Barb & Checkers said:
Amy, do you do the injections yourself? Where in the cat's body does the injection go?
Checkers wouldn't let me shoot anywhere below the waist. I can only shoot scruff.
How long does it take to work? I've been looking into it. Several people on here use it...I think
Isn't it a steroid?
Hi Barb-
Sorry I missed this last night. We do the injections ourselves, and we do them in Mario's shoulder area, just like Trix's insulin. It was originally believed that Adequan had to be given IM, but that's not the case anymore. We give it SubQ, and it works perfectly fine that way. We do use a different syringe, because Mario's dose is basically the equivalent of 30 insulin units; while we could use an insulin syringe, that much juice goes in much more quickly with a bigger needle.
To the best of my knowledge, it is not a steroid. I know Rocket had an adverse skin reaction to it, but everyone else I know who has used it has had great results.
It does take a while for it to REALLY start working, but we started seeing positive results after just a few doses. I would say we started seen the best results a couple months in. There is a "loading dose" protocol to follow. We did 2 injections a week for 4 weeks, then one injection a week for 4 weeks, then every other week for 4 weeks. Now, we give it to him one injection every 3-4 weeks. I can tell when he needs a "boost", because his posture starts getting "icky", and he starts bunny-hopping down the stairs again.
We started him on it last June, if I remember correctly...one of the best decisions we've made, because he was having a really hard time with his arthritis. You could even see his stiffness when he slept. Now, he looks super-relaxed and flopped out when he snoozes.
I hope this info helps!
Amy
