Hey Guys, I'll give you a brief background, as well as my current problem.
Shep is our 10 year old German Shepherd. Since he was 6 months old, he's had severe allergies. Over the last 10 years we've spent over $15,000 trying to relieve his allergies. Has his own dermatologist that gave up. He's done the immunotherapy, atopica, apoquel, various prescribed anti histamines, anti depressants, even some experimental drugs and sprays (his dermatologist also works for Virbac). Only thing that works is pure prednisone, and a low dose, 5mg in the morning, 5mg at night. Zero itching at that dose.
To the real issue, he's showing his age physically. First started last summer. We were playing at the park, and he basically collapsed, looked like his back legs gave out. At that time he wasn't on prednisone, and he was prescribed Metacam. He was like a young puppy after that. We'd give him a dose an hour before going to the park, and everything was fine. He was supposed to take it everyday, but we only gave it as needed. Vet had no issue with that.
Then later in the fall of last year, his allergies went into overdrive. Was itching his ears so bad got a hemotoma in one of his ears. That was when we discovered pure prednisone worked perfectly on his allergies as it was prescribed to get him to stop itching. He's been on it ever since, went from 30mg doses to 5mg and still working perfect.
This summer came around, more time at the park, and again his hind end started giving out. We used to walk 10km every day, had to drop to 5km, sometimes down to 2km if he starts dragging his back feet. Hoping metacam would fix the problem, weened off pred for 2 weeks, and started metacam again. This time did nothing, did not help at all. And to make it worse, his allergies went nuts, so much chewing and scratching he gave himself staph infection. So weened off metacam and back on pred, cleared his allergies back to normal.
Only thing we've got from the vet now is a high powered painkiller called tramadol, and special glycosimine blend tablets from flexiden.
I feel guilty taking him for walks at night. he wants to go, but nights like tonight he's in so much pain 1/2 way I almost have to call the wife to come pick us up. I stop for a couple minutes and he's good to go again.
So... I know some of you have older shepherds. Its sad watching them get old. What had you found to help with the joints?
Thanks!
Shep is our 10 year old German Shepherd. Since he was 6 months old, he's had severe allergies. Over the last 10 years we've spent over $15,000 trying to relieve his allergies. Has his own dermatologist that gave up. He's done the immunotherapy, atopica, apoquel, various prescribed anti histamines, anti depressants, even some experimental drugs and sprays (his dermatologist also works for Virbac). Only thing that works is pure prednisone, and a low dose, 5mg in the morning, 5mg at night. Zero itching at that dose.
To the real issue, he's showing his age physically. First started last summer. We were playing at the park, and he basically collapsed, looked like his back legs gave out. At that time he wasn't on prednisone, and he was prescribed Metacam. He was like a young puppy after that. We'd give him a dose an hour before going to the park, and everything was fine. He was supposed to take it everyday, but we only gave it as needed. Vet had no issue with that.
Then later in the fall of last year, his allergies went into overdrive. Was itching his ears so bad got a hemotoma in one of his ears. That was when we discovered pure prednisone worked perfectly on his allergies as it was prescribed to get him to stop itching. He's been on it ever since, went from 30mg doses to 5mg and still working perfect.
This summer came around, more time at the park, and again his hind end started giving out. We used to walk 10km every day, had to drop to 5km, sometimes down to 2km if he starts dragging his back feet. Hoping metacam would fix the problem, weened off pred for 2 weeks, and started metacam again. This time did nothing, did not help at all. And to make it worse, his allergies went nuts, so much chewing and scratching he gave himself staph infection. So weened off metacam and back on pred, cleared his allergies back to normal.
Only thing we've got from the vet now is a high powered painkiller called tramadol, and special glycosimine blend tablets from flexiden.
I feel guilty taking him for walks at night. he wants to go, but nights like tonight he's in so much pain 1/2 way I almost have to call the wife to come pick us up. I stop for a couple minutes and he's good to go again.
So... I know some of you have older shepherds. Its sad watching them get old. What had you found to help with the joints?
Thanks!