Question:
Ok ... I'm taking my pup in tomorrow for a chryptorchid neuter.

The clinic I'm taking him to uses fentanyl patches for pain relief after surgery. Unfortunately there seems to be a back-order situation with them and there is some question as to whether they will have them in stock. (prob. due to the fact that they are classified as a narcotic)

I called my normal vet clinic (who wanted to charge more than double for the same procedure, another story) to see if I would be able to obtain them there, if necessary.

Next thing I know I am being told that fentanyl is not considered very effective for pain management because 'no one knows how much is getting through the skin? This doesn't seem to make sense to me since it is a very strong pain drug and continuous delivery avoids the peaks and valleys of oral medication.

Was I just getting a 'pressure tactic' or is there information about dogs and fentanyl patches that I don't have? Taking into consideration that the patch will be on a relatively hair-free location...

Answer:
is out at our place right now doing horse vacs, so I asked him his opinion. He said the patches wouldn't be approved for use if they weren't safe and he uses them all the time. We had one on our dog 4 years ago when he had to have leg surgery and it was great.

If you can't get it from your vet there are certainly suppliers who can express them to you but once you pay for the shipping you might as well get them nearby. The clinic you are using may just be relying on one supplier as well. Perhaps if you find some you can get, the clinic can bring them in for you and cover the shipping cost?

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Next thing I know I am being told that fentanyl is not considered very effective for pain management because 'no one knows how much is getting through the skin? This doesn't seem to make sense to me since it is a very strong pain drug and continuous delivery avoids the peaks and valleys of oral medication
Not effective pain management ????? It is often used for bone cancer or leg amputation pain management.

I am more surprised the vet is using such a powerful drug for a neuter that is comparable to a spay surgery.


As for removal of the patchh, it can be made much easier by using mineral or vegetable oil by spreading it over the patch and letting it asborb in which softens up the adhesive allowing it to lift off easily without pulling the skin.

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I am more surprised the vet is using such a powerful drug for a neuter that is comparable to a spay surgery.
I am also surprised. My husky had the same operation and was just given the normal pain killers to come home with and he was fine.

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We use them for major surgeries like orthopedics and declaws (lets not turn this into a thread on declaws please). I personally have never used them on a cryptorchid neuter. Just normal injectable pain killers while there here and home on oral pain killers if needed.
Your vet can write a script for you to pick up at any normal pharmacy as well. We had to do that because we didn't carry the appropriate size for a large dog. There was no problems with doing that either.
Just something to suggest to your vet.

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Fentanyl patches are very effective for pain management. We use them all the time for my patients- admittedly tiny or young humans with cancer. But I understand from my vet - who always has them on hand (pets do have accidents, she would not be doing her job very well if she did not have appropriate pain meds - and she is not one ro overdo it in prescribing pain meds for some procedures (I had to come up eith my own meds for YY when she was spayed but she would have given her something had I asked, I did check with her before creating my concoction tho cats cope with narcotics much better than we humans do - but they still suffer pain!!)

That sounds like a strange excuse - ie because it is a narcotic. If that was the case, I would not keep any around either - tho we do have a security guard from the hospital who watches the office. I wonder if this vet is reluctant to use pain meds? There are some non narcotic ones that work well for dogs (tho I do not know what the dogs would say). And yes, your vet can ewsily give you a script and you can go to yur regular pharmacy. (Here, some pharmacies now have signs indicating they do not have large quantities of certain narcotics which is understandable but fentenyl is not one of them - one cannot chew it, at least easily, I suppose someone with an addiction would find a way.) But patches are not as easy to "abuse" as some of the other meds we dispense.

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Thanks for some of the confirmation.

The reasons gave by my vet (not the vet doing the procedure) didn't 'smell right' to me. My gut feeling is unwillingness to help because I'm not using them for the neuter procedure. The "not very effective" comment didn't make any sense to me at the time (I'm pretty pharmaceutically literate) and even less after some confirmation from the rest of you.


I dropped him off for the surgery this morning and am now waiting to pick him up (complete with fentanyl patch) this afternoon. Poor pup is going to be pretty out of it when I get him. I've already got a nice pillow nest in the trunk for him on the ride home.

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Originally Posted by rainbow
I am also surprised. My husky had the same operation and was just given the normal pain killers to come home with and he was fine.

Alot of vet literature I was reading online seemed to indicate a growing reluctance to treat a spay or chryptorchid neuter as anything less than major surgery. Its a routine procedure but generates ALOT of trauma signals to the central nervous system.

Looking at it from that front, I'm not surprised by the choice and greatly appreciate the use of a continous delivery system.

Peaks and valleys of pain from oral medication suck, as I know from personal experience. Unlike large animal vets, small animal vets seem unwilling to demonstrate proper technique for a quicker acting IM pain-killers. (I have experience with IM for horses, IV can be done by a vet thank you)

So I'm happy for the 'big guns' with my wussy pup. Even something like fentayl isn't going to make him feel 'fine'

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So does that mean a female dog that gets spayed should get the Fentanyl patch as well?

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Hey ... what's good for the gander is good for the goose.

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Of Course !!!

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