Arthritic Two and Half Pawed Flat Coated Retriever Owner - Tri

Welcome!  I'm sorry your dog is in pain.  Has she been diagnosed with arthritis by your vet?  You might want to consider giving her one of the NSAID drugs available for dogs.  Used judicially they can offer a lot of relief.  Naturally you have to watch for gastro problems with this class of drugs but they're usually very effective for pain from arthritis.  I'd discuss it with your vet.  

 You can also look into Adequan, which is injectable glucosamine and chondroitin.  I had my RB Marlin on this for the last 4 years of his life with very good results. 

Once you get past the start up time (the first month you give it multiple times per week) and are on the one monthly maintenance, it is easy to do.  Get a script from your vet, and buy it on line from Drs Foster and Smith to save money, and give the injections yourself at home.  Your vet or a vet tech can show you where to give the shot, to avoid major nerves.    For Marlin, I could tell a few days before his next shot was due (even though I had it marked on the calendar) as he'd start asking for help to get up on the sofa.  Then, 20 minutes after the shot, he'd be able to do it himself again.

I am just about to start my Willy on it now.  He had xrays and has arthritis in his hips and knees, more on the left than the right.  He is having a very awkward position to poop, and I worry he will fall in it -- never good, but a fluffy white butt landing in it is really icky!  Once I have that set up, then I will decide if we need to add an NSAID as well.

 And yes, I do have him on Joint Care 3 (Drs Foster and Smith) but due to the great results I saw with my other dog, I want to get Willy on the Adequan now.

Gotta ask more questions if you don't mind??  Do you mean she drags the back half of her body or she hops?

Ever been any consideration to fitting her for a set of wheels?  (there's no condemnation here -- I'm trying help figure out where the worst of the arthritis would be because of what parts of the body have been necessarily over-used)

glucosamine/chondroitin are good **as long as** there is still cartilage in those joints.  Having your vet do some x-rays would be beneficial -- there really needs to be some diagnosis to pin-point where the worst of the damage is.  See it can be more than *just* arthritis -- if whatever happened to her caused damage to other parts of the skeleton you could have something like spondylosis going on which requires different help than arthritis.

The other thing I would hugely encourage is the use of a TCVM vet.  I do **NOT** mean to leave your regular vet.  That vet knows you and your dog.  But a TCVM vet who does acupuncture and may be able to bring a **lot** of pain relief.  I use acupuncture myself (both on the dogs *and* me).  In fact, I began to get it for myself because it helped the dogs so much.a

I totally agree with the acupuncture. If you go with NSAIDS ask your vet about using milk thistle and SAM-e to help with the extra load on the liver.

JulianneTri

What works for your arthritis?

Click on the "contact" button across from my name and email me?? (my email address is also in my signature pic).  It's an article that I'll email you.  I use a LOT of stuff -- some NSAIDs (but as the lady says with a HUGE dose of milk thistle to protect the liver and help liver function), but I use a lot of other things -- NutraJoint to re-build cartilage, some herbs (a few which are far easier on the stomach than others), and I use a lot of essential oils topically to reduce the inflammation.  Those can be REALLY helpful with dogs.  Stuff like Mineral Ice or Bio-Freeze are too goopy on dog fur, but there are essential oils (and a couple of blends) that are super helpful.

Everything is easily avaialble either from a health store or even Wal-Mart.  A couple of online sources I like cos they're decent folks to deal with and not expensive. 

Any ONE thing that tries to be the "whole answer" is going to disappoint.  But using a bunch of small things can be really effective.

 Acupuncture can TOTALLY rock for arthritis.  Depending on where you go it doesn't have to be expensive,  I wound up using it for ME because I saw how incredibly helpful it was for the dogs.