Great video on Arthritis Prevention and Control from CAM facebook live

[PollyRoulson]

Getting to grips with canine hip dysplasia with Dr Mike Farrell. cam facebook page

A long video but breaks down lots of myths and fallacies re prevention.

The core message is fat dogs get way more arthritis than lean dogs. Most dogs today are fat.

Restricting exercise in puppies is not required BUT certain exercise will not help eg going up stairs and sliding on slippery floors. Low impact running and walking is fab and helps prevent musculoskeletal disorders.

Neutering implications are different for each dog (and not just large small breeds) and they refer to the study which we have used a lot on Mn.

Well worth a listen

Also worth popping over to Vetlessons.com for more help with arthritis

The lovely Mike Farrell - I was at vet school with him. Since 2011 I have been trying to spread the message 5 min per month is a myth, leaping and jumping madly as a pup is bad ( no frisbee etc), getting fat is bad. We as vets scold you about your overweight dog for very good reason.

Lucky you to be at school with Mike Farrell Lonecatwithkittens - I am rather in awe of him after he operated on my dog. His no nonsense appoach and straight talking was much appreciated and changed our habits with agility training immediately.

My everyday vet said that Mike has special powers to make all his clients lose weight and succeeds in this where other vets have usually failed

Keep scolding Lonecat I found it really interesting what he said about nutrition. How nearly everyone worries about content, protein levels, ingredient that the food contains but noone worries about calories. The average portion of dog food has the same amount of calories as a big mac.

@PollyRoulson my DD says I am a food nazi with my pets as all their food is carefully measured for each meal.

That’s fascinating, thank you. We had been told the 5 minute rule by our breeder so it useful to understand that it is type rather than amount.

Thanks for the link. I watched it in the middle of the night last night, when I couldn’t sleep.

Very interesting and good to have somewhere to point people when they get hung up on anecdotal advice.

I ended up wandering off to the CAM website and lots of other links and it helped me decide to reinstate my old boy’s full dose of Rimadyl. He’s doing so much better and is really active now compared to a few months ago, so we had dropped half a tablet a day, with no obvious decline in his improvement, but their sports coach analogy made perfect sense to me. He’s 15, I want him as pain free as possible, so it makes sense to do the full dose of Rimadyl, plus the other management and supplementation we’ve added to have the best chance of that.

Moosemama the CAMS site also influenced my decision to increase medication and we have not regretted it with our 15 year old.

I found it interesting to hear where the 5 mins originally came from - almost like chinese whispers yet it is still being promoted by some.

(Sorry you couldn't sleep)

@Lonecatwithkitten I also weigh out all food including treats for the dogs - just wish I had the same discipline with myself

Thanks. Pollyroulson Dh let me sleep till 10.00 this morning, so I caught up.

Brilliant site, I recommend it to everyone. I’ve learned so much from it.

I was tempted to jump in when I saw exercise restriction being mentioned this morning, but am not up for a battle today.

I do the same with food and treats. Being a Lurcher, he has always been lean (we often used to get comments about having ‘supermodel dogs’) but had gained quite a bit while our other dog was sick and being fed 6 times a day. He started to get really upset every time we fed our other dog, so we felt bad, started giving him a few nuggets of kibble each time and it added up. I spent ages working it all out and weighing it, then worked out how to split it across two meals and one snuffle mat a day. He’s lost most of it now, still a couple of pounds to go, I think. Me - not so much - I put on soooo much lockdown weight, which is even more unacceptable, having lost 5 stone last year and then completely lost the plot! Need to get myself in check now.

Personally, while I agree about fat, I think nails are a massive contributor. As much as fat.
I have yet to see a dog with nails as short as mine (and I think hers need to go a little shorter!)
I think pretty much all UK dogs have too long nails and I think over time it does a number on their posture and joint health

People comment on my dogs too Moose always that they are too thin but they are normal weight, people get used to seeing overweight dogs.

MrsJungelow totally agree about nails. If you can hear them clicking they are way too long. Also trim the hair between their toes.

I wonder if there is research on it? I guess if dogs are in pain this will certainly make it much worse if they are walking wonky. I do know that digit injuries are very common.

There is a great facebook page called Nail Maintenance for Dogs which gives excellent advice on length of nails and how to build up to getting them the correct length and how to desentise the dogs to the clipping.

@MrsJunlelow, I agree. My boy has always hated having his nails clipped, but needed it done as he’s mostly walked across fields, so we battled on. He has thick black nails as well, which make it’s a bit scary to do. They’ve never been really long, but we could still hear a tip, tip when he was on hard floors.

Recently switched to a super quiet grinder, which after careful introduction he is completely relaxed with me using, plus increased road walks. Gradually chased the quicks back and now he can walk silently across the kitchen floor. I definitely think it’s improved his gait.

My other boy had translucent nails with easy to see quicks, so I was able to keep them really short much more easily.

I have always clipped my dogs’ nails, but will definitely be going all out to make sure any future pups (a breed which also has black nails) are happy with the grinder very early on and ensure I keep their nails super sort.