Approx. 8/yo female cat bad arthritis

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A week ago Saturday I took my oldest cat to the vet for a limping she had been experiencing for some months. I could not afford to go to the vet right away, so I am afraid her condition was made worse by the passage of time. The vet had her sedated and took x-rays and said she has pretty severe arthritis in her back-right leg. I believe, though I'm not sure, he may have mentioned something about spurs too? When she goes back for her checkup this Saturday I'm going to get more details, but I've been reading about a glucosamine product for animals called Syn-Flex. http://www.activexamerica.com/index.php

I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with this sort of thing and if you think this would be helpful to her once I gather more information from my veterinarian.

Thanks in advance!

-Mike
 
I have no experience with SynFlex, nor with spurs. It may well be that SynFlex has medicinal properties that will specifically help with the problems your cat is experiencing; I simply don't know.

If it's worth anything, when Gwyn had arthritis, we started with Cosequin. She did okay on that, but was happier when we switched to the stronger Dasuquin. We eventually started shots of Adequan, which I know has helped a lot of kitties. I can't say whether it helped Gwyn or not, as she started having major (not-arthritis-related) movement problems soon after we started the shots. We eventually reverted to Dasuquin, plus buprenex as needed.

I hope your kitty feels better soon and that this is easily resolved!

-- Jean and her Gwyn
 
Hi Mike
I am sorry about your poor Kitty having problems with arthritis. My 7 year old Fluffy
is having that problem due to an old injury.

It sounds like your kitty may need something for pain right away. Did your vet suggest
anything?

It is difficult to find pain medication that don't have a lot of side effects.
Look at the post on Tramadol down below your post. It seems to not have really
bad side effects (my opinion) As you will see Maureen has used it for a long time with
out problems. Will your kitty take a pill? That is the best way to give the tramadol because it is very bitter. Some folks give it Transdermal on the cats ear.

Like JJ and Gwyn, i have also used the Buprenex when Fluffy was hurting. It really
works in my opinion.

I also give the Adequin and Dasuquin but these take a long time to build up and will
not help the pain problem immediately. I am about to start giving Zeel also.

I don't know anything about Spurs or the SynFlex. I hope your kitty feels better
very soon.
Please let us know how the vet visit on Saturday goes.

Maryjo
 
The part that breaks my heart the most is that I believe this problem originated with an abusive ex of mine. She was very sneaky with the animal abuse. Looking back a couple years later, the signs were there but I think I refused to believe that someone could be that evil and blocked out the possibility of it. My two cats are both missing a fang from that @#%!# (sorry, animal abuse really makes me sick..).

Looking forward to talking with my vet a bit about chlondroitin and glucosamine Saturday. He failed me with feline diabetes (my other cat, Pixie). I guess I'm kind of mentally giving him "one more chance" (with my arthritic cat, Eve [or "Evie" as she is lovingly called]) to do some good for me. If this goes poorly, I am considering getting print-outs of all documentation and getting a second opinion from another vet willing to testify that my instructions to "overdose" my cat with insulin was inappropriate, uninformed, and preposterous and sue the original vet in small claims court. I don't mean to be like this, but receiving instructions from a licensed professional to basically "kill" my cat does not make me too happy.

-M
 
maryjo - i think he means he's giving his current vet one more chance, and that current vet failed him with FD treatment.

mike - we use dasuquin, adequan, acupuncture and omega-3 fish oil to help meowzi's arthritis. we also put her on denosyl (SAM-e) a couple of months ago for a different reason, but it may be helping her arthritis, too, to our surprise.
 
Yes, that's what I meant by "one more chance." But I'm probably switching vets anyway after I get my current cat issues squared away (Evie's arthritic leg, and she may need dental work too).

Omega-3 for cats, huh? Can you get it in small enough pills for cats? Because the ones I take every day are rather large, like the last joint of a pinky finger.

I'll write down the names of all of these things you are mentioning and ask my vet about it. I'm worried he's going to treat it the same way he tried to treat Pixie's diabetes though (his way is right no matter what, and there's no need to discuss other methods of treatment). I'm pretty much over it.

Tomorrow's the big day (her check-up), so hopefully I'll know more by then.

-M
 
Hi Mike,

Even if you take your cat to be checked out, at your current vet, and if he agrees that the meds you mentioned would help, there is still not an immediate response from glucosamine since it takes a while to build up in the system. You may want to ask for some Buprenex for the present pain that your cat is in. Not all vets carry Buprenex, as it is a narcotic. I have one vet that does, and one vet that doesn't at another hospital.

It sounds like it would be best to find another vet, if this same vet supposedly caused your Pixie to be overdosed and she possibly died because of the treatment he prescribed. Do you really want to take a chance with your Evie being seen by him? That is totally up to you, but if Eve is NOT in desperate pain at the moment, you perhaps could find a different vet? Especially if he tries to talk you in to giving Evie Metacam. I would stay away from that medicine unless it is used on a one time basis for surgery. Some folks here have used it and don't seem to have a problem, but I have used it enough (much to my regret), even in my cat, Proto, that I lost last year at the age of 5. I would not doubt the Metacam could have been in part, indirectly responsible for the urinary and bladder problems he had or at least made them worse than they were. Big side effect of Metacam is possible kidney damage. Check that medicine out, so you will know about it. A lot of vets (including a couple I deal with) feel the Metacam is great for cats. So, for pain issues, I go to my other vet that will give Buprenex for pain.

Good luck and I hope things work out well for you and your Eve.

I am not a vet nor vet tech, but have had a lot of experience in dealing with pain in my cats especially when they have chronic illnesses that need to be treated with pain meds.

Jean and Charcoal (GA) cat_pet_icon
 
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Omega-3 for cats, huh? Can you get it in small enough pills for cats?
Click to expand...
hi mike. i use omega 3s that come in gel caps. i prick the end with a lancet to squeeze out the fish oil drops to mix in my kitties food.
none of mine liked it at first so i started out slowly, gradually increasing the number of drops...
 
Hi, I can't add much to the good advice you've received about numerous things to try. I do second the suggestion that you ask for Buprenex to ease her pain. I think since you do not trust the vet it will continue to be difficult for you to work with him in the care of little Evie, so you might consider changing vets for that reason alone. There is no reason to expect him to let you down but your perception is important. I don't think it can be emphasized enough that you should avoid Metacam (meloxicam) although vets continue to prescribe it and yes, not every single cat has ill effects. You can read about it here:

www.metacamkills.com

Here is a nice review of arthritis treatments, it has some additional information about how to make Evie more comfortable:

http://www.harpsie.com/arthritis.htm

Best regards, Sugarpura
 
Hi Mike
I know you are worried about how this vet will treat Evie and are
thinking about going to another vet. I do hope that You trust your feelings about this based on how he treated Pixie and take her to someone you can trust. You need a
vet that you can trust to take good care of Evie. She
deserves the best care possible and you are worrying about
how he will treat her.

I did understand what you said about giving your vet another chance but i didn't understand
the reasoning behind doing that.

Like others suggested; don't forget about pain medicine. Arthritis is so painful and it sounds to me like Evie is in pain. I hope she feels better real soon!

I would never give Metacam.
 
Thanks for the great advice. I will not accept Metacam today no matter what. I will be putting my foot down today. They will not be clipping Pixie's quick to test his blood any longer, nor will I just take what my vet says for "face value." I am only taking Evie to him again today because the vet I was working with allows a tab. I need Pixie's mouth looked at again to make sure the infection is taken care of also because I may need to get more antibiotics. I haven't decided yet if I am going to pay my tab off or pursue a claim in small claims court to try to get my money back for the POOR AND UNPROFESSIONAL treatment Pixie received for his diabetes. The reason I considered giving the vet "another chance" is because of what a genuinely nice human being he is. He seems to truly care about the animals and is a very nice guy, works with you with payments even though his services are slightly high (doesn't even charge interest unless you miss payments), the nurses are all really nice to the animals (aside from the clipping the nail to test blood sugar, but I assume that is not their fault and just something they were taught). But the more I think about it all the niceness in the world would have never made up for it if I hadn't become active in his care and Pixie died because of misguided treatment instructions. Vets mistreating feline diabetes seems pretty common, but once again that is no excuse.

But for Evie and her arthritis, I'll mention chlondroitin and glucosamine and get this thoughts, and ask about dasuquin, adequan, and Buprenex and attempt to discuss the pros and cons. The vet is just always in such a big hurry because of trying to take on so many patients. I try to keep him in the room talking, but the moment he steps out of the room it could be another half hour to an hour before he makes it back due to other things he is doing. This is not just a one-time problem, either. This has happened to me every time I have been to his office.

Gotta leave soon... wish me luck!

-M
 
Mike,

The product that I mentioned, doesn't need vet approval. It's a chewable treat (I break it up - as Sydney choked on a whole one) and she loves it and it helps her arthritis.

I've been giving here a people vitamin (Shiff Move Free) combo for years and well, when I learned about the treats, I thought that was so much better than pilling. And after using these treats for several months, she's feeling ok.

But she's also had years of glucosamine, Chrondoitin, MSM in her system. So, I'm just continuing that trend.

Just something to consider.

And if you don't like that product - there is also Catswell - Happy Hips you can get.
 
Hilary, how many chewies do they need of that per day? If I break it up, can Dillon eat it despite his lack of teeth?
/threadjack (sorry Mike!)
 
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