[anonymous]

The comment above by Karen D is correct.
Some vets still use Tramadol for mild pain due to it’s sedative qualities and minimal side effects. After all, anything that decreases anxiety can also aid with pain relief.
But, it is no longer considered an effective drug for pain management in dogs.

I suspect the previous comment before the one above mine may be spam.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by anonymous.

[Gene B]

Gracie, my 15 year old terrier mix had a bad reaction to Galliprant.
Had taken her in this week for a vaccine shot.
Vet suggested trying galliprant for arthritis.
Gracie’s been on temaril p for several years to help with chronic nasal discharge.
Temaril P is an antihistamine with a low dose of Prednisone.
Vet told me galliprant is OK to use with temaril p
Gave Gracie 1/2 temaril p and 1/2 of 20mg galliprant with her morning food.
If afternoon Gracie had other 1/2 of temaril p, no galliprant.
In the evening Gracie started panting, pacing, peeing for about 5 hours non stop.
Urine had blood in it.

Next day Gracie still had to pee more than normal and still had blood in the urine, and no more pacing around or panting. Didn’t give her any more galliprant, also skipped temaril p for the day.
Next evening Gracie still had to pee about every 5 minutes, but acting normal and less blood in the urine.

Found https://veterinarypartner.vin.com/default.aspx?pid=19239&id=7933279
“Interactions with other Drugs
Grapiprant use in combination with corticosteroids (prednisolone, dexamethasone, triamcinolone, etc.) has not been studied and the manufacturer recommends against concurrent use of these medications. Similarly, grapiprant should not be used with NSAIDs.

Grapiprant is highly protein-bound and this is a potential problem when it is used with other highly protein-bound medications.

Grapiprant is a highly protein-bound medication. What that means is that in the bloodstream, 95 percent of grapiprant is transported bound to an albumin (carrier protein) molecule while the rest is floating free in the bloodstream. The five percent that is floating free is the active portion. As the free portion is removed from the body by the liver, the blood protein gives up what it is carrying to replace it. This continues until all of the drug has been removed by the liver. Problems can result when other highly protein-bound drugs are used concurrently. The drugs will “fight” over places on the albumin carrier molecule (imagine a bus with only a certain number of seats and too many passengers trying to fill them). The drug with the higher protein affinity will be carried and the other drug is left floating free and active, meaning there will be much more active drug than normal. This can lead to toxicity problems. Grapiprant has not been tested with other drugs in this way so how significant an issue this is remains to be seen.”

[judy w]

Hi, i just gave my dog Zack, almost 13 year old cavalier king charles spaniel, his first dose of 20mg Galliprant. the vet gave it to me for him on Thursday but i have wanted to avoid NSAIDs, they can be gnarly. Fortunately he’s been healthy and hasn’t needed meds for anything, except he has advanced mitral valve disease and was prescribed Vetmedin a year ago, i have not started that yet because his heart was compensating so well, he is still not in heart failure–something that could happen at any time, or might not.

I have a recent prescription of Vetmedin but have not started it yet, partly because another problem started, about 3 weeks ago, Zack started going downhill suddenly, i thought it was heart failure but went to cardiologist and he said still no sign of it, symptoms Zack was having included moving stiffly, and difficulty with eating. He had a good appetite but showed hesitation and reluctance to eat, and had lost a couple of pounds, from 25 to 23.1, since his March cardiology eval.

Something very wrong, before this, he’s never had any sign of osteo-arthritic symptoms, and i didn’t think of it at first, thought it was heart failure. i took him to his regular vet Thursday as he kept declining, he stopped wagging his tail, it was hanging down, never seen that before in his life, and losing interest in the things outside that he used to bark at and not wanting to go out, and sometimes he only ate when i fed him by hand. As of now it’s like that all the time, i tip his bowl up so it’s easy for him to get it out and he only licks it, he doesn’t bite it but i shovel it into his mouth with a plastic spoon. He eats hungrily. He eats his normal two portions a day and wants more . He eats hungrily in the morning and late at night but decidedly doesn’t want food all day long–if i offer it, he goes the other way, even though i’m not trying to force it on him or anything.

He seems to sleep through the night, i’m sure he wakes but goes back to sleep as he does all day, he also just lays wake, looking at me, which is normal, he was always a dog who didn’t sleep a lot, he’s very interested and sociable. When these symptoms started, he stopped sleeping in my room with me and now sleeps in the bathroom on the floor, not on the rug, he pushes the rug aside.

The regular vet said on Thursday that his spine is in pain and possibly his neck. she said his abdomen was distended. She prescribed Galliprant.

He had a prescription of Rimadyl about 10 years ago for a pain that made him limp and was thought to be in the neck but they never could locate it with X-ray or palpation. So, i gave him the first Rimadyl and went to work. i came home that night and found that he had vomited blood and had no appetite and was not his happy self. Of course, i stopped the medication, besides, i usually like to see if things go away on their own. So after the Rimadyl caused him to vomit blood and act like he felt really bad and i stopped it, i can’t remember if he had had one dose or two, i went back to the vet and he told me to keep giving him the Rimadyl. Of course, i didn’t. He said the side effects would go away. but after the alarming symptoms, i had googled Rimadyl and there were some very sad horror stories—not that most dogs on it will have the worst results, but since mine had a bleeding stomach, that was enough of a red flag for me. And it bothered me that the vet would say to keep giving it to him. He is the owner of the practice, it has several vets and i’ve had a few i like very much, but i never saw him again, by my choice, i think differently from how he thinks

The vet i’m seeing now is his daughter. i like her. She knows how i am afraid of NSAIDs after the Rimadyl, for my dog, i’m not saying most dogs will have a problem but mine had it right away which is probably unusual. anyway, all these years he’s been healthy.
Now he is having symptoms of being in pain that is making him have difficulty moving.

So, his regular vet said Galliprant is safer. She gave me a sample of 5 pills. it made made me uncomfortable to give him a 24 hour release pill, i would rather have shorter duration so that if anything goes wrong, it can be stopped right away instead of a more delayed ending of the effect.

So i’m freaked out, i just gave it to him. i can see no sign that he’s getting better from whatever it wrong with him. i read most of the posts on this discussion and i hope he will have the result of the medication taking the pain of whatever is wrong with him away.

The day after i saw the vet, i took him to a holistic vet and he had an acupuncture treatment. At the first vet, he was given cold laser treatment. Yesterday, Saturday, i had him back for another cold laser treatment. He seemed better yesterday than for several days before, not sure if it was related to the cold laser, but he wagged his tail for the first time. Other than a few small signs like that, and starting to make an effort to jump into the car on his own (but i intervened and helped him, he continues to be awfully fragile), he is still very messed up. When we got home, as usual, he had a hard time walking up the one step from the back yard into the house, which he was just jumped over before this thing. it’s clearly very painful for him to make that step, it’s his spine, the pressure climbing the step causes, i think. The vet didn’t do X-rays because he just had some in March. i am going to get X-rays and an ultrasound this week.

Today i got him another cold laser treatment but he isn’t any better. No tail wagging today though he did show a weak impulse to jump into the car which i took over. Even when he’s well, he’s had a hard time with that jump. Maybe he injured himself trying to make it one time, i wasn’t paying attention and don’t have any theories of what happened to him.

i’m scared of the Galliprant. i hope he will have a miraculous disappearance of his pain like some people have reported. i appreciated the ideas and suggestions about giving lower dose and skipping a day every now and then to try to avoid serious gastro-intestinal issues. i gave the whole 20mg tonight and will do that for a couple more days at least.

Also, the vet put him on Clavamox, a broad spectrum antibiotic. This was because she did a complete blood panel, everything was normal except BANDS, which i had never heard of it, it’s part of the blood cell count and his was a little elevated. The holistic vet didn’t think it was significant–but i have used Clavamox/Augmentin over the years and never had any problem with adverse effects so i have started him on that tonight too. Both the antibiotic and Galliprant can cause GI symptoms, so if he does get them, i don’t know what to do.

Normally, he has regular and firm stools, but the other day i saw him having difficulty going, it looked like he couldn’t bend his spine, his back was straight rather than the usual curved back they have when they poop. His legs were in the normal hunched pooping position but his back was straight so it looked like he was standing up to poop. And he didn’t succeed. The next day he had a normal stool, i couldn’t see him because plants were in the way, as far as the position he was in, but it was firm/soft, but the end of it was getting to an unformed condition, and then there was a separate liquid puddle.

Since Galliprant is so new, only been around about a year, i am wanting to stay tuned with pet owner reports and am glad to find this discussion.

[Scherry H]

Stop giving these meds! Your dog can die quickly. He is for sure showing you that he cannot tolerate NSAIDs. My boy tried all of them. Galliprant was the last one. He is now on Gabepentin for severe arthritis pain in his back and legs. He also gets buprenorphine when the pain spikes. These two drugs do not upset the GI. Please get your dog screened for cancer at a specialist vet hospital. With all the f-ing x rays that we had done last October to determine where the problems were, his routine vet MISSED a cancerous tumor. It was small. He sent us to a neurologist because my boy continued to decline. The neurologist did more x rays and found the tumor. It’s almost too late for us. But that’s another story. If we had known about the tumor in October, we would have had a much better opportunity to save his life. Good luck!

[judy w]

thank you Scherry. Because Zack hate very late last night , his second meal of the day, i gave him the Galliprant late. He seemed to be panting more . He had eaten plenty of food hungrily. feeding by hand, helping him get it into his mouth. After that, a couple of hours, time to go to bed, he was already in his chosen “bedroom,” the bathroom next to my room. He seemed to be panting harder, and anyway what was less subtle and more obvious was that he was panting hard and not relaxing. Throughout the night, when i would wake, he would be awake and panting. Before last night, he would be snoring and sleeping all night. He often sleeps through me walking past him, since a vet made him deaf in early 2015, for no reason, with unjustified ototoxic ear medication (he had no ear problem. i didn’t bring him in for his ears, vet put meds in the ears when he had Zack in back for a chest X-ray).

Zack now isn’t up to eating food at all. If it’s caused by the Galliprant, the effect lasts at least 24 hours, i’m a afraid such longer. i wish there was an anti-dote.

Has anyone else seen a symptom like this with Galliprant, continuously panting after the first dose, apparently not able to sleep much. i also started him on the Clavamox antibiotic at the same time. It’s twice a day with food so, if he doesn’t eat i don’t know whether i’ll give to him, maybe the Clavamox is causing his new symptoms but i’m more suspicious of Galliprant because all the NSAIDs have Black Box Warnings, including over the counter ones, it’s a recent thing. Black Box Warning is required by the government to alert consumers to the established evidence of risk of a medication.

Thank you for sharing your experience and what you learned from it, i was going to get x-rays and ultrasound this week but i’m considering your advice about taking him to a speciality center. i would take him to the one where he’s a cardiology patient.

[Cathy B]

Hi Judy, My 15 Y/O Chihuahua that weighs 5 lbs was just put on Galliprant for severe Arthritis
in his spine and legs last Wed.

Only difference I’ve noticed is he’s woke up for water prob 6 times last 2 nights and not sleeping well through the night. Hasn’t really helped his arthritis either. Could be too early to tell I don’t know.
Had he started panting like yours though, I’d be VERY worried about that.

I’ve decided last night was his LAST dose of this medicine. Reading all the mixed reviews has
me scared to death to keep giving!

I took him to his vet of 15 yrs 2 wks ago and decided then to walk away from there and not go back.

So took him to a vet an hour away and x-ray showed the arthritis. After driving home I realized Galliprant was the one on here I read mixed reviews about.
I gave for the few days but no longer am.

I’m into more natural remedies for this sweet boy so will be researching what safe product(s) I can give to help him with this.

So sorry your dog is having such trouble. It breaks our hearts to see them in pain.
Please keep us posted how things go.

[John T]

One of our Doberman’s has been on 120 mg of Galliprant for about a year now. He is 134 pounds and had two surgeries when he was a puppy on both hind leg areas. Prior to the galliprant, we could never rub or even touch his backside. Now he loves it. He is 11+ years old and loves his walks (off leash) every day. He had his annual physical couple of weeks ago and everything is looking good. So far it’s well worth the extra money we have to fork over.

[Sue H]

My Crystal has been on Galliprant for over a year. We started at 60 mg. per day. She has extreme weakness in her hind legs. Within about 2-3 months I was able to cut back to 30 mg. per day and even though she still has some diarrhea at times (she did when she started this medication, too). Overall her physical ability has improved and she can walk and even run and go up and down the stairs to the family room. She is 11 years old and an Australian Shepherd and weighs around 60 pounds. My vet does do regular labs on her and she is on gabapentin, too, and several other meds for renal issues (prior to starting the Galliprant). I think every person has to evaluate a medicine on its merits for their own pet. Some will work and others may not be the right medication. Any type of NSAID type medication can cause issues in both humans and pets. As the pet guardian, we need to be aware of these issues and side effects, although some may happen without warning.

Susan

BTW, for those using Galliprant, you can go to the Elanco website as they do have some rebates.

[Scherry H]

Judy W, panting is a huge indicator that he is either in pain or is toxic from the Galliprant. If he doesn’t need an antibiotic don’t give it. Or find a natural antibiotic. I am glad you have a homeopathic vet. We have one too. She oversees everything that our allopathic vet recommendeds. She is in Louisiana, so we do phone consults. Obviously for x rays and such we have to see an allopathic vet. Please take your pet to a specialist. Our routine vets just miss things sometimes, and often they are afraid to think out of the box or it could be that they only know what they know. Every time we have seen a specialist for anything, the zero in on the problem right away and we avoid paying for meds and services that we don’t need. Since October I am already $9000 invested in getting my beautiful Labrador well again. Wish I had pushed for a specialist in October. Instead I trusted and followed directions, now we are in a pickle. FaceBook has some really great support groups for dog owners. I have learned so much. I am a member of Orange County Comsultants and My Dog Beat Cancer With Cannabis. They have literally saved my dogs life!

[judy w]

Scherry, others, Zack’s behavior isn’t so systematic that i can confidently predict anything .
After i wrote the above, he to into his eating mode where i helped him eat from his bowl and he ate a full portion. i think poops were softer than normal but formed. staying tuned.

i gave the Clavamox around 10:30pm last night after he finally ate. i drug my feet on the Galliprant but gave that to him about 12 midnight after giving him a small amount of treat to put something new on his stomach. Then there were the symptoms i reported, panting all night, not the usual snoring.

Now this morning after refusing food on the earlier offering, he has just eaten a normal serving, and so, i then gave him the 2X a day Clavamox. I feel safe with that. The Gallaprant wold be late tonight if i give it to him. i don’t see why he has to have it daily and regular, in the sense that antibiotics need that to prevent resistant organisms from thriving and multiplying. NSAIDs are used in many cases as over the counter as needed. so if i skip tonight or give a half dose, i don’t see any harm.

Today, he is slightly subtly more perked up, ok, just in the sense that he attempted to jump up on the couch, and he did that yesterday too, so i don’t think but can’t know, if the Gallibrant might be helping the pain so that he would feel more able to do such things.

Thank you again for the reply, i saw a some other replies too and appreciative of you guys giving me people who care to talk it out with, instead of all on my own, so much better. i haver an appointment in 5 minutes and want to reply and read more later, thank you.

about the panting, He has been panting a lot, hard , the part 2-3 weeks, and i thought probably pain, but also, the weather was in a heat wave , my house is well cooled so i don’t know, but also he has the Mitral valve disease and some pre-heart failure symptoms including unusual amount of panting, as well as something called ‘air hunger’ when they get up from sleep and take in breaths fast, it’s not panting.

Anyway, so now, he’s back to where he was with the panting, his new normal . in fact, the main thing different about last night’s panting was that it was all night instead of him snoring and sleeping. i am definitely considering not giving him Galliprant last night, or giving him 1/2 pill. Unless i learn of what the harm would be in giving a lower dose or skipping every other day. If it spares him pain, i will need to weigh risks and benefits and i don’t know where that ends up right now, but i am so glad to have found a holistic vet that i like/trust last week. because Zack had been so healthy for so long, the only vet he saw was the cardiologist. Suddenly needed a holistic vet and it was a stressful week searching and hitting deadends. I’m in major metro area, Los Angeles, there are many but i found they were all booked up, until i found this place, which is farther than i wanted to look at at first but it’s not a bad drive at all and i am really glad to find them. i have appointments with a couple of others in August, earliest they had. Some are not seeing new patients. that’s good, the more people find benefit in it, the more will be available , the more choices. i think holistic and regular med compliment each other well, and holistic vets are licensed vets with plenty of experience. Broader perspective that way, as so many illnesses are not cut and dried in how to figure them out and safely treat them

• This reply was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by judy w.

[Melissa T]

You have no idea how happy I am to read these posts. I thought I was losing my mind! My Boxer, who is 7 was prescribed Galliprant 1 month ago. Within the first two weeks you could see a marked improvement in the inflammation and pain management without the “drugged” look he had before. This past few days though he has been experiencing bad tummy issues. I put him on the chicken and rice kept him hydrated but in the middle of the night he would have these bowel movements. Never before in all the time I have had him did he ever mess in the house. Let alone in the middle of the night. This has happened the past few nights. Everyone thought I was crazy because I was associate in at with the Galliprant. Then the mucous discharge started. I knew! I am speaking with my vet and am going to keep him off for a few and lessen the dose
Its working miracles for his mobility issues, but these tummy troubles are horrible. Thank you so much for sharing everyone!

[Sue H]

Melissa, Galliprant can cause diarrhea for sure. Speak with your vet, there are things you can do to help mitigate the side effects. I add a spoonful of pumpkin to my dog’s diet. My vet also suggested FortiFlora. Be sure your dog is drinking enough water and not becoming dehydrated. Hopefully you will find a balance between him having improved mobility with the least amount of GI upset.

[Michelle T]

Kali, 11 year old German Shepherd with epilepsy and arthritis has been taking Galliprant since June 6th. She has been through hell for almost 5 months now but it never dawned on me that it could be the Galliprant causing the issues.
Panting, pacing, walking in circles, breathing very hard, constipated, seizures?, very dark stools, disoriented, walks in corners and stands still.
Today (September 13th) will be the last time that I give it to Kali so I can see if that’s causing the issues. Kali is on Milk Thistle.
We took her to the vet on September 10th for blood work, hopefully it will tell us something.
On a plus side, Galliprant is helping Kali with pain and arthritis. I will give an update on September 21st.

[Sue H]

Hoping you get some answers from your vet for Kali! I am not sure all of these symptoms might be from Galliprant, but perhaps they could be. Galliprant has caused diarrhea in my dog, but we have cut back to half the dose (30 mg) and she weighs about 60 lbs. She is still walking better than she was before she started with Galliiprant. She is on other meds, Proin causing high blood pressure. She also has high liver and renal values. She has been diagnosed with Cushing’s disease. Some of Crystal’s symptoms are from her multiple diagnoses. She will be 12 on October. There is no cure for all of her ills, so we are treating symptoms as they occur and keeping her comfortable and happy as she can be.

Hope your vet has ideas how to help Kali feel better.

[Melissa T]

My boy, Jax, almost 8 years. Severe stomach issues from the Galliprant that we are still working through.
Jax had been placed on a high dose of Prednisone which caused panting, pacing, heavy breathing. I was very scared. Is yours on any Prednisone?

[Michelle T]

Sue H, thank you so much. I understand completely about making your baby comfortable. I hope for all the best for y’all.

[Michelle T]

Melissa T,
I have no clue what that is. Kali is taking phenobarbital (9 years), Keppra (3 weeks) and Galliprant (3 months). Plus she’s taking supplements to help with her arthritis.

[Melissa T]

My vet initially told me that my Boxer, Jax’s symptoms were not related to Galliprant because he had been on it for two months. He kept getting worse. Lethargic, stools were awful, he was weak, barely mobile and then the vomiting started. I insisted on a specialist and BINGO! His blood panel was lit up. Liver enzymes, Albumin, and a host of other abnormalities. We removed the Galliprant. Placed him on a heavy duty Probiotic, Metrodiazanole,and the list goes on. Galliprant worked wonderfully on helping his arthritis, butseveral thousand $$$$ later, I’m praying I can still pull him out of this.♡

[Sue H]

Hoping Jax will be ok. Thanks for the good wishes for Crystal.

Prednisone is a good medicine and inexpensive, but can cause a host of issues in dogs as well. I have been on prednisone myself and can not take Advil or any ibuprofen products, as it may cause serious GI problems for me. I imagine there may be a similar issue with dogs. Ask a pharmacist, my sister was a pharmacist before she passed away and explained much of this to me.

With my Crystal, before we started her on Galliprant, her back legs were starting to waste away and her walking was really poor. On Galliprant, she runs and plays, but yes, has diarrhea, and I watch her closely for any GI issues. GI issues can come on suddenly, so if she began to vomit, off to the emergency vet she will go. Luckily, she is eating well (she will not eat the prescription food for dogs with renal issues), but will eat her regular dry and canned foods, so we are using supplements when we can, and monitoring her lab values. This all becomes a balancing act for our vet to figure out what will make her comfortable. I use plain canned pumpkin in her diet daily, as well as fortiflora. Fortunately, she loves fruit, so apples and other fruits help, too. Sadly, there is no magic medicine to help our dogs with arthritis that has no side effects.

Hoping everyone who has a dog can find the best combination of medicine and supplements to help them heal and enjoy their lives. It is not easy trying to determine what to try for them, but hoping things will work for them.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by Sue H.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by Sue H.

[Melissa T]

My biggest concern through all of this, was the discomfort my boy was in. The vet kept telling me it wasnt the Galliprant because he was on it 2 months and would have shown symptoms before now. Not true at all! She didnt know about the side effects and that there was no “benchmark” time for showing adverse reactions. I had to show her screenshots and convince her with the research I did about the medication to get her to refer me to a specialist. The makers of Galliprant need to make the vet better informed before prescribing it. Especially with dogs that have other medicsl issues. I’m sitting here with vet bills, and $200 of Galliprant that I will never use. Worse though, is the pain and discomfort that my boy Jax has to go through. He’s my heart. To see him suffer like this is beyond heartbreaking for me. The damage done is irreversible.
I cannot thank everyone enough for leading me to what was happening. If I didnt push my vet about it God only knpws what would have happened. My advice, question your vet about their knowledge of the the drug. Go with your gut feelings. These dogs are our babies!

[Sue H]

Melissa, I am so sorry that you that Jax was not treated sooner. When we started Crystal on Galliprant I read all I could find and also discussed potential side effects with my vet. Galliprant is like some of the NSAIDS and ibuprofen products used for people, things can happen very suddenly. My vet and I discussed what types of symptoms to watch for, and if any doubt, take her to the ER vet immediately, which is what I will do.

I would contact the company directly about what happened to your Jax. I would also ask if they will reimburse you for the meds. They are very expensive. If they do not, at least go online and apply for one of their rebates to get some money back to help with your vet bills.

I question my own doctors, as well as our vet. Our pets can not speak for themselves. Never be concerned about getting another opinion whether it is for a person or your pet. If something seems wrong, person should go to ER and dog should be seen at the ER vet. Better to have something investigated and treated than to wait.

Maybe you should get another opinion from another vet to see if there is anything that can help Jax feel better. Worth some phone calls.

[judy w]

hello everyone, i have been following recent posts from email notifications after signing up on this thread in July. i got confused because i think there are two Melissa T’s? or maybe it’s just more symptoms of the ways my brain has been not fully functioning right from stress levels.

i am sad to hear about dogs and owners going through health conditions, trying to help, and sometimes, the help, the medicine, causes its own serious medical problems.

the thing that is most frustrating for me about this is the way that many vets, not all, are kind of in denial of the risks related to adverse effects. There should be informed consent when giving a medication even when risk is believed to be small. The risks should be discussed with the owner so that they can know the risks they are choosing to take in advance, not to overreact if risk is small but just to be aware because their individual pet is not a statistic but someone they know well. The owner is the one who is at home with the dog 24/7 and knows that dog individually, and in that way, even though the vet has the training and education and clinical experience, the owner has experience with their individual dog and can be in a better position to know when something just isn’t right.

i deal with this with my own doctors too. i always search for doctors that are openly cautious about medications, and when they recommend them, they also address the risks and say something like “if you see anything that concerns you, call me right away.” i have mostly had the opposite experience with doctors, because that is their training and they believe it is the best judgement and want to reassure patients that they know what they are doing. Some are better than others at being collaborative with patients and pet owners.

in the case of Galliprant, it’s so new, there isn’t a lot of clinical experience with it, so no vet should assure a patient when side effects come up after being on the treatment for weeks, that it can’t be the medication that’s causing it, especially a new medication, but all medications are always being learned about and while there are statistical generalizations from pharmaceutical company research required by FDA for approval, those are still generalizations, not absolute universal outcomes, there are a percentages of dogs that have had adverse effects, or effects that are not understood, serious enough to be mentioned. when 10% of those they studied get diarrhea and vomiting, my dog could be one of those, because they don’t know what the risk factors of that are or how to predict that in each case.

When my dog’s vet really pressured me to give him Galliprant in mid July when i posted here before, we didn’t know what was wrong with him or what was causing his sudden stiffness and difficulty moving. i read over one of the posts and i had written that she, the vet, had said that in addition to having a painful spine, he also had a distended abdomen. We talked about her doing an ultrasound, a technician came in twice a week, and i was planning on having it done the following week.

As it turned out, i took him for his second acupuncture treatment with the new holistic vet, for his back pain, and she examined him and said “no acupuncture today.” She commented on his distended abdomen and said she would like to do abdominal x-rays. she did and she showed me that his abdomen looked abnormal, there was detail you can usually see that was not clear on his xray. she went over some different possibilities of what might cause that, there were about 4, one was heart related but as she said, he had just had chest x rays and exam at the cardiologist a couple of weeks before and that cause didn’t show up. We all three, me, regular vet and holistic vet, thought the heart would be the most likely cause because he has advanced mitral valve disease. She said the only other possibility that wasn’t ruled out yet was cancer of the abdominal wall. 🙁 so, that seemed to be the most likely theory, and she said get him in to see an internal medicine doctor ASAP to find out what is going on.

i got an appointment for the next day at the specialty clinic with an internal medicine doctor and she did an abdominal x ray, she said it looked like the fluid in his abdomen was related to heart dysfunction. His cardiologist was there and took over and did full cardio eval and said Zack had right side congestive heart failure and pulmonary hypertension, severe, and he said he could remove the fluid from the abdomen which would make him feel better, so he did that and said they removed 800 ml of fluid. wow, that’s a lot. poor baby. no wonder he was having trouble moving around and eating his food. After the fluid was removed, he began to gradually get more normal, he was put on a diuretic, furosemide (Lasix), and also pimobendan (vetmedin) which is a dog medication for the heart (no human version). my memory is confused, think there were just those two. Either that week or the following week he started sildenafil which is better known as Viagra, which can be used for pulmonary hypertension to lower it.

Zack gradually became more normal and is pretty normal now. for me, there was so much stress about giving him the medications, they definitely have potential adverse effects , the diuretic can damage his kidneys, etc, so i had to give it to him but not unambivalently, and my own stress level about everything probably played a part in me having a lot of trouble remembering which medication to give when, and also, i found sometimes i would give him a pill and later find it on the floor, and he would then not have that dose since i didn’t know which dose he didn’t swallow.

i got an app called Medisafe that someone told me about that helps me remember what time to give which pills. Gradually the level of crisis went down but for a long time, i was thrashed by it, and at the beginning of when Zack first got his symptoms, i went to a specialist doctor appointment for a spreading skin rash i had for many years, other dermatologists had not diagnosed what it was, and that day, right at the beginning of Zack’s crisis i was told i have a cancer, a cutaneous T cell lymphoma, and i was reassured that most people don’t die from it, and the treatments aren’t bad, and that day, i started having whole body light treatments three days a week, so that was going on while i was trying to find out what was wrong with Zack, seeing three vets, two of them multiple times, and also trying to research the cancer thing on the internet and not feeling very good about what i was finding, scary treatments. then i got my biopsy results, he had taken three biopsies and sent them to two top labs in other parts of the country and when they came back finally after two weeks, he said it didn’t show results that confirmed the cancer, and now they were calling it some unusual kind of psoriasis, and the treatment is the same so the light therapy continues, but that was a load off my shoulders, to help with trying to find out what was making my dog deteriorate with some mystery cause. it doesn’t mean i don’t have the lymphoma thing, but at least i don’t have to know that i have it for now. One of the lab reports said it was eczema and not the cancer, the other one just listed off a bunch of possibilities of what it was and did not include the cancer, or eczema either.

i only gave Zack the Galliprant one time. He had increased panting and it lasted all night when normally he would sleep throughout the night. Heart failure has panting as a symptom, but he had never not slept all night before, or since. i will never give him Galliprant again, partly because i don’t like any medication that is long lasting, Galliprant is 24 hours. i would rather give it more frequently, like 3X a day, i just feel safer that way, though not convenient.
If he gets osteoarthritis or other pain from the musculo skeletal system, that’s different, i’d have to consider it, but if i did give him an NSAID, it would probably not be a 24 hour one, and one bloody vomit, it would be back to the drawing board.

i don’t fault my vet for wanting to try Galliprant because Zack seemed to be sore and stiff, she gave me her best advice and she did not invalidate my concerns and i will continue to go to her if needed. But if i had it to do over, i wouldn’t have given Zack that one 24 hour dose, he didn’t even have back pain, it turned out. What he had, as far as i know, just guessing, could be made worse by Galliprant. So it’s good that i was so scared of it all along.

As some other people have mentioned, when a pet is sick seriously enough to need a vet, part of the stress for many of us isn’t just these helpless babies dependent on us to find solutions and get them better, but also it’s expensive, and that just adds to the stress. I have dog pet insurance for Zack, i pay $145 a month, and i paid a similar amount his whole life, even though he was healthy and rarely went to the vet, but i knew he had that mitral valve disease bred into him, his breed, almost 100% will get mitral valve disease and 50% die from it by the age of 5 ! 🙁 We have been so lucky, his wasn’t symptomatic until he was 11-12, and pretty mildly, until June of this year, he’s going to be 13 in a couple of weeks, i thought he wasnt’ going to make it that far when that vet said it might be cancer of the abdominal wall.

So, his vet bills for the month of July came to $2700 paid upfront as i filed a claim. they pay 80%, but it took a month and a half for them to pay it, yay, they paid the whole 80% but i didn’t know until then how much they would pay. So stressful. now i can pay off the Care Credit balance , relief.

it’s so good that there is a discussion site for this subject, because for the many who need meds like Galliprant in their efforts to help their dogs have good quality of life, it’s important to be aware of potential adverse effects and to know what’s going on, even when some vets insist it can’t be the medications. It’s discussions like this one that are informative in a way that isn’t learned in medical school, to help both doctors and owners work together even when at odds to have the best result.

[Sue H]

Judy W., first, I hope you are feeling better, secondly, I hope Zack will also continue to do well. Thank you so much for your post. You pointed out that not only is the diagnostic quest for a human medical issue frustrating and a difficult and stressful process, it is the same for one’s pets. People can see more than one doctor and get different opinions, and their pets can see more than one vet and receive different diagnoses, too.

It would be great if every person and every pet could see the physician or vet (respectively) that would make the correct diagnosis right away and offer the best suggestions on treatment with sound explanations of what medications can and can not do and, yes, the side effects. As you said, we know our pets best and we also know ourselves best. Call the doctor or the vet if something seems wrong or different.

Always ask questions, do research on the diagnoses and treatments, whether for a person or pet. Ask questions! Never be afraid to ask questions. IF something does not seem right or you have reservations, ask for time to think about the situation and decide whether you need another opinion. If you or your pet are taking a new medication and are also taking other medications, speak with a pharmacist and ask questions about the potential drug interactions. Pharmacists do know this information and your physician or vet may not. Pharmacists may be able to suggest another medication that will help or be better for treatment.

You have to be your own advocate and advocate for your pet when your pet is ill.

Stress. This is significant and plays a role. The more stress you are under, the less likely you can think clearly to make the best decision. This is a normal human reaction. Our pets react to our stress.

Go with your instincts and speak up for yourself and your pets.

[Cynthia L]

My love, best dog ever, DIED yesterday from this horrible drug from a bleeding ulcer. He bled to death after multiple transfusions, and his kidneys shut down.

This is a BAD drug!!!

[Sue H]

Cynthia, I am so very sorry for your loss. May I ask what breed your dog was and how long he was on Galliprant?

My heart goes out to you.

[Karen D]

I am the original poster of this thread and even though we had to put our beloved Peanut to sleep last Sept. 2017 I painfully kept this website & specifically this post active so I could see what the long term effects of Galliprant might be. Cynthia I am so sorry & hope everyone who has even a shadow of a doubt about this drug will also keep this thread active. I always wondered if it was the Galliprant that hurt rather than helped my old girl in the end.
Karen

[Steph G]

I have a 13 year old Weim who has been on galliprant for a month and she’s doing great. She was severely arthritic and has regained 90% of her mobility. We ordered a second month worth of galliprant and after a few days she’s back to severe arthritis again and poor mobility. Has anyone heard of a bad batch of galliprant? We called the pharmacist and they’re trying to help but it’s heartbreaking to have my dog backslide. And yes we know she’s taking the medicine. We watch her eat it.

[Set R.]

Hi everyone, thank you so much for this thread, I live in Spain and there is no much information of users of this med in spanish.

I have a 15-year-old golden retriever that has started to have mobility problems for about six months and a week ago Galliprant was prescribed.
Just briefely will tell you that in 2013 he had a series of epileptic seizures, and he was prescribed phenobarbital, in 2014 he had the last epileptic attack, and six months ago we took him off this medication for good. I comment all this to tell you that, despite this, he has always been a healthy and happy dog ​​without any health problem and with exceptional analysis. The last ones have been 15 days ago before taking any medication for mobility problems.
Since normal anti-inflammatory drugs such as Metacam cause vomiting and cortisone makes him extremely nervous, the vet prescribed Galliprant.
After a few hours of taking it, the first day he had diarrhea, the veterinarian told me that this would be the case, that it was a normal side effect in the begining of the treatment, it has taken Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Today I called the vet to tell her how he was doing, she told me to give him until Thursday and to give him omeprazole before the galliprant. But just after calling her, my dog ​​has had blood in the stool.
Never again, not one more pill, a dog that has not had diarrhea since he was a puppy. I am calling the vet back tomorrow to see what he can take for pain relieve but no Galliprant, that’s for sure.
I am glad to know that this medication has worked for some of you, but to me this medicine is pure poison.

[Michele B]

I was looking for answer to scooting and Galliprant. My dog does this, the scooting does not fall under normal problems for dogs who do this esp no diarghea.
Next I read dog should not do Galliprant and Multivitamins…true Vet never said a word.
My lab is around 80- 85 pounds, she is on 100mg I will ask vet but perhaps less would be better?
Did anyone have side affect of gagging or breathing heavy? She was at Vet 3 months ago, but gagging is recent. Will call tomorrow. She is 11 black lab, will not allow jumping or climbing steps we miss her upstairs so we spend our time in nice basement but it is basement. If life was just simpler for our pets. Any suggestions or thoughts, would appreciate Have nice week

[Sue H]

Do speak with your vet about the breathing and other side effects. My Crystal was able to decrease the dose to 1/2 tablet (60 to 30 mg, and continued to do well walking.

The scooting may be related to full anal glands, so ask your vet about this, too.

Hope this helps and your dog will feel better!

[Kim N]

It has been a huge blessing for my dog! I understand and am sorry it hasn’t worked for others as hoped, but I do believe it works very well for my dog. Every dog has their own story and history. My dog has been on every natural diet and supplement possible for his hip issues which worked wonders and I continue to do, but now he is over 13 yrs old, a lab mix and Galliprant has been the icing on the cake for us. I feel very blessed, his back legs were giving out, now we can walk an easy mile on uneven terrain at the Nature Preserve dailynif Inam not too lazy, and he has had no Galliprant issues at all. No diarrhea, nothing. I just wanted to let people know it really can be of benefit for some dogs. It has been a blessing to us!

[Jerry R]

Prevention is the best medicine. This why my dachshund gets plenty of chicken feet and turkey and chicken wings. Necks too.
Very high in glucosamine which is excellent for joint health and prevention of arthritis.
I’m obviously concerned about IVDD.
I realize it doesn’t stop it from becoming an issue all the time but I do what I can to give him the best chance of avoiding such issues.

[Linda P]

Mike L and CZ Riley, Thank you both for sharing your experience with Galliprant! Our
16 y/o Border Collie has osteoarthritis. We started out with Rimadyl She then became very sick with vomiting; her food, yellow stomach acid and foam. She also had diarrhea mixed with blood and mucus. Vet stopped Rimadyl and did testing. Our girl was then diagnosed with Pancreatitis and prescribed Hills Digestive Care Low Fat i/d Dog Food along with meds to treat her pancreatitis. Once stable she started on Rimadyl again. Months later she had a flare of Pancreatitis. More meds to treat that and changed arthritis med to Galliprant. I noticed her doing odd things such as staring at the wall, she would walk into corners as though she forgot where the doorways are. She appeared to be confused most of the time. She also started dodging head pats or any kind of movement too close to her as though something or someone was about to to hit her. She batts her eyes and tries to avoid whatever she thinks is happening. After discussing with our Vet she suggested the Canine Adequan injections. We were in the multiple beginning doses and not yet to the maintenance only doses when our furbaby became very sick again. Her liver enzymes were off the charts and her RBC was elevated. I was terrified she was going to die. Vet said to stop all meds but to give her the liver supplement Denamarin (life long) and two different antibiotics. She wanted to recheck her in two weeks.
She was also diagnosed the same day with Gallstones after a ultrasound. Went back in two weeks and her RBC was normal one liver enzyme was normal but the other liver enzyme was still off the charts. They also tested her bile to help determine liver function without doing a biopsy of her liver. Bile and liver function was within normal the Vet said. We were allowed to start back on the Galliprant. The next day she slowly started acting odd and confused again. I then realized while she was off the Galliprant her mental health and confusion was much better. Unfortunately and according to our Vet, unless we want to try the laser therapy on her spine and hips, the Galliprant is all that’s being offered for our girl now. It’s a miracle she survived this entire ordeal. The Vet acted as though nobody has ever suggested Galliprant can cause confusion, dementia like symptoms and dismissed my concern. Thanks for sharing. Now I’m certain it must be the Galliprant that causes our furbaby to have this confusion. Just not sure what else we an do about it at this point.

[Michele B]

Our beautiful Lab, Kera, was 9 when an upset to her sytem happened, liver spiked and she refused to eat for 10 days I had some Vet pufren said to spouse stop as I get sick from, she drank, and eventually she began to eat with drop of only 10 pounds She was normally 85 pounds.
I went to holistic Vet and they put her on bone sore, it is powder from Asian Naturalist. I had also started Hemp Oil from King Kanine then switched to Dogs Naturally. We saw improvement about a year ago the arthritis was worse, suggested surgery but after her bout of no food, liver enzymes I said No she should have life with us, not die on table or non recovery.
We were prescribed Galliprant and all regime was fine, not affects as I read, we did cut her down after she seemed better, we added laser therapy and was fine for 10 months…unfortunately her arthritis was now not just her rear right leg but back got worse, and her front legs were wobbly. I made a decision after going for phone to call all the Vets, laser…I instead called to have her put down. Every night after play she was not as active, she would look at me I knew…I know here pain all too well. It was the worst call, but it was the best for her well being.
Medication makes pharms rich, it never stops the disease. I am grateful for meds for many people in need, animals also. But in the long run, disease esp arthritis wins like cancer. I miss her everyday and I am facing total knee replacement, and fear for myself as it is my second surgery another reason why I could not see a 11 year old dog with some past problems going thru this misery. Not being able to walk well myself, I know that saying goodbye was best as it was not going to get better. I cannot blame galiprant for any of the problem I do blame Ibuprofen for stomach issues. But when we first got her she had lyme, it was treated and negative but did that affect her at her vulnerable time, I just know we had 11 years of love. I did see remarkable recovery in cat last year on hemp ol. Kera and I found a lovely Russian Blue type cat chewed up. He was starving, dehyrdrated so we took him to Vet to be Euthanized. Vet said let’s see so 24 we had UK home and we massaged him, Kera with us thru the whole regime daily, after all she did rescue him…(third one). I used King Kanine balm with manuka honey on his wounds. UK was barely 5 pounds, he had been inside cat…he knew litter, cat carrier, food bowls, sound of food can open, bag rustling never made mess….Imagine throwing away such a splendid cat…. The only sad tale is he believes our cats chewed him, beat him so alpha personality is in force. After all the known disease, was done, we showed Vet how UK got his legs working…he used 2 x 4’s to stretch. It reminds me of the ruler we had for our children’s growth and it is. He is with us 18 months, he is 18 pounds and he is healthy even with HIV He has a room and gets exercise periods thru house and loves us. When Kera went, he like the other Cats looked for her…when we mention her …they perk up their ears. We donated all of her meds to Vet for those who cannot afford, but the oil…well, we can use on cats, UK can tell you he has some daily for his fur and skin. I wish you all the best, Vets do try, just animals like us have reactions to meds. Be prepared, research, ask questions…they cannot. One day cure of all of us,….pets first.

[Paul K]

Hello,

We lost our 14 1/2 year old beautiful Cocker Spaniel boy on Jan 22, 2020. He became seriously ill with extremely high liver enzymes (ALT) levels, bilirubin numbers and overall extreme jaundice. Our boy Junior was put on Galliprant in Oct 2017. The medication helped his arthritis very well. He could jump up on the couch and was still playful for an old guy. Over the past year or so I noticed that his stools were much different. They became stringy and loose, The firm poop was no longer the same. I didn’t understand why but he seemed fine and would still have an occasional formed soft stool. In August of 2019, the stool became very watery and started to have blood in it. We took him to the vet and he was put on antibiotics used to help form poop. The antibiotics never worked. He was on the antibiotics up until he started to have accidents around Thanksgiving and became sick at Christmas. Over New Years he was placed in the hospital with an enlarged liver. The hospital took him off the galliprant and his enalapril for heart condition. He was released from the hospital on Jan 2, 2020 even though he was not well but considered stable. Vet felt home life would be good for his recovery. He was treated for an infection in the liver that the hospital thought he had given the results from the ultrasound showed no tumor or cancer. He remained off the galliprant and high blood meds until we lost him yesterday. One thing that was interesting is that after he came home and would eat even though no where what he did, his stools were formed again and looked normal. When we took him back to the vet and mentioned it, they didn’t know why. Well, after looking up galliprant on the FDA’s website I found an article on the FDA site explaining how galliprant works differently than NSAIDs. But still affects the prostaglandins functions especially to the stomach and intestine lining. After doing this quick post research, I realize that although Galliprant helped my buddy’s arthritic condition, I believe that this medication also caused his liver failure and death. What I hope my input to this forum provides is that who ever is reading this and contemplating the use of Galliprant that they get the baseline liver blood levels and monitor it regularly!!!!! I wish I knew this before and not just took my Vet’s word that this medication had a lower side effect of liver damage. I think that isn’t the case with galliprant or NSAIDs. Just becareful when giving this medication and do your home work on what medications you give your pup. I can’t change things now but with our other dog, when she gets older and develops OA, I will try to look for a more homeopathic natural approach to reduce the inflammation. I hope my story here helps you in your decision on treatments…….maybe my story of Junior will save or prevent someone from losing their pet before they have to. As the post before me said, Pets First……

[Davey M]

My cockapoo, Shelby, has been on Galliprant for several months now. Overall, she seems to be tolerating the drug and it has helped significantly with her arthritis pain.
I have one concern, in the last couple of months I’ve noticed a physical change, especially with her front legs and body. Her chest seems much wider and her legs are bow-legged with her feet turned in like a bulldog. I was on prednisone in the past for my rheumatoid arthritis and it caused my face to get wider and rounder – the notorious “moon face”. I’m wondering if a similar thing is happening with my dog due to the drug. Has anyone else noticed a similar transformation with long term use of Galliprant?

Thanks,
D

[Michael H]

Has anyone seen any adverse reactions from dogs Labrador Retriever taking Vetoryl and Gelliprant?

My lab was recently put to sleep due to uncontrollable bleeding from his nose. The vet suspected a tumor and he was 12 yrs and 5 mo old. We couldn’t get the bleeding to stop and he became weaker and was unable to get any sleep.

I am wondering if any other owners had similar experiences with pets on those two medications just to double check if it could have maybe been an adverse reaction to the medication?

[Oliviaa G]

What is Galliprant and what is it used for? Galliprant is a veterinary medicine. It is used in dogs to treat pain associated with mild to moderate osteoarthritis, a condition causing swelling and pain in the joints. It contains the active substance grapiprant Galliprant is a first-of-its-kind, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) for dogs that uses targeted action to treat osteoarthritis pain and inflammation. The convenient, flavored chewable tablet is safe to use daily.Not for use in humans. Keep out of reach of children and pets. Monitoring is recommended if used long term. Should not be used in dogs who are allergic to grapiprant or with other anti-inflammatory drugs.
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