Arthritis, Lameness, and Joint Disease of Cats, Dogs, And Other Pets
Page 3: Radiographs and Comments
This page is brought to you as a courtesy of the FoxNest Veterinary Hospital of Seneca, South Carolina and Obviously, The Pfizer Company, the makers of Rimadyl.
Rimadyl, if you haven't alreadly read about it on the previous page, has been a God Send for pets in misery. Rimadyl is a really great medication for the relief of pain and inflammation of arthritis and other joint disease.
Just as with machines, in a live body, anytime there are moving parts influenced by friction, vibration, weight load, contact surfaces, sheering and other forces bearing down, there's apt to be trouble. It's amazing our joints hold up as well as they do.
The radiographs at right simply give you an idea of what we vets are looking for when we suspect joint disease. As you can see, the difference between normal and badly diseased is not very dramatic...the arthritic joint versus the normal joint is indicated simply by areas of "fuzziness" and small bits of calcified material building up along the critical surfaces.
I have lots of comments about joint disease in general ...I'll get them written down fairly soon.
On Other Pages:
Skeletal Problems and Lameness: Page 1
Arthritis: treatment options and what to expect when you go to the vet
Lameness: Page 2: Includes articles and comments about hip dysplasia, cruciate ligament rupture, panosteitis, and disc disease.
Skeletal Problems and Lameness'; Page 3: comments about various lameness problems
A kindergarten pupil told his teacher he'd found a cat. She asked him if it was dead or alive.
"Dead." She was informed.
"How do you know?" she asked her pupil.
"Because I pissed in its ear and it didn't move," answered the child innocently.
"You did WHAT?!?" the teacher exclaimed in surprise.
"You know," explained the boy, "I leaned over and went 'Pssst!' and it didn't move."
From a Southwest Airlines employee:
"Welcome aboard Southwest Flight
261 to Phoenix. To operate your seat belt, insert the metal tab into the buckle, and pull it tight. It works just like every other seatbelt; and, if you don't know how to operate one, you probably shouldn't be out in public unsupervised."
"In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, masks will descend from the ceiling. Stop screaming, grab the mask, and pull it over your face. If you have a small child traveling with you, secure your mask before assisting with theirs. If you are traveling with more than one small child, pick your favorite."
KIDS AND QUESTIONS
HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHO TO MARRY?
You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff.
Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you
like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.
* Alan, age 10
No person really decides before they grow up who
they're going to marry. God decides it all way before,
and you get to find out later who you're stuck with.
* Kirsten, age 10
WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?
Twenty-three is the best age because you know the
person FOREVER by then.
* Camille, age 10
No age is good to get married at. You got to be a fool
to get married.
* Freddie, age 6 (Very wise for his age)
HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?
You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids.
*Derrick, age 8
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MOM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON?
Both don't want any more kids.
* Lori, age 8
WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE?
Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each
other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough.
* Lynnette, age 8 (Isn't she a treasure)
On the first date, they just tell each other lies, and that usually gets
them interested enough to go for a second date.
*Martin, age 10
WHAT WOULD YOU DO ON A FIRST DATE THAT WAS TURNING SOUR?
I'd run home and play dead. The next day I would call all the newspapers and make sure they wrote about me in all the dead columns.
* Craig, age 9
WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE?
When they're rich.
* Pam, age 7
The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with that.
*Curt, age 7
The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone, then you should marry them and have kids with them. It's the right thing to do.
* Howard, age 8
IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED?
I don't know which is better, but I'll tell you one thing. I'm never going to have sex with my wife. I don't want to be all grossed out.
* Theodore, age 8
It's better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them.
* Anita, age 9 (Bless you child)
HOW WOULD THE WORLD BE DIFFERENT IF PEOPLE DIDN'T GET MARRIED?
There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn't there?
* Kelvin, age 8
"And the #1 Favorite is........"
HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?
Tell your wife that she looks pretty even if she looks like a truck.
*Ricky, age 10
Rimadyl (Carprofen), introduced by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in January 1997, has proven to be a very successful means of relieving arthritis symptoms in dogs.
Many users feel it has vastly improved the quality of their dogs' lives and, in some cases, even extended their lives. Rimadyl is also very helpful with minimizing post surgery or injury pain.
As a vet, I'm enthusiastic about Rimadyl, because before the availability of this medication, the only practical choices for dogs in misery were aspirin, ibuprofen, steroids, Tylenol, Aleve, phenylbutazone, and narcotics. All these choices, while often helpful, were frought with severe side effects, especially for long term use, and frequently didn't work all that great.
I can't emphasize enough, how many older dogs come into veterinary clinics each day needing relief from arthritic pain. And we desperately needed better pain medications for the many pets we saw badly injured and for the management of surgical pain.
Well, Rimadyl was one of the first of several brands of great pain medications that weren't steroidal, weren't narcotic, and didn't cause nearly as many side effects as other non-steroidal pain medications.
However, with millions of older dogs getting Rimadyl, it turns out that some patients DON'T tolerate Rimadyl well and like almost all potent, effective medications, a few patients have severe adverse effects to include an occasional death. The most common problem is with liver disease and GI bleeding. Rimadyl requires a healthy liver to be metabolized and not all old dogs have a healthy liver.
So, it's important to take the trouble of test your pet for liver disease before using Rimadyl for long term use, and ideally, even for short term use. And it's important to test the liver periodically if using Rimadyl long term.
It's important to be very cautious about using Rimadyl (carprofen) in
animals with known bleeding disorders and should not be used if a dog has pre-existing liver disease, inflammatory bowel disease, or a known tendency towards gastrointestinal ulceration.
You have to be cautious about using Rimadyl along with any other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) such as aspirin, or along with any corticosteroids.
Also, since older dogs tend to have multiple problems, you need to know that there is increased risk when giving Rimadyl to patients also taking phenobarbital or enalapril
And we rely on pet owners to be observant; if after giving Rimadyl (or any other pain medication) take seriously any of the following symptoms, stop the medication, and tell your vet:
loss of appetite
change in drinking habits (refusal to drink or increased water consumption)
unusual pattern of urination, blood in the urine, sweet-smelling urine, an overabundance of urine, urine accidents in the house
vomiting
diarrhea
black, tarry stools or flecks of blood in the vomit
staggering, stumbling, weakness or partial paralysis, full paralysis, seizures, dizziness, loss of balance
jaundice (yellowing of the skin, mucus membranes and whites of the eyes)
Okay, now that I've freaked you out with warnings, calm down and take this all in perspective.
The vast majority of pets, many of whom are in dire need of relief from pain or severe discomfort not only tolerate Rimadyl well, but become so obviously joyful and mobile and playful, it's no wonder that this drug has become a best seller.
And compared to all the other drugs available before Rimadyl, what an improvement. You simply have to understand that a small percentage of dogs don't do well with the medication or shouldn't be taking it because of other problems like pre-existing liver or heart disease. So you and your vet need to watch closely for problems and do some testing when using this and other powerful drugs.
Are there other choices? You bet. Since Rimadyl became available in 1997, we now have a choice of several other very similar medications (cox-2 inhibitors), each with potential advantages and disadvantages when compared to Rimadyl and some vets are big fans of these other drugs. I like to switch from one brand to another when needed based on the individual dog trying to determine which medication seems to help the most with the fewest problems.
In addition, we now have other types of therapy that we can use instead of or in combination with Rimadyl and the other new pain medications such as
Durlactin
Glucosamine formulas
MSM
AntiOxidants
The Omega Fatty Acids
All these supplemental arthritis treatments are discussed in more detail on the page about arthritis.
Thanks, Roger Ross DVM
Cats in pain
In the discussion to your right a little further down the page, I get very enthusastic about Rimadyl as a pain reliever in dogs.
Well, what about cats? They also get debilitating arthritis and they certainly need pain relief when badly injured or during and after painful surgeries.
I'm not ignoring cat pain at all, but cats, unfortunately, are much more likely to experience serious adverse effects with pain medications.
Tylenol (acetominophen), for example, is often deadly.
And while cox-2 inhibitor medications like Rimadyl (not approved for cats) or Metacam (approved for cats for one time use) are usually very helpful and safe for very short term use after surgery, they are not safe for long term use which is needed for arthritis.
For cats, I like to recommend glucosamine and omega fatty acids for arthritic pain, and when needed, tiny amounts of muscle relaxers and narcotics, two classes of drugs I'm not going to discuss on the internet.
