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Grain Free For Arthritis?


Aidansmom

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My boy Aidan recently developed a limp in his left leg which began when the weather started to get cold here in VA. How bad it is comes and goes each day and is worse when the weather is colder. After multiple vet visits, a course of antibiotics, blood work, additional heart worm test and x-rays the only conclusion we could come to is that its most likely early arthritis. I was very saddened by this news since he is only 5 and I feel has a lot of years ahead of him. It also seemed to come out of the blue. We used to go for walks twice a day and now it is a struggle for him to walk down the hall. He currently on a weeks worth of Derramax which I know will not be a permanent solution but it does seem to give him releif. I have also started giving him Dasuquin but I know those effects often can't be seen for months after starting.

 

I am willing to do anything I can to make him more comfortable and have heard that switching to a grain free food often helps the inflammation associated with arthritis. Does anyone have any experience with this being beneficial? He is currently eating IAMS red bag and I thought about just switching him to the IAMS grain free naturals since I'm already happy with IAMS and it is kind to the wallet.

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I don't think it's a bad idea. If you have access to Costco, they have a grain free food that could be a good cost effective option as well. Either way, I would add fish oil to his diet. I like the Iceland Pure brand. You can get it on Amazon and Entirely Pets for the best price.

 

I would also send those x-rays off to Dr. Couto for a second opinion just to be safe. Your dog is young, but osteo is still a possibility and sounds a tiny bit more likely given the sudden onset and severity. Or it could be something entirely different that your vet hasn't considered.

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Jen, CPDT-KA with Zuri, lab in a greyhound suit, Violet, formerly known as Faith, Skye, the permanent puppy, Cisco, resident cat, and my baby girl Neyla, forever in my heart

"The great thing about science is that you're free to disagree with it, but you'll be wrong."

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I don't think it's a bad idea. If you have access to Costco, they have a grain free food that could be a good cost effective option as well. Either way, I would add fish oil to his diet. I like the Iceland Pure brand. You can get it on Amazon and Entirely Pets for the best price.

 

I would also send those x-rays off to Dr. Couto for a second opinion just to be safe. Your dog is young, but osteo is still a possibility and sounds a tiny bit more likely given the sudden onset and severity. Or it could be something entirely different that your vet hasn't considered.

Thanks for the Costco suggestion! I don't have a card but have a lot of pet loving friends who do. He is currently on Welactin as far as fish oil goes but I'm going to check out Iceland Pure, it looks like it might be a better deal. I just feel so helpless in that after all the vet visits we still havnt found a solution yet. I do trust my vet though she is great and actually sees a good amount of greyhounds at the practice but a second opinion might be worth a try! Thanks for the advice NeylasMom! When I have to make posts like this I'm so happy I found greytalk.

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Providing you do the recommended blood work, there is no reason he can't stay on Deramaxx. My dog took it for years. What you want is the lowest effective dose. For George is was 50 mg/day.

 

Did you check his paws for corns? I only mention that because you didn't say you checked for those. The cold weather could possibly just be a coincidence.


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Susan,  Hamish,  Mister Bigglesworth and Nikita Stanislav. Missing Ming, George, and Buck

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Providing you do the recommended blood work, there is no reason he can't stay on Deramaxx. My dog took it for years. What you want is the lowest effective dose. For George is was 50 mg/day.

 

Did you check his paws for corns? I only mention that because you didn't say you checked for those. The cold weather could possibly just be a coincidence.

 

Really!? Maybe I misunderstood my vet about the Deramaxx because it does seem to help a lot! Is the blood work done yearly? every six months?

 

We did check for corns, multiple times! I think my vet was getting annoyed with me because everytime I took him in I would be like "Are you sure its not a corn? maybe its just hard to see? can you check again?"

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Providing you do the recommended blood work, there is no reason he can't stay on Deramaxx. My dog took it for years. What you want is the lowest effective dose. For George is was 50 mg/day.

 

Did you check his paws for corns? I only mention that because you didn't say you checked for those. The cold weather could possibly just be a coincidence.

 

This really sounds like a corn. take a close-up picture of the pad after wetting it.

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This really sounds like a corn. take a close-up picture of the pad after wetting it.

 

I kept thinking this as well but I have looked at both his front feet multiple times (even brought home a soak from the vet to use) and have seen nothing that even looks close to a corn or a developing corn.

 

Is it possible for it still to be deeper within the pad and eventually will be visible when it comes to the surface?

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  • 3 weeks later...

Sorry I didn't answer sooner--George had bloodwork every six months, but he was an older dog. My Kramer took Rimadyl for years (he was a mongrel) and he only got tested annually at first, then as he got old, every six months. It's not a particularly expensive test.

 

Also, I always buy my Deramaxx from 1-800-PetMeds because my vet charged a fortune for it.


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Susan,  Hamish,  Mister Bigglesworth and Nikita Stanislav. Missing Ming, George, and Buck

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