(light melodic music)
- [Narrator] Buster, a 12-year-old spaniel,
diagnosed with arthritis.
Buster's owner talked to us
about his diagnosis and treatment.
- We noticed that Buster was,
he was he was getting rather slow
walking around and particularly,
when we wanted to get him out of his bed, or we called him,
he was quite slow getting out.
And also he just seemed to be sleeping
a bit more than normal.
So I originally took him for his annual booster
and his check up.
And when we went to the vets they said that they felt
that he had muscle wastage
and that they suspected that he had arthritis.
They asked me if we'd noticed lameness
and I said that I hadn't because we just put him being slow
down to the fact that he was now 12.
So that's when we kind of looked at
the anti-inflammatory medication.
- The type of drug that Buster is on is called
a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug or NSAID of short.
It's a great anti-inflammatory and pain relief
and is used for a wide range of conditions,
including arthritis.
But also for things such as pain after surgery
or a painful sprain or strain to a leg.
- Buster has the medication once a day.
He has it in the evening.
So he has his dried food and then we just put,
it's a liquid what we have.
So we've got a syringe and suck up the 14.
He's 14 kilograms, so we get the correct amount.
Squirt it on his dried food
and also put a joint supplement in there
and he eats it all and he it can't taste that bad
'cause he's quite fussy.
And actually sometimes he'll even lick the bowl.
- Anti-inflammatory medication come in
quite a few different forms.
So liquid, tablets, capsules.
Injection.
It's good to speak to your vet about which one you think
your animal would suit the best,
and they'll discuss the different options with you.
It may be that only one of them is suitable,
but if you perhaps, you know,
you know he hates taking tablets,
you could request a liquid.
In terms of how we use anti-inflammatory medications,
we tend to give them daily.
That can be adjusted depending on the dog.
So you can give them for stints of time.
So one, two, three weeks and then stop
and see how long they can cope without them
before they get painful again.
That's one way of using them.
Generally these medications, once they're on them
for something like arthritis, which Buster is,
they're on them for life.
- He's been having the anti-inflammatory
for about four weeks now, and he really has changed.
He gets more excited when people come to visit.
If he hears the door, he runs about more than he used to.
And he just seems a bit more sprightly.
He's even jumped of the settee the other day,
which was quite surprising.
But yeah, visitors have commented,
"Can I have what he's having?"
'Cause everybody has noticed such a difference,
so it's real improvement.
- So these anti-inflammatories,
when used over a long period of time,
can affect internal organs.
It is quite rare for this to happen.
Generally when we start a dog on these medications,
we'll take some bloods to check whether their
internal organs are functioning all right to start off with.
And then throughout their treatment,
say every three to six, maybe even 12 months,
we check them, maybe take some bloods
to ensure that their kidneys
and liver still functioning okay
and the drug isn't harming them.
If on a check up we did notice
that something was changing inside,
that perhaps internal organs
weren't coping with the medication
quite as well as we'd hoped,
we might discuss how we can go forward with this.
Whether that be to continue on the same medication
and take the risk, actually,
that maybe it will affect things,
but his quality of life is so much better on the medication
it's worth it.
Or whether we think about moving onto
a different type of pain relief,
that perhaps isn't quite as good
at managing the arthritic pain, but has less side effects.
- We did discuss side effects when I spoke to the vet
and they did do a kidney function test,
just to get a baseline
of what his kidney function is at the moment.
We talked about it, me and my husband,
and really, I feel, that if he's going to have a
happier life and he's going to be not in pain
and he'll be able to move more freely,
then I think that that's worth it.
He is 12, so he's had a brilliant life,
so I'd rather he was happier and he could move freely
and enjoy the life that he has.
If that does mean that it may be shorter,
then that's a consequence.
But he's had an excellent life and I just feel
that it's worth it really, for him to not be in pain.
I wouldn't want him to be suffering and not be fit,
like he is now.
It was quite surprising the difference
of him having anti-inflammatory from how he was before,
and then that made me feel that maybe he was in pain before,
which was a concern really, as a pet owner.
I think when you start a course of treatment with an animal
or your dog, you do have to think about the cost of it.
I think that it's worth it.
So we started and thought, well, we'll see how we go.
The improvements in him make it worth it.
I guess you just have to put it into perspective
with other things that you buy around the house.
Whether you go out for dinner or, you know,
he is worth it, so it's made a difference.
The vet did recommend some different treatments
and hydrotherapy was one of them and physiotherapy.
It's not curing the problem,
so we just need to be mindful that even though
he's got second wind and he's quite happy again,
we just need to be careful not to over do it with him.
He seems to have made good progress
and he seems to be quite happy and enjoying life again.
(upbeat music)