Librela - a new option for pain relief for dogs with osteo arthritis

Orange

Orange

Location
Piemonte, Italy.
M.F. said:
My late dad, who was a doctor, used to say, “The best medicine is the one that works.” It, is, however difficult to work out what works, because some days one thing seems to work like magic, but not other days. Have you tried turmeric paste for inflammation? I feed it to my 10 yo Lab—he suffers from arthritic vertebrae and inflamed itchy skin. Haven’t given it for 2 months (work has been hectic busy and I was also lazy prepping it, I make it myself and then mix up a batch with greens and veg and supplements), and his skin is very bad at the moment, thankfully his back seems fine. When I remember, I take it myself. (Going to eat a teaspoon now! Sitting at a computer all day creates all kinds of aches and pains.)
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Thank you for the tip !

I tried it on me as a supplement and I didnt get on with it at all - seems I am one of the few people whose stomach can't manage it. I have had more joy with astragulus and truck loads of vits b and c.

The joint genie supplement we use has turmeric (along with devils claw) in and thats helped our oldies in the past for sure (when I remember to get it out of the fridge).

Funnily enough though, I am just fine with Turmeric in an onion bhaji :wasntme:
 
Granca

Granca

Welcome, @Orange. It’s encouraging to hear that your collie is responding well to Librela. My two labs don’t seem to have mobility problems yet, but it’s very useful to be able to compare the various responses to treatment in case it’s needed in the future. Thanks for sharing your experience with Bess.
 
Orange

Orange

Location
Piemonte, Italy.
snowbunny said:
Eight dogs… ding ding ding, we have a new record holder!!! 😂
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@snowbunny Its a good job we live half way up a mountain and the few neighbours we have are only here a few months a year. Its a very rural area so its considered weird if you don't accept dogs - it would be easy to feel a bit vulnerable here but not one person has tried to even touch our front gate, let alone come through it in the three years we have been here.

Gooooood doggies.
 
Orange

Orange

Location
Piemonte, Italy.
Granca said:
Welcome, @Orange. It’s encouraging to hear that your collie is responding well to Librela. My two labs don’t seem to have mobility problems yet, but it’s very useful to be able to compare the various responses to treatment in case it’s needed in the future. Thanks for sharing your experience with Bess.
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Thank you for the welcome @Granca.

Our lab (Ella) got mobility issues at 10 and she responded really well to Gabapentin and never needed anything else for her mobility apart from the occasional hit of Joint Genie before she was diagnosed with cancer.. She absolutely loved to sunbathe and I think that helped her in lots of different ways. Also mad for apples.

She passed when she was 13 just over two years ago. Even with 8 dogs and everyone else to keep us occupied, there is still a naughty portly yellow lab shaped gap in our lives.
 
Orange

Orange

Location
Piemonte, Italy.
I can't work out how to add this to my footer, but this is the gang (all rescues):

Bess aka the naughty old bat- Border Collie - 15 y/o - Arthritis / Dementia / ropey pancreas - a criminal mastermind who has to be up and about by 8am (BST) so wakes the house up. Loves to sh*t stir and steal cat food.
Athena aka Big girl or Lass - Cane Corso - 12 y/o - Arthritis / Low Thyroid / Splenectomy (waiting on results of biopsy). Very caring and protective of her people. Loves Arthur and cheese, is a bit of a player
Marley - Lab x Collie - 11 y/o - in the rudest of health, levitates when he wiggles, easiest dog to train in the world, loves people, does not appreciate other dogs apart from Burnie. Will eat anything.
Bindi aka Booboo- GSD - 10 y/o - Arthritis, pica and OCD (all instructions in 3's !), very sensitive, awful start to her life, hypervigilant. Likes to play with the cats, give them her toys and steal their food.
Arthur - Staffy x Collie - 9 y/o - Tripod and accomplished escape artist. Also super fast - has the mindset of a cat rather than a dog so stays to the side of the pack.
Alfie - Rotty x Collie - 8 y/o - awful start to his life, 2 x ops to remove objects he should not have swallowed, very fast, loves frisbee and stealing from other dogs mouths (he has yet to learn this is a bad idea)
Burnie - Border Collie - 8 y/o - Arthritis but still very bouncy. Failed Irish farm dog but still likes to herd, proper loony, wants to be normal like the others, knows the how but does not know the why and it shows. Example: if you throw something to her to catch in her mouth, it just bounces off of her face.
Rufus aka Doofus - Cane Corso - 4 y/o - Epilepsy / ropey pancreas / big baby complex. Also loves Arthur and being cuddled on the sofa.

Ella - Yellow Lab - Passed 2019, Leukaemia. The ultimate player and lover of apples.

We feed raw except for the dogs with a poorly pancreas who are on a low fat diet (and really resent it). The medicine cabinet for the dogs is huge.
 
M

M.F.

What an interesting bunch you have! I have Snowie, who will be 10 years old in January. He was epileptic from age 1.5 yo till 5 yo when we stopped all tick and flea preventatives and the seizures stopped. He had been treated with potassium bromide for the epilepsy, which didn’t stop the seizures (grand mal). Hasn’t been on epilepsy meds for 4 years. Such a relief that the seizures stopped. He’s also raw fed. Plus a scavenger and beggar of note! Will think nothing of staring at a child with a croissant in their hand and then calmly claiming it as his own.
 
Orange

Orange

Location
Piemonte, Italy.
Jelinga said:
@Orange, thank you for telling us about all your dogs. I had an epileptic German Shorthaired Pointer who died during fits aged 8, I think there is better knowledge and medication now. They sound a fascinating bunch and how good of you to have rescued them and give them a happy life.
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Hi @Jelinga. I don't know how long dogs can live with epilepsy but judging by the looks our vet gives us when we go through an episode, we will be blessed if he gets to 8. We are already on the drugs that can only be sourced by a vet (most drugs here in Italy are sourced from the chemist / pharmacy) for his seizures because (huge amounts of) diazepam stopped working after less than a year.

It might well be has a brain tumour but we have chosen not to pursue that diagnosis because the treatment would be the same and we don't want to count the days. He is already a big baby (55kg !) so we just try and give him his best life (which for him is lots of lazing around, fish sticks, cuddles and running around in the snow when its here). He is super clumsy and massive so the other dogs run away from him when he tries to play with them apart from Bindi.
 
Orange

Orange

Location
Piemonte, Italy.
M.F. said:
What an interesting bunch you have! I have Snowie, who will be 10 years old in January. He was epileptic from age 1.5 yo till 5 yo when we stopped all tick and flea preventatives and the seizures stopped. He had been treated with potassium bromide for the epilepsy, which didn’t stop the seizures (grand mal). Hasn’t been on epilepsy meds for 4 years. Such a relief that the seizures stopped. He’s also raw fed. Plus a scavenger and beggar of note! Will think nothing of staring at a child with a croissant in their hand and then calmly claiming it as his own.
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Hi @M.F.

I am so pleased for you and Snowie that you do not have to deal with seizures any more ! What breed is Snowie ?

Oh that's interesting - practically the only tick and flea preventative they use here is Bravecta in the warm months which is like an edible chemical weapon. Ticks bring their own issues here in terms of disease for dogs and people so they really push it. He does not go out much so I will take him off it and it see what happens.

I don't know if this makes any difference, but he has cluster seizures which can go on for days if not stopped - the longer they go on for, the more damage they do. It took us a while to work out because part of his seizure behaviour is to be hyperactive and over enthusiastic which is what he is like a lot of the time when he is not having a seizure !

He takes three different types of tablet every day and the vet says that's everything possible - we are down to two cluster attacks a year and usually around the big season changes. The last one has been smaller than the last two so I am hopeful we finally have it contained at least.

I am a big fan of feeding raw - its made huge changes to all of the dogs, especially those who have experienced a lot of stress / anxiety or who have skin issues. Poor Bindi did not know what chicken was when we got her :(

For the two on low fat diets who cannot eat raw, we have moved them onto high % fishy wet tinned food instead of tinned meat food and that seems to have had a positive impact. I have been adding biscuits but since being here (for a whole two days !) I am thinking of taking them out of their diets again and keeping it as close to raw as we can under the circumstances.

So glad I joined this board - its good to rethink things !
 
M

M.F.

Orange said:
Hi @M.F.

I am so pleased for you and Snowie that you do not have to deal with seizures any more ! What breed is Snowie ?

Oh that's interesting - practically the only tick and flea preventative they use here is Bravecta in the warm months which is like an edible chemical weapon. Ticks bring their own issues here in terms of disease for dogs and people so they really push it. He does not go out much so I will take him off it and it see what happens.

I don't know if this makes any difference, but he has cluster seizures which can go on for days if not stopped - the longer they go on for, the more damage they do. It took us a while to work out because part of his seizure behaviour is to be hyperactive and over enthusiastic which is what he is like a lot of the time when he is not having a seizure !

He takes three different types of tablet every day and the vet says that's everything possible - we are down to two cluster attacks a year and usually around the big season changes. The last one has been smaller than the last two so I am hopeful we finally have it contained at least.

I am a big fan of feeding raw - its made huge changes to all of the dogs, especially those who have experienced a lot of stress / anxiety or who have skin issues. Poor Bindi did not know what chicken was when we got her :(

For the two on low fat diets who cannot eat raw, we have moved them onto high % fishy wet tinned food instead of tinned meat food and that seems to have had a positive impact. I have been adding biscuits but since being here (for a whole two days !) I am thinking of taking them out of their diets again and keeping it as close to raw as we can under the circumstances.

So glad I joined this board - its good to rethink things !
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Snowie is a Lab, of course! 😛

Interesting that you notice that the seizures coincide with the change in seasons. Could that also be when you give the Bravecto? Snowie would have a grand mal seizure every 4-6 months… exactly when we applied or gave the tick/flea preventative. We used various on him—Frontline and Revolution spot ons, Capstar, and Bravecto once. After the Bravecto, he had 2 grand mal seizures within 6 weeks of ingesting it.

I understand you have to contend with diseases from ticks. But I won’t hide that I am against any of the ingestibles. I’ve read so many bad things about them, especially that warnings were not initially put on the product labels about seizure risk, so this just makes me even more dubious about their “safety” messages. I’m also against the spot ons because they’re also absorbed into the system.

I have used a neem and lemon grass spray on Snowie to repel ticks. It stinks! Have only used it twice when we went on holiday to an area that is known to have biliary. Otherwise, I just pick off any ticks when I see them. Ticks only come out in spring here (Cape Town) and where I live they’re not dangerous. I’ve picked a few off myself, too, and I am certainly not going to take Bravecto or apply a spot on onto the back of my neck over my spinal cord near my brain!!

I also don’t give Snowie chemical dewormers, due to the seizure risk. I feed him crushed pumpkin seeds, which apparently naturally contain an anti-parasitic—there is info online that describes how it paralyses internal parasites. I eat them myself, too! They also provide useful minerals.
 
Stacia

Stacia

Location
Malvern Worcestershire
Orange said:
Hi @Jelinga. I don't know how long dogs can live with epilepsy but judging by the looks our vet gives us when we go through an episode, we will be blessed if he gets to 8. We are already on the drugs that can only be sourced by a vet (most drugs here in Italy are sourced from the chemist / pharmacy) for his seizures because (huge amounts of) diazepam stopped working after less than a year.

It might well be has a brain tumour but we have chosen not to pursue that diagnosis because the treatment would be the same and we don't want to count the days. He is already a big baby (55kg !) so we just try and give him his best life (which for him is lots of lazing around, fish sticks, cuddles and running around in the snow when its here). He is super clumsy and massive so the other dogs run away from him when he tries to play with them apart from Bindi.
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My dog was 8 when he died, but he had far more fits over the years than Rufus. So I do hope Rufus will go on for many more years. As you say, give him the best life he can have, fortunately dogs don't know about death, so he lives his life happily, every happy moment is worth so much x
 
Orange

Orange

Location
Piemonte, Italy.
M.F. said:
Snowie is a Lab, of course! 😛

Interesting that you notice that the seizures coincide with the change in seasons. Could that also be when you give the Bravecto? Snowie would have a grand mal seizure every 4-6 months… exactly when we applied or gave the tick/flea preventative. We used various on him—Frontline and Revolution spot ons, Capstar, and Bravecto once. After the Bravecto, he had 2 grand mal seizures within 6 weeks of ingesting it.

I understand you have to contend with diseases from ticks. But I won’t hide that I am against any of the ingestibles. I’ve read so many bad things about them, especially that warnings were not initially put on the product labels about seizure risk, so this just makes me even more dubious about their “safety” messages. I’m also against the spot ons because they’re also absorbed into the system.

I have used a neem and lemon grass spray on Snowie to repel ticks. It stinks! Have only used it twice when we went on holiday to an area that is known to have biliary. Otherwise, I just pick off any ticks when I see them. Ticks only come out in spring here (Cape Town) and where I live they’re not dangerous. I’ve picked a few off myself, too, and I am certainly not going to take Bravecto or apply a spot on onto the back of my neck over my spinal cord near my brain!!

I also don’t give Snowie chemical dewormers, due to the seizure risk. I feed him crushed pumpkin seeds, which apparently naturally contain an anti-parasitic—there is info online that describes how it paralyses internal parasites. I eat them myself, too! They also provide useful minerals.
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I didn't want to assume !

Its our vet who called out the seasonal thing - it also tends to coincide with the changing of the clocks. She has a number of epileptic dogs on her books (I am wondering even more about the Bravecto thing now..) Our vet has been clear that consistency with timing and volume is key with the meds so I am still wondering if we need to adjust the timing of his drugs with the change in the clocks although even as I type this out, it sounds bananas.

His Spring / Summer seizure would tie in with taking Bravecto but the Autumn / Winter one would not unless it was because of some sort of accumulative effect. Either way, we will try next year without it and try the neem / lemongrass instead - thank you for the tip !
 
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