Beanie's knees

Beanie has been having some trouble with his back legs for some time now. I thought he just had arthritis in his hips so I was giving him 250mg Glucosamine tablets twice a day. He seemed to do a lot better for a while then all the sudden got worse. He could barely stand and just couldn't walk. He was screaming every time he took a step. Poor guy. :( I took him to work with me on Tuesday and had Dr. Luff look at him.

We found out that Beanie has Luxating patella(floating knee caps) is BOTH knees, PLUS arthritis. :( On a scale of 1-4, 4 being the worse case, Beanie has a 2 in both knees. Dr. Luff put Beanie on half a tablet of Deramaxx 25mg once a day for the next 7 days to see if it helps. It seems to be doing well so far. If he doesn't have any episodes in this 7 days he'll be on it permanently. If they do get worse then we'll take some blood tests and probably put him on Rimadyl. Rimadyl can have some side effects. Not always bad ones, but I really hope it doesn't come to that quite yet. It will eventually. :(

Everyone keep my old man in your prayers. I hate that he's haveing these problems at only 10yrs old.

Prayers for Beanie. I hope the new meds help him.

I'm not sure of Beanie's age. Luxating patella can be corrected by surgery. It is usually (not always) a genetic problem. I can give you a link with several articles of info:

http://www.bichonfriseusa.com/ref/luxpat/home.htm

Regarding Rimadyl. The Senior Dog Project found that the side effects heavily outweighed any benefits, and determined that Rimadyl is not safe for older dogs. Can you get a substitute? Tramadol and Matacam are the two suggested substitutes.

I'll say some prayers for Beanie that you and the white coats can figure out a way for his to be more comfortable.

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Originally Posted by Freedom

I'm not sure of Beanie's age. Luxating patella can be corrected by surgery. It is usually (not always) a genetic problem. I can give you a link with several articles of info:

http://www.bichonfriseusa.com/ref/luxpat/home.htm

Regarding Rimadyl. The Senior Dog Project found that the side effects heavily outweighed any benefits, and determined that Rimadyl is not safe for older dogs. Can you get a substitute? Tramadol and Matacam are the two suggested substitutes.

I'll say some prayers for Beanie that you and the white coats can figure out a way for his to be more comfortable.

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Thanks for the link! I'll definately give it a read. I know a Luxating patella is fixable, but Beanie is 10yrs old and showing his age in other ways. I just don't know if it would be worth it.

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Originally Posted by lute

Thanks for the link! I'll definately give it a read. I know a Luxating patella is fixable, but Beanie is 10yrs old and showing his age in other ways. I just don't know if it would be worth it.

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I'm sorry Beanie is having pain. The meds from the Doctor should help
him feel better.Considering his age surgery might be harder on him.If you
can keep him from leaping off beds & such, the meds should do the trick.
Hugs to the little guy.