I know several of you have dogs with joint problems so I thought it would be worthwhile to post my recent experience with my girl, Lady. She has ED in both elbows. She had a course of 4 injections of pentosan polysulphate sodium (also called Cartrophen) in August and has showed a marked improvement in her joint mobility. I gather that the drug doesn’t work in all dogs, but if your dog is having joint problems it might be worth discussing with your vet. I’ve put the full story below. My Labrador bitch, Lady, is just over 6 years old now and was diagnosed with ED in both elbows as she was coming up to her 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] birthday. The problem manifested itself in the form of an intermittent limp that recovered for a couple of weeks or so after a course of Metacam but then re-emerged. Anyway cutting to the chase, she was fine after operations on both elbows, but recently started to develop a slight limp in her left front leg and occasionally suffered a really bad sharp pain (much squealing) in her left elbow if she tried to execute a sharp turn when running so I took her back to my vet for a check-up. He said that as far as he could tell there was nothing major wrong at the moment, but the musculature in her shoulders wasn’t as well developed as he would expect whereas her hind quarters were normally developed. He thought this might indicate that she was having a bit of discomfort. He also thought that the pain on doing a sharp turn could be a little bone-to-bone contact in her left elbow. He suggested trying a course of pentosan polysulphate injections to see if that improved matters. He did say it was drug that alternated between being in or out of fashion with vets, but in his experience it showed improvement in about 1 in 3 dogs with joint problems. Apparently the drug stimulates cartilage growth in the joints and also boosts the joint lubricating fluid. If it worked it should last 9 months to a year when she could have a repeat course. We gave it a whirl. Well that was in August. Lady had 4 shots in the scruff, each a week apart. After she was a week or so into the course she started to show an improvement in that her permanent slight limp disappeared. I can now report 3 months later that she is much improved and that the improvement has been sustained so far with no repeat of the acute pain on executing tight turns. She is a limp free dog and well up for hooning with her pals again. Her vet was pleased with her progress at a review a month after the last injection and I’ve made a note to book a repeat course in August next year. She’s a pet most of the year but a working dog in the winter and I discussed carrying on with that. We both are of the same opinion that we let Lady carry on doing what normal Labs do as long as possible. In other words let her enjoy life to the full for as long as she can. She’s been out picking up on shoots this season working hard with no problems and loves it. If you have a dog with ED or other joint problems it might be worthwhile asking your vet about pentosane. It might help.
It's great to hear that Lady is back to really enjoying a pain free life. My orthopaedic surgeon said that pentosane may be something we would have to look at for Juno in the future, and not until she was at least a year old. The decision would be passed upon frequency of recurring limping - everything now crossed but we've been doing well so far. Thank you for sharing your experience
Really glad it's helped Lady. We found it a great help for my arthritic first Labrador Nicolae. Obi, even though he has no joint problems, had a 'preventative' course of four shots at 10 months old (there's no evidence that this has a future benefit, but our vet advised it and we knew it wouldn't hurt). If Obi ever shows any actual joint issues he'll be put onto it again. The approach we used with Nicolae was the same loading dose that Lady has had, but with an ongoing monthly shot.
