Annie is now on this injection for arthritis,once a week for a month,she has her 4th one tomorrow,there is definatly some improvement,anyone heard of this drug.

Sheila

> anyone heard of this drug.

Yes, our old boy had it when he was lame on his front. It was a series of 4 injections spread out over a month, like your dog. It worked really well and he was sound on his front until he died a couple of years later of something unrelated.

Yes Otto has been having it for three years now, started with once a week for a month & then at monthly intervals. He's a dog from a young age with HD & arthritis due to severe front leg deformities, it definitely helped him for the first few years but now not so sure, whether this is due to his worsening condition or the decreasing effects of the drug. A friend also found that after a couple of years it helped little to her dogs condition & stoped it. It's something I must discuss with his vet. The only side effect we noticed - & it's minimal - is that he seems a little subdued for two days after the injection. Good luck with Annie.

Yep. My 8 year old girly has been having this for 2-3 years now. Started off as Annie has, 4 x once weekly then every 3 months. It's made a tremendous difference. She's not had any side effects. I do tend to keep her a bit quieter for 24 hrs after the injection, just 'cause I think it needs time to get into the system. I've got nothing but praise about it, in fact I recently asked my own doctor if there was an equivalent for humans (dodgy knee :-( ).

No doubt your vet will have told you the research seems to show that in 50% of the dogs it's administered to it doesn't make a difference, however, I'd recommend it to anyone go give it a go. I noticed improvement after the 3rd injection.

I have taken her in once after just 2 months when I thought she was going a little stiff, but that wasn't a problem, we just picked up after that with the regular 3 monthly jabs. Hope Annie continues to show improvement :-D

As I have a dodgy knee what was the answer when you asked your doctor. 

I was getting quite excited reading this thread and was going to ask doctor the same.

Sometimes I think our dogs get better treatment than we do.

Would be interested too as I have osteo arthritis in my knees. I'm currently on Diclophenic which helps enormously, but take on an if and when basis as I'm wary of the side effects. Also take Glucosomine, Chodroitin and rose hip to good effect

Sadly my doctor looked at me as though I was completely bonkers :-o  I did explain what it is and does, but she didn't seem to think there was a human equivalent. Might start googling though! Hhhmmm, maybe I just let my hand slip whilst I'm holding my girly when she's due for her next injection ;-)

I've googled! Seems there might be a human equivalent ... sodium pentosan polysulfate! Not looked at any of the sites in great detail yet, but will go armed with this for my next dogdy knee (severe cartlidge damage ... knew all the mountaineering would catch up with me eventually!!) check up :-)

There IS a human equivalent?  Oh boy, oh boy.  :)  I used Cartophen Vet many years ago with Jet and was greatly impressed after just the first shot.  Right now I am shooting up our 20 year old cat every second week.

If it helps anyone, I greatly reduce stress on my cat and time and expense of driving to my Vet by buying pre-loaded syringes from him and giving the injections myself.  My dog's breeder finds it economical to buy the cartrophen and load her own syringes but for me, with only one dog, it's not.

Yes my dog who is nearly 11 has been having this injected for just over a year - started weekly and then monthly. He also went to weekly hydrotherapy, also now monthly and every day he has a squirt of Vet's Kitchen Active Joints Glucosamine on his breakfast. The change in his mobility has been amazing. This time last year he would only walk for a few minutes but had a bad limp and certainly wasn't enjoying exercise and was gaining weight. After a few months the change in him was so noticeable, even the vet was suprised. We seem to have a younger dog now, certainly he's enjoying a very active life and we are having such fun with him. His vet says one of or a combination of these three things is obviously working so we will just keep on with them.

Annie had her last injection last night,she is doing really well and has been very waggy tailed even giving the vet big face washes,he said if she needs it she can have more in 3 months time,she is having hydrotherpy also in a nice big warm pool,she has had a nice walk today and is no longer lame,

Sheila

Just got hugely jealous ... pre-loaded syringes from your vet? But note you're in Canada ... wouldn't go down well asking for that in the UK :(

Looking forward (not) to my next Dr appointment so I can quiz her about the human equivalent, this time armed with an appropriate name!

Glad she's no longer lame :-) Not heard of it just being a 4 x weekly course, just keep an eye on her towards the end of the 3 months and I'd say if in doubt have another injection. It wont do any harm and would be a shame to spoil the good already done. My girly will be very jealous of the hydrotherapy, she just loved that :-)