Thanks Dr. for your advice.
BTW, I've never seen you as a bomb thrower in any thread to date. People who might get apoplectic regarding current Veterinary standards are simply loons.
Unfortunately, as I was most interested in reducing pain as soon as possible for my buddy my results can not be considered useful due to confounding variables of carbprofen and OTC's concurrently.
I would say that pain relief was immediately evident with the Carprofen.
However stiffness and general activity was still somewhat reduced compared to last year.
Seemed that after a couple months since starting meds, he improved quite a bit even after initial improvement.
People who see him even noticed it enough to mention.
Another downside is a recent weigh-in showed him at 51#. Been a weird winter and a lot less activity but still need to get him back to 40-41#. Moved him from a high veg diet to Honest Kitchen, and even after a couple weeks of ~1-1.25 cup/day (~500kcal?), no loss.
Was interested in your remarks on daily supp of Carprofen as I was also worried about it. I will be testing 1/2 dose in the AM to see if pain is now less.
It appears from recent testing that UC Type II collagen is superior that current Glucosamine/Chondroitan/MSM.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4970562/
Orally taken native type II collagen antigens interact with Peyer’s patches in the gut associated lymphoid tissue, resulting in turning off the T-cell attack to the structural protein collagen type 2 in the cartilage. This desensitization process in Peyer’s patch, also known as oral tolerance, avoids the recognition of endogenous collagen type 2 in the cartilage as antigen by the immune system
And;
The results of the present trial do not show evidence that native type II collagen reduce cartilage destruction; however, it has been demonstrated that native type II collagen is effective in the symptomatic treatment of patients with knee osteoarthritis when used concomitantly with acetaminophen.
That was from 2016 IIRC, below is more recent from 2020:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7222752/
UC-II involved the undenatured native chicken type II collagen (collagen 263.0 mg/g, hydroxyproline 32.9 mg/g), which was produced from chicken sternum cartilage in a GMP-certified facility via a patented, low-temperature manufacturing process that ensured a specific level of UC-II collagen [
17]. In a recent letter, the novel faster-produced commercially available UC-II® ingredient was reported to be identical with the material used in the previously published clinical research [
75,
76,
119]. Several undenatured type II collagen, including UC-II®, is a patented form of collagen with undenatured type II collagen for joint health support. It has been reported that a small amount (40 mg/day) is believed to work by inducing a process known as oral tolerance that ultimately engages the immune system in the repair of its joint cartilage
UC-II Usage in Dogs
Many studies have shown that UC-II improves joint mobility, flexibility, and comfort by preventing the immune system from attacking and damaging the articular cartilage [
95,
96,
97]. In a study to assess the clinical effectiveness and safety of UC-II, obese–arthritic dogs receiving UC-II with 1 or 10 mg of UC-II/day for 90 days demonstrated reductions in the levels of overall pain, lameness, and pain during limb manipulation after the physical exercise, with 10 mg showing a greater improvement. In the same study, no adverse effects were observed in both UC-II doses, and no vital changes in serum biochemical parameters indicated that the toleration of UC-II was good. Moreover, dogs receiving UC-II for 90 days showed an increase in physical activity levels. After the withdrawal of UC-II over 30 days, all dogs experienced a general relapse, pain during exercise-related lameness, and limb manipulation [
69]. In another study, the researchers tried to assess the therapeutic effectiveness and safety of glycosylated UC-II alone or in combination with glucosamine-HCl and chondroitin sulfate in 20 arthritic dogs, which were allocated into 4 groups and orally treated for 120 days. Briefly, 10 mg of UC-II was found to be superior to glucosamine and chondroitin, while the study suggested that regular treatment of arthritic dogs using UC-II alone or in combination with glucosamine and chondroitin ameliorated the signs and symptoms of arthritis considerably better than both glucosamine and chondroitin. Moreover, maximum decreases in pain were noted following the 120 days of treatment (overall pain decrease was found as 62%; pain reduction upon limb manipulation was detected as 91%, and the decrease in exercise-associated lameness was 78%) [
20]. In another research, Gupta et al. [
74] conducted a study to assess the therapeutic effectiveness of UC-II alone or in combination with glucosamine hydrochloride and chondroitin sulfate on client-owned moderate arthritic dogs and to determine their tolerance and safety. For this purpose, the dogs were daily treated with placebo, 10 mg active UC-II, 2000 mg glucosamine hydrochloride + 1600 mg chondroitin sulfate, and or in UC-II combined with glucosamine–hydrochloride and chondroitin–sulfate for 150 days. A significant decrease in pain was noted in the treated dogs. However, significant rises in the quantitative ground force plate (GFP) parameters (peak perpendicular force and impulse area), which is indicative of an important reduction in discomfort with arthritis, were observed only in dogs treated with UC-II. None of the dogs in the groups showed changes in physical status or liver and kidney functions. This means that active UC-II supplementation alone (10 mg/day for 150 days) was well tolerated and increased the well-being significantly in moderately arthritic dogs [
74]. Another water-soluble UC-II form also exhibited similar noteworthy efficiency in relieving pain and inflammation in collagen-induced arthritis in mice, as well as moderately arthritic dogs after 150 days of supplementation with 10 mg of dosage when compared to control dogs [
98,
99]. In a clinical, randomized, controlled, and prospective study [
79], 60 client-owned dogs were randomly allocated to the R group (
n = 30, robenacoxib 1 mg/kg/day) and the UC-II group (UC-II 1 tablet (40 mg)/day) for a 30 days study. Based on the data obtained from the study, there was a significant reduction in the Liverpool osteoarthritis in dogs (LOAD) and mobility scores among T0 and T30 of similar size between the two groups (R = 31.5%, UC-II = 32.7%). The researchers indicated that robenacoxib and UC-II similarly improved mobility of the dogs affected by OA.
Sorry for the walls of text, however hopefully someone looking for additional method of pain relief for the dog will find this useful.
