Arthritis in Dogs- How to Reduce Discomfort

Arthritis isn’t just upsetting in man but also in dogs. Nonetheless, this can be dealt with to manage the disease as much as possible, easing the canine’s pain. Arthritis generally refers to joints inflammation and quite a common complication in dogs. The obvious symptoms in a dog include stiffness, clear discomfort and pain. The inflammation of joints is mostly evident in older canines but due to issues with joint and bone development the problem can develop much earlier.

Arthritis diagnosis in dogs

Once a vet has suspected that the pet is suffering, it’s possible to pinpoint the affected joints through an examination by following the discomfort or pain as well as joint extension and flexion. X-rays and other tests can also be done to further confirm the condition and find out any underlying cause.

Arthritis management

There’re different therapies that can be used to manage the joint inflammation.

Medication

At certain times a vet can recommend the use of diverse treatments over the dog’s lifetime through the use of medication. This can be the use of cartilage protectors helping to lower damage on the cartilage such as pentosan polysulphate, glycosaminoglycans polysulpate and hyaluronic acid. They help lower the degeneration of cartilage at the same time promoting joint repair and minimizing painful inflammation as much as possible.

Another type of medication used includes nutraceuticals that include chondroitin sulphate and glucosamine and critical in building cartilage blocks. By including nutraceuticals in a canine’s diet cartilage repair can take place, providing the much needed arthritis relief.

NSAIDs or simply anti-inflammatory medication help in the management of inflammation brought about by arthritis. However, due to their detrimental side effects if used for a longer time, they are not the best.

Diet

Managing arthritis through diet is very effective, helpful and affordable. Essentially, there’re those foods that either aggravate the condition or heighten inflammation. For instance, if grains are eliminated from a particular dog’s diet the symptoms associated with arthritis have been found to decrease and within no time the dog might not require any other treatment.

Other foods to avoid due to their ability to aggravate arthritis in dogs include those within the nightshade family such as peppers, eggplants, tomatoes and potatoes. However, the truth is avoiding these foods is rather hard for those unable to go with homemade diets that help in ingredients control. Most canine meals have grains as main ingredients and those without grains might not lack potatoes.

Rather, go with dog food containing sweet potatoes that don’t aggravate the condition in the pet including tapioca followed by monitoring to see if there’s any improvement. Canned dog food doesn’t really contain a lot of carbohydrates and might be an alternative to seek particularly for those with smaller dogs. You can also seek foods such as cartilage, papaya, mango, alfalfa, celery to add in a canine diet to help alleviate arthritis.

Weight reduction

Once you realize your dog is suffering from arthritis you might want to help the pet exercise and reduce weight. With additional weight joints are heavily stressed and it’s really hard to get the dog into an exercise routine. If exercising to cut weight is a little hard you might want to go with diet, lower the canine’s portion and keep weighing the food perhaps with a postal scale as much as possible to control its mass.  Think of a high protein and low carb diet combination for the dog to effect weight loss. Fat should also be highly moderately to lower chances of weight gain.

Supplements

To control arthritis with supplements is easier and helps a lot by offering extra benefits apart from reducing inflammation. Omega-3 fatty acids are critical and mostly found in fish oil such as salmon oil offering DHA and EPA fatty acids. As you give the canine oils combine them with vitamin E supplements to make sure it’s not depleted.  Also increase vitamin C doses to help lower the irritation brought about by the condition. Ascorbate forms of vitamins are okay, especially flavonoids that reduce inflammation.