Hound with arthritis. . . ?

[Michelle_Nelson]

I've got a close to if not 11 year old American English Coonhound.  For the past 1.5 years I've noticed he has been favoring his left rear leg more and more.  Unless he is walking or running he doesn't put a lot of weight on it.  I've had the vet look at it and they said it was more than likely arthritis.  The vet said they could give him a perscription of anti-inflamitories to be given to him on bad days but not an every day thing.

I asked about giving him children's asprin or something daily but they said they didn't recomend it.

I don't want to give him something that will hurt him but I don't want him hurting either. I thought there were some over the counter meds that could be given for dogs with arthritis.

This is how he holds his leg whenever he stands.  You can see there isn't any weight on his foot. 

[YellowDog]

Michelle, I have a now 9 year old lab that has had TPLO surgery on both back legs and x-rays show poorly shaped hip sockets (displaying) though she isn't really exhibiting pain from the hips. She does have the tell tale bunny hop running motion. Anyway when we discovered that she had torn legislated in both back need and badly shaped hip joints at age 6 the vet suggested 500 mg glucosamine 400 mg chondroitin for dogs. I have given her a daily pill from Pet Smart and she is doing really well. Other than that you probably are going to have to use Rimydl as needed which the vet will prescribe. I'm no expert though.

[dawei]

What I give my aging (9yo) dog is enteric coated aspirin. No damage to the stomach like regular aspirin. (This treatment was approved by the Veternarian.) Really seems to help.

[334OKH]

I have a dog with bad hip dysplasia. We started giving a supplement called "Advanced Cetyl M" it has made a huge difference. Ain't cheap though! I get it at my local feed store and I swear by it.