Cartrophen

[jodav]

Any experience of these injections for arthritic pain in back legs? Success stories, frequency of injection, cost etc? Ta.

Jo

[ragsysmum]

As posted in the other thread, we had them for Sonny some years back. About £100 for four I think but didn't feel they helped at all. I know other people have found them effective though.

[vickyb]

Are they just like a regular injection or 'bigger'?

[lurchers13]

Sox has just started on a 4 week course of cartrophen injections. The price I paid last week was £32.56 for 6ml. It's just a regular injection. She's due for her 2nd injection tomorrow. I'm just hoping this works as nothing else has worked. Sox has arthritis in all four legs and her spine. She also has spondylitis.

Sue x

[jodav]

Thanks Ragysmum and Lurchers13 for your comments and experiences. I was advised by a vet (not my own) at a dog event, that Cartrophen might be a good option for Tracy. I also spoke to a lady whose dog received injections at Daniel Doherty's practice at a cost of about £25 a time I think but I expect to pay more here on the south coast. I feel like Tracy now needs some extra help, she is very slow and at times wobbly. I'll see what our vet suggests. Thanks all.

[lurchers13]

Jo, according to my bill it costs so much a ml. Sox is a lurcher and has been on Steroids and all sorts of different meds. She always weighed between 19 - 20 kilo. She ballooned to nearly 24k whilst on steroids and when Tom took her off them she dropped to 22.7k. She has been on so many meds and they are all taking their toll on her. At the moment she couldn't be bothered to eat much and was 18.5k last week. The cost will depend on the size and weight of the dog.

Sue x

[jodav]

Thank you Sue for that advice, I have a much better idea now. I understand completely what you say about the side effects of different meds and I wish Sox well with the next injection and health in general.

I have tried to keep Tracy off drugs from the vet for as long as possible for many of the reasons you state. She was given a drug called Onsior a few years ago for pain in one of her front legs but it didn't work at all and so I don't think that's an option. She is definitely much stiffer walking these days and with colder weather coming, I think the time is right to help her out. Thanks again.
Jo

[vickyb]

Our vet felt that she needed to do more to help animals with muscular -skeletal problems so trained as a physio around 3 yrs ago. She's said that she has had very good results with Cartrophen, obviously not in every case but if used at the right stage it can be very effective and buy time before they need to take painkillers regularly or to be able to reduce them. She spent some time at a specialist rehab centre in Belgium which treated lots of greyhounds and says she's surprised how many have undiagnosed lower back problems and pain which a lot of vets attribute to arthritis in the back legs and often treating the back can help the leg, it's often a combination of the two.

I know I bang on about it but Gracie and Maddie are getting great results still with the laser treatment she does and Bod has started it today as his back legs aren't brilliant. It has helped Gracie enormously.

[lurchers13]

Nov 24, 2015 17:38:38 GMT -5 jodav said:

Thank you Sue for that a

dvice, I have a much better idea now. I understand completely what you say about the side effects of different meds and I wish Sox well with the next injection and health in general.

I have tried to keep Tracy off drugs from the vet for as long as possible for many of the reasons you state. She was given a drug called Onsior a few years ago for pain in one of her front legs but it didn't work at all and so I don't think that's an option. She is definitely much stiffer walking these days and with colder weather coming, I think the time is right to help her out. Thanks again.
Jo

Thanks Jo. I hope Tracey can soon be sorted too. I know with Sox that hydrotherapy is not an option as she hates water so definately wouldn't take to it. Gotta be honest, if she went in the water there would be a trail of bubbles behind her as she has awful wind as a result of some of the meds .

Sue x

[2tuxedos]

I hope the injections are benficial for Sox

My 10yr greyhound Mr T has been on cartrophen since about July 2014, he was intermittantly limping and had become more reluctant on walks, at the time it appeared to be carpal/wrist area but did note shoulder uneveness, after trying out carprieve & that helping it was thought to be arthritus & perscribed course of cartrophen we did 4x weekly (first fortnight alongside carprieve to ease any discomfort) then gradually increased the interval gaps till every 7-8 weeks depending how he was getting on. For T it had a great effect not just in mobility but also his character reverted to younger self, we felt pretty crap that clearly it was pain related & not just him ageing. I get the impression effects vary and it can stop being as effective after a while for some dogs, but its at least fairly affordable to try it. After the initial consult were only charged for the injections at £13 a time as just nip in & out. It hasn't seemed to have any negative effects for our boy.

This May, while he wasn't struggling as much on walks as before the leg was shaking while stood & he was resting it more. We had wrist xray at our vets then referal to Orthopeadic vets for xrays/mri/elbow arthroscopy (thankfully insured!) and we now know root cause is actually a previous fracture to humerus thats healed aligned but shortened leg & bone is much thicker & vet also felt there maybe a muscle tear. He's since had shockwave therapy on the shoulder, is taking tramadol & plt and were continuing with the cartrophen as hopefully keep the rest of his joints mobile bit longer. I'm not sure yet if the meds will need to be continued lifelong or if he'll be be weaned off to see how he gets on.

We've been going to hydrotherapy, but use a water treadmill not the pool as they felt that was best option for him, i didn't think Mr T would like getting wet being typical greyhound, but he's actually been ok. Its just taken a while for him to get used to walking on a treadmill, first session he spent most of it sat on therapist as he went backwards with it. Unfortunately our insurance doesn't have much of a complementary treatment pot so will be hard to keep up hydro at £30 a week when it runs out, which is a shame as he does seem to enjoy it now and although early on it does seem to be helping with flexing his leg

The lady there is also a physiotherapist so gave us some exercises to do ourselves help loosen his tendon, which has been very helpful & they ofer cold laser . I think there's allsorts of different types of dog body massage/manipulation, accupunture etc but whats best probably depends on the individual dog issues.

[jodav]

A short up-date on our experiences with Tracy after the course of injections. Considering she is off the Meloxidyl altogether, I think she is managing ok. She jumps into the back of the car and walks reasonably well, the weather is warmer though which may play a part. One point of interest is that during the injections, she started to drink much more. The drinking has now settled back to normal. Our vet said the Cartrophen should not cause excessive drinking but in our experience, it did. Tracy is 12 in August so we're pleased with the results of Cartrophen.

[vickyb]

So glad it's helping her  thanks for the update, very interesting.

[Nettie]

Glad the cartrophen is helping Tracey, it was brilliant for Indy and for Rio. After the 4 week course we just used to top up injections when necessary.