Give Your Cat's Heart a Fighting Chance

Our veterinary pharmacy prescribes either the brand name pill form or a compounded liquid formulation available in multiple flavorings to make it easy for your dog or cat to consume. This gives you flexibility to choose the option that works best for your dog or cat's preferences and your administration comfort level.

The Rapamycin Protocol is a fully comprehensive and personalized treatment plan guided by your Petspan veterinarian and based on the most recently published studies in dogs and cats.

• Medical review by a US-based, licensed veterinarian. Petspan veterinarians analyze your pet’s medical history and examination findings to prescribe personalized health recommendations. If your veterinarian deems the medication appropriate for your pet, you will be receive a recommended treatment plan for your pet, explaining the benefits and what to expect. You will need to meet with your Petspan veterinarian via a virtual video consultation every 6 months to continue the medication, but we recommend messaging your pet’s care team monthly to track progress and response - or sooner if you have any concerns.
• Prescriptions delivered to your door. Our US-based pharmacies, which are LegitScript-certified, handle the direct shipment of your pet’s medication to your doorstep. We prioritize selecting medications with the highest bioavailability to maximize their effectiveness.

Regular diagnostic testing including basic blood and urine tests are recommended prior to starting treatment, at 3 months after initiating treatment, and every 6 months thereafter as long as your pet is on the medication. We recommend uploading these results to your pet’s patient portal for Petspan care team review. This allows your Petspan veterinarian to track improvements in your pet’s health indicators and monitor for any side effects. These tests can be done with your regular veterinarian or via a mobile veterinary service in your area.

Upon thorough medical review and screening, should your pet be deemed suitable for the Petspan Rapamycin Protocol, administration of Rapamycin will occur just once a week. For instance, should your pet’s current weekly dosage be 3 mg, and you're given 1 mg pills, you'll give all three pills on a single day, as opposed to distributing them over the week.

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The reason for this methodology stems from the cyclical nature of the benefits Rapamycin offers for anti-aging. Unlike transplant patients who take Rapamycin daily, the longevity benefits are drawn from the intermittent inhibition of mTOR. The therapeutic benefit of Rapamycin is derived from pulsated inhibition of mTOR, avoiding continuous inhibition. This approach prevents bloodstream concentrations of rapamycin that could inhibit mTOR-Complex 2, leading to immune suppression, which we aim to evade.

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By adhering to a weekly dosage, we sidestep the immunosuppressive side effects of Rapamycin. We strive to administer Rapamycin in a manner that leverages the mTOR inhibitory benefits, such as stimulating autophagy, in cycles, and then returning to baseline mTOR activity.

The risk of cancer is related to daily dosing for transplant patients, whereas our approach involves intermittent dosing every 7 days to avoid immune suppression. This distinction has varying implications for cancer. Rapamycin inhibits mTOR, exhibiting anti-cancer properties by preventing cell proliferation and inflammatory conditions conducive to cancer. Daily dosing may suppress the immune system, while our low-dose cyclical dosing enhances immune function, potentially contributing to rapamycin's anti-cancer benefits. For more information about rapamycin, immune health, and cancer, please visit our Petspan blog to access dedicated articles.

Yes, rapamycin has an excellent safety profile in pets when properly dosed.

Rapamycin has demonstrated an excellent safety profile in dogs across multiple clinical studies. The University of Washington Dog Aging Project study of 24 dogs showed zero clinical side effects over 10 weeks compared to placebo. A larger Texas A&M study of 17 dogs treated for 12 months found that no dogs required medical intervention for adverse events. In clinical practice, one veterinary clinic treating over 500 dogs reports adverse effects as "very rare" - only about 3% of dogs experience mild GI upset that typically resolves as their system adapts.

If approved after your consultation with your Petspan veterinarian, it takes two days for the pharmacy to process the medication and another two to three days for it to ship. Note that the pharmacy is closed on weekends, which can extend the processing and shipping times. When your order ships, you will receive a tracking link.

If you need to provide the Post Office with specific delivery instructions, please go to their website (usps.com) and click Quick Tools -> Track a Package. There is a section called "How do I leave delivery instructions."

We currently accept major credit cards such as Mastercard, Visa, and American Express.

Once you sign up for your pet’s consultation, your card will be charged for the cost of the virtual visit. If during the visit your pet is determined to be a good candidate for rapamycin treatment, you will then be billed for the medication and it will be sent to the pharmacy to be filled and shipped. You will continue to be billed based on your subscription duration unless you make a change in your plan. Your prescription will be auto renewed based on your subscription duration.

You can cancel or pause your subscription at anytime by logging into your pet’s patient portal and navigating to your Subscriptions. For any additional questions, please message us in the application or email us at support@mypetspan.com.

Rapamycin inhibits the mTOR (mechanistic target of rapamycin) pathway, which is a key driver of the abnormal heart muscle growth seen in HCM. By blocking this pathway, rapamycin helps prevent further heart wall thickening and may even reverse existing hypertrophy, as demonstrated in clinical trials.

Traditional veterinary medicine offers only "watchful waiting" for cats with subclinical HCM, then symptomatic management once heart failure develops. Rapamycin is the first treatment that targets the cellular pathway (mTOR) that causes heart wall thickening, potentially slowing or reversing the disease process rather than just managing symptoms.

Based on clinical trial data, most cat owners see measurable cardiac improvements within 8-12 weeks of starting treatment. The RAPACAT study showed statistically significant reduction in heart wall thickness after 6 months (p=0.01). However, every cat responds differently, and our veterinarians will monitor your cat's specific progress.