Assisi Loop: New Hope for Bitsy Boodle?

Chris

Chris

Premium Member
Some of you may know that Bitsy Boodle suffers from lifelong arthritis. We took Bitsy to the vet — she’s been limping horribly after chasing a deer…again. She literally has no cartilage left in her leg joints. Her hips and shoulders are going, too. She has new meds and the vet upped her Tramadol to three times a day. I give her weekly Ataquan shots.

I fear she won’t last the winter.

I am so torn. How much pain is she in? She loves her food and is still bright-eyed. Please pray I know when it’s time.

But I just learned about a new treatment: the Assisi Loop. Have any of you used this? http://www.assisianimalhealth.com/
 
So sorry to hear that Bitsy have it so bad - poor girl. :hugs

Currently do not know "the Loop" and I can not find anything about it in Danish, so it's probably not have come to Europe yet.
 
Chris, so sorry your Bitsy Boodle is having this much trouble.

I had never heard of the Assisi Loop, but reading about it on their web site sounds like it might be based on pulse therapy...which is something that our vet used on my Pixie for a partially torn ACL to induce healing and hopefully avoid surgery. It was very different in that Pixie had to be sedated for the treatments and the pulse therapy was done 3x over a 2 month period. It was just as expensive as the surgery would have been but it did the job.

Would be very interested to hear what you find out about this Loop from your vet.

Trini
 
I'm sorry to hear Bitsy Boodle is struggling. It's both cute and frustrating how dogs live in the moment. Deska will still chase a car or bicycle given the chance.

I haven't heard of the Assisi Loop but reading the site it's a PEMF, which is conceptually similar to a TENs machine. I use a TENs on Tully (only sometimes on Deska because he moves), it gets messy though with the conductive material so the Assisi loop would be easier, albeit a little more expensive. Although reading the research on the site it's not a great evidence base. I did find this article http://painfreeoutlet.com/pain-relief-tens-versus-pemf/ (randomised placebo trial for OA knee pain) finding TENS gives significantly more pain relief than PEMF, (18.8 vs 6.8) but PEMF did still give some relief.

I'll ask the dogs' physio next week. I guess if you have the money it may be worth the purchase. I know all the meds easily add up to the cost of a machine.

Btw. Maybe ask your vet about physeptone instead of tramadol, much better pain relief but it is a controlled substance.
 
Always an incredibly hard call but if she can chase deer she is likely better than you fear (even when there is a penalty for it)
 
Have you looked into acupuncture and/or laser therapy?

My 12 year old Daisy has acupuncture, laser therapy and weekly Adequan injections, so I am not sure which is helping her the most . . . but it is all working.

I had acupuncture myself on my knee before eventual knee replacement surgery, so that might be an option since her cartilage is gone (or almost gone).

It is so hard to watch them grow old ::cry:
 
Sheltie4 said:
Have you looked into acupuncture and/or laser therapy?

My 12 year old Daisy has acupuncture, laser therapy and weekly Adequan injections, so I am not sure which is helping her the most . . . but it is all working.

I had acupuncture myself on my knee before eventual knee replacement surgery, so that might be an option since her cartilage is gone (or almost gone).

It is so hard to watch them grow old ::cry:
Click to expand...

We've done cold laser and acupuncture-- some relief.
 
I'm so sorry to hear about Bitsy, Chris. I second the recommendation for trying Adquan shots. It's liquid glucosamine and really can help. I give shots to Pixie every few weeks. We started with twice a week and worked down to our current schedule. She also gets Zeel, a homeopathic arthritis medication recommended by The Whole Dog Journal. I get it on Amazon, it's marketed as T-Relief Arthritis and has helped her some. She gets one crushed pill in her food in the morning and one at night, along with a daily Cosequin pill.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000Y38NJI...UTF8&qid=1440679598&sr=sr-1&keywords=t-relief

Pixie, who is only 10 and has severe arthritis in her front elbows, also has days when she's in pain and it's very hard to see, but she loves life and gentle walks to the mailbox with me. I'm with you for trying whatever might work to help. I don't know about the Loop but it's worth investigating. We also tried laser therapy, which worked for a while but not long term.
 
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