There’s life in your old dog yet.. even if they suffer with arthritis

IMAGINE, if you will, that you’re a 50-year old, overweight man and you’ve just woken up the morning after playing your first football game in years. (I yearn for those good old days too!)

Anyway. Your whole body aches.

Your muscles are tight and sore. Every joint feels like it has seized up overnight.

You just know that your first movement will be agony.

You are frightened to even slide your legs out of bed and you wonder if they will support you.

But at least, in this situation, you know that things will improve over a few days.

Gradually, the stiffness will subside. Slowly, each step will become less painful. Eventually, you will recover.

But it’s not the same for the estimated 650,000 dogs in Britain suffering from arthritis and who aren’t getting treatment.

Every morning they rise slowly from their beds. They creep around until their tired joints slacken a little but then spend the rest of each day in discomfort.

It’s typical of dogs not to be demonstrative about their pain. They suffer in silence, often giving their owners few clues to their distress, though there are subtle things you should notice.

That old dog may not just be lazy, lying there in his bed all day.

He might be desperate to get out and run the hills again but it’s just too sore to do so.

That dog that used to rush to greet you at the door as you returned from work may now stay on the couch, not because he’s deaf, but because it’s just too much effort to get up.

And have you found you need to help your dog up and into the car recently?

It’s not doing your back much good and it may be his osteo-arthritic joints that are to blame.

In a survey, vets were asked to record their findings when dogs were first brought to them and a diagnosis of arthritis was finally made.

Remarkably, 23 per cent of dogs were assessed as being in severe pain, with 59 per cent showing moderate pain.

This means that, right now, there are 150,000 dogs suffering badly… and their owners don’t even know.

And lest you remember that treatment of your last geriatric dog a lifetime ago caused unwanted sideeffects, then bear in mind there are newer non-steroid anti-inflammatories and monthly monoclonal antibody injections that are safer and more effective.

And don’t forget your cat! They get it too. (And hide it even more!)