Helping joint stiffness in dog

ali-t

another vote here for acupuncture too. One of mine had it when she was having spinal problems. the vet used to come to the house and my dog would lie on the rug totally chilled out with needles all over her. didn't look relaxing but having had acupuncture myself I know it is.

jumpedtheshark

Sooz, I hope it's OK if I ask a question: how did you decide on the dosage of the Johnson's 4 joints for your dog? Did the specialist help?

My dog has been showing stiffness in one of her back knees for a couple of months. The vet says it will heal over time and is nothing serious, but if she runs off leash she can barely walk the next day, so it's serious to us as owners. He recommended a concentrated oil to spray into her food, but that gave her an upset stomach, so we've stopped it as she has other medication that she needs to absorb. She's 5 years old and weighs 47kg - she's trim (not overweight at all), and is on other medication for Addison's disease and hypothyroidism (caused by the medication used to treat Addison's).

I've had her on "human" Holland and Barrett's extra strength Gluc/Chron tablets - 2 a day, plus 2 a day fish body oil capsules... but it doesn't seem to have made any difference. Could the dosage be wrong, or should I try a different supplement?

tankgirl1

I havent read the whole thread, but please don't keep your pooch on human glucosamine! It is full of additives which are not good for pooches! Mainly salt.
Holland and Barratt do a pet glucosamine which would be much better - I agree that cod liver oil is very good, but you must watch the dosage. Others that are good for joints are green lipped mussel and rose hip, but again you must be so careful when using human preparations!
Have you thought about hydrotherapy? That can also work wonders.
Also may vet practices will do FOC arthritis clinics with the nurses - the nurses can't prescibe painkillers, so will be mainly looking at ways to help alleviate and slow down the progress. Only if they think it warrants it will they refer to the vet for painkillers.
Ask for a RCVS fully registered veterinary nurse if you go down this route - sadly there are many practices who don't use qualified nurses - but thats a whole other thread!
Best of luck with your pooch!

Sooz00

jumpedtheshark wrote: »

Sooz, I hope it's OK if I ask a question: how did you decide on the dosage of the Johnson's 4 joints for your dog? Did the specialist help?

My dog has been showing stiffness in one of her back knees for a couple of months. The vet says it will heal over time and is nothing serious, but if she runs off leash she can barely walk the next day, so it's serious to us as owners. He recommended a concentrated oil to spray into her food, but that gave her an upset stomach, so we've stopped it as she has other medication that she needs to absorb. She's 5 years old and weighs 47kg - she's trim (not overweight at all), and is on other medication for Addison's disease and hypothyroidism (caused by the medication used to treat Addison's).

I've had her on "human" Holland and Barrett's extra strength Gluc/Chron tablets - 2 a day, plus 2 a day fish body oil capsules... but it doesn't seem to have made any difference. Could the dosage be wrong, or should I try a different supplement?

Hi Jumpedtheshark,

Sorry to hear your dog has Addisons, hope she's doing ok.

It was quite hard deciding the dose - I had to call the ortho specialist a few times for advice. There were no hard and fast rules so just had to find what worked for her and adjust accordingly. She's on more than the recommended dose on the bottle but I discussed with the specialist and he's assured me that 1200mg Gluc HCI, 450mg chondroitin sulphate and 1000mg omega 3 fish oil is absolutely fine for her.

We keep her weight good and have moderated her exercise just so she avoids jumping up on her back legs and putting stress on the joint but she still does pretty much everything she did before diagnosis incl. agility (we just lower the jumps right down for her and avoid the table).

Does your vet know what is causing the stiffness with your girl's knee?

SoggyDoggyHydro

Hi I run a canine hydrotherapy pool and swimming your dog will help your dogs stiffness and help rebuild her muscle tone without any impact on the joints.

I have a Boxer x Bulldog and she has bas hips and swimming her twice a week help so much.

I also have a magnetic dog collar for her which will help increase the blood flow and help.

I hope your dog gets better soon.

zaksmum

Swimming does help Lucy. She swims in the sea and loves it. But now it's getting a bit colder I will only allow her in the sea till mid October. I'll look into the magnetic collar too.

I've checked the Glucosamine she's on and can't see that it contains any salt. It contains 1230mgGlucosamine Sulphate (providing 728mg Glucosamine), Chondroitin Sulphate 20% 300mg and Vitamin C 225mg in a daily consumption of 3 capsules.

Ingredients Glucosamine Sulphate, Chondroitin and vitamin C. The vet said this was ok for Lucy.

Does the pet Glucosamine differ in content?

Soozoo, no, the vet didn't take xrays. Lucy is fine after walking for a few minutes and so the vet didn't see the extent of her stiffness at all, and feels the problem is minimal. But after a rest, she hauls herself up using her front legs with huge effort, and sometimes gives up and flops back down which is heartbreaking to see.

I just want to help her before things get worse.

elsien

Have you tried a hot water bottle as a temporary measure - it really helped my previous dog when her hip used to seize up, I just used to hold it in place for 10 minutes and it gave almost instant relief. Mum thought the dog had had a stroke once as she just couldn't move at all, and half an hour later she was mobile again.
Also the joint care food - my vet was a sceptic as he hadn't seen any scientific studies, but now says that anecdotally he's seen a couple of good results.
Re the glucosamine - I'm fairly sure there was something on the news recently about a new study showing it had no proven effect on certain types of arthritis, but I don't remember the details. Might be worth looking into before you fork out lots on it.
If you're not happy though, go back to the vet. Maybe keep a record over the next couple of weeks of when it is happening, and how long for, and if it's exercise related, so you can give the vet a bit more info.

Edit - here's the study I was thinking of.
http://www.bmj.com/content/341/bmj.c4675.full

gettingready

May sound weird (or not for some) but....

From my Polish dog forums one advice seems to be coming up all the time - chicken FEET. Yup - feet. If you can get them somewhere... Boil them and let the dog have the liquid (not the feet), the consistency will be jelly like. People swear by this being excellent for any joint problems. It won't hurt trying?

notakid

zaksmum wrote: »

Swimming does help Lucy. She swims in the sea and loves it. But now it's getting a bit colder I will only allow her in the sea till mid October. I'll look into the magnetic collar too.

I've checked the Glucosamine she's on and can't see that it contains any salt. It contains 1230mgGlucosamine Sulphate (providing 728mg Glucosamine), Chondroitin Sulphate 20% 300mg and Vitamin C 225mg in a daily consumption of 3 capsules.

Ingredients Glucosamine Sulphate, Chondroitin and vitamin C. The vet said this was ok for Lucy.

Does the pet Glucosamine differ in content?

Soozoo, no, the vet didn't take xrays. Lucy is fine after walking for a few minutes and so the vet didn't see the extent of her stiffness at all, and feels the problem is minimal. But after a rest, she hauls herself up using her front legs with huge effort, and sometimes gives up and flops back down which is heartbreaking to see.

I just want to help her before things get worse.

I had my old lab Buddy on "human" Glucosamine from H&B, he used to have a marmite sandwich each morning with the tablet embeded otherwise he wouldn't eat it. We had him PTS 3 weeks before his 15th birthday and I'd been giving him the tablet for 5 years religiously. What I'm trying to say is I don't think it shortened his life one iota!:)

zaksmum

Elsien - thanks. I'll certainly try the hot water bottle for Lucy. I think I'll have to take her back to the vet though, she may have to go on medication if all else fails, poor girl.

Gettingready - I haven't heard of trying chicken feet broth before but it's worth a try. I think there's a wholesaler that sells them round here. I'll check it out. Thanks.

If she gets any worse than she is tonight she won't be able to get to her feet at all. It's only at that point though...she's fine once she's actually up.