All Drugged Up & No Where to Go

My friend Chelsea of Raindance IGs (and the real owner of my current non-fuzzy dog) said something very wise: that vets should be able to distribute some human medications.

"OK, here is Clover's Tramadol and Metacam, and here is your Zoloft."

Brilliant, right? I think so.

While I'm not on any anti-anxiety medications, Clover is on an array of pills.

After a bought of allergic bronchitis that made him lose 2.5 pounds (a lot when you only weight 11 or so to begin with) because he couldn't keep down food, Clover spends most of the year on various doses of Temeril-P. The OTC antihistamine was just not cutting it anymore in a very real way.

As twitchy as it makes me that he's on prednisone long term, a few things make me feel better about it. One, it's on as-needed dosing. There were two weeks this spring he was on it daily; in the middle of winter, it's once a week, if that. It's a max of 2mg of prednisone a day for him, which is a fairly low dose. Three, as my vet said, long-term pred use for a 12 year old dog is a different thing than a 2 year old dog. So, I still certainly get twitchy (and remember my experience with high doses of pred during the Swine Flu Incident of 2009), but this is clearly the lesser among evils - better than him starving to death or having his throat close up.

Incidentally, anyone who knows my lovely little dog in person knows he has an endearing pig-like snort. Well, turns out that part of it is his soft palate, but most of it was his inflamed respiratory system from his wicked pollen allergies. So he still sounds a little bit like a pig, but not nearly like he used to.

Of course, with the knee, there are more medications and more considerations.

First is Tramadol. A pain killer that is approved for longer-term control of chronic pain. Clover definitely gets a little drowsy from this (which is fine when he's supposed to be staying off his knee anyway), but doesn't seem to have any of the other side affects. It works well for him.

Clove is trading the Temeril for Metacam. Although both are technically anti-inflammatory medications, the Temeril is steroid, and Metacam is non-steroidal. It's just a matter of which is the best medication for the issue, and in general, Metacam is prescribed for joint problems. He won't start this until he's post-op, but a minimum of 7 days for the Temeril to get out of his system is best, so he's all ready had his last dose of Temeril for awhile.

And Clove will also be on his OTC antihistamine as needed. Luckily this doesn't make him too sleepy (impressive, since those little pink pills knock me out for 16+ hours), but combined with the Tramadol, he will probably be quite sleepy. I'm trying to keep the dose minimal, but obviously breathing is important. Luckily, Clover's allergies are worst in the spring, so he's past the worst of it for the year. If had had done this a month ago it would have likely resulted in a delayed surgery until he could really got off the Temeril, because open tracheas are generally more important than stable knees.

Of course, as we get further past surgery, all of the medications will lower the dose. The surgery is extremely fragile for several weeks after the fix. Although it's very important that the surgery and after pain is controlled, after a few weeks, you don't really want them to be 100% pain free. If they are, they will often over-extend themselves and can do damage to the knee. It's good for them to think, gee, that knee is a little sore... maybe I'll settle for an aggressive trot.

We've got a long way to go before that one, though. And despite the wonders of modern medicine, I feel that the biggest impact on Clover's health is his diet and supplements. Look for those in a future post!

Depending on the surgery and the dog, some vets prescribe other medications. The information provided in this blog is informational only, not intended to recommend, diagnose, or treat any condition or disease. You should always discuss your pet's medications with your licensed veterinarian.