9 y/o Staffy mix - Arthritis unmasked by Cushing's treatment

[minime55]

Did anyone on here know or have experience on tramadol with there cushings dog. My girl is a 9 year old staffy cross and much loved baby by myself and hubby. However she has gone down hill since being on vetoryl. Shes under control but her arthritis has got so much worse. According the vet that is because she probably already had arthritis but the cushings was probably producing steroid like effects which was hiding it and self relieving. Now I am left with the cushings control but the arthritis not. Shes on monthly joint injections which don't appear to being doing much and doses of gabapentin which has done very little once a day and increased to twice a day as of tomorrow. I am sure if she had better pain control she would be more active but it appears its a nasty cycle pain not under control but cushings is. Less undercontrol the less active she is the more her legs seize up. Any advice help would be greatly appreciated.

[labblab]

Hello and welcome! I am sorry that I have only a moment to post right now, but I just wanted to explain that I have moved your post from another member's thread so that you will have a thread of your own. This will make it a lot easier for our members to reply to you directly.

I'm glad you've found us, and I will try to post another note to you myself tomorrow. In the meantime, I hope others will have the chance to welcome you, as well.

Marianne

[SuperCupcake64]

Hi - a similar thing happened with us. It's ironic, isn't it, that relieving one problem unmasks another? We used Duralactin every day--it's a natural remedy that does not work for every dog, but helped mine (and it won't hurt for sure). Another thing that made a HUGE difference was acupuncture. I was skeptical until we got great results. Hydrotherapy is a great way for arthritic dogs to get exercise that's kind to their joints, and it also helped increase energy. I reserved tramadol for bad days.

Hope that helps!

Jen and Maizie (and Sammy in heaven)

[labblab]

Hello again! I'm so glad Jen had a chance to greet you, as well. We have had a couple other folks who have reported success with Duralactin, too, so that might be an option to try. I am wondering, though, whether you've had any x-rays or imaging that have actually confirmed the location of arthritic changes? I am just thinking that you might be better able to target some healing therapy if you have a better idea as to the location and extent of any actual bone changes.

One of the reasons why I ask is because we have been dealing with treatment decisions re: our 11 y/o non-Cushpup Lab. She started acutely limping last winter and x-rays revealed that both her hips are severely compromised by arthritic bone changes. At her age and considering some other health issues, we will not consider surgical intervention for her so we've been struggling with therapy options. In her case, we've decided to go ahead and give her a daily NSAID, Previcox, and this has significantly improved her mobility since it offers both anti-inflammatory relief in addition to pain control.

NSAIDS do present risk, however, and especially when used in conjunction with steroids or the elevated levels of cortisol associated with Cushing's. For that reason, I would not recommend an NSAID for a Cushpup whose cortisol level is not yet being well controlled or in the event of pre-existing kidney/liver damage. However, if the cortisol is well regulated and a dog's quality of life is severely diminished by arthritic pain, I have become a bit more open to considering NSAIDS than I might have been in the past as a direct result of seeing the improvement in my own dog's pain control.

So I don't know whether you've had a conversation about NSAIDS with your vet and whether their use has been ruled out due to safety concerns. But as I say, if the Vetoryl has effectively reduced your girl's cortisol level into the desired therapeutic range and she is not experiencing serious kidney/liver dysfunction, it may be something to consider. But going full circle to finally answering one of your very first questions, yes, we do have other folks who have successfully used Tramadol to help relieve pain in their Cushpups. Tramadol is probably less risky in certain ways than are NSAIDS; the trade-off is just that it does not carry an anti-inflammatory component in addition to the pain relief. We would have considered it for our own girl, but she is already taking phenobarb due to epilepsy and we did not want to add the sedating quality of Tramadol on top of the phenobarb. However, my elderly arthritic mom has been prescribed Tramadol, herself, in lieu of NSAIDS and she reports that she does really benefit from it. It does make her drowsy, though.

Marianne

[molly muffin]

Another thought is depending on what her ACTH numbers are if it wouldn't be beneficial to let her be in the higher range as long as her symptoms are controlled, the extra cortisol might help her to feel better? All these options by Jen and Marianne are good ones to talk about with your vet.

[flynnandian]

Another thought is depending on what her ACTH numbers are if it wouldn't be beneficial to let her be in the higher range as long as her symptoms are controlled, the extra cortisol might help her to feel better? All these options by Jen and Marianne are good ones to talk about with your vet.

i did this with my 2 arthritic cushing's dogs and it has helped them.
they loved their long walks.
i also gave them a low daily dosage of nsaids and omega 3 fish oil capsules.
their quality of life was very important to me. and they needed the exercise to stay sane.