Discussion
Our nearly 6 year old Schnauzer, has very recently been reluctant to jump onto the settee, and the bed, always used to with ease.
Recent week away in Cornwall he had no issues running around on the beach with our other boy, he definitely is struggling in certain situations though.
At his yearly booster two days ago, the vet said she felt stiffness in his rear legs, and said whilst running and walking he shows no issues, jumping up uses different muscle groups, and he's starting to show early signs of arthritis.
After given the option of medication, or leave it for now and see how he develops, I'm going to try him on yumove, as that seems to be of benefit from what I've read, and see if that helps him, any other tips or things to try?
Recent week away in Cornwall he had no issues running around on the beach with our other boy, he definitely is struggling in certain situations though.
At his yearly booster two days ago, the vet said she felt stiffness in his rear legs, and said whilst running and walking he shows no issues, jumping up uses different muscle groups, and he's starting to show early signs of arthritis.
After given the option of medication, or leave it for now and see how he develops, I'm going to try him on yumove, as that seems to be of benefit from what I've read, and see if that helps him, any other tips or things to try?
We use you move on the basis that it won't do any harm. Without controlled clinical trails anything else is just hearsay.
We also attend hydrotherapy sessions, our lad loves these. 2 mins hard swimming followed by 2 mins massage, repeated 10 times 40 minute pool time per session.
Its also good that another professional is monitoring and checking for deterioration.
We also attend hydrotherapy sessions, our lad loves these. 2 mins hard swimming followed by 2 mins massage, repeated 10 times 40 minute pool time per session.
Its also good that another professional is monitoring and checking for deterioration.
Our almost 13 year old Labrador has been taking Yumove for a fair few years now. Does no harm.
Pain relief is a prescribed medication called Previcox. She was on this everyday.
Was on a monthly jab called cartrophen which helped to start with.
Even with the above she really had started to slow down, ten minute daily lead walks, struggled to get on the sofa, etc. and the vet mentioned a new drug called Librela, given as monthly injection and this has really given her a new lease of life.
Still on the Yumove, every other day has some pain relief. Can walk for an hour now, jumps on the sofa, generally much happier and more comfortable.
In summary, plenty of options for dogs, far more so than for humans. Hope your dog feels better soon
Pain relief is a prescribed medication called Previcox. She was on this everyday.
Was on a monthly jab called cartrophen which helped to start with.
Even with the above she really had started to slow down, ten minute daily lead walks, struggled to get on the sofa, etc. and the vet mentioned a new drug called Librela, given as monthly injection and this has really given her a new lease of life.
Still on the Yumove, every other day has some pain relief. Can walk for an hour now, jumps on the sofa, generally much happier and more comfortable.
In summary, plenty of options for dogs, far more so than for humans. Hope your dog feels better soon
Edited by Jugosaurus on Sunday 13th March 15:39
Bear in mind that arthritis is a progressive deterioration of loints. never gets better per se, although even changing diet and lifestyle can make significant changes or not.
Librelo has been getting good reviews from my small animal vets rewcently but there have been supply issues due to its own apparent success. Yumove did absolutely nothing for my last dog's severe arthritis, and chondroitin did SFA for my knees when I was running, so dietary additives can be good or ineffective or even in between, but they will do no harm and might just contribute to slowing the progression.
There are plenty of more traditional pain killing meds available, sometimes work well sometimes not, but definitely worth assessing for their benefits.
Other complimentary thoughts should include hydrotheray and acupuncture.
One other thought is that in a small dogs like schnauzers, it may be back pain rather than leg/hip pain, which may suggest looking for prolapsed discs is useful and leads to a very different line of therapy.
HTH
Librelo has been getting good reviews from my small animal vets rewcently but there have been supply issues due to its own apparent success. Yumove did absolutely nothing for my last dog's severe arthritis, and chondroitin did SFA for my knees when I was running, so dietary additives can be good or ineffective or even in between, but they will do no harm and might just contribute to slowing the progression.
There are plenty of more traditional pain killing meds available, sometimes work well sometimes not, but definitely worth assessing for their benefits.
Other complimentary thoughts should include hydrotheray and acupuncture.
One other thought is that in a small dogs like schnauzers, it may be back pain rather than leg/hip pain, which may suggest looking for prolapsed discs is useful and leads to a very different line of therapy.
HTH
From Mrs 200...
We’re actually going through the same issue with our 6 year old Bavarian Mountain Hound.
He’s a very active dog who loves to run around off lead, but for the last 6 weeks he’s experienced stiffness in his back legs in the evenings after periods of rest.
He stretches a lot and then after a few paces where he nods his head and looks quite laboured, he is back to normal walking again.
Things we have noticed that definitely seem to make him worse are going up and down stairs, on and off sofa and walking around on wood floors.
We have limited his ability to go up stairs and jump on furniture and we have been giving him reduced exercise.
This however is becoming counter-intuitive as he now pulls like crazy on the lead and is desperate to get more exercise.
We have had physiotherapy and been told that it is his back legs that are extremely stiff and we now have stretches to do after his walks. We have also started doing hydrotherapy and that seems to be helping. Although we’ve only had one session so far.
Can I ask how the vet diagnosed the arthritis? Our vet told us that x-rays would be needed to diagnose arthritis and if it is very early, the arthritis won’t show on an x-ray, so I am just wondering how they diagnosed this? We like you were told to monitor and leave it for now.
Are you still exercising him as usual? Our dog is very active, usually 2 walks a day totally around 1hr 30 - 1hr 45 and we’ve had to cut this back to see if it helps the stiffness.
We have been giving him green lipped mussel extract - you can buy this from Holland & Barrett and it is the active ingredient in Yumove and it’s a lot cheaper and I am now going to start him on chondroitin (which there are small amounts of in Yumove). I don’t know how much it helps though.
As we’re going through the exact same thing if we have any breakthroughs we’ll let you know.
We’re actually going through the same issue with our 6 year old Bavarian Mountain Hound.
He’s a very active dog who loves to run around off lead, but for the last 6 weeks he’s experienced stiffness in his back legs in the evenings after periods of rest.
He stretches a lot and then after a few paces where he nods his head and looks quite laboured, he is back to normal walking again.
Things we have noticed that definitely seem to make him worse are going up and down stairs, on and off sofa and walking around on wood floors.
We have limited his ability to go up stairs and jump on furniture and we have been giving him reduced exercise.
This however is becoming counter-intuitive as he now pulls like crazy on the lead and is desperate to get more exercise.
We have had physiotherapy and been told that it is his back legs that are extremely stiff and we now have stretches to do after his walks. We have also started doing hydrotherapy and that seems to be helping. Although we’ve only had one session so far.
Can I ask how the vet diagnosed the arthritis? Our vet told us that x-rays would be needed to diagnose arthritis and if it is very early, the arthritis won’t show on an x-ray, so I am just wondering how they diagnosed this? We like you were told to monitor and leave it for now.
Are you still exercising him as usual? Our dog is very active, usually 2 walks a day totally around 1hr 30 - 1hr 45 and we’ve had to cut this back to see if it helps the stiffness.
We have been giving him green lipped mussel extract - you can buy this from Holland & Barrett and it is the active ingredient in Yumove and it’s a lot cheaper and I am now going to start him on chondroitin (which there are small amounts of in Yumove). I don’t know how much it helps though.
As we’re going through the exact same thing if we have any breakthroughs we’ll let you know.
No x rays, it was just an informal appointment for his annual booster, and when asked about his general condition, I mentioned his recent issues.
Walking wise currently he's absolutely fine, shows no signs of problems, normal pace etc, and as i said when on the beach recently, he was racing around, going upstairs, on to sofa's and beds, he obviously has problem's, if I have a treat for him however, he flies up.
The constituents of yumove, aside for the green lipid mussels, is pretty similar to the tablets I was taking for my shoulder issues a while back, didn't do a lot for me.
Only just started on the tablets, and will take 6 weeks or so before any improvement or not can be noted,
Walking wise currently he's absolutely fine, shows no signs of problems, normal pace etc, and as i said when on the beach recently, he was racing around, going upstairs, on to sofa's and beds, he obviously has problem's, if I have a treat for him however, he flies up.
The constituents of yumove, aside for the green lipid mussels, is pretty similar to the tablets I was taking for my shoulder issues a while back, didn't do a lot for me.
Only just started on the tablets, and will take 6 weeks or so before any improvement or not can be noted,
Our 11 year old Westie developed arthritis quite badly a few months ago. He had a metal plate put in his leg after a cruciate ligament surgery 12 months ago and I think that, combined with a spell of cold weather really aggravated it. The vet put him on Metacam for a while and we kept up with regular, twice a day, very small walks, often carrying him home if he`d had enough. We slowly built these up until we are now back to normal walks, albeit a bit slower than normal, although he has never been the fastest dog ! A couple of other things that seemed to have helped were having massage therapy every other week at the start and now down to once a month. We go for a walk afterwards and there is a definate improvement, so it does seem to work. The other thing, that I have always thought was hocus pocus, especially as I have had arthritis myself for the last 30 years, was a magnetic collar. I only got it to appease my wife, as I have always dismissed the magnetic bracelets etc you can buy, but literally the day I put it on him, we went for a walk and he managed twice as far as we had previously done. It may have been coincidence, but we haven't dared take it off since !
Thevet said:
Bear in mind that arthritis is a progressive deterioration of loints. never gets better per se, although even changing diet and lifestyle can make significant changes or not.
Librelo has been getting good reviews from my small animal vets rewcently but there have been supply issues due to its own apparent success. Yumove did absolutely nothing for my last dog's severe arthritis, and chondroitin did SFA for my knees when I was running, so dietary additives can be good or ineffective or even in between, but they will do no harm and might just contribute to slowing the progression.
There are plenty of more traditional pain killing meds available, sometimes work well sometimes not, but definitely worth assessing for their benefits.
Other complimentary thoughts should include hydrotheray and acupuncture.
One other thought is that in a small dogs like schnauzers, it may be back pain rather than leg/hip pain, which may suggest looking for prolapsed discs is useful and leads to a very different line of therapy.
HTH
Sorry, not ignored this, and thankful for the response, the back issues had crossed my mind, but to my uneducated mind, thought that would cause constant issues, and not as he has currently, but I'm certainly not discounting it.Librelo has been getting good reviews from my small animal vets rewcently but there have been supply issues due to its own apparent success. Yumove did absolutely nothing for my last dog's severe arthritis, and chondroitin did SFA for my knees when I was running, so dietary additives can be good or ineffective or even in between, but they will do no harm and might just contribute to slowing the progression.
There are plenty of more traditional pain killing meds available, sometimes work well sometimes not, but definitely worth assessing for their benefits.
Other complimentary thoughts should include hydrotheray and acupuncture.
One other thought is that in a small dogs like schnauzers, it may be back pain rather than leg/hip pain, which may suggest looking for prolapsed discs is useful and leads to a very different line of therapy.
HTH
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