I'm still struggling to get on top of Remy's joint pain, which is supposed to be osteoarthritis.  However I'm not convinced that's all it is - some of it, sure, because he does have confirmed OA in one hip via x-ray and he has responded slightly to painkillers.

But, only slightly and to look at him, I suspect there's something else going on.  My primary suspicion lies with his thyroid - after 6 years without being treated successfully that will have done damage and I know joints suffer a lot with it, especially in cases of poor T4 to T3 conversion (as is his problem).  He's been on T3 for this for over a year now and has responded well to it.  I've also now started the ball rolling to get his key vitamin/mineral levels checked as certain ones when deficient can interfere with the body's ability to use T3 in people - and Dr Dodds did confirm when he started the T3 that this can be a possibility in dogs too.  I know he's B12 deficient and the first test will be B12/folate to check that before we move on to others.

So that's a likely cause with him but let's just say hypothetically that everything comes back fine on that front; what other things are there that can cause joint pain or general aching?  That's how he seems to me - less arthritic-y per se but more just aching generally, slow with it.  He gets chiropractic fairly regularly and that does help but he still just seems all-over sore.  Kind of hard to explain but somehow it just doesn't "feel" like it's only arthritis, if that makes sense?  Especially given his poor response to both conventional drugs and supplements (supps he responds to nothing - so far tried turmeric, coconut oil, devil's claw, green lipped mussel, gluc/chond, cortaflex; painkillers tried prednisolone, onsior, rimadyl, previcox, metacam, tramadol (does absolutely zip whether by itself or with any NSAID), trocoxil (on currently and has helped the most of anything but it's still only a little).  Probably forgotten some!  Have also emailed what was Pfizer to check what other options there are besides tramadol; possibly looking at gabapentin if it's safe with the trocoxil).  So I reckon what arthritis he does have is responding to the trocoxil, and whatever else is going on is not so he's still struggling.

I hope that makes sense!  I'm hoping against hope that if there are other deficiencies going on besides the B12 then we can address those and that should really help, I've a feeling it will but I'd like some ideas of what else might be going on (if anything) if it doesn't.