What do you do with a hinky hip?

People always ask me how old River is. She's somewhere between 9 and 10. She was an owner surrender in April of 2009, and her age was listed as 4.

She's still excitable and feisty when we go out, and she doesn't have her grey face yet-- just a slight peppering of white hairs on her muzzle that you can see if you look very closely. She's still silly and pretty and giving us all hell. It is her life's work.

But we've noticed some slowing down. Some excess shedding. Some pain. She goes up the stairs quickly, but with a hop, and comes down a little cock-eyed. So we started the Adequan a few months ago, and I think it's helping her. 

We noticed yesterday that she cried much of the way down the stairs, though. I noticed a lot of resistance when I tried to manipulate one of her rear legs. So off to the vet we went. 

We did the first set of xrays that she's had in a couple of years. And this time, there was some arthritis visible in her hips and knees. It clearly hurt her to flex the hip for xray, so we didn't opt to take a second film that would show a little more. 

I had already been considering trying out Herbsmith's Soothe Joint as extra support to add to the glucosamine. It's a Traditional Chinese Medicine herbal blend. I jokingly mentioned to the vet that I know I'm a fruitloop, but I'm thinking of trying it out. She did not laugh. 

In fact, she told me about some success she has been having with her own ailments using a Chinese herb in tea form. And then she asked me how I felt about NSAIDs instead of just prescribing them and moving on. It made me really appreciate the relationship we've developed with our vets-- particularly this vet who seemed the most skeptical of our move to raw to help Robin's crystals. 

So River currently takes Glycoflex III, but I think Dasuquin works a bit better, and so when we run out of the Glycoflex, we'll switch back. She gets salmon oil, so we'll boost that and carry on. I have the Rimadyl on hand for rough days, as needed, but we'll likely look for a gentler solution. And she's really not going to like this one... I really think I need to reduce her food just a bit again. 

But she WILL like this one: we'll need to take more walks to work off this last 5lbs that she needs to lose. 

In the meantime, Andre continues to do well with beef, turkey and pork at home. He and Luna switched to an all-in-one probiotic/enzyme powder.

And Luna's nails are growing back yeast-free. We have put her on Animal Essentials Green Alternative, and so far so good. Her skin and coat look better, too. I think this is taking the place of her kelp nicely.

And a few interesting things going on with Robin, but I'll address those in a separate post. :)

Senior Day at the homestead

Today, since I am off work, I finally had time to take Chester in for some blood work. Before I make such a radical diet change, I wanted to be sure that he didn't have any chronic illness that might need to be dealt with delicately in terms of his diet-- things like kidney or liver disease, or diabetes. He is 10 or 11 years old, which isn't exactly geriatric for a cat, but it's certainly a point where it's a good idea to be aware of common chronic illness and to have a baseline against which to compare future tests. 

The vet did agree that he had some muscle loss in the back end, and he has lost weight, despite still looking huge. And as I mentioned a few days ago, his coat is greasy, coarse and thin. 

He was less than happy about the blood draw, but he hung in there. 

And everything looked perfect. We decided to hold off on a thyroid panel for now, and instead we will try increasing his protein--moisture rich protein, meaning an all canned, low-carb or carb-free, diet, or raw. This vet is newer at the clinic, but she didn't give me any grief about the diet change. 

I will still be monitoring his urine pH using the color-change litter as we move forward.

Now on the canine side of the family, River has been mopey lately. She's seemed uncomfortable, reluctant to come up the stairs or to jump on the bed; she's been clingy and needy. Her coat is a bit dry and dandruffy. She has some arthritis in a front leg, and she has some scar tissue from a puncture wound on her hip, so she already gets high dose glucosamine  and chondroitin, MSM, and salmon oil. 

For River, we discussed potential thyroid problems (she also has a hard time losing weight), and possible increased pain from the arthritis. We have decided to hold off on the thyroid panel for her, as well, and will opt to ramp up arthritis treatment with Adequan injections. Adequan is similar to glucosamine, as I understand it; it is another building block for joint health. You do a 2week, 4 injection loading dose, and follow with, usually, once monthly injections thereafter. 

When our old man, a lab mix Simon, took these treatments, it was miraculous. He would begin the day unable to stand in one place long enough to eat breakfast, and end it running to greet me at the door. He began by getting the shots every 6-8 weeks, but eventually took them every 2 weeks. I feel that they were the single most important piece of his treatment puzzle and helped him live happily to 16 years old. Tramadol (Ultram) was the second most important. Neither of those treatments have many side effects. Simon had some nausea with the Adequan and some constipation with the Tramadol, but those were short-lived and worth the benefits. Since Tramadol is, despite it's safety, still a synthetic narcotic, I'm starting with the nutraceutical before the pharmaceutical. 

So far, it looks like River is having some nausea, maybe, but she still enjoyed her outing with me this morning. So she gets to rest all afternoon. She's earned it. It's sort of strange for me, though. I still think of her as our young, Emo, drama queen pup. She's also 9 or 10, and her body is telling me that she's older than I want to believe she is. So here's hoping we're starting these interventions early enough. It's one regret I had with Simon-- that I waited too long to give him the quality of life he could have enjoyed sooner. You live and learn, though. And that's what we're doing.