Any dog that lives long enough, according to my vet, will eventually get arthritis. Worse, when my dogs got it, they weren’t able to tolerate the pain medicines that were prescribed.
Chiropractic: Dr. Michelle Zarzana, a chiropractor who works mostly on people (including the humans in my family), did wonders for my two oldsters before they passed away. Here’s a New York Times article on chiropractic for pets. She and her kind staff truly enhanced their final years.
Laser: Dr. Zarzana’s laser treatments also helped. After each session, my dogs walked with improved energy and flexibility. ABC News has this to say about laser for pets.
Exercise: Even the shortest of daily walks helped. In the d-o-g/g-o-d karma of dogs, walking benefited me as well.
Supplements – Glucosamine: An orthopedist explained that the sulfate formula (harder to find than the HCL kind) is best. I believe human supplements are held to higher standards than those for pets, so I bought the people kind. Within days, my dogs showed improvement.
Supplements – CBD Oil: Being in pain is stressful. My dogs would pant and pace when they were miserable. Within an hour of taking several drops of CBD oil on their tongues, they would become calm, yet neither disoriented nor beset with side effects.
What works for your dogs? Or doesn’t?
Happiness Between Tails by da-AL 
Daal, thank you for these articles about living with aging pets and how to relieve their pain and discomfort. You’re making someone’s beloved pet more comfortable.
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I hope so, Sharon ❤
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da-AL, I had never thought about cbd oil for dogs with arthritis. I’ve printed this off for my son, Richard, whose 13-year-old Australian shepherd is suffering from arthritis pain. Aussies are fairly long lived so we will probably have her for another 3 to 5 years. While we love her and don’t want her to leave us, we don’t want her to suffer in her old age either. Bless you for posting this article.
Barbara
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What a marvelous breed! If ever it’s needed, I hope cbd oil helps. The business doesn’t seem to be well regulated, so it’s important to find a good supplier, which is why for once I’ll mention a brand I’ve had good experience with — blue bird botanicals dot com — my dogs had lots of side effects with pharmaceuticals, so it was good to find something that didn’t do more harm than good. As their arthritis progressed, however, there wasn’t much I found that could completely take away their pain short of making them catatonic. Whereas cats seem to know when they want out of life, dogs will endure for the sake of their masters…
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