Pet pain relife

My dog has a bad knee in the back left.Our vet says he needs surgery.But  We can't afford it.I am on disablity and my son is my cargiver.And the state doesn't pay much.But he is sick with liver and kidney trouble.And he can't do regular work right now. Our vet gave us rimdyl but it puts him to sleep all the time and he wouldn't eat or drink.She said we could get more if we wanted at 5  pills for $8.00.
  Is there anything we can give him that isn't by prescripcion?And that won't put him to sleep all the time.

[Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M., C.V.A]

I am very sorry to hear about you and your son's health problems!

If your veterinarian believes that your dog's knee requires surgery he may have either a torn anterior cruciate ligament or luxating patella (knee cap) or other less common injury.  The best prognosis for the prevention of arthritis in the future would be surgery if the knee is unstable, though.  

I will try to give you some options that hopefully may help your dog in lieu of surgery as follows:

1. Acupuncture is very helpful for the knees and would be far less costly than surgery.  

2. Chinese herbal formulas: Shen Tong Zhu Yu Tang and Bu Qi Zi Yin Tang.    Shen Tong Zhu Yu Tang is a holistic pain reliever and is available online at various herbal web sites.  Use 1/4 quarter of an adult dose twice daily.  Bu Qi Zi Yin Tang,  is also known as Hindquarter Weakness and is an anti-pain in the hind limb formulation, but it is only available at Dr. Xie's Jing Tang Herbal Company by prescription.  Your vet may be able to give you a prescription.  The dose for Bu Qi Zi Yin Tang is one capsule per 10 pounds body weight twice daily.

3. The Western herbal formulas: Dog Gone Pain, and Wapiti labs, "Natural Mobility"could also be helpful, and both are available online.

4. Neutraceuticals: glucosamine/Chondrotin supplement and Omega 3 fatty acid supplement are also important, and these are available everywhere.

5. Diet: J/D from Hills Science Diet may also help, but it too is only available by prescription.

6. The homeopathic remedy: Trameel, available online and at many health food stores is a natural anti-inflammatory and also helpful.

7.  Other alternative therapies that may help include:

Prolotherapy,  which is the injection of nutritive substances into the knee joint to stimulate the regrowth or partially torn ligaments and other soft tissues;

Laser Therapy, which is exposure to light waves that help stimulate healing; and lastly,

physical therapy, which helps increase the strength of the muscles of the hind leg to reduce the stress on the knee.

Saving up some money for a future surgery is not a bad idea and additionally,  

Care Credit may also help.  Care Credit is a low to no interest credit card that can only be used for medical, dental or veterinary bills.  Please check the carecredit.com website for information and to apply if interested.  

[dodie51]

  Thank you so much for  answering my post.At least you gave me things to try.He gets so sleepy on the pain meds.I will save up for his surgery.I will also look into that credit card.We don't make much money.And most credit cards are hard to qualify for.
                                                              Thanks again