Joint pain in older house cat

Question
Dear Jana, we have an older house kitty with very sore knees in the rear legs.  X-ray has shown arthritis .Do you remember our kitty who died in January of renal failure?  This girl with the bad knees was second oldest and now is our oldest cat.  One vet has told me of success with glucosamine given to cats and dogs. He apparently has used the substance with success  and believes it works much better in dogs and cats than in humans.  The problem is we have no idea what sort of dosage to give a small cat and where to get the stuff.  Glucosamine made for people is more clear in labeling as to actual content of the working medicine.

Any thoughts you might have will be appreciated.Thanks so very much, Thomas.

(The text box is applying a strange format as I type so I hope it is readable).

Answer
Hi Thomas,
I hope that you and your wife are doing better with the loss of your sweet girl.

It is very easy to get a glucosamine/chondrotin combo from the vet in the form of Cosequin. It is made is small capsules for cats that you can put into wet food I believe.

There might also be some safe pain meds for cats now that can help. If your vet told you about it doesn't he carry it?

Ask him to get you some Cosequin for cats. There are a lot of brands on the market but Cosequin was one of the first and is very good.  

Here is a page about the supplement right from the manufacturers:
http://www.nutramaxlabs.com/Vet/Products/Cosequin-for-cats.aspx

And you can buy it on Amazon.com if your vet doesn't carry it:

http://www.amazon.com/PACK-Cosequin-Cats-count-CAPSULES/dp/B00155WETE/ref=pd_sim...

I hope that helps Thomas! Please let me know how it works for her.