Large old dog bad back leg

[friendlyearth]

Henri is 11 and over 100 pounds. He is arthritic. Yesterday he was outside running around just fine then last night he couldn't up. He will not put any weight on his left back leg. He is having a very hard time geting up (sometimes he does have a hard time on the floor, but not usually on the rug) I'm not sure if it is the hip or the leg itself. I am going to give him some aspirin to see if it is just pain causing it or if it is the hip or leg not working. I would love other suggestions. Vet is in the future, but I can't get there today and since I lost my FT job in Feb I really can't afford it either and hoping it will just get better in a day or two. I've been having a fairly large vet bill just about every month lately.

Thank you!!

 

[emvickrey]

If he willl let you put a heating pad on his hip and give him some aspirin. My dog does the same thing. She will be running and playing one minute then she is having a hard time getting up and down. Especially in the cold weather or off a hard surface. I had mine on a regimin of 2 aspirin 2X a day for 2 weeks during the really cold weather. Now it is just when she seems to be having trouble


I hope he gets to feeling better.

 

[friendlyearth]

Thanks Emvickrey. We are heating the corn bag right now for him. I need to go to the store and get aspirin. He is horrible about taking pills. I have some herbs I give him but he holds them in his mouth as long as he has to and then spits them out. Even if I wrap them in turkey or something he still manages to eat the turkey and not the pills.

We have had a really cold winter which has been hard on him.

 

[kelliepulido]

you can give him motrin also and glucosimine chondritin from walmart

 

[emvickrey]

I stuff the aspirin in vienna sausages, or hot dogs. Mine will not take pills. I let the aspirin set in the meat for a few minutes to soften it up or she will know what it is. She is smart. Humanlike.

 

[Nivrocco]

You should not give any form of ibuprofen...what type of dog is he? Not a lot of breeds can carry 100lbs. If he is overweight that will only aggravate the problem. If he is having that much trouble getting up, he should see the vet. Maybe they could let you do payments or even exchange work for services..

 

[abluechipstock]

motrin os a no no, aspirin only, he could have torn his cruciate ligament, feel his leg and see if he has any swelling, my cousins dog went lame all of the sudden and he ended up with bone cancer, i know sad

 

[WalkingWolf]

Some breeds of dog are prone to hip problems 11 is 77 years old. Make sure your dog is getting calcium. I have always gave my dogs chicken broth when they are feeling ill. It is amazing it works on dogs just like us. I used this treatment to save a couple of pups years ago with parvo, it was the only thing they would keep down. Try dissolving the aspirin in the broth, and maybe a calcium pill.

 

[ranchhand]

I dissolve the aspirin in a small amount of water and stir that in with the dry/wet food mix. Another thing you can try- put the pill in a teaspoonful of peanut butter! My dogs, 3 large ones, will take anything if it's in peanut butter. Our 15 year old shepherd mix has arthritis in his hips, and cold, wet weather makes it worse. When we were flush, he was started on accupuncture- it was a huge improvement, and not terribly expensive.

Good luck and

to the old man! Give it a few days, he may just have a sprain.

 

[thebritt]

Quote:
I second that...NO MOTRIN/IBUPROFIN...sounds like a strained (hopefully) or torn (hopefully not) acruciate (knee). I don't mean about the cancer - just the torn knee ligament. I've had experience with both - my Great Pyr has a bad knee, which gets worse when he runs a lot. My Bouvier cross (112 lbs) died of bone cancer just below the knee. X-rays showed a "thickening" of the area - written off as arthritis - but no. That was a very sad time. He was 11 yrs old. Hope all goes well.