Rimadyl & MRX hills j/d

[mishellyshel]

My dog, she is an almost 11 year old Collie/Shepard went to the vet and was prescribed a couple things and wanted to get other opinions.

Rimadyl 100 mg as needed for her hips (she has difficulty getting up sometimes and other times she is fine!)

MRX Hills Canine j/d dog food. It is prescription and my vet said that many patients have had good results.

I only got 3 pills of the Rimadyl to try because they were over 3.00 a pill at the office. But she told me I can go online & order them. I found them at dr fosters & smith for 1.32 a pill for a 30 day supply.
the dog food script is only good at petsmart.

any thoughts???

 

[menagerie]

I'm not a fan of any of the Hills products. It's not the best food, doesn't use quality ingredients and is full of fillers, at least they've stopped putting ethoxoquine in their food. You'd do much better going with a high quality dog food and supplementing with your own glucoasimine, chondtroitin and MSM for your dog's arthritis.

j/d dry, main ingredient corn:
Ground Whole Grain Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal, Flaxseed, Soybean Mill Run, Brewers Rice, Soybean Meal, Pork Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Chicken Liver Flavor, Powdered Cellulose, Fish Oil, Potassium Chloride, L-Lysine, Calcium Carbonate, Choline Chloride, Iodized Salt, DL-Methionine, Vitamin E Supplement, vitamins (L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), L-Threonine, Taurine, Soy Lecithin, Glucosamine Hydrochloride, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), L-Tryptophan, L-Carnitine, preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid, Chondroitin Sulfate, Beta-Carotene, Rosemary Extract.

j/d canned:
Water, Rice, Liver, Meat By-Products, Ground Whole Grain Corn, Lamb, Rice Flour, Flaxseed, Fish Oil, Cracked Pearled Barley, Soybean Meal, Egg Product, Powdered Cellulose, Soybean Oil, Chicken Liver Flavor, Calcium Carbonate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Potassium Chloride, Iron Oxide, L-Lysine, Iodized Salt, Vitamin E Supplement, Choline Chloride, Glucosamine Hydrochloride, L-Tryptophan, Taurine, Soy Lecithin, Ascorbic Acid (source of vitamin C), L-Carnitine, L-Arginine, Zinc Oxide, Ferrous Sulfate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Chondroitin Sulfate, Beta-Carotene, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Niacin, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Biotin, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Riboflavin, Calcium Iodate, Folic Acid, Sodium Selenite.

 

[Mt. Zion Chins]

I don't know anything about the dog food but I had a sheltie on Rimadly for years. She did pretty good with it. I would try Kennel Vet for a price. They usually have better prices than Foster's

 

[Melissa]

You can save on the Rimadyl by getting enteric coated Ecotrin.

http://www.chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showpost.php?p=143131&postcount=5

What is the Hills for? Is it also for her hips?

 

[RDZCRanch]

What is the Hills for? Is it also for her hips?

j/d=joint diet. It has Chondroitin and Glucosamine in it. We rarely if ever prescribed it because while it worked...we always had better results with the glucosamine/chondroitin/MSM tablets and chewables.

 

[Riven]

I wouldn't feed Hills even if I got it for free, let alone for the prices they want for it. Most of them are no better than ol roy.

What are you feeding now? If you put her on a good food or joint supplement she probably won't need the rimadyl, diet is everything. It provides the body with everything it needs to take care of itself, including taking care of the joints.

If she's not hurting all of the time, say one week, then not for a couple weeks, you could only give it when she hurts, it acts pretty quickly, it would not be as effect as giving it all the time, but would be more cost effective. The down side is trying to guess when she's starting to get sore.

 

[mishellyshel]

Thanks so much for all the great suggestions & opinions. I don't feed her the best food but she likes it......IAMS Naturals.....chicken flavor. I think I will go with a supplement and maybe just get a 30 day supply of Rimadyl to use as needed. I am open to food & supplement ideas if anyone has tried something with good results.

 

[Riven]

When I switched to Chicken Soup my girl had a huge improvement in her joints. She loves to run, and was often sore in the mornings after laying all night, so no longer has to stretch and moan in the mornings. She's only 8.

 

[eroomlorac]

Personally, I'd hold off on buying more Rimadyl until you see if it works. I had a very arthritic Border Collie and the Rimadyl didn't do much for her. Then they tried her on Duramaxx and that didn't do much, either. Finally the vet gave her Metacam and that seemed to help her quite a bit. Just my suggestion.

 

[mishellyshel]

Ok, so Chicken Soup is a brand of dog food and not actually Chicken soup! lol.....will check it out.

Good point about the Rimadyl.........I do have 3 pills and was planning on seeing how it worked on her. Previous to this I was occassionally giving her a bufferin and she responded ok to that but the vet recomended I stop that.

Going to the health food store tonight to see what supplements I can find. I did see a few online that are chewable forms of the glusosamine & other things that help with arthritis and are made specifially for dogs. I just dont know what is good or just some marketing tool for owners to spend money on!

 

[Riven]

Yup it's a dog food!

My mom uses and sells a joint supplement treat...

http://www.petedge.com/product/Total-Pet-Health-Soft-Chews-Pet-Health-Supplements/54689.uts

These. Her dog has Cushings disease and it's helped her greatly as she was having troubles getting up and down, on the chair with her and such.

http://www.chickensoupforthepetloverssoul.com/products/dogs/dry_food/

You can check the chicken soup site for local dealers.

 

[menagerie]

This stuff is awesome it is poured on their food and has virtually no taste. There is a human version of this that is lemon lime flavored and is easier to find at health food stores. I used to give that to Bouncer since he didn't care about the taste, but Keno didn't like the flavor of lemon lime.

 

[eroomlorac]

I supplemented my old Border Collie with Glucosamine/chondroitin from the local drug store. I can't remember what dosage my vet recommended but he did tell me what mg. of each ingredient would be best for my dog.

 

[Aladdin'smommy]

j/d is an awesome food for joints. most dogs can stop all NSAIDs when put on it. Also check vets in your area and see if any offer therapy laser. It works great for arthritis. Hill's isn't crap like people make it out to be. (anyone who wants to say it is, show me your animal nutrition degree and I will show you mine)

 

[Sierra]

I was told by my vet that Hills and Eukanuba are one of the top brands. We are rescuing a dog who is on Hills, she is one years old. I was thinking about switching her to Iams but any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks

Sorry for interrupting the thread since I didn't want to start a new one.

 

[mishellyshel]

I am back to this topic:

And after reading my own thread, it may be the cold weather, but my dog is definitely having more difficulty getting up the stairs the last few days. i never really gave her the the rimadyl more than once since she seemed to be better. so i still have a tab or two, which i am going to give her today. i am going to order the liquid stuff right now that menagerie suggested......she LOVES any type of gravy poured on her dry food!

Someone (i think Melissa) mentioned Ecotrin??? is that a viable substitute until a supplement kicks in??? i hate to waste money on the rimadyl, especially with all the side effects. i give her a decent food for seniors that i get from my feed store. i have to go today to get more timmy hay, so i am going to see what else they have.

 

[CTChin]

My 12 year old schnauzer has started acting like a young dog since I put her on Arthogen PLUS by PetLabs360. If you google, you can buy on line from a few online stores. Compared to the stuff you buy at the vets, it is fairly inexpensive. It's a beef/cheese flavored tab. I started with the PLUS so I don't know how the non plus works. You start with a higher dose for 4 to 8 weeks and then taper down.

Ingredients: Glucosamine HCI 500 mg.
MSM 250 mg.
Chondrotin 200 mg.
Vit C 33 mg
Hyaluronic Acid (HA) I think this is the "plus" 20 mg.
Manganese 5 mg.

Not a whole lot of vets are familiar with it yet, but when I worked at a vet's office, we sold a lot of Previcox, an NSAID like Rimadyl, from Merial. We rarely saw any side effects except the occasional stomach upset which is happens with any NSAID, including the ones we take. It kept my female doberman going until she was 15 1/2 even when we knew she had arthritis in her spine at 11 years old. It was a tumor in her chest that did her in. The last year of her life we gave the previcox almost daily with no changes in her bloodwork...done every 4 months.

Good luck

 

[pamszoo]

Having not read this entire thread: Was the dog tested for LYME disease? And if you use the Rimadyls or Deramaxxs on a constant basis make sure you check the dogs liver values thru bloodwork. We recc every 6 months.