My pet German Sheppard is12 years old and is now in serious arthritic pain, ankle joints are swollen?
he can't walk much and so lies around the house. I have been advised to give him pain killers or else he will stop walking altogether due to the pain. Is there any other helpful advice please?
2007-09-03 01:40:18 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pets ➔ Dogs
Sadly eventually your dogs going to just rely on pills, to be honest if your dog has serious arthritic pain I dont think theres much you can do
2007-09-03 01:45:51 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It sounds like he is in a lot of pain the poor thing. Rymadell (sp is wrong). Is a really good pain med for that. One of my poms has bad knees and sometimes he can't walk and the vet gave me the Rymadell for him when they are bugging him, and it works so good he is completely back to normal. Glucosome Contrition, MSM, shark cartilage, are all great supplements for joints. But they are a preventative so they will take awhile to work. What they do is help lubricate the joints among other things, so right now you want to give him medication for the pain now, and the supplements to help lubricate the joints and maybe the joints will be better in future. But at this point you will probally always have to give him pain meds.
2007-09-03 03:10:27 · answer #2 · answered by Lisa L 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
if he is still enjoying life more than not, and enjoying your company (if not then you kno wat needs to be done) then i'd advice you to find a local public dog swimming pool, more often than not at the very least the weight off his joints should help and any warmth should increase circulation, it'll be fun and relaxing for him, and the low impact exercise can only do good. If u can't find one in your local directory I'm sure you can buy one, the important thing though is that it's heated in some way and that he is dry afterwards.
In addition, if u live in a warm climate it'll be good to sit in the sun with him for a little while each day (with a drink of course), the warmth should aid in circulation. Failing that or when winter rolls around, a fireplace for him to lay next can work wonders...
2007-09-03 02:15:54 · answer #3 · answered by (ø)llie 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
awww, bless his heart. The best thing you can do is give him the pain killers and make the most of the time the two of you have together. German Shepherds are wonderful friends, and you should try to make his time here on earth as pain free as you possibly can.
good luck
2007-09-03 02:54:37 · answer #4 · answered by eljude 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Give him the pain killers. Imagine the pain that you would be in. My dads dog is the same so we gave her the pain killers and now she walks around just fine. We don't give them to her anymore but if she ever starts to have pain we will give them to her again.
2007-09-03 01:51:06 · answer #5 · answered by angelfire 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Maybe a water bed mattress heater under what he sleeps on turned down low will help relieve some of the pain.
2007-09-03 01:46:00 · answer #6 · answered by LuckyChucky 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
maybe you should consider putting him down and doing the kindest thing you could do . Would you want to live in constant pain all the time . Although there are some new drugs on the market for arthritis and consult your vet for these . However if your vet says you should consider putting him down to be kind then maybe you should consider it . good luck .
2007-09-03 01:51:42 · answer #7 · answered by Kate T. 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Rimadyl (sp?) is an excellant pain management drug for athritic dogs. We have two younger G.Shep. and have kept them on glucosamine supplements for years.
2007-09-03 02:14:52 · answer #8 · answered by Brigid 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Consult some good vetenary surgeon before acting on advise.
2007-09-03 01:49:05 · answer #9 · answered by KC G 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Liquid glucosamine would also be a good idea and steroids from your vet.
2007-09-03 02:24:21 · answer #10 · answered by mama woof 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋