Dog Arthritis.

Dog arthritis or canine arthritis is a painful illness that usually affects dogs in later life, but can happen earlier especially if your dog has hip dysplasia, has been injured, is inactive or overweight.

Dog arthritis is very similar to human arthritis. Dog arthritis is a degenerative disease that causes pain and stiffness in dog’s joints and muscles. Although there is no ‘cure’ for dog arthritis there is a lot that you can do to help a dog with arthritis.

What can you do about dog arthritis?

Exercise.

Exercise is extremely important to all dogs, but especially dogs who have even been diagnosed with arthritis or dogs who are susceptible to arthritis. Exercise will help with your dog’s weight (overweight dogs are both more susceptible to arthritis and suffer more from arthritis, as there is more weight on the joints). More importantly exercise ensures that the synovial fluid circulates around the joint. This lubricates the joint, keeps it moving freely and ensures that the nesecary nutrients are delivered to your dogs arthritic joints.

Nutrition.

Nutrition is key for dogs with arthritis, not just to keep the dog’s weight under control, but also to ensure that dogs get the correct nutrients to ensure the proper functioning of the joints and bones. There are dog foods and treats available with some of the ingredients that are beneficial to dogs with arthritis, but these tend to be quite expensive and tend not to include all the necessary ingredients in high enough concentrations to make them effective, so we would recommend using a natural supplement for dog arthritis. This means you don’t have to change the feed that you feed your dog and that you get effective amounts of the nutrients.

Supplements.

Pooch & Mutt’s joint supplement for dogs, Mobile Bones, is perfect for dogs with arthritis. The main ingredients to look out for in a joint supplement for canine arthritis are; Glucosamine HCL, MSM, Omega 3, Omega 6 and antioxidants. Mobile Bones has all of these and combines them with other less well-known ingredients that aid dog arthritis including; silicon, selenium, manganese bioplex, B complex vitamins, grape seed extract, calcium, phosphorus, mint, alfalfa and yucca.

To read more about Mobile Bones CLICK HERE

Medication

NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) are often the first choice for traditional vets when confronted with a dog with arthritis. However these can have very nasty side effects. To read about the side effects of NSAIDs like Metacam and Rimadyl click here.

—–