rather than drugs that at best will only mask the underlying problem. If, as with Mung and his arthritis, you can't do anything about the underlying problem, or if they help you through a healing period, then fine, but that's not what you're dealing with, is it?

Have a chat with your vet about it, especially if she's not responding to the current treatment.

by Chaz4455 Tue Sep 19 2017, 19:04

LizP wrote:Yes, I had a retriever (Mungo) who had arthritis nearly all his life He was on Carprofen, Syonquin and Metacam. We took the Synoquin out after a while to see if we could see the difference and we couldn't. The Metacam (or Rimadyl, it varied) was the one that made the real difference, without it he went between uncomfortable and barely able to walk. With the Carprofen, though, we were able to reduce it somewhat but never entirely.

How long has she been on this for now?

If nothing's showing up on x-rays and the vet now thinks it her elbow and not her foot, is it worth thinking about physio or maybe a canine sports therapist? I had a fantastic experience with Galen Therapy with Nola, who as Lola was lame with nothing much showing on x-rays - we even had her elbows operated on as the specialist diagnosed mild elbow displaysia. She was no different after that and while we were wondering what to do someone on another forum suggested Galen Therapy - a couple of sessions and some homework later she was sound as a shilling. I also know from personal experience how stretching correctly can help long term muscle pain.

http://www.caninetherapy.co.uk/

I have to say it's the way I would now go in your sort of situation, rather than drugs that at best will only mask the underlying problem. If, as with Mung and his arthritis, you can't do anything about the underlying problem, or if they help you through a healing period, then fine, but that's not what you're dealing with, is it?

Have a chat with your vet about it, especially if she's not responding to the current treatment.

She's been on the synoquin and capireve 1 week and she's just had her second injection of the Cartrophen. She was on loxicom before but didn't make any difference. I'm just worried because she's only 6 months old and having to go through all this. The next step is a CT scan or a steroid injection into the joint if by four weeks there's no improvement but by the way things are going she's getting worse. I had thought about a referral to a specialist, someone like Fitzpatrick. I have issues with the vets I am using, I do not trust them and have very little faith in them which is why I left them in the first place but ended up going back to them. Im just so worried. I will take a look at the link you have posted thank you for that.

by Guest Tue Sep 19 2017, 20:40

If she's not responded to either Loxicom or Carprofen, it would to my layman's mind indicate that it's a structural thing rather than pain that's causing the limp. Rather than throwing more big chemicals at her, especially given her age, I think I would be hunting down a good physical therapist to try first, unless the lameness gets to the point that it's unfair to do so.

I hope you find something soon, I remember how awful it was watching Mung as a puppy - he was 9 months when diagnosed - and it breaks your heart, knowing that they should be bounding around instead of hobbling.

by Chaz4455 Tue Sep 19 2017, 21:56

LizP wrote:If she's not responded to either Loxicom or Carprofen, it would to my layman's mind indicate that it's a structural thing rather than pain that's causing the limp. Rather than throwing more big chemicals at her, especially given her age, I think I would be hunting down a good physical therapist to try first, unless the lameness gets to the point that it's unfair to do so.

I hope you find something soon, I remember how awful it was watching Mung as a puppy - he was 9 months when diagnosed - and it breaks your heart, knowing that they should be bounding around instead of hobbling.

I will look into the physio, have a word with the vets about it see what they think. I think it could be worth a try. She does react to joint flexion, she is quite a robust pup so her reaction is a bit of chewing/licking at their hands and some squirming but no crying. she's sound first thing in a morning then as the day goes on she gets lamer and lamer until she's at the point were she stands and holds the leg up off the floor, you can see she's in pain it's written all over her face but she just gets on with it. It's quite sad really. How did you manage mung? What was his quality of life like if you don't mind me asking?

by Guest Wed Sep 20 2017, 08:07

Mung overall had a pretty good quality of life. There were a few horrid times - I remember a holiday in Burgundy that he could only walk a few hundrend metres - but overall if we got it right you'd almost not have known he had a problem.

I say 'almost' because there were things we couldn't do, mainly chasing balls. Mung was one of those ball obsessed dogs (he could carry 4 tennis balls at once!) so it was sad we couldn't let him chase them to his heart's content but the jarring of stopping was awful for his legs. His arthritis was worst in his front legs, including down into his toes. As he got into his middle years we had to cut back on walks more than you would normally but not to the point of it being dreadful, just not as long as we would have liked (we used to do 10+ miles regularly).

Mung lived till 11. They were 11 years of worry, I can't deny that, but they were also 11 wonderful years with a happy and otherwise healthy dog.

Let us know what the vet says?

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