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I have a German Shepherd of five and a half years old.The vet has given him
a course of steroids for the treatment of arthritis.Is there any other
alternatives i.e. accupuncture.Has anyone else experienced this with a
German Shepherd?
Thanks,ES,

diana

At 5.5 I would really try and keep him off the steroids ~ my GSD was pts
recently @ guestimated 14. She's been on steroids for 15 months and they
carried her through well, at the expense of her body and muscle mass. I keep
wondering if I would have continued with that treatment if I had known and
in her case I probably would have ~ but she was already old.

I would certainly get a second opinion ~ which part of his body does he
suffer most in? ~ his hips?
Can you try a homeopathic vet? Swimming is great exercise and acupuncture
works well for some dogs. Green lipped muscles have also highly recommended
by a few people on various lists.

Try this list ~ it's mainly for DM sufferers but you'll get a lot of help
for arthritis too:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DegenMyelopathy/join

Diana

jj

Our current GSD, Penta has been taking "Metacam" (UK name) for her
painful hip joints for 4 years now. After a few days of treatment she
had started to steal food from the kitchen counters again (she had not
tried that trick for a long time), she had not been able to get her
front legs up that high before the treatment started. Being on the drug
has really improved her mobility, and she is certainly not getting any
pain from the joint anymore.
Metacam is a NSAID, so it works against inflammation and pain. The
active ingredient is meloxicam. It comes as a suspension with a syringe,
I just squirt the dose into her mouth before her food. It costs about
£45 for a 40 day supply, and you use it long term to keep the
inflamation away.

diana

Looking again, I see that the poster is English... one thing that angered me
a lot about Stone's death was that the vet was referring to the hip
displaysia as arthritis. OK, they might be somewhat related but the only
arthritis we ever discussed was in her hocks. I didn't know that her hips
were so severe ~ we thought her struggling was down to the painless symptoms
of DM, not the agony of hip displaysia, or I would not have continued to
stretch her legs in accordance with the physiotherapy sheet for DM dogs ( a
sheet that I also showed my vet!) , and might have put her down sooner.
Knowing how much pain she was in hurts a lot.

Maybe by the term arthritis the vet is referring to hip displaysia, which is
very common is quite young GSD's and Labs in the UK?


Diana

gsdfam

Having been a German shepherd owner all of my life and with a 15.5 year
old female resting behind me, I guess I've been through the mill on rear end
problems and arthritis. Here's what i've learned to date:

1. I don't think that you can use steroids for a long time, only for a short
period. Therefore I don't think that steroids are the ultimate solution.

2. I'd stay away from Rimadyl and the other NSAIDS. They're advertising
Deramax as not having stomach related side effects, but that's in dispute.
Check the web for Deramax info from dog owners if your vet suggests using
it.

I had Shali, my 15 year old on Rimadyl with nearly disastrous results. She
started gastric bleeding--dark, smelly stools,etc. That kept her off of her
feet even though I stopped the Rimadyl right away. That meant that her old
muscles were beginning to atrophy further and her mobility has been
adversely affected.

If you opt for Rimadyl, get a CBC first to establish organ baselines, then
watch your dog for any signs of problems. Then get another CBC in a week,
then two weeks, then four weeks, then continue periodically to make sure
you're not seeing liver damage. There have been catastrophic side effects
with Rimadyl, but primarily in black labs. Still, the NSAIDs involve some
risk.

3. All available from KV Vet supply: Glycoflex (has the green lipped mussel
mentioned by another), Arthi-Soothe (I use it with Shali daily), and most
recently I'm trying her on Myristin. I have a relatively inexpensive
Myristin source if you want to go that route. Shali's on the Arthisoothe and
Myristin at the present time.

4. Swim your dog. I don't know where you are, but a number of canine swim
centers have sprung up all over the place.

5. Don't let your dog sit around. I did that with an older male that I had
five years ago. He didn't want to go out. It was hot. So I let him have his
way. End result: his muscles atrophied.

6. No jumping or other high impact sports. No frisbees in the air.

Hope this helps.

gwen watson

Indeed they do as do they with humans. Strangely when humans
have degenerative joint disease or degenerative arthritis the
very first drugs they are given are the newest most expensive
meds on the market, ie Celebrex, vioox, and Bextar. All
of which are of course NSAIDS but supposedly easier
on your stomach.

And there are definite risks with the use of these and dogs. I prefer
to try liquid glucosamine. Of course the downside of that is there
aren't enough tests run with many of the supposedly holistic
approaches.

Gwen

c a brown

However, Metacam is not available in the U.S. It is being used in Europe,
Australia, N.Z. and Canada. I had Molly on it for about a half year (much of
that at half dose) before and between multiple ACL surgeries. It was so good
to be able to give her something during the acute injury phase that allowed
her to sleep without leaving her acting "drugged".
We now give her Glucosamine, Chondroitin, MSM and Salmon Oil to keep the
arthritis at bay.
Carol Ann, Toronto

gaubster2

I hope this type of thinking, by you, doesn't carry over to everything else in
life when it comes to peer-reviewed double blind studies! If that's the case,
then the advice you give on most everything should be taken w/ a grain of salt!

quapawv

I've had good luck with Adequan injections and accupuncture.
:-)
V
Rondo Farms, Home of Rambo the Wonder Horse

scott

Last September I had to have put down my 13 year old German shepherd dog (80
lb). From the age of about three, Jenny had lots of medical problems, one of
which was arthritis. These are some of the things that were tried in an
effort to deal with her arthritis:

one hip replaced.....very effective
one femoral head removed.....very effective
Rimadyl was used from the age of 8 to 13 with no known side
effects.....somewhat effective (blood tests were done every three

months for the first year)
Sometimes aspirin.....sometimes more effective than Rimadyl (not recommended
when using Rimadyl)
cosequin/condroitin.....somewhat effective
Adequan injections.....somewhat effective
5000 IU of vitamin E was given dailey.....effectively reduced swelling of the
joints--noticeably
acupuncture.....effective, but the effect lasted only about six days
gold bead implants.....effective Gold bead implants are very small
beads or circles of gold that are surgically implanted in
acupuncture
points, hopefully creating a type of permanent acupuncture The effect
seemed to be
similar to acupuncture treatments and lasted about six weeks. The
effectiveness
of acupuncture
varies among patients.
MSM was tried......not effective at all, in fact it seemed to be a problem
vitamin C.....?
magnetic dog bed.....sometimes it seemed that the bed helped, other times I
didn't see any difference.
placed on a diet to loose weight.....always helpful
exercised mildly


I would suggest that you use a variety of approaches when treating arthritis.
None of what I tried masked the problem completely, but collectively Jenny was
able to live a very happy life.

Jenny was not put down because of anything related to arthritis or its
treatment.