Monday morning, our 19 year old cat was unable to walk with all four legs. His back left leg was dragging behind him shaking with nearly every step he took. He was still able to get around, even jump up to chairs and couches but every step involved that leg shaking behind.

Both of our geriatric cats have serious problems with Arthritis and we have done about all we can to help with this condition at home. The next step is medication, which is something we have been trying to avoid.

Off-Label Prescription Drugs

I had not heard of off-label drug usage before this but when it comes to cats, there is no pain medication approved for long term use. So many people and even vets will use medication against the label directions for extreme cases like our cat was suffering. In the US, cats can only get 3 days of pain medication, and no more because the medication is dangerous over the long term. This is the latest medicine of it's kind just released in 2012, it is called Onsior.

http://www.onsior.com/

Side Effects

Both of our cats have Kidney disease, which is extremely common in older cats. This means that their kidneys are only working at about 10% of their normally healthy capacity. The reasons why this happens, and how to treat kidney disease will be for another post to come soon, because renal failure is another important part of taking care of very old cats!

However, pain medication for cats will put added work and pressure on their kidneys, stressing the kidney even further.

So there is a fine line we walk now between managing pain for arthritis while maintaining kidney health.

After one pain pill, the cats leg was a bit better again. Not perfect, he still slides it around a bit and he has trouble sitting, but the leg would drag and shake behind him much less frequently.

Bunny Hopping

About 3 weeks ago, we noticed that our cat was prancing. We thought it was cute at first. But then it got worse, and more frequent. So we had been thinking something may be wrong, but could not confirm it until the leg was not working correctly on Monday.

It turns out he was not prancing, rather he had arthritic pain in his hips and this can result in the cat sometimes hopping around, almost like a rabbit.

Back Legs and Hips

Another sign of such painful arthritis in the hips shows when the cat stops walking on their toes. In the photo below, we can see how Vega's back leg is flat footed on our desk. He is not standing on his toes as he usually does. Giving us a strong indication that this kitty is in a lot of pain.

CBD Oil

I have read that the use of CBD Oil for pets is not approved in the US. So it may be technically illegal to some degree. I am not really sure. However, if you run a Google search on, "CBD Oil for Cats", then numerous results show up.

https://www.innovetpet.com/products/purcbd

There are lots of companies selling CBD Oils designed for pets. CBD oil is an extract taken from the Marijuana plant. The CBD chemical does not get anyone high and it is prescribed extensively by many doctors for all sorts of ailments. It has been said to cure skin cancer, help with kidney function, anxiety, nausea, appetite, and for pain.

However, most doctors and vets seem to agree that more testing is needed, but the Federal Government and big Pharma have held this unique and potentially very powerful medicine back by keeping such testing illegal.

The reviews on CBD Oil for pets are stellar and full of hopeful stories. In fact, I have yet to read one single negative story about the use of CBD Oils for pets.

We saw our poor kitty in so much pain, it was absolutely heartbreaking. So we decided at the age of 19, we should be willing to try anything that has such good reviews. Especially if we were tempted to give him more than 3 days of Onsior, which is off-label use. So we started our kitty on CBD Oil on Monday as well.

CBD Oil Seems to Work Best

So we have been watching our cat very closely over the past four days and while the Onsior seemed to help a little, it also made the cat drowsy and left him with no appetite. Not to mention the damage it was doing to his kidneys. Since we can only give him 3 days of Onsior, yesterday morning was his last pill.

However, after 4 days of moderate CBD Oil treatment as directed on the bottle. We have noticed that the back leg is not dragging behind him anymore. He is starting to get his appetite back but he is still eating poorly.

The CBD Oil did not seem to really kick in until Thursday morning, after about 4 days. Not one single limp from him yet this morning which is the first time since Monday.