My dog is a 4 year old puppy mill rescue. She has a lot of bone deformities and issues with her joints and muscles. She takes half a vitamin for joints every day (Glucosamine) and the vet put her on Rimadyl recently because she was having pain in one of her legs. The leg has bone deformations and she puts a lot of pressure on her wrist joint, especially when she squats to pee… she twists her leg almost 180 degrees to get a good squat.

I give her the joint vitamins, and I wrap her leg in my electric blanket to put some heat on it for about 10 minutes… and she gets deep tissue massages, but she did something to it, and it’s not very sensitive so she doesn’t want me to touch it.

I gave her Rimadyl 2x now and both times she got very lethargic. I took her off it today and she was back to her normal self, but you could tell her leg was still bothering her.

I wanted to see if I could safely give her just half a dose of Rimadyl instead of a full tablet, and thats when I read all the severe side effects. So now I don’t know if I want to give it to her at all… and just wait till after Christmas and ask the vet to recommend something else…

thoughts?
Both the vitamin and the rimadyl was recommended by the vet.
My dog has a great quality of life. She’s very playful, she’s very lively normally, and this is the first time she’s been in pain like this, and it was most likely caused by straining her leg too much or tripping on her way up the stairs because. Her bone issues make it harder on her, but her quality of life is still great because 90% of the time she’s not in much if any pain.

My 9 month old German Shepherd puppy was diagnosed with Hip Displacia about 3 months ago. From what the Veterinarians tell me, he was practically born with it and there was nothing we could do to prevent it. I have him on Cosequin Glucosamine tablets, which help but I’m trying to find a dry dog food that I can feed him that will give him a double boost of good vitamins and minerals to delay the inevitable hip surgery. I don’t want to give him the surgery until he at least a couple years old because I’ve been told by many Vets it only is guarenteed to last 4-5 years tops. So I figure if I do the surgery to young, he won’t live past 5 and that breaks our hearts. Plus the surgery is extremely expensive and I need to save some major $$$. So I’m looking for a good dry dog food that will also help improve his health so we can give this dog the best quality of life. I am up for anything at this point. If anyone knows of any better pills either, that would be helpful! I’m stationed in Germany right now and the Veterinarians either don’t speak good English, or are unqualified American Veterinarians that don’t know anything about prevention and treatment for this disease. So I’m stuck! Thanks for any info! It would be great if there were people out there who are Veterinarians who could answer this question so at least I know I’m not going to hurt my dog. Any answer I get I will follow up with my puppy’s regular Vet, just in case. Thanks!