Complete Care for Your Aging Cat - Amy Shojai [56]
Herbs are not regulated in the same way as commercial drugs. Different manufacturers may offer the same herb products, but one is several times stronger than the other. Some consumer investigations into “natural” products indicate that without regulation, it’s difficult to be assured the labeled ingredients are really in the bottle. Therefore, you must enlist the aid of a veterinarian knowledgeable in their use, of their interactions with other drugs, of the reputation of various manufacturers, and with the individual animal’s problem to choose the correct herbal treatment.
Pain Management
Cats do not react to pain in the same way that people do. Many cats suffer from conditions associated with chronic pain, such as dental disease, osteoarthritis, interstitial cystitis and cancer. The incidence of these painful conditions is more common than we once thought, particularly in older cats. Typically, cats simply hide and stop moving when in pain, and become very good at hiding any discomfort. For this reason, until relatively recently cats weren’t thought to experience pain to the same degree as humans. Yet managing pain effectively is at the heart of maintaining a good quality of life for aging cats.
Part of the problem is that cats do not metabolize common pain medicines such as NSAID (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) in the same way as people and dogs. These can be toxic to cats. So even when a veterinarian knew a cat was suffering discomfort, she didn’t always have good options to help relieve the pain. For instance, Rimadyl is one of the newest drugs approved specifically to address arthritis pain in dogs. “A lot of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are tricky in cats,” says Susan Little, DVM, a feline specialist in Ottawa, Canada. “I don’t use Rimadyl in cats, some people do. But you’re always running the risk of adverse reactions.”
The Companion Animal Pain Management Consortium, launched in early 2001, was established to study and better understand the mechanisms and treatment of pain. Pfizer Animal Health supported the development of regional “pain centers,” created at each of the veterinary schools at University of Tennessee, University of Illinois, and Colorado State University. Veterinarians in a variety of disciplines—oncology, orthopedics, anesthesiology, ophthalmology and others—seek to help pain in various ways. At Illinois, anesthesiologist William Tranquilli, DVM, says each group has been asked to identify their three most prevalent pain issues, and share their expertise. He hopes that this will help them learn better ways to alleviate pain.
Experts recommend using several pain management therapies (multimodal analgesia) which has a better chance of greater pain relief than a single therapy alone. Therapeutic approaches for managing chronic pain in cats include: weight management, NSAIDs, non-traditional analgesics and adjuncts (e.g., gabapentin, tramadol, amantadine), chondroitin-type agents like Adequan®, Omega-3 fatty acids and “Joint diets”, acupuncture, physiotherapy, stem-cell therapy, and laser therapy.
Owners must be involved in the process as well. “We suggest that practitioners give owners a chart for them to track how the animal is behaving before and after medication to determine what changes they see,” says Dr. Tranquilli. For instance, maybe your cat asks to play with a fishing-pole toy more often, or once again runs to dinner when kibble hits the bowl. “It gives a tool to the owner that encourages them to actually