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Duralactin - active ingredient MicroLactin

Nicki

Moderator
In a recent post on one of the Yahoo boards, Jill Scandrolli mentioned about Duralactin asking if anyone had tried it for SM?

I didn't spot any responses to her post, but it did steer me torwards trying it for Teddy {moderate/severe SM, progressing as per repeat MRI but *fairly* slowly} - he has been quite bad again recently following a really good year. He has not had surgery. and has a 3 year history of symptoms.

My vet very kindly researched it for me, Duralactin is only available to vets in the US, but is not "authorised". Due to this DEFRA can't issue us with the Special Treatment Certificate required to import it.

Instead I decided to research the active ingredient, Micro Lactin, and found that this is widely availabe in the UK and is used in the treatment of arthritis! It's made from a milk protein and is used as an anti inflammatory.

We have managed to obtain this instead and are now trying it for Teddy.

I just wondered if anyone else had tried it?

It's a bit fiddly as they are huge tablets without a break line and Teddy needs 1/2 a tablet twice daily. We are crushing them to a powder, and tried sprinklng it on his food but he didn't like the taste. Now I'm mixing it with a spoonful of Cruzy's "slops" - special homemade diet for Pancreatic Insuffciency which Teddy loves! {It's made of semolina, cottage cheese and boiled egg with various supplements, but the dogs all love it!}
 
Well I'm not seeing a huge improvement yet - it's supposed to only take 7 to 10 days to start helping, he's been on it 10 days so there's time... but I confess to feeling a bit disappointed. :( I guess we are all looking for a miracle...

He is quite difficult to manage right now - he wants to play with the two puppies I'm fostering {5 month olds} - he's always loved puppies - and will play for a few minutes, but then looks awful and I can see he's made himself sore. He's always been this way, when he is distracted he "ignores" the pain signals and can do just about anything - he is my escape artist and will force his way under or through fencing, and even scale gates or fences with sufficient motivation :yikes We are lucky in that he doesn't go away from the house and we are in a very quiet area and it's generally only to get to me. The garden now looks like Colditz - just need Gun Turrets :eek:

If I take him for a walk he will run and run but again suffer for it later. I have done quite a bit of research into managing pain {having a chronic pain condition myself} and also deal with pain the same way - with distraction.


He is on 300mg Gabapentin every 8 hours, 2.5mg Omeprazole daily, 2mg Medrone daily, Destolit for liver support, Metronidazole for SIBO {bacterial overgrowth}; in addition to many complementary treatments such as Co-Enzyme Q10 {he also has a grade 3/4 heart murmur}, Vit E 200iu daily, Sashas Blend {a natural arthritis treatment - Green Lipped Mussel, Abalone and Marine Cartilage}, and homoeopathic treatment - poor wee fellow rattles when he walks :(


He has been really well for just over a year so it came as a bit of a shock a few weeks ago to see him start to go downhill again. He is awful to groom as he gets distressed now - he has never been one to cry or scream but has been moaning a bit especially if you fuss him, which is heartbreaking. He wants to be cuddled and held but can't cope with it.

TBH if this doesn't help him then we are back to having to think seriously about his quality of life - I don't want him to be having pain and feel that it isn't being controlled as well as I would like. My vet agrees that there really isn't anything further that could be done, he has too much damage to consider surgery now - and isn't a dog who would have coped well with that anyway. He saw the neurologist at Glasgow earlier this year and I've also been in contact with Clare Rusbridge about him.


Sorry didn't mean to turn this into an epistle and :( - it's just to give an idea of what we are dealing with on a daily basis.
 
I am so sorry!!!!! Your poor baby! I sympathize with what a terrible disease this is - and the ups and downs of it. I hope he perks up again soon!


Jen and Ilsa
 
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