Pet Care

[LivingAlmostLarge]

We have to extract a tooth from our dog tomorrow if his liver is able to handle the anesthesia. It will cost more money but as I drove home I found myself in tears over the thought of him passing on. I'm definitely over dogs for a bit after this guy passes. I know it's not the money but rather the hurt of losing a dear friend and that's what they are. Family/friend/companion.

We never bought pet insurance because we've always had rescues. So we've never been sure about the age of our dogs.

[dawnwes]

First of all, to respond to a previous poster, my dog was put on 5mg prednisone. Yes, I agree the cost was fine. Within 3 months she was in total liver failure and died. I'm sure that's not what usually happens, but at the time I was hearing that long-term use in dogs is a lot more dangerous than in humans.

I currently have 3 dogs and 2 cats, all rescues or "can you watch him for the weekend" dumps. I have a wonderful vet--but I say right off the bat that I have a fixed income and I will have to shop prescriptions. Only one vet refused (they even said that most of their profit came from the markup), but everyone else has been great.

Second, I have my own pet insurance. I looked into all the companies, what they cost, and what they cover; chose the best plan I could afford, and then instead of signing up with the company, I put that amount into my "pet insurance" savings account every month. The plan (if we ever get good interest again) is that every emergency will be paid for with part my savings and part bank interest.

I have a great respect for vets but they're there to basically make money, and I'm there to keep my pet healthy for the least amount of money. Hopefully we meet in the middle.

That is awful. I am sorry.

[rutgers07]

Can we discuss pet care?

I feel like I was blind sighted yesterday.

I took my dog to the Vet and she reamed me for not providing the most expensive care for my dog. She wants me to get the $65/mo prescription for doggy arthritis and the $65/mo prescription for some sort of heart worm prevention, both purchased directly from her. She refuses to write prescriptions for outside vendors because "you don't know what you are getting" and won't even give my dog more meds until I do a $40 kidney urine test.

My dog is quite healthy. She does have some pain and now has been diagnosed with arthritis.

I don't need the fancy chewable, I just want a pill. I don't even mind getting a pill for a 100 pound dog (my dog is 50 pounds) and cutting it in half, but they will absolutely not entertain that idea.

I guess she gets a cut of the meds she sells at her office.

I am DONE with her. For one thing, she basically called me a bad pet owner who must not love my dog. And for another, she won't discuss cheaper alternatives or let me go anywhere else to get any meds.

Suggestions for meds for:

Heart worm
Flea/Tick
Arthritis


I have a feeling I will need to go pay for another Vet to even get a stupid script to save money.

Your vet sounds awful! We have 2 chihuahas and 5 cats and cost effective pet care is very important! Our 11 year old dog has some arthritis and we give her this https://www.amazon.com/Pet-Naturals-...nt+supplements every day and she seems to be feeling much better and is more active than usual. Every dog is different of course but it's very affordable and she eats it right up! No hassle of feeding her pills.

We use basic frontline although we cheat a bit and buy one for large dogs and split it for these tiny pups

[dawnwes]

I ordered Advantix yesterday from Amazon. The XL Dog size is twice the medicine as the Large dog size amount. We will give half each month and make it half the cost.

Our dog is the L dog size, around 45-50 pounds.

[msomnipotent]

First of all, to respond to a previous poster, my dog was put on 5mg prednisone. Yes, I agree the cost was fine. Within 3 months she was in total liver failure and died. I'm sure that's not what usually happens, but at the time I was hearing that long-term use in dogs is a lot more dangerous than in humans.

If you are referring to my post, I would have to agree that what happened to your dog is not normal. When used as prescribed, prednisone is usually one of the safer drugs. My parents' dog was on a low dose regime for 3 years. I have had 2 dogs use it for 2 weeks at a time without any problems. I have used it myself a lot. I do know that stopping prednisone suddenly can cause death, but I haven't heard of a dog using it and dying. I'm sorry for your loss.

[msomnipotent]

I ordered Advantix yesterday from Amazon. The XL Dog size is twice the medicine as the Large dog size amount. We will give half each month and make it half the cost.

Our dog is the L dog size, around 45-50 pounds.

For some reason, the XL is a few dollars cheaper then the L on Amazon for me. We usually buy Revolution, but it is so much more expensive than Advantix. I'm thinking of switching.

[Gailete]

If you are referring to my post, I would have to agree that what happened to your dog is not normal. When used as prescribed, prednisone is usually one of the safer drugs. My parents' dog was on a low dose regime for 3 years. I have had 2 dogs use it for 2 weeks at a time without any problems. I have used it myself a lot. I do know that stopping prednisone suddenly can cause death, but I haven't heard of a dog using it and dying. I'm sorry for your loss.

As a nurse, I can tell you that most doctors are cautious about prescribing prednisone to people because of side effects and unless the person is starting a long term regimen, most people will get Prednisone packs that from the first large dose, they taper the amount each day until they take on pill one day and none the next. I get an IV for my arthritis every 6 weeks and have the chance to talk with lots of other patients, none of them ever mention being on Prednisone. I just looked it up again and it can affect every system in your body. The only time my arthritis doctor has put me on it was during really bad flares. As I started getting worse and worse side effects, I would only use a three day tapering dose when my son and DIL would be coming up for like Christmas so I would feel good. I can't even do that anymore.

If 5mg can make my body go nuts, I can't imagine what it would do to a dog or other pet especially a small one! How would you even taper the does down enough?

I am not much of a pet person, although I love golden labs. Just saw on the news the other day that they had to take 4 dogs from an owner after finding 11 other dead dogs in the house! Sick!!! The four dogs they rescued were golden labs and I wanted to go grab one and take it home. However, I'm in no position to own a dog at this point. We spend enough just trying to keep ourselves healthy. These four dogs were in such bad shape too. I just hate seeing people that truly can't afford a pet, keep one at all costs, even if they don't have enough for groceries or clothes for their kids. They will rescue animals and pay for vet bills and can only do that by neglecting their own family.

[msomnipotent]

As a nurse, I can tell you that most doctors are cautious about prescribing prednisone to people because of side effects and unless the person is starting a long term regimen, most people will get Prednisone packs that from the first large dose, they taper the amount each day until they take on pill one day and none the next. I get an IV for my arthritis every 6 weeks and have the chance to talk with lots of other patients, none of them ever mention being on Prednisone. I just looked it up again and it can affect every system in your body. The only time my arthritis doctor has put me on it was during really bad flares. As I started getting worse and worse side effects, I would only use a three day tapering dose when my son and DIL would be coming up for like Christmas so I would feel good. I can't even do that anymore.

If 5mg can make my body go nuts, I can't imagine what it would do to a dog or other pet especially a small one! How would you even taper the does down enough?

I am not much of a pet person, although I love golden labs. Just saw on the news the other day that they had to take 4 dogs from an owner after finding 11 other dead dogs in the house! Sick!!! The four dogs they rescued were golden labs and I wanted to go grab one and take it home. However, I'm in no position to own a dog at this point. We spend enough just trying to keep ourselves healthy. These four dogs were in such bad shape too. I just hate seeing people that truly can't afford a pet, keep one at all costs, even if they don't have enough for groceries or clothes for their kids. They will rescue animals and pay for vet bills and can only do that by neglecting their own family.

I guess the people you have been talking to have been lucky? The 4 different Rheumatologist and 4 PCP's I have, and apparently your doctor, all prescribe prednisone for arthritis. The overwhelming majority of people I talked to in my arthritis group have all had prednisone at one time or another. It is a very common drug to take. I am very aware of the possible side effects, but doctors would not be prescribing it if death was a common side affect. Like any other drug, people respond to it differently and perhaps you are more sensitive than others to it.

BTW, you can cut a 5mg pill in half if you need to wean off of that dose. I have done that for one of my dogs and one of my friends will do that when she needs to.

[Gailete]

On my Remicade IV days, like yesterday, when we all yak about what we are one and what is helping, I don't remember anyone mentioning Prednisone. I know my step-father had been on it long term back in 70's early 80's which caused him lots of trouble. I think my doc's group is much more cautious in its use and only use it to knock out a bad flare. It's use is generally only anti-inflammatory, not like other meds that help stall the course of RA. It depends on the doctor and patient, which is why unless a vet does prescribe prednisone for a pet it should probably be avoided.

[msomnipotent]

unless a vet does prescribe prednisone for a pet it should probably be avoided.

It is prescription only, so a Vet would still have to write a script and monitor. If you could just order it over the internet, I wouldn't buy it. I think if you specifically asked your RA friends if they ever used prednisone, the majority would say yes. To be honest, I would really like to know the outcome! If it isn't too intrusive.

I have been taking Humira, and then Enbrel, and then Humira again since they came out. I think it has been about 13 years. Maybe 15? They are very similar to Remicade as they are all biologic TNF blockers. But I would love to suffer through prednisone's side effects rather than any TNF blockers. I think I gained about 5 pounds and my gums bled a little when I flossed while I was on prednisone. Now I have toe fungus that never goes away, the minor colds people pass to on that turn into 3 week ordeals for me, I have to have every single skin growth cut off and biopsied (and there is more than a few since taking this) because of constant threat of an assortment of lymphomas, and the yearly TB test, and the recent discovery of TNF blockers maybe causing Lupus is enough to make anyone terrified of using any of those very helpful drugs. Not to mention the fact that my eye exams vary depending on when I take Humira. I now have 4 pairs of eyeglasses and I have to guess which ones will work on any given day. I have been complaining about this for years and "they" are just starting to study this now.

It is commonly used for allergies and asthma, too. Especially in dogs, but people too.

Every single drug has side effects. I could say that Sulfa drugs should be avoided at all costs because I had a bad reaction to Sulfasalazine and stopped breathing. But I don't because it is a worthy drug that has its place, just like prednisone. Everyone reacts differently.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I just spend $1400 on removing a fractured tooth on my dog and few others and cutting off skin tags. I had to do the one tooth but others were rotting at 15 I was extremely worried about him not coming out of anesthesia. Anyway he did great. Last year when he was very sick we didn't do the dental work because we thought he would die. Then chemo and he's in remission and doing okay. Since we moved and he was diagnosed we've spent $6k in treatments as of today. I'd have to say until now he's been relatively well kept and is still doing pretty well. Looks much younger. Anyway I was crying yesterday worried about the situation.

I know it's ridiculous but he really is my best friend and companion. I felt the same with our last dog.

[dawnwes]

I just spend $1400 on removing a fractured tooth on my dog and few others and cutting off skin tags. I had to do the one tooth but others were rotting at 15 I was extremely worried about him not coming out of anesthesia. Anyway he did great. Last year when he was very sick we didn't do the dental work because we thought he would die. Then chemo and he's in remission and doing okay. Since we moved and he was diagnosed we've spent $6k in treatments as of today. I'd have to say until now he's been relatively well kept and is still doing pretty well. Looks much younger. Anyway I was crying yesterday worried about the situation.

I know it's ridiculous but he really is my best friend and companion. I felt the same with our last dog.

Oh wow.