Low Dose Naltrexone for Pets

 
                           



There is a yahoo support group called "LDN for Pets" - It has much info on using LDN for cats, dogs and horses - and I imagine other critters as well.

Dr. Skip (Skip's Pharmacy - one of the best LDN compounding pharmacy!) is part of the community and knows much about proper dosing.  And some of the members have much experience with using LDN on their own pets.

For those who are interested, the proper dose of LDN is very small and the formula is this:

.03 mg. x weight

BTW - one can obtain Naltrexone 50mg without a prescription via:

NaltrexoneRx.com

I had tried using LDN on one of my cats a few years back - I am not sure that it helped because I did not use it regularly on Panda - I had just started using it myself.  Plus, she had carcinoma of the ear that had already spread to her brain so it was probably already too late.   And indeed, if one does a search on the web for "LDN for Cats" there are a few folks who did try using it on their own cats.  With not much success - however,  all of the cats were already close to end stage in the various disorders that they had.   Again, LDN as a "last ditch" resort to a crucial problem - so many people have turned to it for the same reason - traditional medicine no longer works for them or never did.

New Orleans has become a very expensive place to live - we have the highest car insurance rates in the country - perhaps the world.  Our utitlities are sky high as well as water bills.  Housing is through the roof - no wonder we have such a high homeless rate here.

I have been struggling for years to get by - lately things have been really bad - and of course the time that a few of my cats have become quite ill.  And are now 12-15 years old.  I was able to take one cat to the vet and am still paying on the $207.00 bill.  My heart is breaking because Mr. Magoo has hyperthesia - he is very sensitive to touch and has ripped a lot of his fur out.  He needs desperately to go to the vet for labwork to try and figure out what underlying condition(s) might have brought this on.  He has always been on a high quality diet - with no grains whatsoever. And he was always a cat who loved the slicker brush and zoom groom - not anymore.   My holistic vet is trying to help - Magoo is currently on antibiotics (as are two other cats in the house) as well as homeopathic remedies - nux vomic and hypericum, which do seem to help him.

I made the decision to start him on LDN the other night -  I only gave him .01 mg the first night and upped it to .02 the next night - he is a big guy @14 pounds so his goal dosage will be 0.39 mg.  We will see how it goes. He seems a bit more nervous today so I will try every other night dosing at 02 for a time - see how it goes and then work our way up.  Hopefully, he will be able to have labs sometime soon.

Of course, I would recommend to everyone who wants to start their own pet on  LDN, to have labs done first and to let their vet know what you plan to do.   As I do not have enough money for toilet tissue at the moment, I cannot do it.  So I am using one of my last five 3mg LDN capsules to give to Magoo.   In a dark vial, dump in the capsule - add 3ml (same as mg) of bottled or distilled water - and shake.  Draw up required amount in syringe and give to pet.  Same if one has other strengths of LDN capsules or a 50mg tab - but use 50ml of water. Use the same amount of water as the mg of ldn used.  Keep in fridge - it will keep a long time.

I will update on Magoo's progress as we go along - I am hoping that it will help and that I am not too late in starting to treat whatever the poor guy has.  He is one of the 5 cats that survived for two weeks without food or water following the levee breaches after Katrina - all of those cats are heroes to me as well as being my "children"  -  I cannot tell you the stress and heartbreak that his illness has brought to me.   Again, the LDN is what has kept me going and I pray that it will do the same for Magoo.

NIGHTMARE -  Last Thursday, after noting that Magoo was drooling,  I pried open his mouth and found a nasty tumor underneath his tongue.  Extremely shocking and very sad finding - and after finally getting an appointment for him for exam and labs - this.   And feeling like an idiot that I did not see it earlier - I had been in his mouth 3 times daily for a couple of months.

Awaiting holistic vet's call - she briefly looked at it on Friday.  She wants to try and shrink it before doing anything else - trying Thuja - 1M and 50M.   Meanwhile, I let Magoo skip a couple of days of the LDN - I am so afraid of cell proliferation with this.   However, after spending hours upon hours reading about this insidious disease, and how almost all cases end badly,  I figure that Magoo has nothing to lose with the LDN.  Started over last night with 0.15 mg and will go to every night dosing of 0.20 tonight.  The less is more approach obviously did not work for him -  well, hopefully, we will know more once the poor guy has lab work -  I am devastated over this - Goo is my boy - a sweet sweet spirit.    Playing this poverty game might have cost him his life.

UPDATE JULY 5TH 2013

Vet visit for labs and xray show clean scans and normal liver & kidney function tests. Slightly enlarged heart and liver.   Elevated white blood cells because of UTI.   Tumor that looked red and ragged last week now looks more pink with smooth edges.  Vet thinks might have shot that it is lymph related and not SCC.  On antibiotics for 8 days and then see how he is - then, if still needed, go to another vet for biopsy.

Been syringing his mouth with calendula and grapefruit seed extract mixed with bottled water several times a day.  0.02 LDN almost every night.  Vet not thrilled but did write Magoo a script for liquid LDN that will be filled at Skip's Pharmacy.  And as Magoo weighs in at 15-16 pounds, his correct LDN dose is more like 0.45 mg.  But again, less is more with LDN, particularly in those with impaired liver function.  So keeping fingers and paws crossed that it is not SCC!!!!!!