My poor dog has arthritic hips....any natural remedies?

[big brown horse]

Not much doggy knowledge, so nothing there, but I just wanted to say your girl is beautiful and I hope you can ease her pain. So tough to see a family hurting.

 

[cjparker]

Whoops, that should be Certo, not certa. Certo is a brand name for pectin, found by the canning jars and etc at the grocers or big box stores. I only added the Certo for a week or so, now drink a small glass of Welch's purple grape juice every day.

Still wondering how to get a dog to drink grape juice, tho

 

[big brown horse]

Whoops, that should be Certo, not certa. Certo is a brand name for pectin, found by the canning jars and etc at the grocers or big box stores. I only added the Certo for a week or so, now drink a small glass of Welch's purple grape juice every day.

Still wondering how to get a dog to drink grape juice, tho

With Jane (Jane Doe) all I have to do is tell her the cat would be more than happy to drink it out of HER bowl. (She never liked Kitty all that much....freeloader )

 

[freemotion]

Certa is packaged powdered gelatin. You can get the same from traditionally made bone broths, particularly from bones with a lot of tendon, ligament, and cartilage (poultry carcasses or just necks if you can get them cheaply, or beef shanks cut into 2" pieces.) This is a natural source of glucosamine, too, and the grape juice would provide some super-antioxidants if you use the dark purple rather than the white grape juice. That would be too much daily sugar for dogs, though, and would impact dental health. I had to stop giving my dog fruit daily because of this. Now it is an occasional treat.

 

[freemotion]

I meant to talk about massage earlier, but had to run off to work. Those bills keep coming in!

Find a picture of a dog skeleton. Then go exploring gently with your hands, try to find all the bones and trace them from one end to the other, and all around each one. Gently explore and probe and massage. Move the joints gently so you can explore the bones.

Even if you know nothing at all about massage, by doing this systematically and at least a couple times a week, you will do wonderful things for your dog. Try to complete her full body in about 15-20 minutes ultimately for best results, but without rushing. You can overwork an area and leave her more sore if you don't know what you are doing. And don't attempt "deep work" without training.

It might take you a few sessions to be able to get to everything in such a short time, so don't worry too much if you can't complete her whole body so quickly at first. Rather than completing one side and skipping the other side, though, work sections of her body evenly. For example, completely explore both her right and left hips and thighs in one session, if that is all you can do in 20 minutes. Next session, be very thorough in her shoulders to her elbows, maybe include her neck.

Always think in three dimensions and in terms of the bones. If you explore the bones, you will accidently contact all the muscles and all the attachments. If you always work all sides of each bone, you will not leave your dog lopsided and more uneven than when you started, a common newbie massage student mistake (and a common licensed massage therapist mistake, unfortunately! How many of you have received a massage where your abdomen was not addressed and you had low back pain? How many had the front of your neck skipped completely and you had neck pain or headaches? Mid-back pain or pain near the shoulder blades and no work on the chest? Bad, bad LMT! )

Sorry, couldn't help that pet peeve, as a massage therapy instructor!!!

 

[freemotion]

Oh, and to clarify.....dogs are not like people, they are four-legged. So their muscular stresses tend to be in their legs and shoulders and hips, not in their backs so much. Our spines are in a constant state of compression, so we have more back pain than our four-legged companions, whose backs are suspended like a bridge.

 

[big brown horse]

Thank you so much free! That is very useful information! (How dare those bills!)

I have been rubbing her shoulders and neck for most of her life with me. (She has a six-pack neck! Strong dog!) She has never liked her rear end messed with too much. I usually rub her neck and shoulders while she is standing. Should I try her hips while she is lying on the floor? (I learned a bit of newbie massage for my horses some years ago and I just applied it to my big dog...while she stood.)

I'm going to do this as soon as she comes in.

 

[freemotion]

Massage her in whatever position she is in, and she will learn to position herself to her best advantage eventually. She probably doesn't like hip work 'cuz it hurts. Just use a "broader tool" like flat fingertips all held together (imagine someone stepping on your foot with a stiletto heel.....now imagine the same person stepping on your foot with a rubber muck boot....broader tool!) and use whatever pressure she tolerates with only slight flinching.

Therapeutic depth is just below the flinch. So a flinch isn't bad....it tells you how deep to go....one notch below the flinch.

 

[big brown horse]

THANK YOU!!!!

 

[MorelCabin]

Good advice...I always hated a back massage...they hurt some days and others tickles me to delerium! But DH has learned that if he rubs with the palm of his hand instead of using fingertips, it relaxes me to a point that he can use all fingertips together like you explain and it works out much better. Never a deep massage for me though...they drive me crazy...and not in a good way:>) But this was a thread about a dog