HGG Community Forums

Has anyone had to deal with this in a pet before? My dog (nearing 15 years old, but mostly very healthy) has been limping lately, so I took her to the vet and got x-rays done, thinking she had arthritis in her leg. Turns out her shoulder and elbow are near perfect, but the flexible part on each of her ribs has arthritis in it! Currently we're chalking the limping up to a combination of that and a pulled muscle, since she tends to still be very active. The vet recommended Rimadyl, but we're 9 days in and I haven't really noticed improvement. She also suggested Adequan, which I've used for my cat with good results, but I was curious about any experiences anyone has had with it in dogs, good or bad. It's rather expensive, so I want to cover all bases before trying it.

I was also curious if anyone had any other ideas that help. I know the basic arthritis things, like no/limited stairs, no big jumps, limited but not too limited exercise, but I'm not sure if any of that would do anything for the ribs. Obviously I can't and don't want to limit her breathing, but kind of a little short on ideas of other things that will help.

Thanks!