jennyrjd

Hello Basset Lovers,

This is my first time to post here (or anywhere for that matter) and I really need some ideas for my 13 yr old basset Doc Holiday Jordan. He is now totally blind and he also has arthritis in his hind legs. They shake a lot and every thing we have tried to give him to help (rimadyl, deramaxx, etc) with his pain eventually makes his stomach very very sick. Any ideas? Also, we just got a new basset named Charley Bucket from North Texas Basset Hound Rescue. He is just great as long as he doesn't get to playful with Doc lol.

Thanks,

Jenny

Yogi's Mom

Have you tried using glucosamine/chondroitin for your boy? I use Dasuquin MSM for Yogi. It is a bit expensive but there are other brands out there such as Cosequin. It does take about six weeks or so before it really kicks in though.

Lightning&Stomps

For a dog that has already developed arthritis, I would look into injectable joint lubricants. I used to give an older dog I had several years ago IM injections of Adequan. Different ones have been developed since then that might be more effective. I was lucky--I got it at cost from a friend who is a vet, and I gave the injections myself. That made it affordable. So you might look into that.

biscuit

I had a senior German Shepherd girl with terrible arthritis and dysplasia. We tried Rimadyl on her, and it was a disaster. But doggie aspirin worked wonders. She would run like a pup after her doggie aspirin and was so much happier.

The brand I used was NutriVet K9 Aspirin.

Now, be warned, aspirin brings with it its own problems. But I used it with her maybe 2 years when she would have been otherwise absolutely miserable. And, even though I am somewhat suspicious that it might have been in some distant way responsible for her death (she got bloat ), in retrospect, I'm very glad I used it because she had a great last couple of years, which is really saying something for a doggie as old as her and with as many problems as she had.