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I thought I share something with you guys because it helped me tremendously for the past 3 years until my 55lb dog passed away.
Per vets instructions I gave her
- Gabapentin, 100mg for seizures, anxiety, nerve pain, restless legs.
- Amantadine 100mg for pain relief by reducing development of sensation to pain in the central nervous system and for Osteoarthritis.
Both pills should be taken for them to be most effective. They are around $20 for 2-3 months supply (prescription).
- joint and hip supplements
- Ginseng (half a human dosage)
- Fish oil (half a human dosage)
These pills probably extended her life span and made her much less in pain.
Before I gave her this huge amount of pills every day, she was
- sleeping all day and then restlessly and confused stumbling around all night. When I got up I found her somewhere just standing around like a sleep walker.
- often times stood somewhere, staring at the wall. Sometimes she walked into the closed and stared at the wall.
- she forgot where she is
- her forehead had twitches every now and then
- barely could get up
It was very sad to watch so I will forever be grateful to my vet for helping us out. She made it to almost around 17 years and finally died of cancer a few months ago.
Thank you very much for this helpful information. And I am very sorry you have lost your dear old friend, but it sounds like you did SO much to give her a long and comfortable life!
Also thanks, and very sorry about your loss. That is tough, and hope you are feeling better.
This is useful because one of my dogs has started bothering me at night and I'm thinking it's because of pain. He no longer wants to go up and down even 3-4 stairs, though he will after coaxing. I'm going to check in to gabapentin amantadine. I wonder how much the joint supplements are really working, but will not discontinue them.
Really appreciate your posting all this at this time.
First of all, I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. 17 Years is a credit to you and your love for her.
I have a 15.5 year old, 17 lbs showing similar symptoms to your girl - confusion, sleeps a lot, unable to climb more than 4-5 steps, restlessness in the evening etc. She has been on Gabapentin, but is now on M-Eloxyn 5mg, 1//2 pump of Fish Oil, Cosequin and 2.5 mg Selegiline (for cognitive decline). I had to cut the latter dose in half as 5 mg gave her diarrhea. I'm not sure which, or if all, these meds are helping her, but when she's out in the backyard she runs around like a puppy! Next time we have a vet visit I'm going to ask him about Amantadine and see if we can substitute if for the M-Eloxyn.
It's heartbreaking to see our pets going senile, but we do what we can to keep them healthy for as long as we can.
This is what has worked for me over the years when our large dogs have gotten older.
We do daily with a combo soft chew with glucosamine, chondroitin, and MSM.
Then we use carprofen on the bad days and more and more regularly as they go from old to really old.
The soft chew is something you really won't notice as they get better. Then one day you will notice how much better they are doing. The carprofen has been a miracle. At full dose it will turn Bubba from not wanting to move to wanting to play.
The big thing I have noticed is to not let your dog overdue it when they are feeling great. Keeping them mobile when old is like a part time job.
Our old guy (around 10) has arthritis and fluxating patella. He takes fish oil, joint supplements and gabapentin. He's still pretty active but has problems jumping up onto chairs/the bed so we have cushioned dog steps for him around the house. We walk everyday and I asked my vet how I could tell if he was in pain and she said if he lags behind you or keeps turning his head around to the direction you came from, he's telling you he hurts.
I thought this was good info and I look for those signs from him when we're out walking. He stays even with my pace and doesn't lag. Also, he gets so excited when he sees me get the leash (spins around in circles and raises one front paw up in the air - soooo cute!) so I think he's doing well.
That's all good info there. Thanks everyone for sharing.
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He no longer wants to go up and down even 3-4 stairs, though he will after coaxing. I'm going to check in to gabapentin amantadine. I wonder how much the joint supplements are really working, but will not discontinue them. 
