Our 5 year old labrador was put on to metacam daily due to arthritic pain from elbow dysplasia and cruciate ligament issues. He has been doing great on a pain killer, playing, running etc but metacam hasn't agreed with him and we've now had two occasions where we've been to the vets and they've treated for gastric / ulcers. We have now been recommended to not give him metacam again and move him on to Cimalgex ..... does anyone have experience of using this ??

Thanks in advance,
Claire (and Chester the labrador)

I've no experience of the new drug but, especially as your dog is so young, I would look at more natural remedies rather than just pain killers that can have so many side effects

Golden Paste (turmeric)
Yumove or  Riaflex - look at the ingredients
CBD oil
Ester C - vitamin c in a bioavailable format

There's studies on these but do be careful not to mix without researching any interactions especially with any strong pharmaceutical meds.

^ This, and I'd look at doing a combo of anti-inflammatory with a joint supplement.  The golden paste is anti-inflam, and CBD oil does that too although for this sort of thing, I find the paste more effective.  But they're all different so you may find otherwise!

Thanks for the advice ! It has been an on-going issue since his first xrays showed arthritis at 5 months old. We started him on omega 3, glucosamine, chondroitin and green lipped mussel at that point for around 12 months but it didn't seem to help much, changed to and then tried salmon oil and yumove for around 18 months but that started to lose effectiveness as his arthritis worsened.
I did buy some riaflex around the time he went on to metacam so I think i'll re-try a supplement alongside a painkiller so he could maybe have a lower dose as the vet mentioned she's ideally wants him on half a tablet of Cimalgex a day. He also has a bioflow collar, comfy bed and he always seemed to move easier on a salmon and potato food too.

Interesting re Cimalgex.    Mine has been on Metacam for quite a long time now and I'm about to have to buy some more (he's been fine on it and does need to be on this - I've tried taking him off and after 2 - 3 days he's obviously in trouble).  

Does anybody know how the price of Cimalgex tablets (bearing in mind my boy is around 35 kg!!) compares to the cost of Metacam - I buy the big bottle which works out cheaper.

Yes we only started on the metacam a couple of months ago and luckily only brought 1 big bottle to be more cost effective which is nearly finished anyway. Our boy is 32kg and the vet ideally wants him on half a tablet a day. She gave us 4 tablets, enough for 8 days to start in a couple of weeks when his stomach is better and on the receipt breakdown this cost £6.44 :) so I presume it'll be cheaper again buying in bulk!

Please look into hydrotherapy if you can!