I personally would prefer Zydus, even Biocon, over a domestic compounding pharmacy.
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Yes - its something to be careful of. Weāve seen issues with some compounding pharmacy products, so its a good thing to check their testing of their product (ask to see what theyāve done to validate the bioavailability issues - rapamycin, if not well protected, will get destroyed in the stomach otherwise).
And yes, Zydus and Biocon are well proven and the companies are large and sell FDA approved products so I trust them more than the typical small compounding pharmacy that may not know about the bioavailability issue of their products.
See these threads:
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I am happy to be switching to Zydus brand products- all thanks to the information shared here!
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Received the Zydus brand 1 mg tabs. Started my dog on them this week. He takes 3 mg three times a week with food. So far he has been on rapamycin for about 5 weeks. No negative side effects. As I mentioned there isnāt any specific health issues I am trying to address, just want to give rapamycin for general healthspan purposes.
I welcome otherās experience with giving their dogs rapamycin. Have a great weekend.
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Wow - thats a pretty high dose for a dog (unless the dog is really big). in the new rapamycin dog trial called TRIAD at the University of Washington , they are dosing dogs once weekly, at approx. 0.15mg/kg of rapamycin.
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My dog weighs 60 lbs. Dr. Toman recommends this dosage based on the first trial. He said the once a week dose is/was used for convenience, not because the three times a week dose is too high.
I read others using the three times a week dosage here as well.
Guess the ideal dosage is not known at this time.
Is the once a week dose better? How long does rapamycin stay in the dogās system? Just giving it once a week seem to leave the system without this medication most of the time??
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OK. Iām not criticizing you, just making sure you know what has been done in the testing of rapamycin in dogs so far.
In the initial clinical study that the University of Washington did on rapamycin use in dogs, they used a dosing regimen as follows:
Dosing Schedule and Amount:
Schedule: Monday/Wed/Friday
- The low rapamycin group received 0.05 mg/kg rapamycin (sirolimus) at each dosing.
- The high rapamycin group received 0.1 mg/kg rapamycin at each dosing.
- The dogs in the rapamycin treatment groups were dosed to the nearest 0.5 mg based on their body weight at the initial exam.
So, for a 60lb dog, (27.2kg) the low dose rapamycin (3 times per week) would be: 1.36 mg
So, for a 60lb dog, (27.2kg) the High dose rapamycin (3 times per week) would be: 2.72 mg
Actually, now that Iāve done the calculations, I see you are just at the high dose rapamycin. No issues - it just seemed a little potentially high given what little information I had. Youāre just following the higher dose protocol which sounds like its working well for you and your dog.
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No worries. I want to be doing the right thing as well.
It is hard to know what dosage/ timing works the best because we just donāt know yet.
I might try to give 4 mg once a week to see if that works as well.
I would appreciate othersā experiences on dosage since we are all trying to figure this out!
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I give my 9 year old 64 lb goldendoodle 4mg per week (consistent with TRIAD study dose) and heās done very well with it for the past couple of years. I worry about the 3x weekly dose recommended by Dr Toman because of unknowns for potential for long term side effects.
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Yes, I will be switching to once a week dosing as well. I will be giving my dog 4 mg a week.
Have you notice any difference/improvement since he has been taking rapamycin?
I also started a topic about donating to the Dog Aging Project as they are looking for private funding to keep the project going.
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Yes, he wants to go for morning walks every day now (for a long time it was hit and miss, but over the past year or so he never misses one!). He also has no gray hair even though heāll be 10 years old next month. He has a few benign growths (multiple lipomas and a few small cysts on skin), but so far no cancer. Heās also had mild mitral valve disease for the past 2 years, but zero progression while on rapamycin.
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Your beautiful dog has an interesting coat pattern. Looks to be Merle on one side and whatever you call classic on the other although I canāt see if this extends throughout his/her body. Since the Merle gene is dominant I wonder if there was a mutation early in development to inactivate it? Iām not up on dog coat color genetics but have seen similar human conditions where pigmentation phenotypes stop abruptly at the midline. Have you investigated the origin of his/her coat pattern? Seriously beautiful pup, I hope she/he has a long life!
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Great to hear that! I hope he continues to do well.
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Very handsome boy! How old is he?
How did you determine your current dosing schedule of every 10 days instead of weekly?
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Nice to hear about your dog not having any progression of his mitral valve disease since starting rapamycin. What kind of mitral valve disease does your dog have? Was progression expected over these 2 years?
From his echocardiogram report (I left out all the normal findings and just focused on whatās abnormal):
Findings: Echocardiogram is compared to previous. No progression is noted. There is thickening of the mitral valve leaflets with mild mitral regurgitation.
Diagnosis: Degenerative mitral valve disease (ACVIM Stage B1, stable disease)
Information for owners:
Degenerative valvular disease (also called valvular endocardiosis, or myxomatous valvular degeneration) is the most common acquired cardiac condition in dogs. It can affect any of the heart valves, however the mitral valve located on the left side of the heart is the most commonly, and most severely, affected. The degenerative changes result in thickening of the valve which results in a
leak, or insufficiency, of the valve. The changes can be mild, moderate, or severe in nature. Unfortunately, we cannot predict which patients will ultimately progress to severe disease. The heart is able to compensate for mild disease, however, when the disease becomes severe, the heart can only compensate for a finite period of time. When a patient is diagnosed with severe myxomatous
mitral valve degeneration (MMVD), congestive heart failure (CHF), specifically pulmonary edema, which is fluid back up into the lungs, is impending. It is also not uncommon to have myxomatous tricuspid valve degeneration. The tricuspid valve is on the right side of the heart. Uncommonly, the degenerative changes to the tricuspid valve are significant enough to result in right sided congestive
heart failure which usually manifests as fluid accumulation within the abdomen (ascites) and appears as bloating.
Stage B1 ā Asymptomatic dogs with no or mild radiographic or echocardiographic enlargement of the heart. Generally, no treatment is indicated in this stage.
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Thanks for the info.
Thank you everyone who contributed to this super helpful thread.
My guy is 11.5 yr old standard poodle who is having arthritis issues. Iāve been searching for info on rapamycin for him and this thread has everything I was looking for and more, including peopleās personal experiences.
He just had a blood panel done that came back great. I am going to ask his vet who I hope will be supportive, but if not we will probably press on anyway. We will certainly be back to check in.
Thank you all again!
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Your beautiful dog has an interesting coat pattern. Looks to be Merle on one side and whatever you call classic on the other although I canāt see if this extends throughout his/her body. Since the Merle gene is dominant I wonder if there was a mutation early in development to inactivate it? Iām not up on dog coat color genetics but have seen similar human conditions where pigmentation phenotypes stop abruptly at the midline. Have you investigated the origin of his/her coat pattern? Seriously beautiful pup, I hope she/he has a long life!
The other half is called tri-color, but the rest of his body is merle. I did a bit of research on this and tri-colors are recessive, so I guess heās homozygous black for the color gene, and wouldāve otherwise been a tri-color had he not gotten the merle gene.
The merle gene is inactivated by mutations caused by cell divisions in early development, so areas that are black are where it has been inactivated, whereas the grey areas it is still active. As for how he got the almost perfect asymmetry down his face, it seems the merle gene must have been inactivated early on in the cell(s) which gave rise to the left side of his face.
Very handsome boy! How old is he?
How did you determine your current dosing schedule of every 10 days instead of weekly?
Heās going on 4! I missed the second dose by a few days so I just went with every 10 instead.
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