have you done your research what have you found Rimadyl is deadly
painkillers will definitely make your dog sick a quick look online is full of
horror stories but surely your vet will give your dog something so dangerous of
course not hi I'm dr. Alex Avery from ourpetshealth.com helping you and
your dog to live healthier happier lives it makes me so frustrated and sad for
their dog when I hear of people who are too scared of the side effects they've
heard about on the Internet to even consider using a drug class that is
proven to offer the best chance of a pain-free recovery from surgery or the
opportunity of an excellent quality of life free from the debilitating
influence of chronic pain the most common painkillers used by vets is a
class of drug known as the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs otherwise known
as NSAIDs or non-steroidals for short now there are many different drugs in this
class that are sold under many different names today in this video I want to
address safety check out my other video if you want to complete overview of
these drugs for now though will they kill your dog well the short answer is
clearly no the slightly longer answer is that all drugs or at least those which
actually do anything have side effects or the potential for side effects now
somewhere between three and nine percent of dogs are reported to experience side
effects when taking NSAIDs in the vast majority this is limited to vomiting or
diarrhea which is only mild and which goes away when the drug is stopped a
really tiny proportion will experience liver or kidney issues and yes a few of
this even smaller proportion will prove fatal to put this into perspective the
majority of patients prescribed these drugs for the long term use are elderly now
this means that the chance of a few of them suffering from an underlying liver
or kidney condition or having undetected cancer or some other illness is pretty
high it may be that some of these patients were going to die regardless of
treatment started with others yes sadly being pushed over the edge by their drug
treatment now this is obviously tragic for the individuals involved but it is
so important that any horror stories are given perspective to give a human
example did you know that there estimated to be about sixteen and a half
thousand deaths a year in the u.s. due to aspirin with a further hundred
thousand people needing hospitalization in the UK the death toll
estimated is around 3000 is this fact going to stop you taking aspirin when you
need it the flip side is that non-steroidal anti-inflammatories offer
our dogs the very best chance of a pain-free life be that recovery from
surgery getting over a ligament or muscular injury or living with arthritis
long term in denying your dog the option of these drugs when they are felt by
your vet to be appropriate this is very likely that your dog will be suffering
from pain unnecessarily yes there are alternative pain killers but none of them
are proven to work quite as well in dogs pain has many detrimental effects it has
a massive impact on a dog's quality of life and it really should not be ignored
now of course we don't want to use any drug irresponsibly and there are a
number of actions we can take to reduce the risk of side effects and the first
of these is to run some blood tests in older patients or any patient that is
likely to be taking the drug on a long-term basis a pretreatment blood
sample should be taken and follow-up monitoring Bloods run as advised by your
vet this will help pick up those individuals where there are concerns
regarding liver or kidney function if this is the case then it may be that an
alternative treatment plan is made or that your pet is monitored more closely
to be sure they don't deteriorate now at number two is to stop if vomiting or
diarrhea develops any dog that experiences vomiting or diarrhea should
not continue to take the drug or risk the development of stomach ulcers a few
days off treatment will most likely result in recovery although your vet may
want to give them something to to aid in this recovery it may be that your dog
will then be fine if they start the drug again after all vomiting and diarrhea
it's very common in otherwise healthy dogs who are not on any other treatment
another option is to switch to a different non-steroidal and has been
shown that it's very unlikely for a patient to react to two different drugs
even though they're in the same class for those seriously affected or known to
have the very sensitive stomach and it may be that alternative treatments have
been explored ok next up is to stop if your pet appears depressed becomes
unwell or stops eating or drinking if your dog is unwell for any other reason
if they stop eating or drinking then do not continue to give nonsteroidals the
reason for this is that if a dog becomes dehydrated their organs may be under
more stress an anti-inflammatory is then more likely
to cause damage especially to their kidneys okay running quickly through the
rest of our actions is to not give a higher dose than your vet has prescribed
at number four and at number five do not give any nonsteroidals at the same time
the steroids any other non-steroidal next we have the fact that you should
not give human pain killers unless specifically advised by your vet and
then at number seven is you should always contact your vet promptly if you
have any concerns number eight is to use other management and treatment
strategies for arthritis and other chronic pain conditions and this will
allow us to reduce the dose of nonsteroidals needed to keep your pets
pain-free finally for any pet who is on pain killers following surgery or an
injury make sure you follow your vet's instructions fully to minimize pain and
inflammation and so allow a shorter course or a lower dose of medication to be used
if we follow these recommendations we can make sure that our dogs are really
unlikely to experience any significant side-effects while at the same time they
will be as pain-free as possible don't be the owner who condemns their
pet to suffer in silence when there is another way be sensible
yes don't use any drugs inappropriately of course but at the same time don't
ignore pain you owe that to your dog now I expect anyone whose dog may have had
side effects to comment and no this video has not been sponsored by anyone
please though let me know how painkillers have helped your dog to live
a healthier happier life and how their quality of life has been improved and
what you've noticed that improvement to be I would really love to hear from you
also if it's your first time here consider subscribing to make sure that
you don't miss out on any future content and allow me to continue to help you and
your pet to live a healthier happier life so until next time i'm dr. alex
from our pets health because they're family