Older dog in pain

[ditavonteesed]

So my older spaniel (10yo) has been struggling with his back legs for a while, nothing too obvious just moving from being curled up on sofa to stretching out on floor a lot and not happy if you fuss home near legs. He slowed down quite a lot and put a bit of weight on.
We started him on yumove a few months ago and that seemed to have sorted it and he was back to his old self.
Yesterday he wouldn't get up. I don't know how to explain it other than that he was sad. I took him for a short walk to cheer him up and he walked tonheal then just stopped and I had to carry him. He was panting a lot. When I got back home I couldn't get him out of the car, luckily a neighbour was coming past and took the other dogs while I scooping him up but he was crying. Phoned vets straight away. Vet did a really thorough check and said no infection, stomach ok, heart ok, he's just in a lot of pain. She gave him an injection and gave us some painkillers to carry on for a few days and said to bring him in tomorrow of not better.
He's loads better today.
So I'm assuming it's arthritic type pain. Now for the question, what can I do for him long term? I was thinking about hydrotherapy.

[PollyRoulson]

Get him to loose some weight

and excellent advice on this CAM either website of facebook page.

There is a lot you can do to make his life better and in less pain

[ditavonteesed]

Thanks that looks brilliant, I'll sit down and have a proper read. He's not overweight, just no longer under weight as he has been his whole life due to his energy levels, I will however make sure he doesn't put any weight on.

[moosemama]

If it is arthritis there’s lots you can do to help him. My nearly 15 year old boy is a different dog since we changed up his supplements.

The website PollyRoulson linked to is great. I used it as a starting point to speak to the vet and read up on the research re supplements.

He was on Yumove, plus Rimadyl from the vets and we were finding we were having to up his dose regularly. Since gradually changing his supplements over the last three months, we’ve actually been able to reduce his medication dose by half a pill a day.

He still has his Yumove, but now also has:

Seraquin - I actually hide these in his snuffle mat, as he loves them.
Flexi Turmeric for Dogs - we have seen the biggest change in him after being on this for a month.
Omega 3 capsules
Multi Vitamins - just to cover him because they tend not to absorb nutrients as well as they age.

He’s also on Aktivait because we were seeing early signs of cognitive decline. Again, he is so much brighter and happier since he’s been on that for a few months.

He’s gone from being really sedentary and a bit miserable, to acting like a puppy and having mad half hours in the garden every evening. He still sleeps a lot, which is to be expected for a large dog of his age, but now when he’s awake, he’s happy and active again, instead of being creaky, slow and obviously unhappy.

[ditavonteesed]

Thanks for the advise, his pain has improved with meta cam but he is still in quite a lot of pain, have an appointment with the vet tomorrow to discuss what the options are for long term pain relief. I tried to take him for a walk on Saturday and he only managed 5 minutes and was suffering the rest of the day, until a week ago he was going for 2 hours a day and he lives for his walks.
I have had a good look at the links and will discuss all the options for pain relief and supplements with the vets.

[CousinDolores]

Could it be a spinal thing? Our older boy has been managing his arthritis for a while (hydrotherapy + Galliprant + yumove) but seemed to have got a lot worse about a month ago, with much less control over his back legs. Took him to a new vet who x-rayed his spine and diagnosed a collapsed disc, probably just down to old age rather than a specific injury. He's now on more painkillers, turbo-ultra-Yumove and enforced rest for several months until the bones grow across the gap. Not loving the enforced rest but liking the pate that the meds come served in. (Although there's not too much of that, since leanness is so critical in arthritis, etc.)

Will check out the turmeric tip too!

[ditavonteesed]

Just an update, he has changed meds, is now on galliprant and pardale v, got xrays booked for next week. Not seen any improvement yet but keeping everything crossed.