My vet has recommended Hills j/d prescriprion diet for my dog that has the on-set of arthritis in his elbow.  We have been feeding this for some time now but was wondering if anyone is aware of an equivalent ?

i think royal canin do a mobility diet
im sure it rc 'mobility support'
my old dog has this a couple of years back
i seem to think it was a little cheaper + she prefered it to the j/d

Our vet recommend this for Molly (she has degenerative bone disease) but we found it was very very expensive & didn't seem to help all that much!  So we switched her back to her old JWB food but gave her glucosamine & chronditron supplements, this plus hydrotheraphy helped her loads & her mobility had improved heaps!!

I think I've read on her how much vets like to recommend Hills (I wonder if they get sales commission), everytime we visit they seem to try & get us to buy it & I've heard people say it's not that good a food, although everyone has different opinions!

I hope you see some improvement with your dog soon!

Our vet advised us to use the capsules called 'synoquin' - is this what you use ?  I heard a vet on a radio phone in show the other day advising that you could use tablets from health food shops and half the dose for dogs.  Not sure about it though so I haven't risked it.

My lab had this for a while and it looked to be helping until I took her off of it and her joints were the same. She was also on metacam daily.
I now give her one seven seas glucosamine tablet a day and she is so much better and no longer needs the metacam either. 
I have since recommended them to others and they too have been able to come off of the veterinary treatment the dogs were on. Well worth a try and a 90 day course cost about £12 at Tesco

My dog has been sharing my glucosamine/chondroitin tablets for two years and we both feel pretty good. :) He weighs 40 Kg and gets one a day. There are numerous other members of CD that use the human supplements as well.

Mol was perscribed Rimadyl after her ops, they recommended one a day for the rest of her life!! I did my research & pesonally thought this was excessive, so we gave her the Rimadyl until she was fully recovered & then gave her the glucosamine/chronditron supplement every day & she has come on leaps & bounds (literally!!)  We also took her for hydrotheraphy sessions which I think also contributed heavily to her recovery!  We still give Mol half a Rimadyl if she's lame or has taken a tumble when playing but personally I think they are expensive & not always needed as much as the vets perscribe them! Saying that though I'm no vet & know only too well every dog will be different & have different requirements! If you're unsure of considering changing the meds have a chat with your vet!

> Well worth a try and a 90 day course cost about £12 at Tesco

> I now give her one seven seas glucosamine

You may like to have a look at www.healthspan.co.uk . The human prescription strength is 360 capsules for £8.95. My hubby was prescribed these until no longer able to prescribe to save money. We were recommended to purchase these as an alternative. They also do a Vetvits as well.