Pet Lovers Beware: When The Drugs Don’t Work

[douglas9]

We pour our hearts into caring for our animals, and spend small fortunes on their meds. What if the drugs are worthless?

Kaleb, I hope you’ll agree, is a handsome beast. In his youth, he cut an athletic figure, and was quite the wanderer. Indeed, without his lust for independent travel, he’d never have come into our lives. Having roamed once too often from owners who showed little interest in taking him back, he ended up in a rescue shelter in Ithaca, New York, and was adopted in 2005 by my girlfriend, Nadia.

Now in his twilight years, Kaleb doesn’t get around so well. He’s part German Shepherd, and is afflicted by the breed’s curse: hip dysplasia and osteoarthritis. In plain English: his hip joints are loose, which leads to cartilage damage and inflammation. It’s painful to watch him struggling to his feet, and while he still loves to go for a walk, his back legs start to give out before too long. But at least he’s getting the best possible veterinary care, we told ourselves.

At least we did, until an email hit my inbox some weeks back, sent to a discussion list of science writers. It referred to a study indicating that two food supplements—glucosamine and chondroitin—do little to help cats with disintegrating joints. I recognized the names as ingredients in Kaleb’s breakfast: Our dog-feeding ritual involves taking a chew containing these nutrients, then adding a dollop of peanut butter containing a couple of pills of a painkiller called tramadol.

https://medium.com/evidence-base/95ea62df3951

[hlthe2b]

1. There is little evidence glucosmine and chondroitin work in humans either...

Yet, these supplements have a long track history of safety and that minimal evidence available has made sales to humans a massive industry.

Veterinarians aren't ignorant and few (in contrast to this article) would suggest glucosamine and chondroitin without telling the client that there are more effective, allbeit costly options that do carry more risk and thus would require much closer monitoring. I also find it hard to believe that most are not telling the owner that the evidence for these supplements being effective is scanty and extrapolated from humans and that at best these serve as additional means to treat, rather than primary treatment of degenerative joint disease/arthritis.

I note the authors of this article do not address the issue of cost of specific drug therapy, which may well be driving many owners to rely on supplemented foods alone. Adding $10 to a bag of dry food versus hundreds of dollars for dog-safe NSAIDS (i.e., carprofen) and blood tests to monitor periodically throughout the course of treatment will induce a lot of owners to opt for the former.