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Subject: Hmmm .... Posted by oldgirlCBR, jahren@jhu.edu on September 21, 2008 at 17:57:32: In Reply to: Anabolic Steroids and Cartrophen posted by LizMo on September 19, 2008 at 06:31:56: Let's see, Reba started on baby aspirin (orange) at about age 10, which progressed to Rimadyl, and then Deramaxx ... she had also taken chondroitin/glucosamine from about 10 ... the real improvement we saw was when she started taking Rimadyl ... As for steroids, that's tough. I never like them because I, myself, have such a bad reaction. One thing it was really tough for me to start asking was, "So given that Reebs is very senior, how shall we pursue this?" and it turned out the answer is different if one is talking about a dog that one expects to be around, say, 10 years down the road ... especially near the letting go (and I'm not insinuating that you are/aren't close to that) we made some pain choices that I wouldn't have made a year earlier. As an example, one thing we did was slim her down, when she lost stregth and balance in her backend, taking an extra 5-7 lbs off gave her back quite a bit of mobility. Later on, I suggested to the vet that I could get her down another 5 lbs if the vet thought it best (Reba was of course staring daggers at me at the time) ... and the vet said gently, "well ... it's all about quality of life from here on out" meaning that the grief she would feel upon being separated from a beloved scoop of food now and then wasn't worth it on balance. I thought about it for a long time; it helped me move out of my "curing" mindset and into an enjoy the present for what it is mode that turned out to be very rewarding. Not meant as advice, only as sharing ...
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