Middle aged dog getting stiff - any tips?

[Beamur]

Says it all really. I've noticed my dog is getting a bit stiff in her legs when she gets out of her basket after a long snooze and wondered if there was anything I could do to help, DP suggested cod liver oil, but I don't know if that's suitable or effective for dogs.
She's otherwise in good health, but age is beginning to show. She's probably about 8 or 9, don't know for sure as she was an adult when we got her.
Thanks.

Glucosamine and Chondroitin tablets support the joints apparently - I have just started my old lady on them

Talk to your vet about this initially - may be the early signs of arthritis, if so you will need to keep a close eye on it, since it is not curable and can be painful. Ensure your dog is as lean as possible - extra weight will put strain on joints. Include things such as oily fish (sardines, mackerel, salmon) in dog's diet as well as eggs. Vet can recommend supplement of glucosamine/chondritin - if I recall, evidence for efficacy in trials is inconclusive, but you may wish to consider it. Synoquin is one of the brand names often used. I think that human formulations are not as easily taken up by dogs, so would not recommend them - but an expert in dog chemistry may be able to correct me on that.

The Dentastix Joint Care seemed to help our poor old girl.

Our old dogs had daily doses of metacam which was truly the elixer of life for them at the time.

Thanks for all your comments - much appreciated.
My dog is on older dog food as we keep a close eye on her weight, she's not overweight but is getting less active than she used to be and at her last Vet visit she'd gained a kilo in the last year so we're weighing her food now and restricting the treats.
I'll try her on the Joint care stix as she sometimes has the dental ones and likes those and will ask the Vet about supplements next time we go.

Hydrotherapy for dog's joints is meant to be good.

Excuse me while I just pedant myself

Dogs' joints.

That's better

can one buy the glucosamine and chon stuff in health food shop or does it need to be a vet one specifically for animals out of interest?

Human Glucosamine is glucosamine sulphate, the one in dog supplements is glucosamine hydrocholride. Glucosamine sulphate is less bioavaliable to dogs. So yes the special dog ones are much better.

Our vet recommended chappie dog food for our old lab as it was full of fish oils. It really had a noticable effect on her, as did losing a bit of weight. It gave her very bad breath though.

I've just been looking at that, Lizcat, based on what Scuttle had said... is the hydrochloride the ascorbic acid? That's what I've just read allows dogs to have better uptake. I'm a bit shocked as my vet (two vets ago) said it was fine to give dogs the human stuff - after checking the doseage.

Well, you learn something new every day. That's me off to the pharmacist for the dog stuff then....