Arthritis

I found out Buster has arthritis a couple of weeks ago, moreso in the side with his HD but a bit in the other side. Our vet did some chiro, laser and carprophen injection at the time and said to put him on glucosomine and fish oil. When I was house sitting I don't think he was getting those though, which was the last 10 days or so.

The last couple of days his limp is back, carrying pretty much no weight on his right hind leg. It doesn't seem to bother him too much but its obvisouly too sore to walk on. I think its come up again from the weather getting colder and him and Mac playing like mad the last few days.

Question, how do I make hime more comfortable?

He's also got energy through the roof atm, so I've been doing some clicker stuff, ideally I'd take him and Mac out for a big run but she'll body slam him and if his hips already sore I don't need it made worse.

I'm thinking it might be a good idea to buy like a heat mat of some sort for him? Any other ideas?

nsaids?

when luce overdoes it, rest, rimadyl, and if she's really bad tramadol help her feel better fastest.

My Rottweiler has severe HD in both hips and severe arthritis. I have managed her inflammation etc through diet and supplements with great success.

I give her a good glucosamine supplement with Sulphate, HCL, Mang, Chon, MSM, Vitamin C (vitamin C is very important for HD). I feed her a few fish meals a week, sardines, steamed wild Alaskan salmon or sockeye, herring etc. I also give a good quality fish oil and vitamin E. With my vitamin E I make sure I get a natural form and that it contains all 8 components and not just one like most do. Vitamin E is made up of 4 tocopherols and 4 tocotrienois in both cases called alpha, beta, gamma, and delta.

Athena gets a home prepared diet, I found a huge improvement in her joint health taking her off all processed foods. Even the no grain kibbles did not agree with her HD. I follow a basic anti inflammatory diet. The arthritis is sometimes aggravated by a food allergy as well which I found quite interesting.

As anti inflammatories I use turmeric and ginger root. My Rottweiler is 9 years old and there was a time when she had a difficult time with mobility, could not do stairs, had difficulty getting up as she was stiff etc. She is now 9 years of age and is doing extremely well and I feel the turmeric and ginger root have been the best things for her. I have NEVER had to resort to harmful drugs such a rimadyl or metacam. I will look at all natural sources first before I would resort to those drugs. At one time I used yucca root as an anti inflammatory which worked excellent (I got it from solid gold), but you have to be very careful giving that herb and give breaks along the way. There is another excellent herbal mixture called flexxil that my Sister has her 8 year old Newf with ruptured ACL on which works wonderful for him.

I also use homeopathy as well, I keep rhus tox and ruta on hand at all times.

Hydrotherapy is great as well and swimming is the best exercise. I keep her exercise consistent and never over do it. I walk on back wood trails and avoid hard pavement which is not forgiving to the joints. I do acupressure on my Rottie, I picked up a book called the complete holistic dog which has all the pressure points. I also do massage as well.

As for sleeping and comfort, my Rottie sleep with me There are some nice orthopedic beds on the market for dogs. If she is not sleeping with me in my bed she has a nice futon, for her comfort is a big thing. I don't like the fact that she jumps up on the furniture due to her joint health but she is doing so well and it doesn't bother her

Good luck arthritis can be managed naturally. My Rottweiler is an excellent example of how well they can do with holistic/homeopathy/diet. Managing arthritis holistically takes a bit longer to see the effects, NSAID's may be a quick fix but they only suppress the the symptoms and are not helping your dog heal. I personally will stay well away from NSAID's for as long as possible as they scare the heck out of me...body pollution.

Thanks. I'm really wanting to manage this as naturally as I can. I gave him a quarter Rimadyl the other day (Sophie is twice his size and has half a one. And it didn't seem to help at all. I wanted him to put some weight on it before it just became habit to hold it up, but still nothing.

We have a fantastic ChiroVet, last time he did some chiro and some laser and Buster came out fantastically. I woudl love to set him up for regular Chiro except its too hard to get him to the vet that does it, its a 30 minute drive and Mum isn't keen on taking 90 minutes out of her day to take him down. The vet here I wouldn't mind taking him too but I really don't want them to just give me drugs.

How much tumeric and ginger root do you feed?
He is on mainly raw, with a bit of grain free kibble (maybe 2 or 3 days a week) and we are doing glucosomine and fish oil. But I'm happy to tweak this as much as I have to.

He already sleeps in bed with me at night. But during the day he is generally just in the house, which has a pretty tough floor so I might go buy him a big soft bed next week for indoors.

I'd be interested in learning acupressure techniques, can you suggest any books or online articles?

I can't really get him down to the beack to swim, its only a 30 minute drive but I don't have my license yet, my hours are too awkward around my mum and his DA make it awkward. But hopefully in a couple of months we'll be moving to a town with a river and I can take him down there regularily. Atleast we have some nice backroads where we can wander around.

He limps aroudn the house all hard done by but I think he still wants to play hard with Mac.