Hail Dog Doc!!!!!!

[honker-tonk]

I need some advice........My yellow is 7 years. He has been an outside dog and a great bird dog. Last year after exercise or hunting, he would limp on his back left. It is getting worse. He still does great during the hunt but by the time we get back home he is limping. He generally wt bears with his good leg.
Anyway, I took him to a ortho surgeon......and he felt that it was hip arrthritis but he wants to do a full work up....xrays, general etc. etc. Anyway the price tag for the work up is more than I can afford. What anti-inflamatory would you suggest? Is there any merritt to sharks cartiledge or glycosamine........I want to go to my vet with some suggestions..............boy is hard to watch your good buddy get old.

p.s. suggestions from anyone else are welcome


thanks
H-T

[goose me TX]

There are 2 very good anti-inflamatories on the market right now. Rimadyl and Deramaxx. As far as which one is better, I personally, have had EXCELLENT results with Deramaxx, although some of our patients have tried it and have switched back to Rimadyl because it worked better for them. Deramaxx has fewer gastrointestinal problems then Rimadyl does, and is supposedly more pain specific. Your Vet may give you a trial of these medications, but before putting your dog on these long term, they will most likely require some bloodwork be done as these medications can be hard on the liver. If you dog is on these long term, which I suspect he will be, you will most likely have to do bloodwork on a yearly basis just to make sure no damage is being done to the liver.

I had my dog to a specialist who wanted to do a surgery that was going to cost me $1500.00 (and that was with a big discount), I opted out of the surgery and switched from Rimadyl to Deramaxx and within a week she was back to normal. A LOT less then spending the $1500. Granted this wasn't pain from a degenerative bone disease or artheritis, it was from a Palmer Carpel breakdown, where the specialist said her wrist joint needed to be fused together. He also told me if the surgery wasn't done, she would never walk normally again.

As for glucosimine, I am not a big believer in it, some of our clients swear by it, others have used it with no results. Hope some of this info helps you.