Is there anything I can give my 13 year old chihuahua for arthritis?
My vet told me during my last visit that our 13 year old chihuahua Rixie has arthritis. That was a few months ago and now every morning she’s in a lot of pain for sometimes up to a few hours? This morning she could barely take a single step without yelping in pain. Is there anything I can do for her like give her half of a baby aspirin or something similar? I hate to see her in pain.
yeah, a visit to vet to get dog meds
Poor baby! Ask your vet about that. Please don’t give her pills because someone on yahoo told you to. Get the facts from the vet who has seen your dog.
Take her back to the vet’s for a visit, and a prescription of whatever the vet recommends. Why would you trust the opinions of total strangers online?
Her Vet will have what you need. He/She will have several things you can try. Specially formulated for dogs.
She is suffering. Do something to help her. A Vet is your only choice. There are no Vets on this site.
An aspirin is not going to cut that kind of PAIN.
Go to the vet they can give you some medication that will help.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14994484
The link is to a study of an herbal product, Boswellia, and how it helps dogs with arthritis. I have 2 girls who are 13 yrs old. They are both on Boswellia and it really does work.
Definitely book her in for a vet visit and discuss the options for pain management.
At the same time, you should have her on something that will help with the joint movement. There are lots of products that will help to cushion the joints again and provide lubrication between them. Look for things with glucosamine, omega oils, chondroitin etc. Do your research and go for something that has had very good reviews with other peoples dogs.
My dog is 12 now and she recently had a series of injections to help with arthritis. She had 4 in total, 2 weeks apart each. I have to say that these did help and she isn’t limping on a walk anymore. If your vet suggest the injections then I can say from experience with my dog that they do work and they aren’t expensive.
The more expensive options I found were the option to buy Rymadyl (which is really just carprofen) or Metacam (which is meloxicam). These are 2 of the more popular drugs. Personally these can cause some pretty bad side effects so you will need to watch for those if any of these arthritis drugs are prescribed.
A little tip if you do go this way. Years ago we had a german shepherd with bad arthritis and she was put on the Rymadyl. I found out that you can buy this drug (carprofen) at the local pharmacy. I just checked the amount prescribed from the vet and bought the same amount from the chemist. It was a quarter of the price for exactly the same thing and the pharmacist was happy to give it to me as it was for the dog. Same thing for the Metacam.
I still prefer more natural treatments for arthritis, and there are some really good products out there but if you have to give her immediate pain treatment then go ahead and do it. The last thing you want is to see her suffer. Get back to the vet asap and get her on something to ease the pain. Just make sure that the side effects are explained so you understand them all.
I do not like your idea of wanting to give her aspirin. You can’t keep doing that unmonitored and from the sound of it, it would be a daily thing with your dog. Don’t go there. You can cause more harm than good.
Best of luck and I hope your dog is feeling better soon.