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Devastated; Frank Has Arthritis.

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@Poppy'sMum I shall do! And will monitor the weight the vets asked me to as well actually! Nearly forgot that amidst the shock!

He's got recovery food for 6 days :') and whatever else he wants in the cage!

Make a bit of a mess with it though! But we're learning !

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That's great :) It would be better to use a 1ml syringe though, as that type of syringe can make the food go in too quick & down the wrong way :( Can you get a 1 ml syringe from someone, or the vets? You need to cut the end off & file it down & remove the rubber bung. I'll find a pic for you :)
 
Poppy'sMum said:
That's great :) It would be better to use a 1ml syringe though, as that type of syringe can make the food go in too quick & down the wrong way :( Can you get a 1 ml syringe from someone, or the vets? You need to cut the end off & file it down & remove the rubber bung. I'll find a pic for you :)
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I have a ton of them! Thank you the picture would be helpful! X
I have metacam syringes too? They just have a flat end and no rubber?
 
The syringes on the left are for water (Only fill them a quarter of the way up at a time & syringe) the green ones are the ones I use for feeding. You cut the end off & file it smooth (Remove the rubber bung) Metacam syringes are too big, you should use the 1 ml type like those on the left to give him his meds. Don't forget each mark is 0.1ml, so if he is on 0.3ml it is only up to that mark that you give him :)
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See that's what I said to the woman earlier - he was on 0.3 before and I was using small syringe, he's on 0.5kg metacam a day. So if you can tell me what that is on a small syringe?

I'll do that tomorrow, I have a file I haven't used!

What do I need to give him water for? :')

Thank you!
 
Aw he's gorgeous! You only really need to give him a little water at the end of each feed if he is drinking for himself & eating veggies it's not so important. Don't use any other type of syringe for water but those 1ml ones in my pic. Always syringe into the side of his mouth, don't point the syringe directly down his throat. The syringe should go into the side behind his front teeth & only syringe a little at a time. With the food I only syringe about a third of one of the 1 ml ones at once.Not sure I understand how much Metacam/Loxicom he is on each day?
 
Oh okay yeah he's drinking and eating veggies fine :')
I won't, only ever use them really for anything!
Erm, I don't know I know it's half a metacam syringe a day and it just says "0.5kg once a day"
 
The calculations on a Metacam syringe are different to mls on a normal syringe . I remember when Max was on Metacam, he was on a 0.4kg dose.

I wanted to use a smaller syringe so, what I did was draw the dose up in a Metacam syringe and transfer it to a normal syringe.

Accounting for the dead space in the hub. I worked out that a 0.4Kg dose of the Metacam I had is 0.3 mls


Have tagged @helen105281 - to see if she agrees with my calculations.
 
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Oh, thank you! He seems fine with the metacam syringe so I'd rather use that than mess the measurements up :/
 
Fair comment. You have to be careful when dabbling with medication. The other thing to bear in mind is that there are 2 strengths of Metacam
Metacam 1.5mg/ml (for dogs) and Metacam 0.5mg/ml (for cats).

I went for a repeat prescription for Max and I think I got a vet in a bad mood as I was given the for cats strength - couldn't believe it when I got home and opened packet - the prescription said give 0.8mls once a day - so there were only 3 full doses in the bottle
 

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I am very sorry for the diagnosis! Sadly, like with humans, some forms of arthritis can befall youngsters. At least now you know what you are up against and can try to learn to manage the issue in the long term, especially flare-ups that can happen from time to time. A fair bit will be trial and error to see what works and what not. It is however not a death sentence and Frank should still be able to enjoy a good quality of life for long time to come! Was your vet able to determine what kind of arthritis Frank has?

In addition to metacam, you could research other painkillers with less long term side effects. Try and see whether vegetarian glucosamine supplement could make a difference (about 1/4 of a human tablet)
 
Wiebke said:
I am very sorry for the diagnosis! Sadly, like with humans, some forms of arthritis can befall youngsters. At least now you know what you are up against and can try to learn to manage the issue in the long term, especially flare-ups that can happen from time to time. A fair bit will be trial and error to see what works and what not. It is however not a death sentence and Frank should still be able to enjoy a good quality of life for long time to come! Was your vet able to determine what kind of arthritis Frank has?

In addition to metacam, you could research other painkillers with less long term side effects. Try and see whether vegetarian glucosamine supplement could make a difference (about 1/4 of a human tablet)
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Thank you will certainly be a learning curve for us. She did say, he has a check up Saturday to see if he's gaining weight and stuff, so I'll ask then, it's just that she said it and I was trying not to have a melt down. As much as I saw it coming it was a shock! So I'll be sure to ask, it's at the top of his legs near his spine, she said he seems quite stiff there.

I ordered the glucosamine yesterday on advice from @piggyfan so I'll be awaiting that, and will certainly do some research into other painkillers.

Thank you!
 
Charlotte has arthritis. I have found that a warm bath every now and then works wonders. She is so much happier afterwards. I just sit her in the sink for five minutes with the water as deep as possible.
 
piggyme234 said:
Charlotte has arthritis. I have found that a warm bath every now and then works wonders. She is so much happier afterwards. I just sit her in the sink for five minutes with the water as deep as possible.
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Thank you I will try this :)
 
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