Dylan and Poppy's progress. October 2010.

Dylan CM/SM

I am very happy to report that as of this weekend, Dylan can now jump on my daughters bed (mine has steps). Before Dylan started on Pregabalin, he was struggling to get onto the small footstool I had put in front of the sofa to help him get up.

Yesterday we stopped giving Rimadyl b*n*n* I never liked that drug even though I had increased his dose to 20mg twice a day. Clare Rusbridge thought that was at the high end of the scale. He came off Rimadyl for a 24 hour "washout" yesterday because we are trying a new drug today. Even though he was still taking the Pregabalin (wonder drug!), poor fellow was missing the Rimadyl and took himself up to bed at 9pm.

We started with Trocoxil this morning. It's an anti-imflamatory pain killer given once a month. The second dose is in a fortnight though, just to build some up in the system then it will be monthly. He is already full of beans and trying to get Poppy to chase him for a toy.

Poppy CM

I didn't see any improvement with Poppy on Zitac. I feel we all seem to notice more symptoms after a positive diagnosis so this may have influenced my observations. To be quite sure, Poppy is have two days off Zitac before joining Dylan on Trocoxil and I will be looking for an increase in scratching and biting her back.

On the whole I am delighted with the way things are going. A massive thanks to Clare for getting things right for Dylan, Poppy and a happier me.

That's great news Pauline, its brilliant to hear that Dylan has come on so much, and hopefully Poppy will get good results too with the Trocoxil.

Hello Pauline

Well done to you all ,you of course and Clare ,and Dylan and Poppy am so pleased for you all .With your experience of these drugs do you think I would be wise in mentioning the anti inflammatory pain killer when I take Rosie back to Chestergates on Friday.

Pauline


So pleased everything is going so well with Dylan. Seems like Pregabalin is working really well for him. I think Minnie will be changing over very shortly as still showing signs of discomfort on 3 x 100gm of gabapentin.

:xfngr: the Trocoxil helps Poppy.

I know exactly what you mean by the positive diagnosis influencing your observations. It is sometimes so difficult to tell what is normal doggy behaviour and what are actually pain symptoms.

Clare is wonderful :l*v:

That is great news about Dylan. I keep thinking my boy should switch over to it from Gabapentin. What did Clare say about side-effects and Long term use as compared to gabapentin? It seems like most of the cavaliers I have heard about doing the switch fair much better on the pregablin. It is also a twice a day drug, I think, so other than the price, I wonder why more vets aren't recommending it.
Again so happy to hear the good news, keep the updates coming

Brian M said:

Hello Pauline

Well done to you all ,you of course and Clare ,and Dylan and Poppy am so pleased for you all .With your experience of these drugs do you think I would be wise in mentioning the anti inflammatory pain killer when I take Rosie back to Chestergates on Friday.

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The advantage of using Trocoxil is that it has less dips in strength. We can often see when other pain killers wear off at the end of the day. You could mention it. One disadvantage is that if the dog has a reaction, it's in the system a long time. Also the reaction can occur at any time during the month.

Sandrac said:

Pauline


So pleased everything is going so well with Dylan. Seems like Pregabalin is working really well for him. I think Minnie will be changing over very shortly as still showing signs of discomfort on 3 x 100gm of gabapentin.

:xfngr: the Trocoxil helps Poppy.

I know exactly what you mean by the positive diagnosis influencing your observations. It is sometimes so difficult to tell what is normal doggy behaviour and what are actually pain symptoms.

Clare is wonderful :l*v:

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Poor little Minnie. I hope she can go on the Pregabalin. I was happy with Gabapentin in the lower doses but at 3 x 150, Dylan was stoned and still uncomfortable.

lovecavaliers said:

That is great news about Dylan. I keep thinking my boy should switch over to it from Gabapentin. What did Clare say about side-effects and Long term use as compared to gabapentin? It seems like most of the cavaliers I have heard about doing the switch fair much better on the pregablin. It is also a twice a day drug, I think, so other than the price, I wonder why more vets aren't recommending it.
Again so happy to hear the good news, keep the updates coming

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I wasn't told of any long term side effects of Gabapentin or Pregabalin. It is expensive, £102 a month for Dylan. It is giving 12 hours apart which is wonderful. We went from 8 capsules/tablets a day to one twice a day plus the new drug once a month

Day one of Trocoxil and Dylan is having problems jumping on the sofa again. Bear in mind he had a day without anti-imflamatories yesterday and the Trocoxil needs to build up...we shall see.

Poppy seems no different today drug free, scratching the same as usual.

I'll be interested to hear of how trocoxil goes...

On gabapentin -- Clare lists the tests that need to be done regularly for dogs on these various drugs on the bottom of her treatment diagram. They can have side effects in some dogs/people. On gabapentin you need to test liver function via blood tests annually. I would guess this is the same with Lyrica (pregabalin) as it is a related drug.

My Dylan changed to Pregabalin from Gabentin 8 months ago but it did not make any difference to his symptoms. He then started on Trocoxil 6 months ago which did help very slightly although he still has problems jumping/climbing stairs/exercising. He went back on Rimadyl when he had his eye surgery last month because he was on the month's break from the Trocoxil which they have to have after 6 doses of it and he was in too much pain to be without any NSAID at all. He is now back on the Trocoxil and we will see if there is any improvement during the next month. If he remains the same we have to consider other options.

Hoping they both show improvements soon, Pauline.

I was telling our neuro vet about the once per month drug, but didn't know the name. As we hear of Dylan's progress, I'll share this info with them.

Hi Cathy. So far, he was better on Pregabalin and Rimadyl but I am prepared to wait until he had had the second dose. You can't give anything else until a month after administering Trocoxil.

Is anyone else using Trocoxil?

For your interest:

Trocoxil. 2 pills for £13.50 from my vet. (I've seen it more expensive online)
Pregabalin. 56 pills for £102 from Boots Chemist. (Lloyds chemist was £113)

So my monthly bill for drugs is £115.50.

Jane P said:

He went back on Rimadyl when he had his eye surgery last month because he was on the month's break from the Trocoxil which they have to have after 6 doses of it and he was in too much pain to be without any NSAID at all.

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That's good to know. I hadn't thought about using Rimadyl on the break. I will ask Clare of course. I hope you find something that works for Dylan soon xx

For your interest:

Trocoxil. 2 pills for £13.50 from my vet. (I've seen it more expensive online)
Pregabalin. 56 pills for £102 from Boots Chemist. (Lloyds chemist was £113)

So my monthly bill for drugs is £115.50.[/QUOTE]

£13.50 is really good for Trocoxil. I pay £28.78 for the 2 pills from my vet and it cost even more from Stone Lion. I get my Pregabalin online from vetpharmacy but they don't advertise it on their website you have to phone or email them. It costs me £126.27 for a complete box of 84 pills or £84 for 56. Hope this is of some help.

My monthly bill for Dylan's medication for SM and Dry Eye is £170:yikes.

Wow Jane, that's a lot, it's much cheaper online.

Click HERE.

I have a prescription from Clare that I can use three times but Boots insist on seeing the original. Each time I go to Boots, they stamp and date it, write the price on it, give me a receipt and photocopy it for me to give to my vet who will fill out the insurance claim form and send it off. Pretty complicated eh...and it takes a while in Boots with paperwork. Don't go in when they are busy! Prescription must say the word "cascade" on it or Boots won't serve you. (I don't know why but if it's in small print, like mine is, you may want to find it before you go to the Chemist)

*Pauline* said:

Dylan CM/SM


Poppy CM

I didn't see any improvement with Poppy on Zitac. I feel we all seem to notice more symptoms after a positive diagnosis so this may have influenced my observations. To be quite sure, Poppy is have two days off Zitac before joining Dylan on Trocoxil and I will be looking for an increase in scratching and biting her back.

On the whole I am delighted with the way things are going. A massive thanks to Clare for getting things right for Dylan, Poppy and a happier me.

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Molly and Dougall have both been on Trocoxil since February. Dougall (cm) is on exactly the same treatment as Molly (sm). Until approx 6 weeks ago they were also on Previcox. We switched to Gabapentin as both dogs were not doing too well.
Molly is now as bright as a button but we are still struggling with Dougall.

*Pauline* said:

Wow Jane, that's a lot, it's much cheaper online.

Click HERE.

I have a prescription from Clare that I can use three times but Boots insist on seeing the original. Each time I go to Boots, they stamp and date it, write the price on it, give me a receipt and photocopy it for me to give to my vet who will fill out the insurance claim form and send it off. Pretty complicated eh...and it takes a while in Boots with paperwork. Don't go in when they are busy! Prescription must say the word "cascade" on it or Boots won't serve you. (I don't know why but if it's in small print, like mine is, you may want to find it before you go to the Chemist)

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Thanks for the info on Trocoxil Pauline, I'll try getting it from there next time. I used to get Dylan's Pregabalin from Boots so I know what they are like! I found it much easier and cheaper to buy it online.

Tania said:

Molly and Dougall have both been on Trocoxil since February. Dougall (cm) is on exactly the same treatment as Molly (sm). Until approx 6 weeks ago they were also on Previcox. We switched to Gabapentin as both dogs were not doing too well.
Molly is now as bright as a button but we are still struggling with Dougall.

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Sorry to hear Dougall's having problems. It can be difficult getting the balance of medication right as they are all different. Hope he feels better soon.:hug:

One of the reasons vets are almost always much more expensive is that they are like mom and pop stores/corner shops -- they cannot by drugs at the huge discounts given to larger chemists/drug stores, or to online pharmacies (who additionally have no brick and mortar costs).

So it isn't that they are making huge margins off the prescriptions -- it is more that like you and me they pay a lot more to buy small amounts of something rather than getting scale discounts like chemists.