OLD DOG- Bad Hips

adequan injections though I believe they are pricey. sometime if you are a long time client they will owrk with you. They would inject it into her muscle, it is not painful....more later

I get it! We have a 100 pound golden/lab/husky and whatever else mix. We too adopted him in 2005! I also giggled when you mentioned the squirrel in the yard because it's the same here. My vet explained it that it was similar to the rush of adrenaline, then they feel it later.

We did a bottle of the Dasaquin, mentioned below and I think it helped. But for no particular reason, I switched to something I found at Petco that had the same glucosamine and MSM ingredients. We also switched his food to Blue Buffalo senior. But what I think has helped the most was high dose of Omega-3 in his food. It was recommended by our vet and I tried to poke holes in fish oil caps for a while, which was a mess. Plus, to get a therapeutic dose of the EPA and DHA it was so many pills! So I found a high concentrate Omega 3 oil by Metagenics, which is pharmaceutical grade. I pour a little less than a teaspoon over his food once or twice a day. Not only has the arthritis seemed to have gotten better, but his coat is amazing!

Good Luck

There are doggy arthritis meds (hopefully DVMMom will spot this later and be able to give a little more help). Talk to your vet and see what they suggest.

Hi,
We have a 65 lb GSD who is 8 1/2 years old. She has started showing signs of arthritis in the past year or so, and had a limp in a front leg a month or two ago. (I posted about it if you want more details on the background)

When I took her into the vet, they gave me rimadyl (which we didn't end up using) and I opted for some supplementation. I had already been doing some on my own (same type stuff sounds like you are doing--glucosaimine/chondroitin from the pet store, in a tab). It seemed to help a tiny bit, but nothing dramatic. So the vet offered something not available at the pet store... I guess it is prescription strength, I don't really know.

Its called Dasuquin, with MSM. It is a once a day soft chew/treat that has higher levels of MSM than the stuff I was getting from the pet store. And I suspect it is probably has a better absorption rate/usability factor for the dog. Since she was already being supplemented, we just switched from one to the other. She hasn't had any stomach or digestion issues with it, and it has seemed to help her a bit more than the OTC stuff I had been buying. It is a bit pricier (I think it was $70 for a bag, 84 doses/days).

You might ask your vet about it. It is for large dogs (60 lbs and over) so would probably be about the right dosage for yours, too.

ETA: oh.. wanted to add. I talked to my vet about the supplement pretty in depth, and the MSM has some pain relief qualities like an aspirin.... which is why they include so much in the chews. The pet store stuff has a much lower amount of MSM in everything I looked at. So that might help you not need to use the aspirin... talk with your vet about it and see what they think.

I have a small 6 lb. Pomeranian that is 16 years old, she was injured at about 4 months old by a little girl accidentally running over her hind leg with a wheelchair and has had arthritis issues her whole life. She still plays and acts like a puppy at times, though she doesn't really run too much. I take her for walks and that helps a bit. We started out taking small walks and built up to walking a mile or more at a time, along with giving her the equivalent of a deep tissue massage on and around her hips and hind legs. She is given dog aspirin at times. She loves getting a bath so we get her to soak in very warm water in the tub and it helps relax her as well. I do believe that massaging helps the most in combo with keeping her active. I have been told it isn't really that common to have a toy Pom that is 16 and has no major health issues any way, but monitoring their diet can help with lots of issues. If you look online you can find a ton of website and stores that can help give you all natural advice on how to help your pets with just about any problem they may have. The main advice I would give you is to just never give up and keep trying things until you find something that works for her and just show her so much love and attention that she starts to think you are nuts lol

We changed our older girl Savannah's diet to Purina One for Senior Dogs. Within days she was her playful self again without any outwardly signs of pain and we were able to stop the aspirin regimen we had her on (YEAH!!!!). She even started leaping off of the back porch again. Normally she was pretty picky about her food, but she changed over without any problems. I truly believe that we got an additional 3 years of active life for her with this one small change. Sadly we have lost her since, but I know I got alot of extra time with that sweet girl because of this product.

We gave our beloved aussie (R.I.P) 2 daily doses of glucosamine pills, and aspirin for inflammation every day. You will need to talk to your vet for correct doses. Also gently massaging the joints really did help.

We now give our Pyrenees a "preventative" dose of glucosamine. He will be 7 in November.

Be careful of all pain killers prescribed by vets. Not only are they expensive, they are not meant to be given for a long period of time.

And alot of remedies give animals stomach problems.

My sister used to take her dog for acupuncture treatments. She swore by it.

we found it really takes 4-6 weeks to see the benefits of glucosamine.

keep her weight under control.

a good quality food always helps - real meat as the first ingredient. no corn, no wheat. supplement with fresh veggies (just not onion or garlic).

short walks to keep her active. just like humans, the less she uses it, the worse it will get.

talk to your vet about a better pain killer. if she's showing pain, aspirin is probably not going to cut it. plus, we found that a high strength pain killer on really bad days seemed to be better than a low grade all the time pain killer. I.e., we gave tramadol maybe once a week rather than aspirin every day.

strategically placed rugs to help on tile/wood floors. those slippery floors can really do a number on their back joints when dogs try to walk across them. it looks funny to have a rug in some places, but if it's where she walks, it can help a lot.

and, a soft cushy place to sleep. if she doesn't have a dog pillow/bed, it would really help.