Q: canine arthrytis

Answered by catsluvme99 on 6/23/03, 6:41 am

A: canine arthrytis

> If a dog is diagnosed with arthrytis in hips will he be on
> medication for the rest of his life, or will surgery be
> necessary? My dog's rear quarters collapsed momentarily
> today and he started limping and found walking/running
> extremely difficult. He has also had noticible 'clicking'
> when he walked, hence my thinking it is arthritis. He is a
> large breed - Bernese Mountain Dog. I understand this breed
> does not ordinarily suffer from hip displacement.

The first thing you need to do is take him in straight away and have him evaluated. If it's a torn cruciate the sooner you get him in there the better chance he has of correcting the problem. And also any dog can get hip dysplasia and there are some excellent surgeries that can be done to correct this problem. Depending on his age the vet will decide what is best. I work for a specialty vet and we basically do bone surgeries. We also insist on 6 weeks of physical therapy after the surgery. If it is arthritis then yes he most likely will be on meds the rest of his life. The synovi/msm is all natural and has no side effects. Once it kicks in you may be able to give him pain meds only when needed as opposed to daily. Until you can get him to the vet do NOT exercise him at all. Take him out on a leash for potty breaks. You don't want to make the problem worse before you find out what it is. Cage rest is best. Or a small room where he can't wander around allot.
I am going to cut/paste an answer I gave yesterday about arthritis and medication. Some of it does not apply to you so just read what does. I honestly don't feel like typing it all out again. Below is yesterdays answer...........

There are many different meds out there. One of my personal favorites and one my boss ( a bone surgeon for pets) uses is called synovi/msm. It helps to build up the synovial fluid in the joints thus making movement less painful. He thinks it is better than glycoflex, or glucosamine and condroiton. It takes up to 10 days to take effect so a pain medication will be needed in the interim.
Then there are meds for acute, and chronic pain. Either etogesic, rimadyl, or buffered aspirin (Ascriptin is the best as it contains Maalox as well to help coat the stomach). These are the small guns. If and when the dog becomes very painful the doctor can prescribe either steroids, or even codeine phosphate, or both. I suggest you discuss all of this with your vet before putting your pet on any medications. I don't know the age of your pet, or it's medical history. If the pet is older and has kidney, or liver problems you want to be careful about giving it any type of medication before discussing it with the doctor. Any medication you end up using needs to be given with food. This is only a small list of the drugs available. Please!!!!!!!!!!!!! Discuss all of this with your vet and be sure to have a complete blood panel run before starting your pet on any medication. And continue to run bloodwork no more than every 4 months to monitor his organ functions. Hope this helps, Denise