Dog hip pain remedies?

I have a 9 year old, 65 lb. lab/border collie mix. She was born with severe hip dysplasia. Both hips were replaced by the time she was two, and aside from a few instances she has always been very happy and active. She has been on the J/D diet here entire life and on and off of SynoviG3 supplement (currently using.)

About 10 days ago she began limping, favoring the right hind leg. I took her to the vet and he put her on Metacam, which doesn’t seem to be helping all that much. Does anyone know first hand of any other product that really is effective?

I googled and found something called Dog Gone Pain - know anything about this product? Please help. Thanks.

Metacam should not take a long time to work, it should reduce pain with the first couple of doses. Call the vet and let them know that it is not controlling her pain, they can find something that can work. Some dogs do not respond to NSAID’s and something stronger may be in order.

Did they give her an injection at the vet or just the meds for you to give her?

Cosequin seems to always be recommended by my vet for arthritis, but is not going to alleviate pain right away.

There is an injection called Adequan that can help with short term pain management in arthritic animals.

IANAV, but my personal opinion is that supplements are very useful for long-term management of pain in animals and can be helpful in controlling the inflammation associated with bad joints.

Thanks for your reply, Minnie. The vet did give her a shot of Metacam at the office and the pain was alleviated. The daily oral doses I’ve been giving her also seem to help somewhat, but not as much as I had hoped. I will call the vet and see if there is something stronger he can give her, but was hoping to find something I could buy without incurring vet bills.

Our pug was given an NSAID called Previcox when she started limping, and the results were pretty miraculous; huge improvement in about four hours, pretty well back to normal in seven. It’s a once-a-day pill. Worth asking about.

I am more familiar with equine medicine than canine, but Adequan IS used long-term in horses with joint problems, often quite successfully. There are several different theories about how to dose it long term, (mind you, Adequan is somewhat expensive in horses but not so much in dogs) one being to do a course (1 dose every 4 days for 7 treatments) periodically as the animal needs it (e.g., 2x/year). This conforms most closely to the manufacturer’s specs, but other people/vets swear by doing the 1/4/7 loading dose and then repeating a dose every month thereafter. Either way, Adequan has a very good safety profile in both species and does not have the long term effects on the kidneys, liver, and GI tract like NSAID’s (including metacam) do.

Before you start exploring other pain management options, have you done any diagnostics to see what the problem actually is? This may be a new/different problem unrelated to the hips that might benefit from a prolonged rest period, if it’s a tendon/ligament/muscle injury, or she may be developing arthritis in another joint (do they do joint injections of steroids in dogs?), or there may be an issue with her right implant that may be fixable. If you are looking online for pain management options, either your vet has determined the cause of your dog’s limp and it isn’t fixable (which was not apparent from your OP), you haven’t given it enough time, there are not the right diagnostics available to find the problem, or you/your vet have made a decision (maybe an unconscious/unspoken one) to stop looking for answers – if that’s what you decide to do, that’s fine, but it should be due to a conscious decision on your part, not lack of knowledge or your vet’s personal limitations.

As stated above, I’m from the horse world, which is different from the dog world in that most horses are expected to be athletes to varying degrees and therefore more money is spent on orthopedic diagnostics and treatment, but I’ve seen firsthand people throw good money after bad by messing around with “low-cost” treatments for month after month when they could have spent as much, or less, money up-front and actually fixed the problem. A friend’s sister had a similar situation in her dog, in which the primary vet had given up on trying to diagnose/fix the problem, but a doggy orthopedist was able to diagnose it and prescribe treatment relatively easily.

I have heard good things about Previcoxx and seen good results with the same drug, Equioxx, in horses (although it is ungodly expensive to give long-term in horses).

I’m not trying to attack you or your vet in any way, just trying to provide a different perspective that might help you and your doggy in the long run. Good luck!

We used previcoxx, deramaxx and rimadyl with dogs with dysplasia, but with our last dog he was also on tramadol for the actual pain.

Previcoxx seemed to work quite well when matched with a strong pain med.

A friend of mine used something like glucosamine HCL and chondroitin sulfate with some success.

Thanks for all of your responses. The vet wants to try Tramadol; we’ll see how that works.

Tramadol is a bad ass pain pill- Angus was getting about 250mg twice a day. It worked wonders, and I’m sure that being relatively pain-free helped to extend his life significantly.

Thanks, EJsGirl. How much did Angus weigh? My vet’s got Rachel on 150mg/day and didn’t seem to help much. She weighs 65 lbs.

A note on glucosamine/chondroitin supplements: while I use them for my aging Lab, I’m not sure they’re definitely doing any good (Deramaxx has been excellent for pain control and increasing her activity). The research verdict on such supplements in dogs (and humans) has been mixed. If funds are limited, the NSAIDs are the top choice.

At the end, he was about 126 lb, down from a high of 190 lb in his prime. Generally he tipped the scales at about 150 lb.

I agree with Horsetech. In the meantime,I would make sure that she always has a soft place to curl up on,and put a heating pad over her hips when the two of you are relaxing together.