What would you do? (meds)

A question was asked of me recently and what initially seemed like a pretty straightforward question make me think.  This was the question:  

“I was wondering if you could recommend nonprescription medicine for our dog. He is 13 and has a bone tumor on his front leg and arthritis in his back legs. An anti-inflammatory or anything for pain relief besides dog aspirin?”

I can only speak from my experience and I am certainly not a vet, vet tech or anyone related to the veterinary profession.  I just have dogs…. enough dogs that I’ve sometimes feel like I’ve experienced everything - which is, of course, not true and as I think of it, a topic for another post.  And I’m not a breeder so I have experienced nothing related to birthin’ ‘n babies!
So as I thought of what I would give to a 13 year old dog with a bone tumor, these thoughts ran through my head:

• 13 years old, if a German Shepherd, is pretty old and I would be making that dog as comfortable as possible.  What I keep on hand for pain from my vet is Tramadol and that has gotten me through the pain both Teddy and Ari experienced before they crossed. 
• If the dog was a smaller dog with a longer life expectancy, I possibly would look into removal of the tumor – depending, of course, what it is.
• Another thing that crossed my mind was that I do NOT use Rimadyl and the only time I gave my dogs Deramaxx was post surgery. 
• Glucosamine is what I give to young active dogs and is not a quick pain cure for older dogs.  It is pretty much a stable in my house for everyone!!
• Glucosamine brought to mind the Adequan shots my dogs had a few years ago for stiffness but again that is not instant relief.
• I would, for sure, take my dog to a VOM practitioner.

So…  do I have an answer?  My response is that it depends on the dog and its age and history.   Non-prescription – no suggestions..  it’s a “Vet thing”…..

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Older dogs….  I usually take post photos of the dogs “smiling” with their tongue hanging out.  These are more serious pictures.  Teddy (1999 - 2009) on the left was on a walk through the woods and he was limping so he was resting.   Ari (1999 – 2009) in the middle was hanging out in his sandbox after the school bus went by.  Olivia (1999 – present) was visiting Teddy’s resting place a month after we lost him.  These 3, who were 6 months apart in age, were all about 9 when these pictures were taken.

            

                      

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