Artheritis.

[buttercup132]

My grandma's 9 year old Bichon has really bad artheritis and they have tried glucoseme (sp?) but it hasn't helped. They are considering putting him to sleep because he's in alot of pain. They are deffinatly going to try other things they only said PTS because they don't want to see him in pain.Dose anyone know of anything that works really well?

[elizabethann]

They could try DGP (Dog Gone Pain). I read about it in my Whole Dog Journal.

What about acupuncture?

I hope they can do something to relieve the pain. Poor pup. Nine seems so young. Good luck.

[carole]

oh that is indeed sad, i can well understand them not wanting their dog to suffer in pain constantly though, my oldest cat Ash has arthritis, I am looking at putting him on some meds in the future, not sure on the name, but it is drops that i can put in his mouth,for the pain etc, there might well be something similar for dogs, worth asking and checking out, also heard of Bomazeal, for both kitties and pooches, it has green lip mussel in it,i am sure there must be something that will work out there, good luck.

[Freedom]

That is considered young for a bichon' they live to 15 or 16 years fairly often.

Their vet can't give any suggestions for treatment?

The Arthritis Foundation web site offers 2 pages of info on dogs and arthritis. Here is the link:

http://arthritis.org/resources/dogs/...thritis_p1.asp

Has the vet said it is arthritis, or are they deciding this themselves? I suppose it could be something else, though I don't know what.

Best wishes for the dog.

[Canis-Lupess]

My late BC had bad arthritis but she was coming up for 15. She was on glucosamine which helped in the earlier stages but not so much as she got really old.
She also went on Metacam and that didn't seem to make a difference either.

My current 13yrs old BC has been on glucosamine as a maintenance measure since she was about 7 and it has kept her in good order but she too has got a bit of arthritis now in one of her forelegs. Metacam didn't seem to make any difference on her either.
I know there are other things but metacam is supposed to be one of the better ones.

My uncle commented that nothing seems to really help with arthritis. It's such a shame old dogs end up with it so often. It tends to be one of the biggest killers of old dogs, especially larger ones, when it causes their legs to go.

I think putting Jess on Glucosamine when she was about 7 was the best thing because it does more good in preventing damage to start with that trying to rectify joint damage already done.

There might be other treatments available. I know my vets have mentioned there are quite a lot of different things you can try. Good luck.

[Vela]

Well it may not be an option, but my Ginger had such bad arthritis and pain in her whole hind end she could barely walk (at ages 4 through 5). She is now 6 and a half and walks with a little stiffness but can play and run and walk without signifincant pain. I put her on a raw diet. Her body healed quite a lot. SHe used to be three legged lame, alternating between which right hind leg hurt the worst. There were times I consdiered putting her down but she always still seemed to enjoy life. I changed her diet and it changed her whole life, and mine. Like it said, that may not be an option of they don't want to feed it, but it helped Ginger.

[Freedom]

Oh, Alicia, I was thinking about this dog over night. Be sure to have the vet check, as Lyme disease will mimic arthritis. Lyme disease in dogs CAN be cured, last I heard.