Advice about arthritis in young dog

[4Tornot4T]

Hello,
Our 5 yo Sheltie has had stiffness and a limp in his left front paw after resting, particularly in the evening, for a couple of months. It goes quickly after he stretches and walks a few paces then he’s back to his usual high energy self. The vet thinks it is probably arthritis and put him on Metacam but he had a seizure so it was stopped but his paw was too painful and he was given Gabapentin which has helped with the pain but he is still limping. He does sometimes bite the top of his paw.

We have restricted him to 15 minutes walking a day on the vet’s recommendation, stopped ball play and carry him up and down stairs. We’ve also just started him on Riaflex Joint Plus and Green Lipped Mussel which hopefully will help.

Does anyone have other experience or suggestions of what else we could do? I’ve read that Omega 3 oil is good and wondered if anyone had experience of that.

We absolutely heartbroken this has happened in such a young otherwise healthy and active dog and are desperate to do anything to help.

Thanks for reading.

Our dog was diagnosed with this at 4 - a Labrador. He was crippled with it by 5. He was on metacam and then another stronger medication (I forget the name). The vet recommended dog swimming. He went in a special dog pool for half an hour Twice a week and then after a year dropped to once a week. He went religiously every week of his life. After 2 years he was on no meds at all and you wouldn’t have known there was anything wrong with him. He went back on metacam at age 12 and died at 14 from cancer - still jumping and running.

Hi Mum1976Mum That's incredible and I'm so glad your dog had such a long and happy life after the diagnosis. Our dog isn't a 'water dog' and doesn't like anything more than ankle deep but I'm prepared to give it a go if the current meds don't work. Thank you for suggesting it.

A water treadmill is also worth thinking about - speak to a hydrotherapist.

Only needs to get his ankles wet to start with on a water treadmill

That's great. Thanks. I've never heard of a water treadmill but will ask the vet about a hydrotherapist. I'm concerned that we've had to cut his exercise right down at the moment - I'm still hoping that will change but maybe I'm being too optimistic - so some water based exercise will be good for him. He's desperate for more exercise and doesn't understand why he can't chase balls.

If he loves his ball - look into scentwork. It will really tire him out and make him feel fabulous with all the happy hormones it releases.

My cocker is nearly 10, and he's got arthritis. He has Yumove (strongest one) as I didn't find that Riaflex helped; and he has Cartrophen injections from the Vet. Initially he had 4 weekly doses and there was a massive improvement, but 6 months later we're repeating it and the vet has recommended a monthly injection going forwards. They don't like to use Librela. We used this with our old lab and found she benefitted enormously in the early stages, less so as she aged. http://www.cartrophen.com/for-dog-owners/what-is-cartrophen-vet/

He also has a half paracetamol tablet when he needs one as we can't use Metacam (goes through his stomach horrifically).

IngGenius Thank you. Sorry to sound ignorant but by scentwork do you mean hide and seek style activities? He loves hide and seek but wants to help hide an object as well as find it which does slightly miss the point!

Badger1970 Thank you. That's incredibly helpful to know about - we're still very early days with the Riaflex but it's good to have options if it doesn't work

Re scentwork I would get him into detection dog work. Lots of trainers doing this. I would quiz them about their experience though. There are a lot of general dog trainers starting in scentwork.

But yes starting with hiding a ball. Put him in a wait or get someone to hold his lead show him the ball and then pretend to hide it in several locations (initially keeping this near to him so he does not have to walk far) release him to find the ball. Initially he will go to the places you pretended to hide the ball.

However detection dog work will be putting him on an odour and getting him to search and indicate when he finds it.

Thank you so much. It sounds excellent and I think he'll enjoy it.

@4Tornot4T Sorry. Forgot to say that we also used Boswellia powder and salmon oil for a long time added into his food. That helped a lot too.
Librela, we pay around £90 per month too. As someone said earlier, it's a pain blocker but at 14 our main concern is that he's as pain free as possible for however long remains to him.

Request a referral to a multidisciplinary specialist centre. Both the seizure and the lameness should be properly worked up by a specialist to get a conclusive diagnosis and treatment. Either a CT or MRI would be much more beneficial than an X-ray. An MRI of the brain should also be carried out along with blood tests to rule out a cause of the seizures. They will also have an anaesthesia department to properly manage any sedation required. He is insured so cost shouldn’t be a problem. GP vets aren’t qualified enough to deal with difficult problems same as human GP doctors that’s why we have specialists

dazzlingdeborahrose Thank you. I spoke to someone at Riaflex who suggested starting with the Canine Joint Plus and the green lipped mussel which we are doing and then add in Boswelia if we didn't see results. It's helpful to know about the salmon oil and I'll investigate getting some.

Gymmum82 Thank you. Your post is a huge help and we will speak to the vet about a referral - we have an appointment on Wednesday. He has had bloods done and they came back normal which was a huge relief but I'm terrified that the conclusive diagnosis will be something horrendous. I'm not sure if we are being neurotic and over-worrying (I have anxiety and do ramp things up out of proportion on many occasions) or the vet is being too casual. I'm basically just terrified most of the time now.

dazzlingdeborahrose I hope your boy has many happy pain free years ahead of him. x

Do you know if it's possible to do an MRI/CT with sedation or would GA be necessary? Our sheltie is very nervous so would be anxious and I'm guessing I wouldn't be allowed to be with him in the room but I'm worried about him having a GA when he was scared and had raised BP etc. I did ask about holding him during an X-ray so it could be done without any form of anaesthesia but the answer was a firm no.

@4Tornot4T has he had X-rays or a scan?

arthritis of the foot is very uncommon and the biting at the paw is unusual.

in such a young dog I’d be looking for further investigations to rule out other possible problems

He’d need to be anaesthetised but don’t worry - they’ll deal with nervous dogs regularly. It’s illegal for you to be exposed to the radiation and you’d interfere with the scan which is why you can’t be there

As well as hydrotherapy, I know a dog who had great success with acupuncture.

Just a note of caution - if you're reducing exercise be careful about weight as that can set up a vicious circle - dog gets bigger, joint strain gets worse, exercise is reduced, dog gets bigger.

Our lab has arthritis and we're on a combination of loxicom, gabapentin, a turmeric supplement, a green mussel supplement and half a paracetamol twice a day. Poor wee thing rattles but he seems to be doing ok on it.

Exactly what I was going to say. Referral to a centre with both neurology and orthopaedics is what I would request.

CT can be done with sedation. MRI would need a GA but tbh GA are safer than sedation anyway as everything can be controlled and monitored including blood pressure. Don’t worry about him being anxious they can give anti anxiety medication which helps them feel relaxed and not stressed.
I would 100% go down the referral route as arthritis and seizures are not common in a young healthy dog

FurAndFeathers Thank you. We're so grateful for all the advice we're getting here. No, he hasn't had any X-rays or a scan. He was initially put on Metacam for his front left paw - but he had a seizure after a couple of days. It wasn't a grand mal seizure. His back arched (like an angry cat) and his eyes started rolling so we could see the whites but it only lasted about a minute and then he was fine and wanted to play with his ball. We went to the vet and they stopped the Metacam in case it was a reaction to that but his paw started to hurt so they put him on Gabapentin which seems to have helped. The vet was reluctant to do an X-ray or scan so soon after the seizure as they felt it was a bit risky and suggested Gabapentin for 15 days to see if things improved. We're on day 13 and he still has the limp but is biting his foot less. We think the limp has improved but it's hard to tell.

I thought that was the case with the scan - it makes sense - but do you think I could be with him for the actual anaesthetic?

Sorry - this has got rather long. Thank you for your advice.

Agree

LaviniasBigBloomers Thank you. Someone did mention acupuncture and it's all worth considering. I'm gathering up all the suggestions here so we have options. We're conscious of the weight issue - he's ok at the moment but the Gabapentin does seem to have increased his appetite which is usually pretty bad so we're on high alert.

NamelessNancy Thank you. I meant to ask what sort of specialist we should be asking to see so that's really helpful. There is a vet hospital here (Glasgow) so I imagine we'd be sent there.

Gymmum82 Thank you. We're definitely going to ask for a referral on Wednesday. The vet didn't seem overly worried about the arthritis and, I think, felt that the seizure was either a reaction to the Metacam or the start of idiopathic epilepsy. I'm so scared in case it's something that is terminal - I feel sick with worry for him.

A combination of turmeric and green lipped mussel has really helped my boy. He has arthritis in his shoulder (he is 11 now)

He has gabapentin too in the winter but in the warmer months he doesn't need it now.

The turmeric can take around 6 weeks to work, but when it kicked in it made a huge difference to him. You can buy the turmeric canine supplements online. They aren't expensive and have made a huge difference for us.

Thank you pauline987 That's very helpful to know. Our boy has just started green lipped mussel but it hasn't had a chance to kick in yet. I'll certainly look at the turmeric canine supplements too.

It's so helpful to have all these suggestions and we're so grateful to everyone for their advice.

Joining this thread which I know was time ago but wondered how you got on OP
our 5yr old lab has arthritis in his elbow after sn op for dysplasia and has Liberia injections has been on yumove senior but now has it in his paw- started licking it would let you near it touch and at vet today she diagnosed arthritis in his paw - one two swollen and Facing out in front paw. She’s given us previcox to take daily (as brief metacam upsets his bottom!) along with monthly injection and said will X-ray if it doesn’t settle but that it’s chronic
i wonder if I should ask to see a specialist
to help decide on a plan - hydro therapy ? Different diet? Turmeric as well as yumove ? I hate to think of him being in pain - he’s very stoic
would love to hear positive stories for my boy