Talks from WVC 2024- Nutrition for Lifespan Extension and Frailty
Source: Talks from WVC 2024- Nutrition for Lifespan Extension and Frailty |
Hello everyone,
I am new to the group but I have been reading the posts and found a lot of useful information. My 7 year old Standard Poodle just started taking rapamycin 10 days ago for overall health preventative purpose. I am ordering the capsules from Dr. Kevin Toman. But I was just informed that the compounding pharmacy he has been using is retiring/closing so he will switch to generic rapamycin tabs and the cost for 3 mg doses will be higher since he has to combine 1mg and 2 mg tabs.
So reading about reputable pharmacies in India on here, I ordered some Zydus 1mg tabs. I trust Zydus since their brand is FDA approved. The cost is much less compared to getting it from Dr. Toman, even Zydus brand is the most expensive one out of all the generic offered from India.
Our dog is getting 3 mg three times a week dosage and so far doing well.
Hope to share and learn more about rapamycin’s use in dogs.
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Welcome to the forums. Please post periodically on how your dog is doing and update us. Are there any specific issues of age that your dog is suffering from yet? Have you seen any change in the dog’s energy level or playfulness or any other metric (good or bad)?
Thank you for the welcome. I will post updates. 
No specific issues we are trying to address but the data we have so far really make sense to me that rapamycin can help improve health span, not just life span. So far, I haven’t notice any changes but it has only been one week and half since he started. I am sad to learn that the current DAP study doesn’t have enough funding to continue…so I didn’t want to wait any longer before starting our dog on it.
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Kelsey
#163
I personally would prefer Zydus, even Biocon, over a domestic compounding pharmacy.
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Yes - its something to be careful of. We’ve seen issues with some compounding pharmacy products, so its a good thing to check their testing of their product (ask to see what they’ve 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 isn’t any specific health issues I am trying to address, just want to give rapamycin for general healthspan purposes.
I welcome other’s 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 dog’s system? Just giving it once a week seem to leave the system without this medication most of the time??
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OK. I’m 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 I’ve 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. You’re 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 don’t know yet.
I might try to give 4 mg once a week to see if that works as well.
I would appreciate others’ experiences on dosage since we are all trying to figure this out!
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Davin8r
#171
I give my 9 year old 64 lb goldendoodle 4mg per week (consistent with TRIAD study dose) and he’s 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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jnorm
#174
Just had his 3rd rapa dose. 3mg every 10
days.
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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 he’ll 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. He’s also had mild mitral valve disease for the past 2 years, but zero progression while on rapamycin.
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59vw
#176
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 can’t 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? I’m 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?
