arthritis in cats and dogs is a painful condition so what drugs are the best
painkillers to give them are you worried about how safe they are and how do we
monitor our pets to make sure they are both as pain-free as possible without
developing side effects hi I'm Dr. Alex Avery from OurPetsHealth.com and
welcome to the final video in my arthritis series if you haven't checked
out the first two where I explain all about arthritis and its diagnosis as
well as drug-free management strategies and they can be found in the link below
and on the card up here arthritis is a progressive disease and at some point
both our arthritic dogs and cats will need pain killing medication if we deny
them this treatment then we are failing to keep them as pain-free as possible
and their quality of life will suffer as a result now there are a lot of myths
and scare stories about the use of painkillers in dogs and cats which I
will attempt to correct as our pets right to a pain-free life is something I
feel very strongly about first though let me ask you this question if you are
suffering from chronic pain would you rather take a drug that had a small risk
of side effects or would you rather just live with the pain now if you would
rather avoid the risk of side effects completely and live in pain then would
you even exclude something as common in everyday as aspirin well did you know
that in the US and UK this drug results in an annual death of up to 19500 people with a further 100000 people needing to be
hospitalized there is no such thing as a drug treatment that works without any
risk of side effects if someone claims there is then you have to ask does that
drug actually do anything at all now the most common medications given to
alleviate the pain and inflammation associated with the crippling disease of
osteoarthritis I known as the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
some common examples include carprofen meloxicam firocoxib and Mavacoxib
these drugs are available under many different trade names worldwide with the
most commonly being known likely to be rimadyl and metacam there's also prevacox
trocoxil and various others they are used in the treatment of both short-term
acute pain such as following an injury or surgery as well as being used to aid
the management of long term chronic pain just like that found in
arthritis these drugs work by reducing pain inflammation and fever by stopping
the formation of proteins needed for these events to occur side-effects are
uncommon and when they do occur are most often related to the intestines with
diarrhea and occasional vomiting being seen
if these develop and the drug should be stopped and your vet should be consulted
more serious side effects are really very rare but they can include liver
damage and kidney damage or exacerbate these conditions if they are already
present now it's exactly for this reason that monitoring blood samples are highly
recommended in any patient both before they start on long term non-steroidal
anti-inflammatories and also periodically during treatment similarly
if any concerns are noted such as a loss of appetite or an increase in thirst
again the drug should be discontinued and advice sought from your vet all this
being said the risk should not be overstated these drugs are proven to be
incredibly effective at relieving pain improving mobility and greatly
increasing arthritic patients quality of life they generally offer the best
chance of making sure your pet is as pain-free as possible
now for a complete in-depth look at these drugs and their use in both dogs
and cats we be sure to watch my dedicated videos linked below having
said all that our non-steroidal anti-inflammatories are not the be-all
and end-all when it comes to relieving the pain caused by arthritis there are
several other options and these might be appropriate in those animals which are
still painful despite they use or for use in patients for whom nonsteroidals
should really be avoided now this might be due to a pre-existing kidney disease
or liver disease as well as previously experiencing side effects with them now
these old drugs all work at different levels of the pain pathway within the
body as they can be given at the same time as
each other in most cases this may mean that an arthritic patient with advanced
disease mainly two or even three different painkillers to ensure they're
as pain-free as possible with a good quality of life and this is the key
point a good quality of life there is little point in my mind in restricting
our painful patients to a single drug treatment if their quality of life
remains poor so paracetamol is one such drug that can be used in dogs only it
must never be given to cats as even a small dose will kill them use
correctly though in dogs it's generally very safe and provides a good additional
pain relief with little risk of GI upset now overdose can cause liver damage so
care does need to be taken to dose appropriately dogs are not just little
people opioids related to morphine such as tramadol and buprenorphine can also
be used in chronic pain situations these act on the central nervous system by
preventing the transmission of pain signals to the brain buprenorphine is an
effective painkiller for moderate pain and can be administered into the cheek
or under the tongue as well as by injection this is not typically used as
a long-term treatment but it may be used when lameness become suddenly worse and
is more commonly used in cats compared to dogs
tramadol is also an opioid although it works on slightly different receptors to
receptors to buprenorphine it does not work for as long in dogs compared to people
and its effects are much less predictable - it may provide enough
additional pain relief when combined with other pain killing medications but
I would be cautious about using it by itself
gabapentin is another common drug used in the control of chronic pain it is
actually an anti fitting or anti-seizure medication that has some pain killing
properties it's commonly used when non-steroidal anti-inflammatories fail
to adequately control arthritic pain while it can cause drowsiness and in
coordination these typically pass once an animal becomes used to taking it
amantadine is the final more common drug used in addition to nonsteroidals
although primarily a human antiviral and antiparkinson medication it has been
recognized as having a place in the treatment of chronic pain again it is
generally well tolerated although side effects may include
intestinal upsets and even some agitation the bottom line with analgesic
or pain killing medication is that there are several different options which
allows for a large number of different combinations to be trialed has felt
appropriate for each individual pet now this may mean that several combinations
of both drug type and dose given and frequency may need to be worked through
before the best plan for each individual is reached and this gives our
arthritic patients there the best chance of being pain-free and as a result happy
and mobile for as long as possible now perhaps the final treatment for
arthritis is surgery but this is only an appropriate path for a small minority of
patients joint replacement technology and surgical expertise are improving all
the time and there are also several other salvage procedures to limit the
effects of or to alleviate the pain due to hip dysplasia specifically now these
options are definitely best discussed with your personal vet and the
procedures are often generally more specialist in nature and so referral
would likely to be needed right so we've started treatment and we better make
sure it's working as well as we hope and that's our pet is as pain-free as
possible so they can really get on with enjoying their life we know that
arthritis is a progressive condition and that despite our best efforts it will
get worse with time this means we need to keep looking out
for the signs of arthritis that lets us know our dog or cat was suffering from
the disease in the first place this time though we should know exactly what to
expect in our own individual animal every dog or cat exhibits pain in a
slightly different way and if you know your own pet and how they show
discomfort then you can act quickly if they are slow to get going in the
morning if they are withdrawn if they struggle jumping and they may still be
in pain an additional treatment may be needed just as with the original diagnosis the
longer the delay in starting treatment the harder it is to get pain levels back
under control additional treatment may not even mean
drugs either further environmental management or the addition of different
physical therapies as discussed in the last video may again make enough of a
difference so as I've already discussed cats and dogs on drug therapy should be
having regular blood and urine testing to monitor body health and to reduce the
chance of side-effects becoming a serious problem
it is the nonsteroidals that generally require the most monitoring with kidney
and liver disease testing being the most important a pretreatment blood test is
always a good idea with scheduled follow-ups as deemed appropriate for
each individual pet by your own vet but blood testing won't always pick up every
problem so it's just as important to know what potential side effects a drug
may cause and so what to look out for now unfortunately even with the best
detection treatment and monitoring arthritis is a progressive condition it
will get worse with time the good news however is that with all of the
strategies that I've discussed in this video series there has never been a
better time to be a cat or a dog with arthritis we are generally able to keep
our arthritic dogs and cats comfortable and mobile with an excellent quality of
life for far longer than ever before if our pets stay otherwise healthy though
there will come a time when no further treatment options are left and that
quality of life will start to suffer at this point we will need to consider
making that last difficult decision we can do so much for our painful pets but
unfortunately we can't turn back the clock completely I'm a big believer that
we should not let them suffer from long term untreatable pain merely existing
rather than living quality of life is key I hope your pet they will really
benefit from this video series on arthritis and it will go some way
towards living a happier pain-free life if you have any questions comments or if
you'd like to share any stories about your own experiences of having a pet
with arthritis then I would really love to hear them down in the comments below
and share them with the community also if it's your first time here consider
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to help you in your pet to live a healthier happier life so until next
time i'm dr. alex from our pets health because they're family