Arthritis...

Question
I know you don't do medical questions but I did want to ask you about any treatments and the like that you may have come across in the past having worked with so many dogs. My grandmother has a sixteen year old Lhasa Apso, she's got severe arthritis in her hips. She's on several medications and wont take any of the softchew supplements. She doesn't like the taste of them. She knows when people put it in her food. She doesn't eat dog food anymore.. She eats only human food now. She's always been picky with taking anything in the past.. do you have any recommendations? All the vet does is put her on even more medication, and that is horrible for her system, as old as she is.

Answer
Nothing is going to help your grandmother's dog if the prescribed medications are not given to her. If the dog doesn't eat them on her own, then they should be shoved down her throat.

Here our arthritic dog has been taken off of all corn products, and he gets half a good-quality glucosamine/chondroitin tablet 2x a day. If he has a really bad day, he is given rimadyl. Another good drug for pain that many like better than rimadyl is tramadol. Ligaplex is helpful in some dogs, but that is more for help with degenerative ligaments than arthritis.