Daisy is my pooch, the golden retriever that you see in the picture. The fluffy one. My big baby. I’ve had her over 10 years now, ever since she was a little pup. Although the last couple of years haven’t been kind to Daisy. She’s been suffering from dog arthritis and it was just getting worse and worse. I didn’t know what to do for her. Sometimes it was so bad that she’d yelp when she got up front lying down for a while. And she’d limp over to her dog bowl to eat. It was ripping my heart out to see her like that.
If you’re reading this, I bet that you probably have a dog or cat that’s suffering from arthritis. So you know how difficult it can be to see your loved one suffer like that. When Daisy started having problems with her back legs mostly, this was about 2 years ago, I started looking into how I might ease her discomfort.
The first thing I did was take her to see her vet. Dr. Blackwell confirmed that it was arthritis, and probably caused by hip dysplasia. Dr. Blackwell gave her a thorough exam and took X rays too. This helped confirm that Daisy does have arthritis, more pronounced in her back legs, but he said that she also had canine arthritis in her front joints too.
Since that time about 2 years ago I’ve finally come to a place where Daisy is almost symptom free. And I find this remarkable because she is now 2 years older and just like with people, animal arthritis tends to get worse as they get older. And I’ve learned a bunch of different things that have helped me to help Daisy ease her arthritis pain and find more enjoyment in her life. I want to share with you what I’ve learned over these couple of years that have helped. It took me a lot of time and searching both online and offline to find out what some of the best treatments are to help ease pet arthritis. And I wish there would have been just one resource out there that would have helped me cut out all that time and experimentation that it took for me to find solutions to Daisy’s arthritis and pain.
So I hope that you’ll find that these same treatments and suggestions will help your dog or cat. I know that they’ve worked for my friend’s animals too. My girlfriend Tanya has found that using a homeopathic remedy has been extremely beneficial for her cat. And as I mentioned before, that same homeopathic remedy is a key component to Daisy’s recovery. I’m certain.
As you probably know, genetics do play a part in animal arthritis, both for canines and felines. Some breeds are just more susceptible to hip dysplasia and arthritis than others. German Shepherds, Rottweilers, Great Danes and other large breed dogs seem to have greater problems with arthritis than others. Golden Retrievers like Daisy also have arthritis more often than I would have thought.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much that can be done for genetics. Unless you’re looking at a new animal in which case you might want to go for mixed breeds over purebreds and smaller dogs over larger ones.
Something else that I didn’t realize was important in helping to prevent arthritis was your dog’s or cat’s diet. I really had no idea that this was important. But as it turns out, feeding your dog or cat too much can leave them predisposed to more arthritis symptoms. And I’m guilty of that. I’ve certainly fed Daisy more than I should on occasion. Dr. Blackwell has told me that she’s a little hefty, you can’t tell from the pic but she is. Not that she’s obese but she could lose a few pounds. And apparently that will help. So keep your dog on a strict feeding schedule, or if you’re like me and can’t help spoiling them then at least use a low cal dog food which is what I have done, and it is slowly helping Daisy lose some weight.
Exercise is also something that should be used carefully with companion animals who have arthritis. I thought that exercise is healthy and beneficial to dogs and cats. And it is, but not all exercise is created equally. For dogs especially, you want to limit the amount of jumping exercise that they do. This was something that we didn’t know about, and when Daisy was growing up my husband would take her out to the park and throw a frisbee to her, where she would jump up and catch it. They both loved it, but I’ve learned that it isn’t good for her arthritis.
What is good, is gently walking or even brisk walking. Treadmill walking and swimming is also helpful to pets with arthritis. We don’t have a treadmill, so what we did is take Daisy on long gentle walks in the parks on soft grass and she enjoys that. At the beginning it was still difficult for her because of her arthritis but after about 10 minutes of warming up her joints and muscles she seemed to almost forget about her pain and discomfort.
Nowadays as I’ve mentioned, her arthritis is practically gone and she’s eager for her daily “walkies”.
So what I did was combine all of the above therapeutic approaches with some supplementation that I’ll mention in a minute. We stopped letting her jump by not throwing her frisbees any more, instead we roll a tennis ball to her so she doesn’t have to jump for it. She still loves this just as much as she did with jumping for frisbees. We take her for a good hour long stroll each day except Sundays and we’ve started to watch how much she eats. As I said before, I’ve started to put her on a calorie control dog food and that has made a difference.
The exercise and diet have certainly been helpful, though I suspect that the biggest gains have been made by using the supplementation. The most important one that I have found to be the most helpful for easing Daisy’s arthritis is a homeopathic remedy that I found that is completely plant based and natural. I was suspicious at first as I didn’t really understand how homeopathy works. But work it does.
Daisy is also taking glucosamine, chondroitin and methyl-sulfonyl-methane or MSM. I just add this to her food and she doesn’t seem to mind the taste at all.
In the beginning, Dr. Blackwell also had Daisy on a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), so I’d recommend you speak to your vet about the different options for your pet. I know that cats are better with different ones to dogs and vice versa. Well, that pretty much sums up what I’ve done to help Daisy practically get rid of her arthritis. I can’t believe the change over these last 2 years. And honestly, since I introduced the supplements, especially the homeopathic one about 3 or 4 months ago, the change has been dramatic.
Please let me know if this has helped. I know how difficult it can be to watch your pet suffer with arthritis.