[shallhb]

Does anyone know anything about the efficacy of this product for arthritis in dogs? It's supposed to be a special milk protein, and one site mentions that it has clinical trials supporting its use. Its an over the counter drug, and expensive.
Thanks,
Shraon Hall

 

[lala]

We used it with Jacques and it did seem to help.

Good luck.

lala

 

[Betsy Iole]

Technical Brief: Pharmacology of Microlactin--pdf file from the manufacturer's site.

Gas  
chromatography and mass spectroscopy studies to date have found no evidence of known  
carbohydrate, lipid, steroid, or peptide structures.  Definitive chemical and structural studies of  
the molecule(s) are in progress.

! :roll:

Searching PubMed for "hyperimmune milk factor", there are a handful of papers from 10 or more years ago. "Microlactin" yields no citations; neither does "Duralactin". The active agent sounds like it might have some anti-inflammatory activity, but I don't find any information addressing dosing, side effects, etc. The company claims to have sponsored studies, but I cannot verify their claims that (some? one? of) these studies have been published in peer-reviewed journals. At this point, the available evidence seems rather sparse.

 

[shallhb]

Thanks. I tried to find something on the internet, and went round and round in circles. It's mighty expensive--$40.00 for a 3 month supply. Sure smells good.
Sharon Hall

 

[Betsy Iole]

That's one of the problems with nutraceuticals--they're long on marketing hype and short on substance.

 

[Barbara Winters]

See Technical Brief: Pharmacology of MicrolactinÔ by C. Woods DVM, MS and D. Gingerich, DVM, MS.
I rather doubt this was independent research.

 

[shallhb]

Thanks Barbara,
It looks like the article comes right from someone with a trademark on microlactin, since the brand name is used throughout. I did notice that most of the references are old, which makes you wonder. It would be an easy drug to do a blinded, controlled trial on, since I'd guess you could make the same tablets of ordinary dried milk. Hard to tell from this article what's going on, isn't it? Except that it seems to do something for rat's paws...
Sharon Hall