Please educate me on arthritis

honeybears · Super Senior Member Plus Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 3636

Wylie has been limping quite a bit lately, especially in the morning, in the last few days, she has put very little weight on her right foot. I took her in today, they xrayed, both wrists (I didnt know dogs had wrists) and she has arthritis in both, they dont know why she favors one over the other since they are bout the same in the xray. and could find no injury that would suddenly make her worse (they pulleed poked and prodded her foot, leg, shoulder, but she showed no pain anywhere, so that is weird. they did a full blood panel, dont have anything on that yet.

As for the arthritis, they said there are 2 types, one that works well with NSAIDS and one (rhumatoid that works well with steriods.

So they want to put her on nsaids for a few weeks to see how does. if its the one type she should respond well,

So can anyone tell me of their dogs arthritis experiences and what course of treatment you have taken

thanks!

jay · Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 10:30 pm Post subject:

I have found one of the best treatments were natural products that you can buy from the health food store. Anything that contains glucosamine and chrondritin really works. Not sure how much to give though. It usually takes about 4 weeks to start working, so maybe while taking the steroids, you can start her on it. Also, my vet recommended asprin for the pain.

hermann muenster · Member Joined: 19 Jan 2006 Posts: 304

I agree with jay about the glucosamine. Our old golden had serious arthritis. I helped him take some pounds off and fed him a senior diet that had the glucosamine mix already added to the food. I didn't have to worry about dosage. I have friends that buy the human tablets and give them to their dogs. They always seem to be guessing as to how much to give! And the human tabs are expensive!
One other thing about the glucosamine --- as with humans --- it takes about 4-6 weeks to start seeing a difference. Be patient!

I am a believer of the benefits of glucosamine -- I suspect we were blessed with another 3 or 4 years because of it!

Mary_NH · Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 11:59 am Post subject:

my Sadie couldn't take the glucosomine products as it upsest her tummy horribly (a side effect is gas and heartburn - same as with people - my hubby can't take it either).
When I took Sadie to a chiropractic vet she suggested MSM instead since the other bothered Sadie. The MSM worked really well too. I bought human MSM and mixed a capsule of the stuff in her evening meal.

Mary_NH · Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 12:01 pm Post subject:

site that explains how much
http://www.glucosamine-osteoarthritis.org/glucosamine/glucosamine-for-dogs.html

honeybears · Super Senior Member Plus Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 3636

her blood panel came back okay except for her level enzymes which are elevated at 4 times, they start to woory when they are 6-9 times and cant remember, but if something else is elevated. even with her elevation they stil want to put her on deramaxx. I now have to dedice what to do about this and getting her joints tapped

coppersmom · Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 10:18 pm Post subject:

honeybears, did you mean liver enzymes? (Not picking at you, just wondering Smile

) the "something else" probably is bilirubin. Has she had ticks on her lately?? I was wondering about lyme disease.

honeybears · Super Senior Member Plus Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 3636

oops coppersmom, her liver enzymes. She was tested for lyme, I have not seen ticks on her in a while, I did just pull 2 off Jake this week. That is something to look into further, I was recently reading that on people, some test will still show negative when the person has lyme and there is anohter test more accurate, i should seea bout that for lyme, its not big around here but it does happen