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My older GSP male is pretty lame now. Just went to the vet yesterday and he's on some meds to clear up a little trace blood in his urine and then he'll get Cosequin and another anti-inflammatory. He's also going to go from his working weight of 90lbs to 80lbs.
He's retired from field hunting and on house ball fetch duty. One thing about working dogs in the field they can wear down a bit faster.
I started to use Dog MX for large breeds from Petsmart when my GSD was diagnosed with arthritis (he actually growled at the vet when she touched one of his elbows ). It has much higher doses of Glucosamine, Chondroitin and MSM than brands like Cosequin. And I know from experience that with theses types of supplements larger animals need a lot for them to do any good. I saw a marked difference in my dog after only a couple of days after I introduced it into his diet (and, no, I am not a spokesman for Dog MX ).
Just a follow-up for everyone kind enough to reply to my O.P.
Hairyit rested for two weeks and is on "light duty" for the rest of this month. The Vet told me to confine her in her crate but that didn't work so what I did was only take her outside to use the facilities and kept her 2 y/o buddy from playing with her.
She hasn't limped in the past week but I am still keeping her activities on "light duty" status. The Vet told me he thinks she is recovering but eventually, I will have to let her do her thing to determine if it is healed or not. He did tell me that the surgery option would be 700 dollars if needed. He is a "country" Vet and has been doing these surgeries for 32 years. He told me he has only had 4 failures and three of them were because the owners did not let the animals recover enough.
Thanks for the update, Wartrace. Err on the side of caution and do exactly as the vet says. Hopefully, if Hairyit is kept on light duty for the next month, she won’t need the surgery.
She was doing well for a while but started limping again. I decided on the surgery and it went well; she is going to be confined for 2 weeks; hopefully, she will make a full recovery.
She is a Brindle dog and I found this interesting; her skin is pigmented where her black fur stripes are.
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