All the wisdom about Canine Arthritis please

[pastypirate]

Ddog my gorgeous show cocker has deteriorated a lot this year.
He is now on Yumove and a diet!

We took up the hall runners and him skidding around on the wood floors downstairs isn't helping. They are being replaced obviously.

We have moved him on to two shorter walks a day to keep him mobile. He was on a 2ish hour walk every evening as I mostly work from home. He is banned from climbing now which is sad he loved that. He loves massive grubby walks in the woods and the beach - restricting this now seems so sad.

We have bought him a bed now for all the communal rooms just to keep him padded.

Any more advice gratefully received.
He is nearly 9. He is our baby. Dd2 is doing his physio every day and he's picked it up very fast.

The dogs age related health decline feels emotionally very hard.

What has the vet offered? Our (now deceased) dog was put on monthly Librela injections and it was noticeably effective in terms of improving mobility. Yumove didn’t do much at all.

I can highly recommend using the resources on CAM (Canine Arthritis Management) website and joining their facebook group. I used the CAM website to research evidenced based approaches and as a result, in addition to veterinary management, put my old dog on Riaflex Joint Plus their Green Lipped Mussel and Turmeric for Dogs plus another good quality omega oil . I introduced each one individually and gave them a month to decide whether or not it was worth continuing. I think the Riaflex Joint Pro now combines all three of these though, so in theory you would only need the one product, but I haven’t looked into equivalent levels in each of the individual products compared to the Pro.

The combination of the above, veterinary anti-inflammatories and making adjustments in the home such as new beds, rugs and anti-slip strips on hard floors made a big difference. Oh and as you have mentioned weight management was really important as well.

If you have insurance that covers it or can afford it, I have heard good things about hydrotherapy as well and as a pp said, look into Librela, although I think availability can be patch at times with that.

We upped the brain games at the point where we had to change/limit the type of exercise he was able to do, lots of puzzles, snuffle mats, scatter feeding and teaching him to search for things and he coped with the transition fine.

My dog was a large breed and lived comfortably until he was almost 17, with us eventually losing him to something unrelated to the arthritis.

Thank you so much that website is amazing - exactly what I needed xxx