arthritis treatments

My dad has a 12 year old male cat, whose vet says he has arthritis. He prescribed medication that costs around $20 a month. I forget the name of the medicine right now.. might have been Chondroitin or just an anti-inflammatory.

I am not familiar with arthritis in cats, but can they take glucosamine? I know Petsmart sells Cosequin, but that also costs around $20. Although, I'm not sure how long that would last.

Either way, I'm going to make sure my dad talks to the vet about it. I'm hoping there is an another solution - vet approved of course - because my dad's retired and doesn't have a lot of money.

Any thoughts would be helpful. Thanks.

cosequin has anti inflammatory in it ...
I highly recommend this site for jt issues in cats and dogs ... much better results in my home than glucosimine and chondrotin( which the latter is not proven to help at any dose)

www.trixsyn.com

I'm having a hard time getting him to pay for what the vet is prescribing. He won't be able to afford the Trixsyn! Although, if it came right down to it, I would chip in and help him pay for it.

My sister gives her dog (vet approved) glucosamine that she buys at the drug store. So I thought maybe the same thing could be given to cats. Of course, the dose would be a lot smaller. I think I read somewhere, 500mg/day for cats.

Thanks for the link... I'm definitely going to talk to him and the vet about it.

We give our older girl Cosequin. She gets 1 capsule a day. I just open the capsule and pour the powder into her wet food and mix it up. If I remember correctly, it took about 2 weeks for us to see full improvement from it. She's been getting it for about 3 years now. In the beginning, I only gave it to her in the winter, but now she gets it daily.

I buy mine online at EntirelyPets.com, http://www.entirelypets.com/cosequin..._utmk=99441567 because they usually have some kind of sale going on and I buy Feliway at the same time and get free shipping.

If you get the 80 capsules, it comes out to something like $0.21 a day. Have you tried that logic with your dad? Also, a heated bed will help arthritis. I have a special electric pad for my girl that adjusts to the cat's body temperature and doesn't go over a certain temp and stays cooler if there's no one sleeping on it. That might be something for him to consider as well.

Cosequin is on sale right now at amazon for $13.58 (http://www.amazon.com/Cosequin-Sprin...2544211&sr=8-2).

Also, you could probably buy glucosamine at the grocery store (in vitamin form for humans), that you might be able to crush up or something and add to the cat's food. However, you'd have to double check the ingredients and I don't know which vitamin brands are trustworthy. Each capsulte of Cosequin is 125mg Glucosamine Hydrochloride, 100mg Sodium Chondroitin Sulfate, 1 mg Manganese, and a cat is supposed to get 1 capsule per 10 lbs daily. You can google Cosequin to see the full ingredient list, etc.

Also, if you visit http://www.petmd.com/blogs/fullyvetted and google arthritis, Dr. Khuly addresses the issue of arthritis in cats quite a bit.

Good luck!