Our customer asked:
My vet has prescribed Meloxidyl for my 12 yr old labrador who had developed arthritis due to a tear in his leg muscle. A colleague has suggested I give my labrador Cortaflex. I would appreciate your professional advice as to whether or not my lab can have both or should I persist in just giving him the meloxidyl that our vet has prescribed.
Our reply:
There are a great many nutritional supplements which are claimed to benefit dogs like yours. There is a small amount of good evidence to back up the claims for some of the products. Cortaflex Dog & Cat Liquid is just one of many. There are no good comparative studies to try and evaluate different products against each other that I am aware of. Personally I would say that prescribed NSAID medications, such as Meloxidyl, are of great benefit and are well proven. It is completely safe and very often done, to also give one of the supplements concurrently. (The NSAIDs themselves are not completely safe. They will occasionally have serious side effects, but that is rare and they are of significant benefit to many animals and people.) If you are going to give a supplement, personally I would suggest Yumove Chewable Tablets. It has the best range of well-regarded ingredients and good quality ingredients in my opinion. There are plenty of rival products with similar ingredients though (about 40 listed on our website alone).