Arthritis Pain

[RavenHawke]

Anyone know of anything that actually works for arthritis pain in cats? I was wondering about cbd oil and which one is the best. I would prefer something natural since my cat already has a medical condition. Thanks in advance

 

[daftcat75]

CBD oil has drug interactions. If your cat is already taking medication, it may not be safe.

I just started Krista on GlycoFlex Plus (glucosamine/MSM/chondroitin) last weekend. I am in awe at how well it's working already. She loves it. I powder up the chew and sprinkle it over her last breakfast and first dinner and she eats it all up. I used to feel her arthritis pain just watching her sit. Now she flops down into a loaf like it's no big deal. She's making the jumps she stopped making for awhile. I'm excited to see what it continues to do for her over the initial 4-6 weeks.

 

[sabrinah]

Cosequin was a lifesaver for my cat. The recommended dose (1 capsule every other day after the first month) worked for a few years but I had to increase it to a capsule every day. Before Cosequin, she couldn't even jump up on my bed anymore. She did a pathetic 1-foot jump and then climbed the blankets the rest of the way. I also couldn't touch the back half of her body without getting smacked. I can't say Cosequin made her as graceful as she was in her younger years, but she can definitely move around a lot better and jump on everything again.

 

[Tobermory]

I’ve had success with Cosequin, too. My two 14-year-olds were limping (sisters, so same genes), and Lily, in particular, was have trouble squatting in the litter box. The improvement was noticeable after a couple of weeks, and they’ve continued to do well. If you have a Costco membership or a good friend with one, Costco carries it online at the best price I’ve seen.

I’ve heard some anecdotal positives about CBD oil, but there is such a wide range of concentrations and quality that I’d be very cautious about buying it unless your vet recommends a particular kind. I gave Lily CBD oil last year for anxiety, but it was prescribed by my vet.

In fact, I read this in the paper just yesterday by a vet in Colorado. I thought it was very helpful. It was a Q&A about calming a dog, but the concept still applies IMO.

“It is known that CBD has a calming but not sedating effect on dogs, and it works pretty well at much lower doses than we would use if your dog was in pain, had epilepsy or cancer.​

"When you ask if a drop a day would help, that is an impossible question to answer for these two reasons:​

"1) I have no idea what the potency and concentration are of the CBD oil you have in mind; and,

"2) I have no idea what size (weight in pounds or kilograms) your dog is, since the most successful way to give CBD is by basing the dosage on the body weight of the animal.

"Another issue here is that with the incredible popularity of CBD, there are some shysters out there who just want to take your money and give you a bogus product. So look carefully at the CBD oil you are interested in and see if there is a contact number on the bottle. There should be. Call that number and ask for a Certificate of Analysis (CoA) that will tell you what the laboratory tests said in terms of how much CBD is in the formula, and if there is any THC in it. THC can be very troubling to dogs, so we want to give them only the very small amount that is found in hemp oil, which should be less than 0.3 percent THC.

"A good starting dose for calming your Morkie is 0.1 mg of CBD for each pound of body weight twice daily. The best way to give the oil is just into the mouth, so it absorbs through the oral mucous membranes.”​

 

[FeebysOwner]

Ditto daftcat75 about the Glyco Flex Plus. Feeby (14+) started showing signs of arthritis a few months back. She stopped jumping up on her favorite spots. It didn't even take but a couple of weeks on Glyco for her to begin to start using all of the places she had abandoned before. Daily, I cut the 'treat-like' bite into smaller pieces and feed that to her along with her hairball treat. But, she likes them so much she would easily eat them by themselves.

I do, however, have an interim step (a footstool) at the locations such as the bed, recliner/etc. to help with the jumping. They were in place before I began the Glyco and she still didn't use them, but now does. I will say though, that she does jump up on a bed in our spare room without the assistance of an interim step (uh, because - DUH - I didn't think about placing one there), so I am guessing if she really needed to she could jump up on all the other locations without the footstools as well.

 

[LTS3]

From what I understand, there are two forms of CBD oil: a supplement that is derived from hemp (no medicinal properties) and is legal in all US states and a medicinal one derived from marijuana and is only sold by prescription at a medical marijuana dispensary located in a state that allows the legal selling of medicinal marijuana.

Hemp CBD Oil vs. Weed CBD Oil: How Are They Different? - HEALTH | MERRY JANE

I'm guessing the CBD oil that is increasingly being suggested to pet owners as a sort of "cure all" for all sorts health issues is the hemp one.

Supplements of any kind can affect a current health issue and any medicine. It's best to discuss supplements with the vet first.

Cosequin and other similar products are helpful to arthritis. Here's a TCS article on arthritis: Arthritis And Joint Pain In Cats

 

[daftcat75]

The issue between pet food CBD and dispensary CBD is sourcing. It is the same molecule with the same benefits. When it it sourced from the cannabis market, there are rules and regulations from seed to sale to ensure the quality of the product and that it is free from pesticides, residual solvents, and other contaminants. This is the dispensary CBD. The pet store CBD is sourced from the hemp market where fewer or no rules and regulations are present because it falls under the food supplement rules. Assuming the stated potency can be trusted (without rules for third-party testing of hemp oil in place), 5 mg of CBD derived from hemp is the same as 5 mg of CBD from cannabis. Except that cannabis has a number of other functional and therapeutic molecules that can modulate the effectiveness of CBD. These chemicals can have an entourage effect where their effectiveness is greater than the sum of the parts. The composition of the entourage can vary greatly between a cannabis-derived CBD and a hemp-derived CBD. (Aside: A "full spectrum oil" refers to the preservation of this entourage in the finished product vs. a CBD-greedy extraction that may leave very little of the other helpers in the final oil.) One of these molecules that can enhance the effectiveness of CBD is THC. In very small amounts, THC can be beneficial to our furry friends because of this entourage effect. Cannabis-derived CBD oils formulated for use in companion animals generally have a 20:1 or higher ratio of CBD to THC. The amount of THC provided may exceed the 0.3% regulation in the hemp industry but the ratio and dose are more important. Given at the correct dose, a 20:1 oil is not psychoactive (will not get your animal high.)

Those who live in states where it is legal generally prefer dispensary CBD oil because the regulations surrounding its purity and potency are much stricter than the hemp market.

Sourcing aside, there's very little data on how well CBD works with cats. There have been a few studies with dogs. However cats are not small dogs or small people. Until there's more studies on cats, it's all guesswork, anecdotal data, and stubborn hope.

Lastly, while CBD is very safe on its own, it is not without interactions with other drugs. For example, if your cat is also getting buprenorphine for pain, they are both metabolized in the liver and the presence of CBD can compete for breakdown of the bupe making both drugs last longer and possibly increasing the sedative effects of both.

If you can source your CBD oil from a dispensary, if you are not administering other medication, and if your cat can afford some trial and error while determining if and what dose might be effective, then CBD might be an option. It will also be a more expensive option. If you want something that's been studied and proven effective in cats, easy to source, more affordable, and with well-understood dosing, I'd go with GlycoFlex Plus. Cosequin seems to be a subset of GlycoFlex but it could be used as an alternative if there are problematic ingredients in GlycoFlex or if your cat just doesn't like the taste of GF.

Full disclosure:
I used CBD oil with Krista and I honestly never really knew whether it was working. At least I can see the (profound!) difference GlycoFlex is having with her after such a short period already.

 

[Kflowers]

MY cat takes dasuquin, which is over the counter and similar to cosequin. She was diagnosed with arthritis on her spine - covered three vertebra - before she was a year old. She was a bit cranky particularly before it rained. Once she started the medicine she straighten her spine - we hadn't realized she wasn't before, and even curved it back in stretching. She also became a lot nicer, less clawing, hissing and attacking.

 

[LTS3]

I'm not going further into the CBD oil issue.

Here is some information for the OP on using supplements such as Cosequin for arthritis:

Do Supplements for Arthritis Work?

 

[Kflowers]

I think the dasuquin does help Sweet Gum. I don't see how there could be a psychosomatic effect in cats. She had a terrible reaction to the metcap, so it's a no go. I also had a cat develop diabetes after one cortisone shot. The vet said the cortisone caused the diabetes. I was shocked since I'd given two other cats cortisone - one got several pills every day, the other got an injection once a month - for several months. The injections were very expensive. I suppose it's the chance you take with cortisone.

I can only hope when the 'effect' whether real or psychosomatic, of the dasuquin stops working for Sweet Gum, that there will be something she can take that I can afford.