Hi, my 8 year GSD Asha, has developed arthritis in her hind left leg over the hock joint. It started really suddenly when she had had an injury on her right hip and was limping for about six weeks (tissue damage). Just as she stopped limping on the right leg she started on the left but mainly when she stood up. She has had all the x rays etc which shows a tiny bit of fluid and shadow over the left hock joint. She is totally sound in the morning and isnt too bad if she has exercise JUST on grass but if she does anything on pavement/concrete then after she has rested and then gets up her whole leg is rigid and from her hock down to her claws the foot is rigidly straight (you cannot manipulate it straight it is so solid) and she hardly touches the floor for about 5 steps and then she is sound on it again, no limping at all.
The best way I can describe her lame action is, it is as if the tendon in the leg shrinks when rested and then when she walks again it takes about the 5 steps to stretch it back to normal so her foot bends. (does that make sense??)
She doesn't appear to be in any pain at all when she gets up she just walks it off and doesn't flinch. When running there is no lameness or stiffness so I am happy that she seems p[ain free (and believe me she is a wimp and would let me know, if she thinks you are going to stand on her tail then she yelps before you actually make any contact, thats the sought of wimp she is!!)
There is a canine swimming pool not far from where I live and I have thought about giving that a try. She is on Metacam and a new drug called seraquin, 'a nutritional supplement' (haven't started Seraquin yet as she currently has bad stomach) from the vets. The Metacam doesn't seem to make all that much difference but I will persavere(sp) to see if it works better along side the seraquin.

Can anyone give me any advice on what I can maybe do to help improve things. I have stopped taking her frisbee which she loves out when we go over fields on advice from the vets, she now just potters round doing her own thing as apose to playing catch!
I dont want to restrict or stop her favourite games all together but at the same time I dont want to make things worse in any way.
Being a german Shepherd I know it is probably inevitable that she will get arthritis (although at the moment her hips are perfectly clear). She had joint problems when she was a puppy. round the shoulders etc and has always been a sicky dog so I kind of expect the worst in the next few years (she is a white GSD so I think that has something to do with her being so sicky and problematic!!)
I have also thought about physio?? (sorry for waffling)
Has anyone tried Seraquin, there is only 7 dogs on it at my vets so far and 5 have given positive feedback, the other two haven't noticed any change.

Sorry to hear about your dog , I had a retriever with similar problems and at the early stages of artritis we gave him the Dorwest Herbs natural tablets , think it was garlic & mixed vegetable which weren't costly and did seem to help him before the symptoms were quite severe . It may be worth checking out their website Dorwestherbs.com (i think) and have a chat with those.

my old cocker had it v bad in her hips when her knees disolved into her blood (age 6 months:()thats what happens when people inter breed. the vet told us to add oils to her food, and there are many herbs you can get that helps i forgot which ones sorry ,

i know you say shes in not in pain but rember thatif ever she needs them you can get pain killers. many owners forget this and the vets fail to tell you this , my cocker used to get half a paracetamol. the vet said thats fine once a day. you will get charged quite a bit if you buy your pain killers from the vet. not only will they take the pain away. but beacuse your dogs not in so much pain she will be able to walk a bit more normaly and movement of the joints is important ,if you let her joints get stiff then it will get worse.just keep her moving . as for the games im sorry dont know what to suggest. mabe replace it with rolling a ball along the floor so she has to go collect it. i think the vets getting at the jumping impact being bad. swimming sounds great!! ive heard alot of good things about using a doggy pool.
Hope ive helpted you .
Lady xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Metacam acts as a pain relief as well as a anti flam(I think) but it doesn't stop her leg 'seizing' when she has been lying down. I am going to try the pool I think to really give that joint some exercise but she loves paddling but not swimming but they have 'life jackets'!!
I have tried her on Cortaflex which I have heard good stuff about but it is £24 a month and the insurance will not pay because it is not prescribed. Thats why I am trying the Seraquin, its £48 a month but the insurance pays!

thank god for insurance i cant stresss how important it is to get your dog insured and im soo glad you did, when we took our old cocker to the vets for her first boosters we asked the vet if we should get her insured. he said no it wasent worth it.then 6 months later her knees disolve , n the insurance companys wont take on a dog with such a big problem. all i can say to everyone is get your pups insured at a v v early age!!my dogs knees were quoted 500 per knee without x rays and drips and anything that might go wrong.
then after that she had all the medical problems you could think off, my new ones insured now and shes staying that way!

Oh yes After Asha (GS) I would never have a dog without insuring it. From when Asha was a puppy she has been a regular visitor to the Vet and the last calculation about 18 months ago was about £4000 so she must be PetPlans most loved client (said with sarcasm!!) but our Vets most loved customer!!
For the 1st 2 years she had severe shoulder problems which needed all sorts of tests (spinal fluid removed etc) and that cost about £1200 to sort all them out for the Old Vets to say, 'its a fairly coomon problem in GSD and she should grow out of it by 2 yrs old', low and behold she did!! She has had a dog form of Glandular Feaver a broken toe and so on and so on ..................... The Vets her second home!

She was our first dog (I was still at school) and I think back to when we first had her and think it could have been so easy being our first pet to say No to Insurance being niave and so on. Oh how my dad would have loved the dog if he had had to pay all the bills!
I have just got a Retriever Puppy who has come with 6 weeks of insurance and there is no way I will let it lapse, even for a day!! Now I have a house of my own the tought of taking one to the Vets and being presented with a £500 bill to pay: No thanks, £50 ecxess will do!!

It can work both ways though because I have had my horse for 10 years and she has been insured from day one costing around £115 a year and I have only ever had to call the Vet out once and that was this year when she was choking. The excess is £100 and the bill was £110 so I still didn't use the insurance but I wont take the risk not insuring her!!

hiya

I don`t know if my advice is any good but when my GS cross had arthritis when he was older we used metacam and rhus tox which is herbal and also a cod liver oil capsule daily in his food.

He also wore a magnectic collar which I don`t know whether it worked or not but he lived to be 16!!

as you can see I tried some things!! but not physio I did look into hydro but there wasn`t one near to me and he was old when he started with it.

Metacam can give dogs upset stomachs and if i remember can cause bleeding sometimes in their stools. I might not have remembered that right though.

Hilary x

I never thought about the magnetic things. I am quite a sceptical person but I will try anything. My boyfriend broke his leg in 5 places two years ago and then his hand last year quite badly and when he did his leg his physio gave him a magnetic cuff that he used, he still had it when he did his hand and adapted it to fit his hand. He made extremely fast recoverys on both occasions, especially his leg, and his hand about 2 and half weeks quicker than what the doctors had told him.
I dont know if the magnets helped or not but it certainly didn't do any harm using it! We will obviously never know if it helped or not but it ecrtainly didn't slow any recovery down.

I wonder if I could adapt it to fit Asha??? I will have a go I think as they are quite expensive!

Thats what I thought Patches about the Magnet collar.

I don`t know if it worked or not. But he wore it all the time and i never liked to try him without it incase it made him worse but he wore it constantly for 3-4 years.

The magnet thingy if i remember correctly has to be on a pulse point i think!!! and then they wear a normal collar as well.

Hilary

http://www.norstarbiomagnetics.com/welcome.htm do a collar starting from £24 i think. Both my GSD were them but i had to take it off of my pup cause her energy levels hit the roof :-D, she was running around the house like mad, but i am putting it on again today as she injured her shoulder again, by being rolled over quite roughly by another dog, and when i done this last time it only took a few days with normal exercise (30 mins a day) to get back to normal. So i personally would recommend them.

Hi Patches

Swimming is excellent for dogs like Asha. It will build up and strengthen her muscles without putting any stress on the joints.
Metacam usually ceases to be effective long term but glucosamine sulphate and New Zealand green lipped mussel extract can have some good results. Don't know anything about the seraquin but a friend of mine has seen a great improvement in her dog with Synequin which may be something similar. She was on Metacam as well but now just uses the Synequin on its own.
Do see if she'll take to the swimming though and good luck :)
Lara x

Hi what is the shadow over the left joint, \i only ask because my dog was diagnoised with arthritis and was getting no better, so I made a fuss and kept insisting they looked more, they referred me and it was discovered she had bone cancer (don't panic she is still with me over two years on pain free and running around like a puppy even though she is coming up 11 she is three legged now but very happy). Any hoo to get back to the arthritis, She was starting to have stiffness getting up etc the last 6 months or so and we noticed a 'crunching' in the joints, so the vet gave her cosequin which has really helped the joints free up and she is so much better, we also swim her in the local dog pool as this has proved invaluable to us both when she lost her leg and now with the arthritis setting in. For the first two or three weeks she also had metacam for the pain but we have now been able to discontinue this for the present as she is so much better.

I think what your giving is good just make sure the joints are well oiled and regular movement;) if u here squeeking/creeking then just get up massarge the leg a little and try to move gently. trick is not to let the dog get too stiff:)
Oh i know what you mean about your horse , mines £185 a year probably wont use it either, but i once knew a girl who had to pay a £6000 op. not only that but if your horse kills another horse or injures someone you can end up paying. :o :( i been reading the bhs site too much :O

have you tried any aromatherapy on him? black peper, chamomile and something healing like lavander is good. im a qualified aromatherapist for humans i know its 2 drops of each oil and no more then 3 essentual oils into 15ml of carrier oil for humans, duno about dogs. i did see that someones started a pet aromatherapy buisness up. i wonder if you could find out the amounts to use.i should really get back into my aromatherapy or ill get rusty :D theres other alternative therapys out there i wonder what else you could try.