'End stage' arthritis in 8 year old lab

[1WayOrAnother2]

Our lovely 14 year old Lab died 3 months ago (so my emotions on this are a bit all over) and today we were told (by a vet) that our remaining 8 year old has 'end stage' arthritis in his elbows.

What does 'end stage' mean? I just couldn't ask.
What is the prognosis?

I am so worried about losing him... but equally worried about being selfish and letting him suffer.

He is on painkillers and seems happy enjoys walks/barking after the postman etc. but he does lick his legs in the eve and I do know how stoic labradors are.

Human treatment requires long recovery and humans know what is going on. I'm guessing that this is not suitable for dogs.

He walks with me every day and he is slim. (Loves food but we understand how weight makes arthritis much worse.)

Have you looked at Holly's army on fb also CAM(canine arthritis management

Thank-you Gingerninja4 - I am now looking at both.

I don’t know that end stage is an official thing... so tbh, you’d need to ask him what he meant by it.

If he’s still mobile it doesn’t sound like anything is needing to be decided imminently - though elbows can IME get bad suddenly after being relatively stable.

He was not lucky in the genetic bone lottery despite his healthy pedigree :(. (He was an outright winner in personality and nature though.)

I know that he has very little 'bend' left in his elbows. (Our 14 year old was much more flexible .) He has always had a stiff rear end (even as a pup). His paws are arthritic too.

The vet has spoken to us again. She does have some lines of treatment in mind - so 'end stage' isn't quite as final as I feared.
I still couldn't ask 'how long'.

I think arthritis is one of those things that varies massively in between dogs, so giving a realistic timeline probably isn't possible - which will be why your vet hasn't given you one.

Please try not to worry too much. Tablets like YuMove do wonders for joints and there are lots of painkillers and other options out there. "End stage" possibly just means that it's a case of managing the symptoms for now.

Thankyou iced coffee - yumove was good early on but he has been on serious painkillers for a year now. The X-rays done today show some joints are almost solid with extra bone.

The vet says they can offer painkillers- perhaps steroids eventually . He really needs new 'knees' hips and feet 😕.

She aims to keep him moving and painfree for a while though.

I have him a little longer.

My spaniel has quite bad arthritis in his back legs, last year he couldn't move it was awful, but he took some strong painkillers for a couple of weeks to get him over it, now takes galliprant which is specifically for arthritis and yumove daily and is pretty much back to his old self, enjoys walks and running about, we never let him play with balls anymore.

If we go for a good walk we don't take him the next day so he recovers as he wouldn't rest ever, I'm guessing labs would be similar.

I hope your boy is ok and they can find painkillers that work for him.

In humans, end stage means incurable and the worst it can be. No indication of how long the being might live or what they will die of necessarily, just that the condition will be like this for the rest of their life.

I don't think I will have him as long as the almost 15 years his companion gave us... but am hopeful they can sort something out for a bit longer. So relieved that 'end stage 'wasn't what I feared.

He was at the vet because one paw suddenly swelled up and he wouldn't put it down. The vets were initially distracted by the (terrible) arthritis (that he copes with for play and walks) but have since found an infection and broken bone spur in his foot.

He was in lots of pain (between doses of drugs) and has needed night nursing like a newborn human but is looking perky again this am. The infection must be declining. The bone will take a bit longer to heal.

Ask for a referral to a veterinary orthopaedic specialist. They may be able to tackle surgically some of the bony overgrowth or even do elbow replacement or fusing.

Hi OP, so sorry to hear this. My seven year-old lab has quite serious arthritis in one elbow, and has had the arthroscopic operation which helped for only a short while (I wouldn't do it again as I felt it was a lot for the dog to undergo - especially when you add in the strict six weeks bed rest after the surgery - for the benefit).

We did Youmove, all the supplements, steroids for flare-ups etc. Then we went on to an intramuscular injection of a product, I think it was Adequan or similar, which gave her relief for the first few weeks, then the second and third injections were terribly traumatic for her and did not procure the improvement to justify the painful injections.

Now we are on something new (continuing all the usual supplements of course) - a sub-cutaneous injection of something called Librela which so far has done wonders. And she doesn't even notice the injections!

She has just come back from two happy weeks in the mountains dashing into and out of rivers, up and down steep inclines, and chasing marmottes (French meerkats).

I hope that some of this information is useful to you. I am sorry that the vet mentioned "end stage" as that would have been extremely upsetting for you. Best of luck!